Jump to content

Bruiser Brody

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by I'mMe!! (talk | contribs) at 02:13, 22 April 2011 (Removing unsourced edits). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Bruiser Brody
File:Bruiser Brody.jpg
Born(1946-06-18)June 18, 1946
Detroit, Michigan
DiedJuly 17, 1988(1988-07-17) (aged 42)
Bayamón, Puerto Rico
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Frank Goodish
Red River Jack
Bruiser Brody
King Kong Brody
The Masked Marauder
Billed height6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Billed weight285 lb (129 kg)
Trained byThe Sheik
Debut1973

Frank Donald Goodish (June 18, 1946 – July 17, 1988) was a professional wrestler who earned his greatest fame under the name Bruiser Brody. Goodish was an All-State football and basketball player at Warren High School, Michigan, and played football at West Texas State. As a wrestler, he helped innovate the "brawling" style and was infamous for his wild and legitimately uncooperative demeanor.

Professional wrestling career

Brody competed as a freelancer in several companies including the National Wrestling Alliance, Central States Wrestling, World Wide Wrestling Federation, Southwest Championship Wrestling, Windy City Wrestling, Texas All Star Wrestling, World Wrestling Council, Deep South Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, American Wrestling Association, and World Class Championship Wrestling. In the States, he had numerous feuds with the likes of Kamala the Ugandan Giant, Abdullah the Butcher, and Jerry Blackwell. In Japan, he was in a tag team with Stan Hansen. Brody had a reputation for refusing to job to other wrestlers. He also competed under the moniker of Red River Jack in Texas, during an angle against Gary Hart's men and Skandor Akbar's Army in World Class Championship Wrestling. Brody also competed as the Masked Marauder for one time in the AWA.

In 1985, he had a very short stint with New Japan Pro Wrestling in a feud with Antonio Inoki and many of their matches ended in no contests or disqualifications. In 1987, Brody began working primarily for the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico after getting fired from New Japan. Brody continued his feud with Abdullah the Butcher, as well as engaging in a feud with Carlos Colon. He briefly returned to All Japan Pro Wrestling to win his last NWA International Heavyweight Championship. On April 15, 1988, the first attempt to form what became the AJPW Triple Crown was done when Brody faced off against NWA United National and PWF champion Genichiro Tenryu; the result was a double countout. Brody ended up losing the title back to Jumbo Tsuruta four days later.

Brody had a steel cage match with Lex Luger in Florida at NWA Florida in January 1987. The match was very bizarre as in the middle of the match Brody just stopped "working" and stood around. Luger and Bill Alfonso, the referee of the match, were puzzled and attempted to speak to Brody who did not respond. Luger and Alphonso decided to forgo the planned finish of the match and Alphonso disqualified Luger in a spot where Luger continually punched Brody in a corner and did not back off. After the match Luger recalls asking Brody if he did anything wrong to upset him to which Brody responded "no" and Brody's reasons for not working were not very clear.

Personal life

Goodish was married twice, firstly on June 4, 1968 to Nola Marie Neece;[1] however the marriage was brief and ended in divorce on October 12, 1970.[2] Goodish's second wife Barbara remained with him until his death in 1988. Together they had a son named Geoffrey Dean, born November 7, 1980.[3]

Death

On July 16, 1988, Brody was in the locker room before his match with Dan Spivey in Bayamón (a city near San Juan, Puerto Rico), when José Huertas González, a fellow wrestler and booker,[4] asked him to go into the shower to discuss business. At the time, González was one of the men who made decisions at the WWC meetings and was also a good friend of Carlos Colón, Sr., the promoter and a main star of WWC. It is rumored that Brody had upset González by refusing to job to Colón, and also that Brody was planning to take control of WWC, as he apparently began to invest in the promotion. It was while the two men were in the shower area that González proceeded to stab Brody. Tony Atlas, who was there at the time of the attack, recalls much of the incident in his autobiography Atlas: Too Much, Too Soon.

