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There is no word yet on the cause of his death, but it came just a little over a month after a bad car accident where the vehicle he was driving struck a elk.
Colin Vassallo and Ian Hamilton sent the following out this morning via email, remembering Dykes. We wish them as well as Dykes' family and friends, our deepest condolences:
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.
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