[citation needed] In November 1987, Adams joined the NWA Pacific Northwest Wrestling (PNW) promotion, where he was given the nickname "the American Ninja".
[citation needed] In March 1989, Adams finally returned to PNW, where he aligned with Lord Jonathan Boyd and Carl Styles, feuding with The Grappler, The Barbarian, and Buddy Rose.
Adams and Grappler were the Pacific Northwest Tag Team Champions for a time and worked a feud with the Southern Rockers, Steve Doll and Rex King.
In 1990, he won the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship after winning a tournament final match against Larry Oliver in Portland on April 21, 1990, for the vacant title.
[9] In June 1990, while still working for the PNW, Adams debuted in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as "Crush", the third member of the Tag Team Champions Demolition.
Crush made his televised debut with Demolition on the June 23 episode of Superstars, teaming with Smash in a quick victory over Paul Diamond and Joe Champ.
On the July 28 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event XXVII, Crush and Smash retained the titles against The Rockers, after Ax (who was the illegal man) clotheslined and pinned Shawn Michaels.
[12] After SummerSlam, Demolition shifted focus from the belts to their already incipient feud with The Legion of Doom which had intensified after the latter team interfered in the title change match.
[10] Adams continued to perform as part of Demolition until after WrestleMania VII where he and Smash lost to Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao.
[8] A little more than a month later, Adams received his second Pacific Northwest Heavyweight title, on October 12, 1991, in Portland after he defeated Rip Oliver via submission to the Full Nelson hold.
but using a new character of an easygoing surfing Hawaiian who wore bright neon tights and utilized a new two-handed skull vice finisher called the Cranium Crunch.
[18][19] On July 4, Crush injured his back in the Stars and Stripes Challenge trying to bodyslam the WWF Champion Yokozuna, who at the time had a billed weight of 580 lb (260 kg).
[16] At Survivor Series, Crush headlined the event as part of Foreign Fanatics (Yokozuna, Ludvig Borga and Quebecer Jacques) against All-Americans (Lex Luger, The Undertaker and The Steiner Brothers).
Their rivalry culminated in a match on the August 21 episode of Sunday Night Slam, which Luger won after Ted DiBiase distracted Crush.
[1] He made his surprise return to WWF on the August 12, 1996 episode of Monday Night Raw, with Clarence Mason, his (kayfabe) lawyer as his manager.
As a result, Crush began feuding with Faarooq and formed his own biker faction called Disciples of Apocalypse, which was introduced on the June 23 episode of Raw is War.
[33][29] Crush led the DOA into a gang war against Faarooq's Nation of Domination and Savio Vega's Los Boricuas throughout the late 1997, thus turning into a fan favorite.
[34] The DOA traded wins with Los Boricuas at SummerSlam, Badd Blood: In Your House and the November 22 episode of Shotgun Saturday Night.
Crush's last appearance was on the November 29 episode of Shotgun Saturday Night, where DOA defeated enhancement talents Steve Corino, Marty Garner, Jason Ahrndt, and Mike Hollow.
[40][38] Adams became a lower card performer, he often tag-teamed with the likes of Scott Norton and Stevie Ray, occasionally losing matches against smaller and lesser known wrestlers.
They ousted Billy Kidman and Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Faces of Fear before losing to Curt Henning and Barry Windham and Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko in semi-final matches.
Adams switched back to competing under his given name and returned for a title shot for the United States Heavyweight Championship against Sid Vicious on the October 4 episode of Nitro, where he lost.
[43] In the spring of 2000, Adams received the biggest push of his WCW career when he was put into a tag team with Bryan Clark called KroniK.
[44] However, KroniK switched allegiances to The Millionaire's Club after Russo betrayed them and they defeated Douglas and The Wall to win the World Tag Team Championship for the first time on the May 15 episode of Nitro, thus turning faces.
[50] In the fall of 2000, KroniK began working as "hired muscles", based on WWF's tag team Acolytes Protection Agency.
[44] The following month, at SuperBrawl Revenge, KroniK made their final pay-per-view appearance, where they were scheduled to face Totally Buffed (Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell), in a #1 contender's match for the tag team titles.
On July 17, 2002, at an AJPW pay-per-view, Adams and Clark defeated Keiji Mutoh and Taiyō Kea for the World Tag Team Championship.
In January 2003, he made his last in-ring appearance, teaming with Bryan Clark, and facing Bill Goldberg and Keiji Mutoh in a losing effort.
[1] Adams expressed interest in opening a health club in Tampa, Florida, which was to be a franchise of fellow wrestler Marc Mero's "Body Slam" training center.
The medical examiner concluded that the cause of death was a result of mixing the painkiller buprenorphine with the muscle relaxant carisoprodol and the sedatives chlordiazepoxide and alprazolam.