Issue 557 The Daily Chronicle (October 24th, 2026) The Life and Career of Miss Linda, ONE Thing I Learned About The Haiti Kid, and MORE

One Territory Era chapter every day: personalities, territories, towns & buildings that built pro wrestling

Today’s Favorite Quote: If you want to guarantee a life of misery, be unreliable. Do not faithfully do what you have engaged to do. If you will master this one habit you more than counterbalance the combined effect of all your virtues - Charlie Munger

Happy Birthday to those who have passed on and to those great wrestlers still with us:

In Memoriam:

Willie Gilzenburg 1901

Juanita Wright\Sapphire 1934

Robert Grimley\Hurricane Smith 1934

Maurice Grimley\Cyclone Smith 1934

Bill Dundee 1943

Happy Birthday:

Paul (Lehman) Diamond (91)

Gary Sabaugh\The Italian Stallion (69)

Dave Meltzer (67)

Dave Sahadi (65)

Dale Torborg (55)

Kalley Lattimer\Kamille (34)

Bronson Rechsteiner\Bron Breakker (29)

RIP Memorial: We stop & remember those who have passed on this day and gave themselves to the business for us, the fans. We salute you and thank you.

(none)

Significant Pro Wrestler Debut

10-24-1977 Allen Coage defeated Seiji Sakaguchi at the New Japan Dojo in Tokyo, Japan for Coage (Bad News Brown)’s pro debut match

Pictured: Allan Coage, Stan Hansen and Rocky johnson

The Life and Career of Miss Linda

In the loud, theatrical world of professional wrestling, where flamboyance often overshadowed the people who made the spectacle possible, Miss Linda occupied a singular place. As the longtime partner, valet, occasional wrestler, and later business collaborator of Welsh wrestler Adrian Street (“The Exotic One”), she helped define one of the most distinctive acts of the territorial era. Born Linda Gunthorpe Hawker on October 27, 1945, in England, she became far more than a decorative presence at ringside. She was a participant, a strategist of heat, and a co-creator of the image that made Street a memorable figure across Britain and the American South.

Their partnership began in 1969 in a prosaic setting. Street, already a seasoned wrestler with a growing taste for theatrical presentation, was buying goldfish in a pet shop (accounts place it in the Croydon area). He invited the young woman working there to watch him wrestle. What followed was a decades-long collaboration that blended the personal and the professional. Linda, trained by Street himself, entered the ring in Britain during the 1970s under the Native American-inspired name Blackfoot Sue (or Blackfoot Sioux). She competed in women’s matches and developed the toughness and ring awareness that would later serve her in mixed roles. By the time the pair transitioned fully into the valet dynamic, she had already demonstrated she was not merely an accessory.

By 1975, Miss Linda was actively competing as a professional wrestler under the Native American-inspired ring name Blackfoot Sioux (also sometimes rendered Blackfoot Sue). Trained by her longtime partner Adrian Street after they met in 1969, she worked the British wrestling circuit with this gimmick during the mid-1970s, typically positioned as a babyface while Street worked as a heel.

Contemporary promotional photos from that year capture her in a dark one-piece wrestling singlet with long dark hair, reflecting the period’s standard women’s ring attire rather than elaborate tribal costuming. This independent in-ring phase preceded her better-known role as Street’s valet and manager in the 1980s American territories; a recorded 1976 match in Germany against Linda Blair further confirms she continued under the Blackfoot Sioux name into the following year.

The role of the female valet was still relatively rare when Miss Linda became a regular fixture with Street. She is widely recognized as one of professional wrestling’s earliest female valets, and her work helped popularize the concept that would later become standard in the industry. In the ring and on the way to it, she carried Street’s makeup case, combed his hair between rounds, and participated directly in the chaos that generated heat.

