Chris Adams' documentary a fascinating character study

July 2, 8:49 PMPro Wrestling ExaminerMark Satrang

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The Gentleman's Choice

“Gentleman” Chris Adams is one in a long line of sad pro wrestling cases.

The English-born Chris Adams was a proficient judo practitioner in his native country, and both he and his brother were Olympic-level athletes. But Adams had a drive to do more and started wrestling professionally throughout England in the late ‘70s. He came over to America in the early ‘80s to find his fame and success. Unfortunately that fame and success would also lead to his downfall.

Gentleman's Choice is a documentary created by Mickey Grant, one of the technical masterminds behind World Class Championship Wrestling. Grant worked with Adams for years while in WCCW and was able to see the man in the ring and behind the curtain. This documentary, which was painstaking created over the course of many years, features candid interviews with those that loved (and hated) “The Gentleman” the most.

Thanks to the crew at eyesoda.com, I was able to view the documentary, and was incredibly impressed and engaged in what I saw.

The film does not follow like a prototypical WWE or other pro wrestling documentary normally does. In fact it is less about pro wrestling and more about the life’s struggle of a man who happened to wrestle professionally as a career choice.

It starts with random comments from the main players we will be hearing from in the piece, before it starts with a brief history on the man. We meet his parents and brother who give some background on Chris, and also Tony Walsh, the British wrestler who trained Adams for the sport. It was Walsh who gave the most chilling thought of the entire film, one that stuck with me immediately, when he said he worried about Chris going to America as everyone he knew from England that went to America to wrestle came back in “a box, a wheelchair or a drug addict.” We also meet the former Jeannie Adams, the first ex-wife of Chris and also future ex-wife of Steve Austin, who briefly explains how she and Chris met.

From there insiders like Kevin Von Erich and Gary Hart detail Adams’ career in World Class, including his popularity and subsequent villanious turn in order move up the card. They also go into detail about Adams’ first real brush with the law, where on a flight back from San Juan Adams got belligerently drunk, fought with the stewardess and ended up headbutting the co-pilot in the nose. That little stunt gave him some prison time and his first trip to rehab.

Talk turns to Adams becoming an independent wrestling promoter and the real-life bad blood that stemmed from ex-wife Jeannie marrying Chris’ student Steve Austin (yeah that one.) Von Erich relates an almost funny story about Adams trying to sneak off with a show’s payoff in the middle of the night only to be intercepted by Kevin in the hotel lobby just by pure happenstance.

From there the movie explores Adams’ various romantic relationships and the subsequent trials that followed. The most harrowing story features Adams and then girlfriend Linda Kaphengst ODing on the steroid GHB, the drug that became Adams’ “weapon of choice.”

Running throughout the documentary is the one-person crusade from former independent wrestling manager “Miss Lacy” to further destroy Adams’ name even more, stemming from a disagreement Adams and his people had with Miss Lacy and her husband “L.A. Steele” over everyone’s participation in the Beyond the Mat documentary.

The final part of the film looks as Adams’ relationship with this fourth wife, Karen, Adams further fall from grace thanks to alcohol and pills and his untimely demise at the hands of best friend “Booray” during a booze-filled confrontation.

Early in the film there is also some random footage of Chris from years ago (date not given) where he talks about trying to be a good father for his daughter Julia, including scenes of them at a playground together. There is then some footage of Julia, still a young girl a short time later, being interviewed about her dad. Unfortunately that is all we see of her, leaving her part of the story completely open ended and almost unnecessary.

The film, while chronological, is hardly “point A to point B,” as events are talked about in Adams’ life by the interviewees as if you might already know some of the background surrounding them. No little “date and time” screens show up to help the viewer out, but that was Grant’s filming style. In fact the viewer is left to find out who is talking until after they had first began their comments. Some more structure would have nice in order to properly place things on a timeline but it is not completely essential in a piece such as this.

The people who Grant chose to interview where those truly closest to Adams. His parents, his brother, his trainer, co-workers like Gary Hart, Kevin Von Erich and Tim Brooks, former wives and friends outside the wrestling industry are those that are interviewed to paint the picture of Chris Adams’ life.

Kevin Von Erich valiantly spends the time trying to defend Adams as a good guy but when talking about his stunt on the flight, thinks of two or other three times like that when his alcohol problems caused him to abuse others. Gary Hart, who was like a mentor to Adams, took Adams’ death incredibly hard and you can hear it in his tone of voice as he talks about him. His widow Karen speaks with a great love for Chris, while “Miss Lucy” speaks with great hate.

The most intriguing subject of the whole film is Brent “Booray” Parnell, the man who ultimately shot Adams out of self-defense in their fateful fight. Parnell was Adams’ driver, confidant, business partner and friend and provided much of the story as he was often the one closest to Adams in his worst times. By far he is one the one who is interviewed the most, and by the looks of it, over a course of several interviews. He is even able to give a detailed portrait of what happened the night he shot Adams, in a sort of creepy matter-of-fact type way.

As a character study and the look at the life of tragic figure, this is a fascinating piece of filmmaking. This is not, however, a wrestling documentary. Brief snippets of his work from World Class Championship Wrestling and footage from his own training video are included as transitions, but his career highs and lows and virtually the entire second half of his career is ignored completely.