KroniK (also stylized as Kroniꓘ) was an American

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establish ...

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Nati ...

(WCW), the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and var ...

(WWF) and

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba ...

(AJPW), composed of Brian Adams and Bryan Clark in the early 2000s.

History

World Championship Wrestling (2000–2001)

Adams and Clark first joined together as a duo in April 2000 in

(WCW). Upon joining together as a tag team, KroniK (originally spelled Kronic) assisted

Vince Russo Vincent James Russo (born January 24, 1961) is an American professional wrestling booker, writer, and pundit. He is notable for his tenures with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Total No ...

in his vision of a clean sweep for his New Blood alliance at the 2000 Spring Stampede

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program g ...

. Adams and Clark interfered in the

WCW World Tag Team Championship The WCW World Tag Team Championship (previously NWA (Mid-Atlantic) World Tag Team Championship) was a professional wrestling world tag team championship in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and later the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) ...

match, allowing the team of

Buff Bagwell Marcus Alexander Bagwell (born January 10, 1970) is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name, Buff Bagwell. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1991 to 2001, where he was a fiv ...

and Shane Douglas to win the title. While in WCW, KroniK moved between babyface and

heel The heel is the prominence at the posterior end of the foot. It is based on the projection of one bone, the calcaneus or heel bone, behind the articulation of the bones of the lower leg. Structure To distribute the compressive forces exer ...

roles several times - holding the WCW World Tag Team Championship twice. In the final months of WCW, Kronik became hired muscle, adopting the catchphrase "''breakin' necks and cashin' checks''", similar to the WWF's popular APA tag team. Their contracts were not picked up by WWF when WCW was sold by

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

World Wrestling Federation (2001)

In September 2001, Brian Adams and Bryan Clark each made their re-debut as a

(WWF) tag team. Recruited by

Stevie Richards Michael Stephen Manna (born October 9, 1971), better known by his ring name Stevie Richards, is an American professional wrestler. Over the course of his career, Richards has performed for major professional wrestling promotions including Easte ...

, KroniK was called in to settle past differences Richards had with

The Undertaker Mark William Calaway (born March 24, 1965), better known by the ring name The Undertaker, is an American retired professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Calaway spent the vast majorit ...

, stemming from the disbanding of Richards' stable, " Right to Censor" earlier that year. Kronik wrestled their first tag team match defeating Kaientai on the September 20, 2001 episode of '' SmackDown!'' and their last tag team match for WWF a few days later at Unforgiven, losing to then WCW Tag Team Champions

The Brothers of Destruction The Brothers of Destruction were a professional wrestling tag team in WWE composed of storyline half-brothers The Undertaker and Kane. With more deep-seated drama and dysfunction than other WWE tag team combinations, their relationship/brot ...

( Kane and The Undertaker). After two dark matches, four appearances on '' Raw'' and ''SmackDown!'' and a pay-per-view appearance, Clark was released from his contract for being unconditioned and unsafe during their PPV match, while Adams began working for the Heartland Wrestling Association, which served as WWF's developmental territory, for conditioning. Adams requested his release from the WWF in November 2001.

WWA, All Japan Pro Wrestling, and retirement (2002–2003)

Following their WWF departure, KroniK joined up with World Wrestling All-Stars and appeared on their second pay-per-view:

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

defeating Navajo Warrior and Ghost Walker in less than five minutes. The team then joined

in the summer of 2002 during the Pro Wrestling Love era, making an immediate impact defeating Keiji Mutoh and Taiyo Kea for the

AJPW World Tag Team Championship The is a professional wrestling World tag team championship in Japanese promotion All Japan Pro Wrestling. It was created on June 10, 1988 as a unification of two previous tag team titles in All Japan; the PWF Tag Team Championship, and the NWA I ...

on July 17, 2002. On the July 20, 2002 edition of AJPW TV KroniK participated in the Stan Hansen Cup Four Way initiative. KroniK would eliminate the team of George Hines and

Johnny Smith Johnny Henry Smith II (June 25, 1922 – June 11, 2013) was an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist. He wrote "Walk, Don't Run" in 1954. In 1984, Smith was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Early life During the Great D ...

, before being eliminated by "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Mike Rotunda, Williams pinning Adams after the Doctor Bomb.

Mike Barton and Jim Steele The tag team of Mike Barton and Jim Steele was a professional wrestling tag team that competed in several puroresu promotions including All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. History All Japan Pro Wrestling (2000-2002) Barton and ...

would win the tournament, with Barton pinning Rotunda. Despite KroniK's failure in winning the Stan Hansen Cup, after the match they would cut a confident and rather cocky promo talking about how they were still the AJPW World Tag Team Champions, calling everyone in the initiative "losers", "stupid" and "not smart enough" to be the champions. KroniK would only make one successful title defense against Barton and Steele on August 30, 2002 as part of a two day pay-per-view. On the second day of the pay-per-view on August 31, KroniK defeated Tomoaki Honma and Yuto Aijima in a non-title match. KroniK was later stripped of the titles in October as they cancelled the rest of their appearances in 2002, as Adams suffered a shoulder injury while training for a boxing career. They returned for the WRESTLE-1 show on January 19, 2003 in what would be KroniK's last match, losing to Keiji Muto and Goldberg. Along with Goldberg, Steve Williams and Mike Rotunda KroniK left AJPW during a gaijin exodus, which occurred after Mrs. Baba's last appearance behind the scenes in AJPW. In that match Adams suffered a spinal injury that forced him into retirement, and Clarke decided to leave during the exodus. This was also when AJPW's sale finalized, the company having been in the process of being sold in late 2002. Adams died of a drug overdose on August 13, 2007 by mixing the painkiller

buprenorphine Buprenorphine is an opioid used to treat opioid use disorder, acute pain, and chronic pain. It can be used under the tongue (sublingual), in the cheek (buccal), by injection (intravenous and subcutaneous), as a skin patch (transdermal ...

with the muscle relaxant

carisoprodol Carisoprodol, sold under the brand name Soma among others, is a medication used for musculoskeletal pain. Use is only approved for up to three weeks. Effects generally begin within half an hour and last for up to six hours. It is taken orally. ...

and the sedatives chlordiazepoxide and alprazolam.

Championships and accomplishments

World Tag Team Championship The world tag team championship is the name usually given to the primary tag team championship (professional wrestling), championships in professional wrestling Professional wrestling promotions, promotions. Nomenclature The name of the promo ...

( 1 time) *

(

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outside ...

) *

Wrestling Observer Newsletter The ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' (''WON'') is a newsletter that covers professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. Founded in print in 1982 by Dave Meltzer, the ''Wrestling Observer'' website merged with Bryan Alvarez's ''Figure Four W ...

** Worst Worked Match of the Year (2001) vs.

at Unforgiven ** Worst Tag Team (2000, 2001)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kronik All Japan Pro Wrestling teams and stables World Championship Wrestling teams and stables WWE teams and stables