On This Day in Wrestling History, March 6, 2007, one of the best and entertaining wrestlers left us. He was more than just an awesome talent, he was a kind and generous person that paid it ahead by mentoring young talent like Edge and Christian Cage.
Bad news from the beginning
A former bronze medalist for judo in the 1976 Olympics, Bad News Brown came into the WWE and instantly made waves with his character’s straight in your face style. His attitude was unmatched and it was something to behold. He made Samuel L. Jackson look tame and put on some of the most physical and memorable matches of the time. Or, as @awrestlinghistorian put it, “The best way I could describe the original #BadNews to all you beer-bellied sharecroppers is he was basically Suge Knight if he was a professional wrestler. He was nobody to fu** with!”
The second Bad News stepped into a WWE ring, he let us know all about him. He was honest and straight forward, and was a lovable heel from day one.
Out of all his feuds and matches, my favorite was his run ins with Rowdy Roddy Piper. Both were favorites of mine, and with Piper being a face at the time, his popularity had exploded. It was something to see Bad News tell it like it was on one side, and Piper going off the crazy rails on the other. It’s a shame their WrestleMania 6 match ended with a double count out as it had potential, but what can you do?
Another thing that stuck out to me was his volatile temper. So many times, whether it was a regular tag team or Survivor Series elimination match, he’d get hit by accident by his teammate. His response? To leave the ring, cussing out the poor guy that hit him.
That was an element we only really saw after a buildup of mistrust between teammates, but it was a regular occurrence with him. It definitely set him apart and made it interesting to see how long until his fuse was lit during the match.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have that good a time in the WWE
(Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the following transcription.)
“WWF never kept their word to me. It wasn’t a fun time. You see, when I left there, I was really happy. I was brought there under false pretenses. I was just sick of the lying all the time. That was 2 1/2 years of my life that I really didn’t enjoy.
“I was making a lot of money, but I had to pay two different sets of taxes and I had to fight with Vince McMahon all the time for my money. In Japan, you made a deal before you even wrestled what your money was going to be. You signed the contract and that was it. It was money in the bank. You never had to worry. They never cheated you on anything. There were no problems. But with Vince, there was always some kind of problem.
“The two best wrestlers that I ever worked with, bar none, were Dynamite Kid and Ricky Steamboat. Pound for pound, without a doubt.
“It was always business with me. There was never no playing ribs on people, making fun of people. I was there to work and do my job and get paid for it.” – Allen Brown Canoe interview April 1998
It’s a shame things didn’t work out better for him in the WWE, but he still had a good career and is remembered fondly by many. Like so many others, his passing hurt a lot of us.
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