Was Crush suposed to be Crush?

[Hassan bin Sober]

I know both were Brian Adams but was Crush from Demolition supposed to actually be the same character as Kona Crush? Did they ever make reference to him being in Demolition?

[James Fabiano]

Closest nod to it I could think of was his SummerSlam match. But they pretty much rebooted the character otherwise. Now, I think convict Crush and Kona Crush were connected.

[Crappler El 0 M]

I never recall hearing the announcers (or Crush himself) bring up that he used to be in Demolition. Years after the fact, WWE.com acknowledges that Crush got started in WWE with Demolition and list him as a former World Tag Team Champion (which he defended with Demolition, though Ax and Smash won the titles before his debut).

[Spider2024]

I have to say yes, mainly because they had the exact same name. Back then it was easier to hide identities of a guy, usually as simple as a change in attire and taking off/putting on a mask or facepaint. So if they really wanted Crush to be a totally different entity, they would have changed the word "Crush" and would've achieved, at the very least, moderate success in the change.

[lildude8218]

Jul 18, 2014 12:22:19 GMT -5 Hassan bin Sober said:

Was Crush suposed to be Crush?

no, he was supposed to be B.A. which stood for "Bad Attitude"

[Deleted]

Kona Crush and Convict Crush were definitely the same character - they mentioned it a bit when he first returned...

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Whenever they printed profiles of him in magazines, under titles, they always put none, so I think it was meant to be a reboot.

[TGM]

There's a thread from a few months back answering this question.

I think all Crushes were suppose to be the same guy, except the Demolition Crush.

[Deleted]

I always just assume that a performer is supposed to be the same character with a new name unless they specifically go out of their way to call them a new wrestler and give them a new backstory and stuff.

For example, Bryan Danielson is Daniel Bryan, but Isaac Yankem isn't Kane.

[Crappler El 0 M]

WWE at the time simply didn't focus much on the past. Once a wrestler or team was gone, WWE didn't reference them very much. I believe WWE first used Crush post-Demolition as a replacement for Hawk to team with Animal at live events. I believe eventually Crush started wearing L.O.D.-style facepaint. I've heard reports of this, but never seen photos of it. I believe Animal suffered a career-stalling injury and was out of action for a few years, which ended any plans (if there were any) of forming a full-time team of Animal and Crush.

WWE repackaged Crush as the babyface Kona Crush character. I think it would kind of go against WWE's philosophy to bring up the tag team Demolition at this point as they simply didn't do that. Just like they didn't mention the Fabulous Rougeaus when the Mountie debuted or the British Bulldogs when Davey Boy Smith came back.

[Magnus the Magnificent]

Jul 19, 2014 12:54:10 GMT -5 Crappler El 0 M said:

I believe WWE first used Crush post-Demolition as a replacement for Hawk to team with Animal at live events. I believe eventually Crush started wearing L.O.D.-style facepaint. I've heard reports of this, but never seen photos of it.

Almost.
Kona Crush (Brah!) in the spring of 1992, and defeated Repo Man (Demolition explode!) at SummerSlam that year, and the real LoD beat Money Inc. at the same event.
The Animal/Crush LoD was after SummerSlam, as Hawk quit pretty much immidiately after that event.
There are pics in the link:

Animal and Cruch LoD

[Deleted]

Jul 19, 2014 12:54:10 GMT -5 Crappler El 0 M said:

WWE at the time simply didn't focus much on the past. Once a wrestler or team was gone, WWE didn't reference them very much. I believe WWE first used Crush post-Demolition as a replacement for Hawk to team with Animal at live events. I believe eventually Crush started wearing L.O.D.-style facepaint. I've heard reports of this, but never seen photos of it. I believe Animal suffered a career-stalling injury and was out of action for a few years, which ended any plans (if there were any) of forming a full-time team of Animal and Crush.

WWE repackaged Crush as the babyface Kona Crush character. I think it would kind of go against WWE's philosophy to bring up the tag team Demolition at this point as they simply didn't do that. Just like they didn't mention the Fabulous Rougeaus when the Mountie debuted or the British Bulldogs when Davey Boy Smith came back.

This.  

If WWE wanted to cover up that Kona Crush had been Demolition Crush, they would have changed his name and done a more thorough repackaging.  Sometimes wrestlers were just repackaged without being rebooted, like Powers of Pain or Tugboat/Typhoon.  The best example might be Ricky Steamboat, who they brought back in '91 and rebranded "The Dragon".  WWE treated him like a completely new superstar who had never been with the company.  As far as I know, they never mentioned that he was a former I-C champion.  Still, it wasn't uncommon for an announcer to refer to him as Ricky Steamboat, yet officially he was just The Dragon.

