One of the realities of professional wrestling is that it’s difficult to predict any individual performer’s career trajectory. It has become a well-known part of John Cena’s story that, at best, he was the fourth brightest prospect from his developmental class behind Brock Lesnar, Batista, and Randy Orton, before emerging as the defining star of his generation.
By contrast, though, there are WWE acts like Crush and Adam Bomb who appeared to have all the tools to be breakout stars and eventual main eventers, only to fall short of that potential. In an even unlikelier outcome, though, these two wound up finding their greatest success teamed up with one another in WCW years later.
Crush Had Several Stages In His WWE Career
Crush debuted in a relatively generic big man role, as a younger third man to join the Demolition tag team, and help cover for Ax’s limitations as he aged out of his full-time wrestling career. Demolition put over a newly arrived Legion of Doom in what felt like a dream blow off of sorts between the two heavy-hitting big men teams of the 1980s, known for face paint and spikes. The feud rang a little hollow, though, for Demolition both having run its course and not being quite the same with a diminished Ax and green Crush representing them.
Crush enjoyed a second life in WWE as a babyface who leaned into his Hawaiian roots, getting a tan and wearing neon as he became a fan favorite. Unfortunately for him, he ran into a roadblock in the form of Doink the Clown. As much as the evil clown had real momentum as a heel act, it was nonetheless hard for the big man to bounce back from losing this feud (though he threatened to as one of the few stars who proved powerful enough to almost body slam Yokozuna when he challenged American wrestlers to try to topple him).
There was one more reboot in store for Crush in WWE, this time as a heel who focused his attention of feuding with Randy Savage. Their issue came to a head at WrestleMania 10 in an innovative variation on a Falls Count Anywhere Match. Crush held his own, but went down in defeat and never really broached that level of stardom again in WWE. He rode out his time with the company the Nation of Domination faction, after which he led the Disciples of Apocalypse group to feud with them in the gang warfare angle.
Adam Bomb Had Big Star Potential In WWE
Adam Bomb emerged for WWE during the New Generation. Big, powerful, and athletic, he overcame what might have otherwise been dismissed as a cartoonish gimmick to mount a winning streak and look as though he were on the cusp of a main event push.
Bomb had new life breathed into his character with a babyface turn. While he did feud with some big names like Bam Bam Bigelow, he nonetheless felt permanently caught in the upper mid-card mix, never breaking through the glass ceiling to better his prospects.
Kronik Became One Of WCW’s Greatest Homegrown Tag Teams
In WCW, Crush went by his legal name, Brian Adams, and Adam Bomb was first billed as Wrath, then reverted to his own real name, Bryan Clark. Each man enjoyed varying degrees of success in the mid-card. Adams was the in nWo mix as an enforcer type for a time. After getting stuck in a strange sub-division of the roster with Glacier for a while, Clark enjoyed a major winning streak, only to be fed to Kevin Nash en route to his feud with Goldberg.
Adams and Clark found one another as part of the New Blood faction, forging a tag team called Kronik. 2000 was a tumultuous year for WCW, but this team presented a real bright spot as the duo were well cast as dominant big men who thrived as heels and faces alike over the course of the year. They had noteworthy battles with The Natural Born Thrillers as well as the pairing of The Great Muta and Vampiro, before settling into a gimmick something like the APA in WWE—muscle for hire that destroyed anyone in their crosshairs.
Unfortunately, Kronik’s tremendous success was largely shrouded by what happened when the team crossed over to WWE during the Invasion angle. Things looked promising when they were positioned opposite The Undertaker and Kane, The Brothers of Destruction. However, The Dead Man and The Big Red Machine crushed them in kayfabe, and Kronik wound up looking terrible in their televised matches, appearing unworthy of their featured spot. Jim Ross discussed the team’s WWE run on his Grilling JR podcast, and suggested that Vince McMahon wanted them to step back into developmental to improve upon their act, but the tag team felt insulted and it was the beginning of the end of their WWE returns.
In the end, the Kronik and its component pieces never quite realized their potential in WWE. For a moment in WCW, though, they were transcendent—one of the best big man pairs and homegrown tag teams the promotion ever had. Their accomplishments have grown lost to the sands of time, but they were a special unit at their peak in 2000.
