Wrestling Observer Rewinder

August 01, 1988

Rewinder note: With the end of the 2002 Rewinds and the opening of Wednesdays as a space, I'm going to aim for getting these up on Wednesdays going forward instead of Thursdays. I'm settling into my work enough now that I think I may even be able to start getting out ahead of these some, and eventually I hope to get back to a twice a week schedule. Not yet, but that's a goal.
Bruiser Brody’s murder remains the biggest story of the week, to the point that there really isn’t that much to this issue other than Dave’s full-length obituary for Brody. Last week Dave spent two pages on the story and giving a solid career overview, but this week 60% of the issue is all Brody, and it’s a near-comprehensive essay on Brody’s life, career, and his final days. I’m not about to be able to cover every nuance of this essay, and if the balance of this issue were similar to the ones where u/daprice82 briefly touches on the obituary I’d do as he does and just give a brief paragraph and a suggestion to read the full obit. But this issue is pretty much a Bruiser Brody memorial issue in its entirety, with just over 6 pages of obituary, 3/4 a page of headlines, and 3 pages of letters. There’s nothing worthwhile in the letters this issue, so 90% of the worthwhile material in this issue is the 7200 word obituary for Brody. The way I see it, the proportionality of this issue makes the standard procedure of giving a short paragraph extolling Dave’s obituary writing not feasible - the Mr. Wrestling obituary in the December 16, 2002 Rewind was of comparable length, but takes up less than 25% of the issue and leaves plenty of stuff to cover. If I did a 135 word stub, we’d probably have a rewind with more space devoted to the archive of past rewinds than to the material in this issue, and that feels weak. To that end, I’m going to give a condensed version of the obituary (with occasional comments to further contextualize Brody for a 21st century readership) that, including those additional comments, clocks in under half the length and still gives us a respectable length for the rewind. This is fortunately one of three issues up on the Observer archive from 1988, so if you are interested in reading the whole unedited essay (and I encourage you to do so, it’s an incredible read), I highly encourage you to do so. I’m not going to pretend that this even holds a candle to the full obituary, but I do hope to represent it well enough.
Bruiser Brody was going to main event so many shows at the end of the summer and beginning of fall, and his murder has significantly disrupted the wrestling world. What was happening on July 16, 1988 when Brody was stabbed? Giant Baba was planning on Bruiser Brody vs. Stan Hansen, which would have been a sure sellout, to main event his August 29 show. In Puerto Rico, Carlos Colón was preparing for his own biggest show of the year, WWC’s anniversary show on September 10. The Aniversario was to be shown on closed-circuit throughout the Caribbean and even live on FNN/Score in the U.S., which would make it the first major show from overseas to be shown in the U.S. and Brody was to be in the main event there, too. Otto Wanz was surely still upset, because he’d had Brody booked to job to him in the biggest show of the year in Europe, but Brody decided against going because publicity of that loss in Japan would hurt him as a draw. Every small promotion in the United States, if they were planning a show and wanted to make money, they were thinking about calling Bruiser Brody. And on that afternoon, Frank Goodish called his wife Barbara as he did every afternoon he was on the road. Nothing seemed amiss. He’d be home Monday and didn’t have any foreign tours lined up for another month. But Frank Goodish, Bruiser Brody, died on the operating table early the next morning, suffering stab wounds inflicted by Invader #1 backstage during the show on Sunday. Fuck Invader #1.
In 1988, Bruiser Brody was one of a kind. To those of us who live in 2021, most of us have never seen a wrestler quite like him. It’s not even a matter of gimmick. He truly was a unique figure in the business, one of the top stars internationally in a way that allowed him to be able to go where he wanted, when he wanted, to effectively command whatever price he wanted, and to inspire as much awe in his fellow wrestlers as he did fans. And he could do it without working a grueling full-time schedule for the WWF or NWA, or really any single promotion. Perhaps the closest you might be able to come up with today would be Brock Lesnar, but even Brock Lesnar doesn’t hold a candle to Brody in that level of independence. So many wrestlers copied Brody’s look, his gimmick, his every little movement. And yet, while he was the biggest name everywhere outside the U.S., he never was the guy in the U.S. He rarely did jobs, earning him a reputation stateside as hard to do business with, and would often change finishes mid-match to suit his sense of business (another difference from Brock). Brody knew what he was worth and fiercely protected his image, and more often than not his ruthless approach to business was more on the pulse than the promoter’s, so there wasn’t much room to complain after he did things his way.
