10 Things WWE Fans Should Know About Former Wrestler Adam Bomb

Between all-time greats and the criminally underrated, there are those fairly capable but ultimately overshadowed wrestlers who never quite had the chance to shine. Bryan Clark can be counted among those underutilized players, as his most fondly remembered stint in WWE involve him being cast as the irradiated Adam Bomb.

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Easy fodder for Top 10 lists about goofy gimmicks, Clark also had a successful tag team run in WCW after Adam Bomb that’s worth talking about. Fans might not know much about him, so let’s take a look at the career of the wrestler most often known as Adam Bomb.

10 Started Out In The AWA As The Nightstalker

Hailing from Pennsylvania, Bryan Clark started out in the Midwest pro wrestling scene, debuting for the American Wrestling Association in 1989. A long way from being an irradiated monster, Clark started out as The Night Stalker, a monster heel in black and white face paint who regularly wielded a battle ax. In these early days, The Night Stalker was managed by the legendary Ox Baker, but unfortunately this was at the very tail end of the promotion’s existence, and the AWA ended up shutting down in 1990.

9 Had Brief Runs In Other Companies Before WWE

After the AWA went under, one of Bryan Clark’s first stops was WCW, where he’d show up again later in the decade. This initial run was brief, however, with his biggest achievement being losing to Sid Vicious in a match at Clash of the Champions and. After a short run with Herb Abrams’ infamous Universal Wrestling Federation, Clark moved on to Smoky Mountain Wrestling, where he captured his first ever title, the Beat The Champ Television Championship.

8 Debuted In WWE As Adam Bomb

The year 1993 would mark a turning point for Bryan Clark’s career, as he signed to WWE in the spring after a couple of tryout matches. Upon signing, gone was the Night Stalker gimmick and the requisite battle axe, as Clark repackaged as a heel named Adam Bomb.

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To go along with his punny new ring name, Adam Bomb had a full-on nuclear energy gimmick, with with radiation symbols, glowing contact lenses, goggles, and a bright red tongue.

7 Clark’s Origins Inspired The Adam Bomb Character

On top of all the above, Adam Bomb was billed as being from Three Mile Island, the kayfabe story for the character being that he was actually a survivor of the infamous nuclear accident — one of the bigggest in US history — that occurred at said island in 1979. While that’s all totally fictional, the geographical connection is actually true. Clark hailed from Harrisburg, which was near Three Mile Island, though Clark himself had no first-hand experience with the incident.

6 Had Two Different Managers In WWE

As mentioned, Bryan Clark started out with Ox Baker as his manager in AWA, and also had managers during his initial run in WWE. At first, Clark was represented by the entitled rich kid manager Johnny Polo, who’d later reinvent himself as the grungy cult leader Raven. Their relationship would last less than a year, after which he’d get new representation in the form of Harvey Wippleman. In 1994, that relationship would end with an attack on Adam Bomb at the hands of Wippleman’s new client, Kwang.

5 Debuted In WCW As Wrath

After being released from WWE in 1995, Bryan Clark returned to WCW in 1997 with a whole new gimmick. Inserted into the Mortal Kombat-esque Blood Runs Cold storyline that involved Glacier, Mortis, and Ernest “The Cat” Miller, Clark became a villainous martial artist known as Wrath. However, soon enough the angle would run its course, but Wrath would continue on with the gimmick, racking up an impressive winning streak only to suffer a knee injury in 1999 that took him out for a year.

4 Formed A Tag Team With Brian Adams

Bryan Clark returned to action in WCW in 2000, and he ended up finding a kindred spirit who was also an ex-WWE midcarder, also didn’t have much to do in WCW, and also had the same first name (albeit spelled differently). That wrestler was Brian Adams, formerly known as Crush in WWE.

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Together, Clark and Adams formed the tag team KroniK, a duo of heels who operated as mercenaries for more important heels, taking big paydays to beat down the good guys.

3 Two-Time WCW World Tag Team Champion

Despite their mercenary status, KroniK also managed to score some success in WCW’s tag team division — namely two runs with the World Tag Team Championship. Bryan Clark and Brian Adams’ first title win together would come when they put away the team of The Wall and Shane Douglass on a May 2000 episode of Monday Nitro, holding the championship for 15 days. More than a month later, they’d win the belts a second time, beating The Perfect Event at Bash at the Beach 2000 for a 35-day reign.

2 Had A Disastrous WWE Match

Following WCW’s purchase by WWE, both Brians ended up back in the WWE fold as part of the Invasion storyline. However, their run with the company — at least on the main roster — would only last about a month, and come to an end with a match against The Brothers of Destruction at Unforgiven 2001. On top of losing the match to Kane and The Undertaker, the bout is also remembered for being of infamously low quality. Reportedly, nobody in the match was in the best of health for various reasons, and the result was a poorly wrestled affair.

1 Retired Alongside Brian Adams

Both Bryan Clark and Brian Adams were gone from WWE in the fall of 2001, but that didn’t spell the end of KroniK. Instead, Clark and Adams continued the act, tagging together on the indies as well as the international wrestling scene. Their biggest success together in this run would happen in All Japan Pro Wrestling, where they’d manage to capture the AJPW World Tag Team Championship in the summer of 2002. However, injuries would get the best of both men, and they’d retire around the same time in 2003.