Wrestling: Adrian Street, flamboyant legend, dies aged 82

He was dubbed "the sadist in sequins" and "the man fans love to hate".

Welsh wrestling icon Adrian Street died on 24 July at Cwmbran's Grange University Hospital, aged 82, his family have confirmed.

He had recently undergone brain surgery.

Born in Blaenau Gwent, Street became an infamous sporting figure during the '70s and '80s for his outrageous appearance and no-holds-barred fighting style.

On Sunday night, his wife Linda described the real person behind that ring-side persona as "the kindest, most loving man you could ever meet."

Having grown up in Brynmawr in the 1940s, Street refused to follow his pit-worker father down the mines.

"Too dark down there, I was born for the spotlight," he confessed in an interview.

Still in his mid-teens, he instead ran away to London and eventually signed up with a wrestling promoter, who christened him Kid Tarzan Jonathan.

Later reverting back to using his own name, Street's flamboyant choice of costume - feather boa, dayglo face paint and peroxide pigtails - soon captured the attention of the audience.

But being met with cat-calls and jeers only resulted in him becoming even more over the top, skipping around the ring and planting lip-stick kisses on his opponents' foreheads before pummelling them into the canvas.

In 1971 he even beat Jimmy Savile black and blue, the now reviled paedophile DJ and TV presenter having been touted as something of a tough guy during a spell on the wrestling circuit.

"Back in those days the promoters were trying to get proper wrestlers to throw their matches with him - it was all part of some big stupid gimmick," said Street in 2013.

Having none of it, the Welshman ended up dropping Savile on his head and tearing out a large chunk of his hair.

Moving to Canada and the US in the '80s Street made an even bigger name for himself, playing up to the cameras and winning one championship belt after another.

Settling down in Florida, he and his wife and manager Linda (herself a former wrestler who Street first met in 1969) also started up a successful costume-making business, The Bizarre Bazaar, along with a nearby wrestling school called Skull Krushers Academy.

However, in recent years Street moved back to Wales - shortly after which a film was made of his life. Entitled You May Be Pretty, But Am Beautiful, got a cinema premiere in his home town of Brynmawr in 2019.

The biopic examined how Street had transcended the mere "man in tights" image to become a cultural icon, his garish outfits arguably even facilitating the arrival of glam rock in the UK.

He also recorded an album of songs with titles such as Sweet Transvestite With A Broken Nose, as well as penning numerous autobiographies such as The Merchant of Menace.

Meanwhile, a photo by Dennis Hutchinson taken of Street alongside his father in 1973 was called by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller the "most important post-war picture ever taken."

It showed Street dressed in full wrestling garb standing defiantly next to his father and the other miners at Blaenau Gwent colliery. Many argued the image represented the beginning of the UK's shift from heavy industry into the entertainment age.

Street survived cancer in 2001, having been initially told by his doctor to prepare for the worst.

Nevertheless, his wife Linda, 77, explained that this latest battle would ultimately prove too much for him.

"He'd had a heart problem a while ago which was resolved," she said.

"But then he had a stroke earlier this month which resulted in a bleed on the brain.

"He was recovering from that at home when he developed colitis - a chronic inflammatory bowel disease - which later turned into sepsis. That's what killed him.

"It all came about so quick. I've still not come to terms with it yet."

She paid tribute to the grandfather-of-five, calling him, "the kindest, most lovely and loving man I've ever known. The total opposite to how he behaved on stage."

Linda added that she planned to have Street cremated and his ashes scattered on the mountains near their home in Cwmbran.

"He loved the outdoors and we'd go on long walks in the countryside all the time. He'd really be at peace up there," she said.