Independent Wrestler Adam "Firestorm" Dykes Passes Away

Adam “Firestorm” Dykes, who competed in North American independent promotions in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada during the late 1990s and early 2000s, passed away yesterday.

Colin Vassallo and Ian Hamilton sent out the following e-mail remembering Dykes:

It is with great sadness that I’m sending this e-mail to report that our friend, and co-host of Ringside, Adam “Firestorm” Dykes, passed away last night. I got a phone call this morning from Ian and I’m still in shock trying to find the correct words.

Adam was 32 years old, a professional wrestler from New Zealand but who lived in Victoria, BC. He wrestled for several indy promotions and had a good run at the Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling where he won the NWA Canadian Junior Heavyweight Championship twice and the NWA/ECCW Heavyweight Championship.

Adam joined Ian on Ringside a couple of weeks after the show kicked off and together they taped a year worth of shows and interviewed Bret “Hit Man” Hart, Rob Van Dam, Eric Bischoff, Dave Hebner and others. His last appearance on the show was uploaded yesterday, an interview with Irv Muchnick to discuss the Chris Benoit double-murder suicide story which you can listen at theringsidelive.com. We’re still not sure how to proceed with the show at this point.

We’re gonna miss Adam and his whacky stories on the show. He is survived by his wife Emile and young son Thomas. Rest in peace.

Ian, who was more closer to Adam, wanted to write a few words of his own so here they are below:

When you follow wrestling as much as we do, you’ll have heard about “the call”. Well, this morning, “the call” turned into “the e-mail”, or rather, two of them.

Checking on my phone, Bryan Alvarez’s e-mail saying “I absolutely cannot believe this”, and Jason Clevett’s “call me” probably should have given the game away. While I was waiting to get the PC running, a check on the phone confirmed my fears.

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, we’ve lost a great friend. Adam Dykes, best known to all of us as Adam Firestorm, died on Friday night, at the age of 32. That’s about as much as we know right now.

For a decade, Adam wrestled mostly in the Pacific North West, as the masked El Antorcha and later as Adam Firestorm, before an elbow injury forced him out of the business. When we started Ringside Live way back in September 2007, we quickly realised that doing the shows solo was a bad idea, and that having a co-host was for the best.

Surprisingly, for someone whom I knew so little at the time, Adam jumped at the chance to do the show, even though it meant battling with Blog Talk Radio and their numerous technical glitches. As time wore on, we became good friends off air, as well as on air. Suddenly, the late night Friday live shows would be something I’d look forward to, if only for the 5-10 minute chat with Adam before we went live Following our switch to a taped show, we actually talked more as we were without the limitations of the Blog Talk lady telling us “three minutes… before show time.”

I still remember on New Year’s Eve last year, getting a voicemail on my cell phone from Adam, wishing me a happy new year. I remember wondering how he got my number… then remembering that my Skype was set (at the time, don’t try it now!) to forward messages to my cell phone if they weren’t answered. I was looking forward to doing the same back to him this year… and I wish I still had that message on my phone.

At the end of September, Adam should have died. His words, not mine, after taking the rear of a 600lb elk into his face in an auto accident near Campbell River, BC. Adam lived to tell the tale, and laugh about it – I suppose there’s not much else you can do if you got the equivalent of a Stink Face from an elk…

A little over a month later, and he’s gone. The man who saved my ass during every show we did, especially with guests like Eric Bischoff, Bret Hart, Rob Van Dam and most recently, Irv Muchnick.

Adam, thank you for the privilege of being able to call you my friend. Thank you for being the main reason why everyone listened to our show every week. I wish I’d been able to visit you, but that’s not going to happen now.

I’m going to miss you Adam. Rest in Peace mate. The pain is over.