Adam Bomb On Why His 2001 WWF Return Didn’t Work Out
While he's most known for his WWF work as Adam Bomb, the real-life Bryan Clark worked under both his real name and the Mortal Kombat-esque character Wrath in his second WCW stint.
During his World Championship Wrestling years, Clark found himself mixing it up with the promotion's top brass.
"I kind of knew everybody. Like with Sting and Luger, and Hall and Nash. Hogan, Flair, and Bischoff... easy going man," Clark told Shining Wizards. "To me, my experience, it was fine because we had already worked that territory up at Vince's place so we knew what a brutal hellacious schedule was like. And then to come to WCW and make five times the money at a lot easier pace, it was night and day. Goldberg is great. People don't like him or whatever, but Bill has always been great to me and Brian [Adams] prior to KroniK and me even as Wrath. Just a great guy."
As Wrath, Clark found tremendous success. The former WCW Tag Team Champion enjoyed a lengthy undefeated streak and pioneered a variation of the pump-handle slam. Wrath was originally brought in to WCW as a Mortal Kombat-esque gimmick, but Clark emphasized he much preferred the later, dominant of the character.
"The no-joke Wrath [was better]. I mean, I went undefeated for six or seven months, or whatever it was," Clark said. "And I had that meltdown finisher. I invented it. A million people have done the pump handle but no-one ever took them up and over all the way like I did, and then tuck the head and make it a slam. You'll see people hook that move, but they never [hook it], and a lot of people aren't strong enough to do it. I got Meng (Haku) in it, and he was 320."
After a five-year stint in WCW, Clark would make his return to the World Wrestling Federation as one-half of KroniK, his WCW tag team with Brian Adams.
Despite big plans in place for the duo, Clark says he had big hesitations to jump to New York.
"It was just KroniK, and Brian [Adams] wanted to go a lot more than I did. I told Brian, and we talked about this. I thought we should go to Japan right away. He was friends with Taker so he thought maybe we should go back to Vince," Clark said. "We both left there and we always had that unsettling heat. We just felt like, and I even felt like, and he did once we got there, that this was not a good idea.
KroniK was set for a major feud with the Brothers of Destruction, but the rivalry fizzled out before it had the chance to gain momentum. The Undertaker and Kane defeated Clark and Adams at Unforgiven 2001, and the pair were taken off TV shortly after.
Clarke blames this on all four men nursing injuries at the time, noting that it was too rushed.
"They did a hotshot of an angle, but Kane had a big staph infection and I think Taker had a shoulder injury. I had basically a broken neck and we were all just banged up," Clark said. "They didn't give us the time, and I said, 'Hey, let's go on the road for a little bit and get a feel for each other versus just hotshotting it.' It fell apart. Then we went to All-Japan like I suggested from the beginning."