Dave next gives a much more thorough overview of Brody’s early life and start in wrestling than we got last week. His youth and football career all paint the picture that he was never quite able to have the discipline to work as a team player. He became a sportswriter and played minor league football and wound up meeting Ivan Putski while lifting weights, and Putski convinced him to become a wrestler in 1973. He worked everywhere. Leroy McGuirk’s Mid South territory took him on first, and he soon debuted for World Class, getting his big break in 1975 in Florida as Frank “The Hammer” Goodish, where he won the Florida title from Rocky Johnson. In the WWWF he got the name “Bruiser” Frank Brody, becoming Bruno Sammartino’s challenger following Billy Graham and Stan Hansen’s stints in the role. Brody had a good run, but when it ended, work in the U.S. dried up for him and he went to New Zealand, where he met his wife, Barbara. He came back to World Class in 1977 to wrestle Fritz Von Erich, and Brody’s willingness to bleed made Fritz’s Iron Claw one of the most feared holds ever. His cool factor ensured he was a perennial babyface no matter what, and by 1978 Brody was already one of the highest paid wrestlers ever. Through Fritz, Brody secured his first Japan tour with Giant Baba in 1979, where he completely changed the business by opening the door to huge American monsters being dominant figures in Japanese wrestling. Brody, along with Stan Hansen, changed the game and made it so Americans in Japan didn’t simply fall into the pattern of working a few weeks getting put over in order to be fed to Baba or Inoki, but could be stars in their own right. He became a fan favorite, and while he didn’t let Japanese wrestlers get their shit in, the money he brought in made it more than worth it. He was well-regarded in the Japanese press and got the nickname “The Intelligent Monster.”
Watch: a bit of Bruiser Brody in his WWWF run, wrestling Bruno Sammartino in 1976
Brody was not, however, popular among American promoters, who felt his success in Japan had made him too uncontrollable. Wrestling promoters, like C-suite executives in any other business, are highly protective of their power over the rank-and-file employees. Labor works to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, while executives wield power over them and hold the stability of workers’ lives in the palms of their hands. An individual worker negotiates from a position of weakness in nearly all cases (this is why unions are necessary). Not so with Brody. He was in a position of strength like few others before or since in wrestling, the same kind of strength as Hogan, Hall, and Nash had in 1996, or Brock enjoys today. He guaranteed money and could get over anywhere faster than anyone save perhaps Andre the Giant. And he proved this after Sam Muchnick retired and the St. Louis promotion was run by a committee. Larry Matysik, a member of that committee, not only broke from the NWA and crowned Brody as his star, but actually outdrew the NWA. With Brody’s insane popularity, it was impossible to blacklist him, and when Vince Jr. took WWF national, the NWA territories couldn’t afford a bad relationship with Brody. They needed Brody in order to try and compete, but he didn’t need them. Bruiser Brody was bigger than the NWA.
Prior to WWF’s national expansion, the big money was in Japan, and Brody was in the thick of the Baba/Inoki rivalry. Inoki had the lead in 1983 thanks to Tiger Mask, Riki Choshu, Dynamite Kid, Hulk Hogan, and Abdullah the Butcher. When Tiger Mask retired and Terry Funk announced his first retirement (and subsequently went back on it and pissed off fans in Japan), Inoki’s lead faltered, and Baba took the lead in 1984 by signing Choshu and his crew. Then in 1985 Vince McMahon held Inoki up for a bigger booking fee for his wrestlers to work Japan (Vince demanded a tenfold increase to $500k/year to book his wrestlers), Inoki lost his biggest foreign draw. Unable to hurt McMahon, Inoki contented himself to strike at Baba by signing Brody out from under him. Baba had brought in the Road Warriors, who got mega-over mega-fast and immediately started making money equal to Brody ($10,000 per week). Brody signed a deal with Inoki, but not before asserting himself against Choshu with a stiff kick and a refusal to let Choshu have any advantage on the March 9, 1985 live tv show and walking out of All Japan during a six-man tag match on the March 23 tv show. His deal with Inoki was the most lucrative in the history of the business to that point (the deal was for $14k/week in 1985, stepping up to $16k in 1986 and $18k in 1987, with a six-figure signing bonus for commitment to 16 weeks a year, plus bonuses for getting other Americans to sign on with Inoki for tours).
