Shaka, Brah! Aloha, Brudda! Max the Extreme, and So On!

By Scott Keith on 21 February 2019

Hey Scott—

I know you’re a few months of Superstars away from this, but I’m in Hawaii, so I had to ask you about it.

When Crush debuted, it was all about “I’m Crush. I crush things. Har har! GET IT?!?” But in the fall of ‘92, Vince looks at the lame finisher and… unspeakably horrid tights and apparently thought “You know what this gimmick needs, pal? An ETHNIC angle!”

So now Crush comes out and he is motherfuckin’ HAWAIIAN. It’s “Aloha!” this and “Brudda!” that, all with a vaguely Polynesian inflection he semmed to pick up one weekend in September.

What was the thought process here? I know Bryan Adams lived in Hawaii, but did he have Hawaiian ancestry? Was there any concept beyond “Crush is Hawaiian, ???, profit!”?

Well, he was from Portland and I'm pretty sure he had zero Hawaiian background, so I don't think there was any particular ethnic link there. The "I'm crushing stuff" gimmick was pretty lame and maybe they thought Kona Crush would get him over, but I don't know why.