Professional wrestling is full of tragic deaths, and this day in wrestling history try to make a habit of remembering them for the joy the brought so many, despite how or why they met their end.
Because of that, on this day in wrestling history, July 17, 1988, we remember Bruiser Brody, one of the true legends in the business.
The monster
We’ve all heard the story behind Brody’s murder, about how Jose Gonzales (Invader 1) claimed it was self defense and how two witnesses and friends of Brody, Tony Atlas and Dutch Mantell, didn’t get their subpoenas until after the trial concluded and Gonzales was acquitted.
Bruiser Brody embodied a larger than life monster that would stomp around the arena before, during, or after his matches. He rarely lost, and that was something he defended vehemently.
To him, and this is true in wrestling in general, if he’d lost more than occasionally, it would’ve ruined his character and possibly hurt him as a draw.
Because of this, he made promoters lives miserable at times when they wanted him to lose to put someone over and he refused. One of those he refused to lose to was Jose Gonzales.
In fact, it’s been reported that he brutalized Gonzales in their match and later allegedly planned to end his career once he bought into the Puerto Rico territory.
And he was reportedly owed money.
It’s the perfect cocktail for disaster, and Brody paid for any transgressions he may have made with his life.
Not the monster
On camera and around fans, Brody was mostly unintelligible and barbaric, but outside of the ring with his friends and family he was the opposite.
He was a former NFL player, having played for the Washington Redskins, who moved into professional wrestling when his football career ended.
He was a kind and articulate man, and a glimpse of this was accidentally recorded prior to an interview he gave in 1987 to an NBC affiliate.
It was the only interview he gave as a professional wrestler where he admitted his real name, Frank Goodish, and spoke without his barbarian/Wildman persona.
He also spoke on how the business was changing, going from being a face to a heel, and Vince McMahon’s ambitious takeover of the wrestling world, as well as his own role as a producer for World Class Championship Wrestling television show.
Like all professional wrestlers, Brody was a far more complex person than the persona he portrayed, and it’s something people deserve to know when remembering this day in wrestling history.
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