Watch: Bruiser Brody tags out, then leaves mid-match on his way out of All Japan
Brody’s New Japan run wasn’t all sunshine and roses, and he wasn’t fully convinced the money was worth the headache. Inoki’s tours were more stressful and disorganized, and Inoki put major pressure on Brody to lie down for him in the ring. And while they drew big houses at first, Inoki’s relentless booking of the Brody/Inoki match had cooled the feud off entirely because neither man would take a loss. Brody hadn’t done a job since 1981, and part of the stalemate had to do with Brody’s value in bringing American talent into New Japan, including getting Fritz Von Erich to associate with Inoki over Baba. Meanwhile, as Vince McMahon prepared for Wrestlemania, promoters stateside figured it was do-or-die for the WWF and one promoter tried to get Brody on board with sabotaging the event by jumping Mr. T as he came down the aisle at Madison Square Garden. Brody didn’t bite, because that would have been a stupid business move, and Brody didn’t do stupid business moves. By the end of the year, Inoki still hadn’t paid him his finder’s fee for bringing in American talent, and it all exploded in a match with Seiji Sakaguchi where who started things remains up for debate, but Brody ended it by legitimately attacking Sakaguchi’s knee with his chain. Sakaguchi wasn’t just talent, though. He was New Japan’s booker, and the next day he sent a message to Brody on the train to the next show. Who knows what it said, but Brody and Jimmy Snuka (in solidarity with Brody) got off the train and returned to their hotel, losing out on a $40,000 payday for Brody (pay comes at the end of the tour in Japan) and a big payday for Snuka as well. And as it appeared Brody’s career in Japan was over, Crockett and McMahon’s national bids were killing the territories in America, where desperate smaller promotions called upon Brody to help their ailing gates. Brody and McMahon negotiated, and whether it was McMahon’s wariness about Brody’s ability to follow direction or Brody’s inability to accept limitations on his own independence, nothing came of it. Were he still alive, Dave thinks it likely Brody would have eventually taken a deal with McMahon to make good money as he closed out his career heading into the 90s. In an amusing aside, Dave imagines that had this happened, some more casual fans would have thought Brody an early 90s imitation of Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
In the summer of 1986, Brody and Inoki worked a show together in Hawaii, which led to him returning to Japan for two matches in September and discussion of a return run with pay likely exceeding $20,000 a week. The return run never happened. New Japan was in a complete spiral, and we never got Brody vs. Akira Maeda, who was beginning to establish himself as a tough guy who would have done amazing business with Brody, though it’s certain neither would have done the job for the other. Yet Brody’s career didn’t miss a step. He worked in World Class for a few months and was in demand everywhere as Wrestlemania III increased interest and breathed new life into the independent scene. He did his first job in 6 years to Abdullah the Butcher. He filled in for Ric Flair in October 1987 for Baba and won the most popular foreign wrestler award in Japan by a mile. His career was as strong as ever. And in the course of his career, Brody had seen many wrestlers pass too early. The wrestling industry is a brutal one with constant late night travel and heavy drug use contributing to numerous vehicular accidents and drug-related deaths. Brody was there when David Von Erich died and was the booker for World Class when Mike Von Erich took his own life, and swore he had a premonition of Mike’s death a week or two beforehand. Brody was no stranger to the dark side of the ring.
