How do you describe a legend within a legend like Bruiser Brody?
When it came to ring psychology and the ability to terrorize fans and opponents alike, few could match Bruiser Brody. He was a giant of a man that had created a crazy, virtually unstoppable monster in the ring. He was great without having the power of a main promotion behind him.
He was a huge draw and made a lot people a lot of money, but in the end, it was what was owed to him that sealed his fate.
Frank Donald Goodish personified everything his Bruiser Brody character wasn’t. He was kind, gentle, thoughtful, and intelligent. He was a loving husband and father. He was a former professional football player, and he had taken part in some if the bloodiest matches in professional wrestling history.
By the mid 1980s, he was looking into other avenues away from the in-ring action. One of those had been to purchase part of the wrestling territory around San Juan, Puerto Rico that was owned primarily by Gorilla Monsoon of WWE fame.
Blood and guts
There wasn’t a lot that Bruiser Brody wouldn’t or couldn’t do in the ring. One thing he didn’t do often was lose.
Because his character was viewed as an unstoppable monster, losing would’ve ruined that mystique. Partly due to that, he’d had a contentious relationship with wresting promotors for most of his career. Still, any time a territory needed money, he’d never hesitate in going there as he was sure to sell a lot of tickets.
One of his more notorious matches was against Lex Luger. During their cage match in 1987, Brody just stopped working. He simply stood where he was, leaving Lugar and the referee confused as to what was happening. In the end, they changed the end of the match and disqualified Luger after he refused to stop punching Brody in a corner of the ring. Later, it was reasoned that there was a communication problem between the promoters and Bruiser Brody, hence Brody’s decision to embarrass the promotion by not doing anything.
The end of one legend, the birth of another
Brody had developed a reputation of purposely hitting or injuring his opponents in the ring for various reasons. To be honest, it sounds like most athletes patrolling their own on the field.
One of these times was against a young wrestler named Jose Huertas Gonzalez, who wrestled as Invader I. The story has it that Invader was in a trial match for WWE (WWF at the time) and needed a good showing. Invader allegedly tried to embarrass Brody, who didn’t take kindly to it. Brody then pummeled Invader to the point that, according to Abdullah the Butcher, “his head looked like a pumpkin”.
Invader then allegedly told SD (Special Delivery) Jones while heading to the hospital that he’d kill Brody one day.
In 1988, Brody was getting ready to head to Puerto Rico to wrestle. At the time, it was home to some of the most brutal matches, as Abdullah the Butcher claimed the fans loved the blood, and often threw rocks and jars of urine at him.
According to Manny Fernandez, Brody may have been owed as much as $40,000 he was promised to be paid at the arena after demanding the money back. Tony Atlas has stated that Invader had a towel wrapped around his one hand when he approached Brody to talk. When the pair went into the showers, there were sounds of a scuffle and two cries. Atlas said that when he ran over, Brody was bent over holding his stomach after being stabbed a couple of times, and Atlas then pulled him to safety.
The rest of the events have been well documented, but there is still a mystery surrounding what had happened that night. Especially concerning the court ruling where Invader’s defense reportedly played videos of Brody’s in-character escapades, which helped cement Invader acted in self-defense. The fact that Atlas and Dutch Mantell claim they didn’t receive their summons until ten days after the case was settled is another factor that only adds to it.
Bruiser Brody’s death was felt in various ways around the world. In Puerto Rico, American wrestlers mostly stopped competing there for several years, damaging the promotions there and forcing them to find other ways to remain viable. In Japan where Brody’s popularity was practically unsurpassed, he was mourned in an impressive ceremony.
While Bruiser Brody’s death may overshadow his life for many, there’s no taking away what he had accomplished during his career. He wrestled the greats like Bruno Sammartino and a young (masked) Undertaker. He was as impressive an athlete as any that ever stepped into the squared circle.
Because of his accomplishments, Brody has been inducted into the professional wrestling hall of fame, St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame, Southern Wrestling Hall of Fame, Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame, and the WWE Hall of Fame.
No matter how we define Bruiser Brody, we couldn’t have the legend of his death without the legend of his life.
