BIO: Brian Adias

Real Name: Brian Gower

Hometown: Denton, TX

Height/Weight: 6'2"/235

Signature Moves: Russian Leg Sweep, Oriental Tool

WCCW Titles Held: WCCW Texas Heavyweight Champion (three times), WCCW Television Champion (twice), WCCW Tag Team Champion (once with Al Madril, once with Frankie Lancaster), WCCW American Tag Team Champion (with Iceman  King Parsons) and WCCW Six-Man Tag Team Champion (with Kevin and Kerry Von Erich).

Notable WCCW Feuds: The Grappler, Gino Hernandez, Chris Adams, the Von Erichs and Al Madril.

Need to Know Facts: Born Brian Gower in 1959, Brian is a legitimate childhood friend of the Von Erich wrestling brothers, and was a classmate of Kerry's at Lake Dallas High School, where they both were members of the track team.  While never known for having the charisma of the Von Erichs, Brian was indeed a solid wrestler who could be counted on by promoters to work a quality match with various types of opponents.

Trained by the legendary Fritz Von Erich, Brian entered the sport in 1979 as Brian Adidas (he would eventually be forced to alter the surname under pressure from the sporting goods manufacturer), and was sent initially to the Mid-Atlantic region which was under the ownership and control of Jim Crockett, Jr.

During his early years in the industry, Brian would venture between the Mid-Atlantic region, Don Owen's Portland territory (where he held the Pacific Northwest Tag Team Champion with Buddy Rose) and Joe Blanchard's Southwest Championship Wrestling (where he was the NWA Texas Heavyweight Champion), as well as filling in as needed for Fritz's World Class promotion.

By mid-1985, Brian returned home to the Dallas/Fort Worth area to work full-time for World Class, and was in fact one of the few non-Von Erich babyfaces at this time to receive any kind of real push.  He held the prestigious WCCW Texas Heavyweight Championship on three occasions, was a two-time WCCW television champion, and even teamed with Kevin and Kerry Von Erich to take the WCCW Six-Man Tag Team title.

As the World Class promotion limped towards the end of 1986, having dealt with the death of Gino Hernandez in January and Kerry's near fatal motorcycle accident in June), then-WCCW booker Bruiser Brody attempted to resurrect an old angle which had worked for the promotion just two years earlier (when close Von Erich ally Chris Adams violently betrayed Kevin Von Erich), and had Adias turn on Mike Von Erich during a "scientific" televised bout that occurred on October 24, 1986.

Along with veteran Texas wrestling superstar Al Madril, who was also working as a heel for the first time in Texas, Adias feuded with Kevin and Mike Von Erich for the remainder of 1986 and into 1987. It was during this time that Adias added something of an Asian style to his wrestling repertoire, and introduced a new and devastating finisher which he called the Oriental Tool -- a quick thumb thrust to the neck, as opposed to the Oriental Spike used by Killer Khan and Terry Gordy.  (This move was actually born out of necessity, as WCCW had to hastily concoct a kayfabe explanation for Kevin's shocking, all-too-real collapse during an eight-man tag bout in Fort Worth.)  This feud was nowhere near as successful as either the Von Erichs-Freebirds or Von Erichs-Dynamic Duo programs of previous years, and would end tragically in April 1987 with Mike Von Erich's suicide.

After the 1987 Parade of Champions, Adias and Madril briefly took on "Gentleman" Jim Holliday as their manager.  However, they would soon split violently, with Madril once again becoming a fan favorite.  Upon Ken Mantell's return to WCCW as co-promoter and booker later that year, Brian served as the catalyst for the interpromotional war angle involving World Class and Wild West Wrestling.  Showing up unannounced on Wild West's TV show to complain that wrestlers from that group had distributed an unflattering drawing of him ("...with my thumb somewhere I'd rather not mention!", as Adias put it) at Thanksgiving Star Wars, Adias wound up in a furious brawl with Wild Bill Irwin and others.

After World Class folded, Adias signed on with the short lived Global Wrestling Federation, where he reverted to babyface status.  He would later work as a heel once more in North Texas indy promotions, adopting a biker gimmick and teaming with WCCW/USWA alumnus Mike Blackheart (Mike Morrow) as The New Dogs of War in the late 1990's.