Street sometimes entered the ring by walking across her back—an image that was both theatrical and deliberately provocative. She interfered in matches, distracted referees, and took physical bumps when the story required it. In territories such as Mid-South Wrestling and the Memphis-based promotions, she appeared in handicap matches alongside Street against opponents including Bill Dundee, turning what might have been a solo heel act into a two-person assault on the audience’s sensibilities. Her presence amplified Street’s androgynous, glam-rock presentation; the pair worked primarily as heels, leaning into the shock of a flamboyant male wrestler accompanied by a woman who matched his theatricality.

Pictured: Adrian Street and Miss Linda

In 1981 the pair made their North American debut, eventually settling into the regional circuit that defined the territorial system. They worked extensively in Continental Championship Wrestling under Ron Fuller in the Alabama/Tennessee area, as well as in Florida, Mid-South, and other NWA-affiliated promotions. Linda’s willingness to get involved—whether by handing Street an illegal object, taking a bump, or simply standing ringside with an expression that invited the crowd’s disapproval—made the act more effective than Street could have been alone. She also continued to wrestle on occasion under names including Angel Dust, appearing for promotions that booked women’s matches. Her film credit in the 1985 wrestling comedy Grunt! The Wrestling Movie captured the pair at the height of their territorial visibility.

Away from the arenas, the partnership proved equally practical. After years on the road, Street and Linda settled in Gulf Breeze, Florida. There they operated the Skull Krushers Wrestling School and, more enduringly, the Bizarre Bazaar, a business that designed and manufactured wrestling costumes, masks, and gear. Their work supplied wrestlers with the distinctive attire that defined individual characters; clients included figures such as Mick Foley for his Dude Love persona and Mickey Rourke for the 2008 film The Wrestler. The enterprise reflected Linda’s practical involvement in the business of wrestling beyond the spotlight. Hurricane Ivan later destroyed the wrestling academy, contributing to their eventual decision to leave Florida.

The relationship itself remained unofficial for more than three decades. Street and Linda had been partners in life and work since the late 1960s, yet they did not marry until 2005. At a Cauliflower Alley Club reunion in Las Vegas, Street proposed during a public gathering of wrestling figures. Don Leo Jonathan, one of Street’s early heroes, served as best man. The ceremony the following day formalized a bond that had already lasted longer than many wrestling careers. In 2018 the couple returned to Wales, citing the Florida climate and the earlier loss of their school. Adrian Street died on July 24, 2023; Miss Linda survives him.

Pictured; Miss Linda and Nancy Daus Benoit (Woman)

Miss Linda’s career resists easy categorization. She was never the headline act, yet the act that defined Exotic Adrian Street depended on her participation. She wrestled, managed, interfered, absorbed the physical costs of the business, and later helped clothe generations of wrestlers through their costume enterprise. In an era when women’s roles in wrestling were often limited or marginalized, she carved out a space that was both traditional (the valet) and innovative (one of the first to make that role central to a star’s presentation). Her story is inseparable from Street’s, yet it also stands as a record of the unglamorous, collaborative labor that sustained the territorial system. For fans who remember the pair entering arenas together, Miss Linda remains the steady, capable presence who made the spectacle possible and, for more than half a century, shared the life that produced it.

One Thing I Learned About The Haiti Kid

After retiring from wrestling around 1994, Raymond Kessler (The Haiti Kid) experienced a period of homelessness in New York City. A 2009 photo of him was taken while he was living in a homeless shelter in Greenpoint, Brooklyn—he was apparently unaware that some sources had falsely reported his death in 2001. With help from the nonprofit Project FIND, he later secured stable housing at The Woodstock Hotel, which he described as one of his biggest victories after life in the ring.

Thank You for Watching and Listening

I’m Tony Richards, Pro Wrestling Historian, Author and Storyteller. I share pro wrestling historical items in each issue of the Time Tunnel Pro Wrestling History Newsletter and each episode of our podcast show. Thanks for your support! If you enjoy my information on select events, matches and insights, please share with folks you think might like to be a subscriber!

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