Ex-wrestler Adrian Street dead at 82: Woman confirms flamboyant former star – who once ‘beat Jimmy Savile to a pulp’ – developed sepsis after suffering a brain haemorrhage earlier this month

The wrestling world is mourning the death of Adrian Street, the flamboyant former superstar who once bragged that he “beat Jimmy Savile to a pulp.”

Street’s wife confirmed the news to the BBC, revealing that the 82-year-old Welshman developed sepsis after being hospitalized with a brain haemorrhage.

“He was recovering from that at home when he developed colitis – a chronic inflammatory bowel disease – which later turned into sepsis,” Linda Street told the BBC. “That’s what killed him.”

The son of a Welsh miner, Street’s half-century-long career began in 1950s London, where he first developed a personality that relied on extravagant, gender-bending outfits.

After retiring from the ring, Street opened a wrestling school in Florida and even created the ring outfit worn by WWE’s Mick Foley.

Adrian Street (left) pictured with his father, a miner, November 2, 1974

He survived throat cancer in 2001 and retired completely in 2014.

Many wrestling greats share their grief online, including WWE CCO Triple H.

“A genre-bending pioneer whose larger-than-life presence and relentlessness between the ropes changed the wrestling world forever,” tweeted Triple H. “Honored to call Adrian Street a friend.”

In 2013, Street claimed to have snatched bushes from disgraced British TV presenter Jimmy Savile during a fight in 1971.

Little did Street know at the time that Savile was a sexual predator accused of molesting hundreds of young girls.

Had Street known this about Savile, who died in 2011 aged 84, the wrestler would have given the TV presenter a “bigger hiding place,” he said in 2013.

“It was all part of some big stupid gimmick” Street told WalesOnline. ‘But I didn’t feel like it. I kicked his legs out from under him, then grabbed his hair, turned him upside down and dropped him onto his skull.

“Looking at my hands, I realized they were covered in hair—Savile’s. I had pulled huge lumps out of his scalp.’

Many wrestling greats share their grief online, including WWE CCO Triple H

Jimmy Savile, photographed in 1971, the same year Street claimed to have ripped the TV presenter’s scalp

The wrestler Add that when they met in 1971, SavHe often talked about how young girls would wait for him outside his dressing room.

He added: “All the fighters on the track used to brag about their conquests. But Savile went on and on about the young girls waiting in line for him outside his dressing room.

“He’d pick the one he wanted and say to the rest, ‘Bad luck, come back again tomorrow night.’

“Had I known then what I know about him now, I would have hidden him even more.”