Watch: David Von Erich’s Japanese funeral
Brody debuted as a heel in Puerto Rico in 1983, and as always he did what he wanted rather than what he was told. Brody’s business sense meant what he wanted always worked, and booker Tom Renesto eventually gave up on telling Brody what to do, entrusting him to handle his own matches. Puerto Rico seemed like the one place where Brody could be Brody and the promotion was happy. He turned face around a year or two ago, saving Invader #1, real name José González, from a double team by Jason the Terrible and Abdullah the Butcher. There was no hint of any tensions between Brody and the promotion. He and Carlos Colón had a shouting match several months back because he made the tag champs look like jobbers, but he’d worked tours since and even volunteered to lose via countout to Dory Funk Jr. in the spring Gillette Cup. On July 14, Brody even rode into San Juan to start the tour with González (booker) and Victor Quiñones (who handled the box office), Colón’s business partners. Brody even considered Quiñones his best friend in Puerto Rico. If there was bad blood, it was kept close to the vest and nobody knew about it, least of all Brody. He’d been in a lot of fights, but he’d never lost one in large part because he was never caught off guard. Dave’s heard dozens of different stories about July 16, and near as he can piece together, the following is the most accurate account we may ever get, at least until any criminal investigations and trials bring new information.
Brody rode into Bayamón on July 16 with Dutch Mantell and Tony Atlas. He was scheduled third from the top of the card against Danny Spivey, under the Invaders vs. Ron and Chicky Star in a cage match and Colón defending the Universal Title against Abdullah the Butcher. The crowd was only 8,000, probably a disappointment to the office. Brody and co. arrived at 7:15 pm, showtime to begin at 8:30, and the babyfaces were already there in the locker room. González apparently sat on a bench with a large towel over his hand, and about five minutes later asked Brody to the bathroom for a private meeting (not unusual in wrestling), saying “Brody, mi amigo, come here por favor.” Dave doesn’t name his witness, but I’d wager a guess it’s Atlas who described Brody following González into the bathroom “like a lamb being led to slaughter.” Five seconds after the door closed, loud screams rang out and one wrestler claims to have seen the actual stabbing through the plexiglass wall of the bathroom. Panic. Brody stumbles out of the bathroom and González leaves, eventually returning with a change of clothes and winds up working his match. The ring doctor comes to the dressing room. Brody’s lung was pierced, his liver punctured, and arteries had been severed, causing air bubbles in his blood. He was still fully conscious. Brody spoke to Colón from the floor and told him “No matter what happens, please, take care of my boy.” An ambulance arrived around 7:45 pm and Atlas went with Brody to the hospital. When the hospital refused to let him stay, he returned to the stadium and wrestled his match, because the show went on anyway. The fans were not told. It’s not clear what the heel locker room was told, or even when they found anything out. The promotion claims to have believed Brody had stabilized by that night, and most of the wrestlers believe the promotion’s claim not to have known how serious Brody’s condition was.
Carlos Colón’s wife called Barbara Goodish late that night and told her a terrible accident had occurred and she should head to Puerto Rico. Barbara called her husband’s hotel, perhaps believing it to be a prank, and the hotel clerk put her on the phone with Mantell, who told her things were rough and to come to Puerto Rico. Neither the wrestler nor Barbara knew how bad it was. When she and 7-year old Geoffrey arrived at the hospital, they were met by Abdullah the Butcher, who broke the news that her husband had died on the operating table early that morning. The World Wrestling Council’s July 17 show in Mayagüez was to go on as scheduled, and word hadn’t reached the public. A number of the American wrestlers no-showed, with several leaving immediately and many of the babyfaces leaving statements with the police. Some of the heels still didn’t know. González was present and ready to work. Colón asked the wrestlers to work the show and claimed it was what Frank would have wanted. The show wound up cancelled because too few wrestlers stuck around. On the 18th, González was arrested for first degree murder and a weapons violation. The weapon was never recovered, and he was released after posting bond. He’s scheduled for arraignment on August 8. Dave covers his career in brief, noting that some of his peers thought of him as a hot-head and others said he wasn’t well-liked (a not-uncommon state of affairs for a booker, so this tells us less than we’d like).
