One of the greatest hardcore brawlers of all time, whose career just barely predated hardcore, junkyard or garbage wrestling as we know it today, Frank Bruiser Brody Goodish was billed at 6 foot 8, and close to 300 pounds, and looked and acted the bloodthirsty wildman brawler utterly convincingly and since this was in the days when kayfabe ruled the industry, that meant twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Brody liked to move around, hating the feeling of being pinned down to a place or a promotion, and while this made him a free agent in the world of professional wrestling, and thus almost unique in the business, it contributed towards his reputation as a man very difficult to work with. Brody was famous for refusing to follow the planned booking in matches, often going into business for himself. On one memorable occasion, he decided to simply stop working Lex Luger in a match for the NWA in 1987, and stopped wrestling entirely. When pressed, he said that the match wasnt working, but refused to elaborate, forcing Luger and the referee to improvise a DQ finish so that Brody could go over as originally planned. Wherever Brody travelled in the world, violence and mayhem followed him. Hed scream on his way through the crowd to the ring, whirling a giant chain in one fist: playing the role of huge, psychotic madman to the hilt. Wherever he went, an aura of unpredictability and bloody chaos followed, leading to classic matches with opponents like Terry Funk, Abdullah The Butcher, Dusty Rhodes and Harley Race. The Hardcore Legend Mick Foley studied tapes of Brodys work while training to be a pro wrestler, and the continuing influence of the man is best seen in the ongoing obsession with hardcore brawls to this day. Brody was stabbed to death in 1988 in a backstage altercation that still causes argument to this day as to who was at fault and whether it was self defence or murder. True to form, even in death Bruiser Brody brought blood and controversy to the wrestling business.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
