Frank Donald Goodish (June 18, 1946 - July 17,
1988) was a
professional
wrestler who earned his greatest fame under the name
Bruiser Brody.
He was born in Detroit, Michigan
. 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. Goodish was nevertheless a highly sought
free agent who worked for various major
wrestling promotions
worldwide, attaining fame, notoriety, and several championship
titles until his murder in 1988.
Career
Brody was
a major star in the United
States
, having 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 classic feuds
with the likes of
Kamala the Ugandan
Giant,
Abdullah the
Butcher, and
Jerry Blackwell. He
was revered in Japan and made a dominant tag team with
Stan Hansen. Brody was perceived as both an
asset and a liability by promoters because he was a major draw
wherever he competed, but he also 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.
Brody achieved his now-legendary status in Japan and Puerto Rico.
In 1985, he became the highest paid wrestler in the world at one
point, as he was earning $14,000 per week over a bidding war
between
New Japan
and
All Japan Pro
Wrestling. He had a very short stint with New Japan in a
feud with Antonio Inoki, where both men were apparently unwilling
to put the other over (Inoki was wary of someone who had put over
old dojo classmate and rival promoter
Giant
Baba), and many of their matches ended in no contests or
disqualifications.
In January 1987, Brody was involved in a steel cage match against a
young
Lex Luger. Luger had been told by a
number of veterans (mostly as a gag) that Brody was violent and
dangerous in the ring, and Brody had issues with Luger's ego
concerning putting other wrestlers over. Shortly after the match
began, Brody began standing still and no-selling Luger's punches
and other offense. Frustrated, Luger left the ring.
Brody later informed Luger personally that the stunt was not a
personal issue between the two, but a business one between Brody
and the office about pay and a booking dispute although Luger has
said in a shoot interview that Brody said he was a face (good guy)
in World Class in Texas and that he didn't want to mess that up by
being a heel in Florida.
In 1987, Brody began working primarily for the World Wrestling
Council in Puerto Rico, after getting fired from New Japan Pro
Wrestling. Brody would continue his feud with
Abdullah the Butcher, as well as
engaging in a feud with homeland hero
Carlos Colon. He briefly returned to AJPW 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
[24120]. Brody ended up losing the title back
to
Jumbo Tsuruta four days
later.
Death
On
July 16, 1988, Brody was
in the locker room before a match with Abdullah the Butcher and Dan Spivey in Bayamón
(a city near
San Juan, Puerto
Rico
), when Jose
Huertas Gonzalez, AKA Invader I (a fellow wrestler and booker)
came up to him in the locker room and asked him to go into the
shower to discuss business. It is contested by several
wrestlers in the locker room that Huertas was holding a knife
wrapped inside a towel when he was waiting for Brody to arrive to
the locker room. At the time, Huertas was one of the men who made
decisions at the WWC meetings and was also a good friend of
Carlos Colón (WWC Promoter and
main superstar, and father of
Carly
Colon and
Primo Colon), and it is
rumored that Brody had upset him on numerous occasions by refusing
to do jobs. It is also believed that Brody was planning to take
control of WWC (as Brody apparently began to invest in the
promotion), which may have additionally upset Huertas.
Tony Atlas, who was there at the time of
the attack, recounts a different set of events occurring.
Huertas got into the shower area first and, when Brody bent his
head to enter the shower area, Huertas allegedly grabbed his hair
and stabbed Brody several times in the stomach and the chest. Brody
was taken by ambulance to Centro Medico, but first the paramedics
had to take him from the crime scene to the ambulance. However,
they couldn't lift him, so Tony Atlas took it upon himself to carry
Brody up to the ambulance. They then took him to main hospital
facility in San Juan, but he died hours later while undergoing a
second surgery. Huertas, who always maintained his innocence, was
tried for murder, and was acquitted by a jury of his peers, citing
self-defense. Afterwards, 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. According to
Bret
Hart, Bruiser lay injured in the locker room for several hours
before a fellow wrestler called paramedics.
Personal life
Goodish was married twice, firstly on
June 4,
1968 to Nola Marie Neece, however the marriage
was brief and ended in divorce on
October
12,
1970.
Goodish's second wife Barbara remained with him until his untimely
death in 1988. Together they had a son named Geoffrey Dean, born
November 7, 1980.
Honors and influence
He has been honored by two wrestling Halls of Fame in Japan and was
named to the
Wrestling Observer
Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996. Brody was posthumously awarded
the
Pro Wrestling
Illustrated Editors' Award in 1988.
Barbara Goodish (his widow) signed a "Legends" contract with
World Wrestling
Entertainment (WWE), allowing them to produce and distribute
merchandise in his likeness, as Brody had spent 1976 and 1977
feuding with the likes of Bruno Sammartino and Ivan Putski in the
WWWF (later renamed WWF and then WWE). As a result, the first WWE
Bruiser Brody
action figure was made
and released as a part of the WWE Classic Superstars line by
Jakks Pacific.
The modern
hardcore "brawling style" of wrestling has been
heavily influenced by the work of Bruiser Brody, and wrestlers such
as
Mick Foley,
Togi Makabe,
The
Predator,
"The Necro Butcher" Dylan
Keith Summers, and
The Berzerker have
all patterned their styles off of Brody. In addition to this, Brody
also assisted the careers of several wrestlers, among them the
Undertaker (Mark Calaway) and
Big Van Vader (Leon White), having
wrestled both men in their professional debuts.
In late 2007, Larry Matysik and Barbara Goodish (Frank's widow)
wrote a book titled
Brody, released by ECW Press. Also in
2007, Crowbar Press released a quote book about Bruiser Brody.
Simply titled
Bruiser Brody, the biography features a
foreword by
Stan Hansen, as well as
interviews with several people from Brody's personal and
professional life.
Bruno
Sammartino,
Abdullah the
Butcher,
Dory Funk, Jr.,
Dave Meltzer,
Jim
Duggan,
Carlos Colon, and
Harley Race are among those who are featured in
this book of quotes.
On September 14, 2007, Bruiser Brody was inducted into the St.
Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame.In December 2008's
Nintendo Power, video game designer
Suda51 claimed that his favorite wrestler was
Bruiser Brody; there is some potential of Brody's techniques
inspiring the ones in the Nintendo
Wii game
No More Heroes.
In wrestling
Championships and accomplishments
References
External links
Wikis
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