It is maintained by several wrestlers (Savio Vega, The Youngbloods, Dutch Mantel, Bobby Jaggers, Buddy Landel, Chicky Starr, Hurricane Castillo, Jr., Tony Atlas and the referees) in the locker room that González was holding a knife wrapped inside a towel when he asked to talk to Brody. Brody entered the shower stall and a few minutes later a scuffle ensued, followed by two groans, loud enough for the entire locker room to hear. Atlas ran to the shower and saw Brody bent over and holding his stomach. Atlas then looked up at González and saw him holding the knife.[5] According to Bret Hart, the wrestlers in the locker room were "too scared to help Brody, so they sat there for over an hour"[6] The paramedics that finally arrived were a female and an old man and could not lift Brody. Since no one else attempted to help, Atlas took it upon himself to carry Brody downstairs to the waiting ambulance.[5] Atlas accompanied Brody to the hospital but eventually left once the doctors told him that Brody was in stable condition. Tony Atlas "claims" -that during the next day he was told by a man who worked at the hospital that "security guards" entered Brody's room and told everyone to stop operating on him,[5] leaving him to die on the operating table- is false. Brody was sent to the best hospital in Puerto Rico and under no circumstances security guards, mafia or even the governor can tell a professional group of emergency surgeons to stop operating anyone. Brody was sent to the hospital nearly an hour after being stabbed and the internal hemorrhage caused his death. González, who always maintained his innocence, was initially charged with first-degree murder but was later reduced and tried for involuntary homicide. Carlos Colón testified against Brody claiming the he was a crazy drug user, moreover Colón exerted his political influence to fix the outcome of the trial and Colón always knew what González was planning to do. González was acquitted on all counts, citing self-defense.[5] Atlas states that he gave his phone number to the police and Carlos Colón but did not receive a call from them until after the trial was over. However what happened was that Atlas refused to testify,[7] and González was acquitted in January 1989. Brody's family attorney was quoted at the time saying that Atlas refused extradition (he was allowed to do so on a technicality) and that the case had depended entirely on his testimony. Without Atlas, they had no case.[7]

Dutch Mantel received his subpoena after the trial was over.[8] In Mantel's own words, "The first trial date was postponed. The second trial was scheduled for January 23–26, 1989. I still have my subpoena. It was issued 1/3/89 but according to the post date was not mailed until 1/13/89. That meant that it laid on somebody's desk for a full 10 days. Remember the trial was to start on January 23rd? I received the subpoena on January 24th. I had already heard the verdict by the time I opened the subpoena. I never heard from the detectives again, not even to this day." Most of the American wrestlers received money for their silence while others were scared to death to testify.[9] Afterward, a number of wrestlers (including Mick Foley) refused to work in Puerto Rico in protest of the jury verdict, which temporarily crippled the Puerto Rican wrestling scene. However, Tony Atlas came back to Puerto Rico to work with the promotion (WWC formerly known as Capitol Sport Promotions).

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

Footnotes

  1. ^ Texas Marriages
  2. ^ Texas Divorces
  3. ^ Texas Births
  4. ^ Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.115)
  5. ^ a b c d Atlas, Tony. ATLAS Too Much ... Too Soon. Crowbar Press. (p.197-205) ISBN 978-0-9844090-2-0
  6. ^ Hart, Bret (2008). Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling. Grand Central Publishing. p. 222. ISBN 978-0-446-53972-2.
  7. ^ a b http://www.bedofnailz.com/bruiserbrody
  8. ^ www.solie.org/articles/brodeath.html
  9. ^ inlewd.com/exclusives/tributes/brody/
  10. ^ "Bruno Lauer's profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-08-03.
  11. ^ "House of Humperdink". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
  12. ^ Matt Mackinder (January 17, 2008). "Sir Oliver Humperdink recalls career of yesteryear". SLAM! Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
  13. ^ NWA International Heavyweight Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  14. ^ PWF World Tag Team Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  15. ^ NWA Central States Heavyweight Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  16. ^ NWA Central States Tag Team Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  17. ^ NWA Florida Heavyweight Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  18. ^ NWA American Heavyweight Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  19. ^ NWA American Tag Team Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  20. ^ NWA Texas Brass Knuckles Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  21. ^ NWA Texas Heavyweight Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  22. ^ NWA Texas Tag Team Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  23. ^ World Class Television Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  24. ^ NWA United States Tag Team Title (Tri-State version) history At wrestling-titles.com
  25. ^ NWA Western States Heavyweight Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  26. ^ SCW Southwest Brass Knuckles Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  27. ^ SCW World Tag Team Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  28. ^ WWA World Heavyweight Title (Indianapolis) history At wrestling-titles.com

References

  • Mick Foley (2000). Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. HarperCollins. ISBN 0061031011.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Bruiser_Brody&oldid=425268254"