As we reach the end of this story, a single question remains: why? Why is Bruiser Brody dead? Why is Barbara Goodish a widow? According to the police, González asked Brody to do a job to Spivey on Saturday night and Brody refused. But that’s not a motive for murder. And it doesn’t add up with the described timing of events, or Brody’s good mood upon arriving at the stadium. He would have been on edge and ready to argue had it been discussed earlier. Some newspapers are reporting money issues. Dave doesn’t know what Brody’s deal for the tour was, but it would have been set well in advance, and typically wrestlers who come to Puerto Rico get a check in the mail a few weeks after their tour is over so they don’t have to carry a lot of cash back to the States. There’s rumor that Brody owned a share of the company and they wanted it back, but Dave’s seen no evidence for that. Another rumor holds that González wasn’t in his right mind because his daughter had drowned earlier that week, but while she did drown, that accident happened six months earlier. Ultimately, Dave doesn’t have an answer for us as to why. Sometimes there is no clear-cut why. Maybe there was discontent over Brody’s way of doing business. Maybe González snapped out of paranoia about keeping his spot in the babyface pecking order. Only González knows for sure, and so far he’s not telling.
Brody’s funeral was Tuesday, and hundreds of fans in Puerto Rico and wrestlers and reporters and photographers attended, and Geoffrey reportedly told his mother “I’m not going to embarrass Daddy by crying at his funeral.” World Wrestling Council had another show the next night, with a banner signed by several thousand fans that read “We the wrestling fans of Puerto Rico wish to extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Bruiser Brody. Please don’t judge the people of Puerto Rico by the actions of one mad man.” The murder of Bruiser Brody made major headlines in Japan and Puerto Rico, got a lot of coverage in Texas, and got reported in places like New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand. Outside of Texas, though, the news went unreported in most of the U.S. Neither the WWF nor the NWA acknowledged a thing, unsurprising since WWF didn’t acknowledge Adrian Adonis’s death and he had been a major star for them. World Class is the biggest promotion to acknowledge Brody’s passing, and they plan to give away Brody memorabilia at upcoming shows. Entertainment Tonight is planning a special on Brody and Adonis for next week. So where do things stand, now that Bruiser Brody is no longer with us? The independents have lost their best weapon in the fight for survival against extinction. Giant Baba faces the challenge of opposing UWF without his biggest draw. Invader #1 is officially no longer with the World Wrestling Council, but Brody’s blood has stained that promotion and it will be a long time if ever before they can wash out that damn spot. Their Anniversary show? No longer going to broadcast in the States, and original plans for three venues have been scrapped. Dave concludes by revisiting December 13, 1981. And this I’ll quote in full:
It was time for the finals of Giant Baba’s annual tag team tournament. Bruiser Brody and Jimmy Snuka were facing off against The Funk Brothers. The match started out slow, but built up to the point that it is generally regarded as one of the greatest matches in the history of the Orient. Certainly it was among the most memorable. All four men were at their best here and when the dust settled, Stan Hansen had shocked the crowd by showing up at ringside (he had just a few days earlier finished a tour with Inoki, and this arrival signalled his jump to Baba). Brody pinned Dory after a kneedrop to win the tournament. For the next three years, Brody and Hansen repeated the same scene, not always winning, but always getting into the finals of the tournament, and on the final night having classic matches that fans will never forget. And that’s the bottom line. Whether you saw him before 200 fans at an independent show, where he made the building look like a tornado had just hit when he was finished, or at a major arena before a sellout crowd, Brody was one of those rare wrestling personalities that fans will never forget.
Read: Dutch Mantell’s recollection of the murder of Bruiser Brody, and Brody’s 1983 shoot on giving back to wrestling when it’s time to wind down his career
Watch: Bruiser Brody and Jimmy Snuka vs. The Funk Brothers, December 13, 1981
On to the news. The Great American Bash ppv drew somewhere between a 3.5 and 4% buyrate, grossing between $5.5 and $6 million. Outside of Wrestlemanias 3 & 4 and Survivor Series and a couple boxing events, it’s now the highest grossing event in the history of pay-per-view (wrestling was absolutely integral to making ppv a successful model for cable companies). That’s in line with expectations and the cable companies that carried it have already signed to carry the next ppv in December, so that show should be a success. Dave doesn’t seem to have quite figured out that the December show will be Starrcade, but we’ll get there eventually. Also as expected, the Bash did monster rates in the Carolinas and the southeast, where it beat Wrestlemania IV’s numbers, and only okay at best elsewhere such as a 2.2% in New York. Yeah, about that buyrate… next week’s going to dig into the numbers more and it’s not good for Crockett, because 3.5%-4% is some bullshit.