Also, I'm 30 years a wrestling fan and this is the first time I ever heard that Crush filled in as one of the Road Warriors.  How awesome is that?  Nothing personal against Hawk, but I bet Brian Adams was a great sub.

[Crappler El 0 M]

Jul 19, 2014 14:00:30 GMT -5 Magnus the Magnificent said:

Jul 19, 2014 12:54:10 GMT -5 Crappler El 0 M said:

I believe WWE first used Crush post-Demolition as a replacement for Hawk to team with Animal at live events. I believe eventually Crush started wearing L.O.D.-style facepaint. I've heard reports of this, but never seen photos of it.

Almost.
Kona Crush (Brah!) in the spring of 1992, and defeated Repo Man (Demolition explode!) at SummerSlam that year, and the real LoD beat Money Inc. at the same event.
The Animal/Crush LoD was after SummerSlam, as Hawk quit pretty much immidiately after that event.
There are pics in the link:

Animal and Cruch LoD

It's hard to see from these pics if Crush is wearing LOD-style paint, but it doesn't look like it. However, it does look like he is wearing matching tights. You can tell he had already become Kona Crush though because of the hair color, so yes, my timeline was off. Anyway, according to thehistoryofwwe.com, Crush and Animal teamed together 10 times, all on live events.

[chazraps]

When I was nine-years-old, the first and only time I wrote to WWF Magazine was to ask this very question. My letter didn't get answered.

[celticjobber]

I think his past in Demolition was mentioned in an issue of WWF Magazine around the time of his debut as "Kona" Crush, but only vaguely. Something like "Crush took time away from the ring, in order to rediscover his roots in Kona".

I saw the Animal/Crush "LOD" at a house show in Mobile, AL in 1992. They wrestled the Beverly Brothers, and it was a pretty good match from what I remember.

[Joe Neglia]

I don't think we answered this in the other thread with a similar topic - while the overall continuity is there for Crush leaving and becoming Brian Adams in WCW and returned to WWF under that guise, was he ever actually acknowledged by the WWF in the five minutes he was back as part of Kronik that he was Crush?

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Jul 19, 2014 23:57:29 GMT -5 Crappler El 0 M said:

Jul 19, 2014 14:00:30 GMT -5 Magnus the Magnificent said:

Almost.
Kona Crush (Brah!) in the spring of 1992, and defeated Repo Man (Demolition explode!) at SummerSlam that year, and the real LoD beat Money Inc. at the same event.
The Animal/Crush LoD was after SummerSlam, as Hawk quit pretty much immidiately after that event.
There are pics in the link:

Animal and Cruch LoD

It's hard to see from these pics if Crush is wearing LOD-style paint, but it doesn't look like it. However, it does look like he is wearing matching tights. You can tell he had already become Kona Crush though because of the hair color, so yes, my timeline was off. Anyway, according to thehistoryofwwe.com, Crush and Animal teamed together 10 times, all on live events.

Yep, according to cagematch.net they teamed mostly as a duo and had an additional two matches teaming with Paul Ellering in six man tags. The Beverly Brothers were the only regular team they wrestled against. Other than that they faced some odd pairings in Kato/Skinner Blake Beverly/Brooklyn Brawler.During all this time Crush was still going about business as usual on TV by squashing jobbers.

[Blindkarevik]

This was back in a time where if you weren't under WWF contract, you weren't mentioned.

Plus, with Barry Darsow doing the Repo Man gimmick.... I think it would've just been a deal where if they mentioned Crush as being, formally of Demolition, they may have had to draw the same parallel to Repo Man. Granted, it was a completely different name with completely different gimmick and Crush still used the same name... but I think they almost would've HAD to at least mention it during a Crush/Repo Man match.

At the same time, it was such a gimmicky time... and Demolition Crush didn't really have a personality other than attempting to be as Demolitiony as possible without Ax, Kona Crush was their attempt to give him personality as they were working with a blank slate. Regardless... his purple/orange/yellow gear was uniquely colored compared to other faces of the day, his Billy Ray Cyrus mullet helped him stand out, the coconut head crush thing gave him a decent and unique finisher, and his use of slang gave him some catch phrases (gotta admit, I used "Shaka Brah" a lot during this time.... I thought I was so cool, and apparently completely forgot I'm Midwestern)... there was just TOO many character differences to really explain any sort of mere alignment change so I think it was just easier to say it was a new character.... but if you wanted to make the connection to Demolition, it's not like they would pretend they had no idea what you were talking about.

[Brandon Walsh is Insane.]

Evil Crush wore facepaint as a tribute to his demolition roots I remember. I feel it was mentioned in WWF magazine