The Tokyo newspaper Yoshitake published the first report from the TBS side of the Turner/NWA negotiations and quoted TBS executive Jack Patrick as saying he will have jurisdiction over the NWA after the buy-out. According to Patrick, TBS will set policy for the company, Patrick will be in charge of enforcing it, and Crockett and Rhodes would handle the wrestling end of things. He also said finalization of the sale will be completed within 60 days. It’ll be just a touch longer than that, but we’re near the end of the JCP/NWA era and near the beginning of World Championship Wrestling.
The Lawler/Von Erich title unification match in Memphis on July 18 resulted in Lawler winning by disqualification after Von Erich used a piledriver on Lawler. Apparently the piledriver is illegal in Memphis (or is it that it’s illegal to piledrive Lawler?). As a result, no titles changed hands, even though by World Class rules Lawler should now be unified champion because the World Class belt does change hands on a disqualification. Someone forgot about that here, though.
Verne Gagne is getting the AWA onto ppv with Wrestlerock III on November 6. Capacity at the Metrodome is 55,000 seats and ZZ Top have been contracted to perform in concert during the show. Gagne originally planned the show to go on November 8, but someone clued him in that running against a presidential election that at this point looks very close was a really bad idea. Yes, prior to September Michael Dukakis had a real chance of beating Bush and was even leading in Gallup’s poll by around 17 points at the time this issue was written. Anyway, only one match is announced so far (Magnificent Mimi vs. Medusa), while they claim wrestlers from five promotions will work the card. This show (which will eventually become Superclash III) is going to be a complete disaster.
Coming to WWF is D.J. Peterson, and Curt Hennig is negotiating with WWF again. Having burned WWF twice, Hennig’s not exactly in the best standing.
Stampede is pushing Steve Blackman hard, putting him in the main event against Makhan Singh. He’s still pretty green and not ready for that level of push.
During a brawl a few weeks back at a show in Redding, California, between Ultimate Warrior and Hercules Hernandez, Herc fell onto a table and cut his arm up bad. He wound up needing 76 stitches to close up the wound, and he and Warrior got into trouble for throwing tv monitors around during the scuffle.
Dick Slater has quit Southern Championship Wrestling to go work in Puerto Rico. Given the fact that Bruiser Brody was just murdered there by the booker of the WWC, this understandably has some wrestlers upset. Brody had a lot of friends (and a lot of enemies as well) in the business, and there’s effectively an informal U.S. boycott of the WWC by American wrestlers.
I just want to leave this quote here so you can be as confused as I am: “Joe Malenko won a one-match tournament for the Global jr. heavyweight title.” That’s a match. Is every match that’s not part of a tournament a one-match tournament? What is a one-match tournament?
In case you’re wondering, Dean Malenko has left the wrestling business to work in the airline industry behind the counter.
The general consensus on the NWA’s Bash tour is that if the card has a WarGames match, it’s the best thing you’ll ever see, Fanatics vs. Midnight is great, and everything else sucks.
No major recurring themes in the letters this week, just some observations and such. One letter thinks Owen’s style will help him stand out and become successful in WWF. Another questions the concept of “smart” fans because it presupposes that there are adults who actually aren’t smart to what wrestling is. Another questions the ability of an unemployed construction worker to be a “smart” fan and know insider terms about wrestling in the David Sammartino case covered covered in the March 21 rewind. One letter suggests that Dave could be clearer when giving territory reports with match ratings on where those ratings are coming from so they don’t get confused with being Dave’s opinion (I agree with this reader). Dave answers a letter asking who all has played the roles of Kim Chee and Friday with Kamala over the years and notes that in the 70s Jimmy Carter’s mother used to write letters to Pat Patterson. Nothing of significant interest this week, but still figured it was worth giving a brief.