Brother Love

After entering the World Wrestling Federation in 1987, he first occasionally worked as an announcer for the WWF's television programs alongside Mike McGuirk and "The Duke of Dorchester" Pete Doherty and occasionally Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

In June 1988, he debuted as **Brother Love**, a red-faced, smarmy, effusive and boisterous "preacher" character dressed in a conspicuous white suit, tight red shirt and white tie, who claimed to preach "the word of *love*." He was best known for his disingenuous catchphrase "I love you!", during which he would enunciate each word for several seconds in a thick Southern accent.

Introduced to the WWF by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Love hosted a segment on the World Wrestling Federation's syndicated and cable television programs called *"The Brother Love Show"*, in which he would interview wrestlers. The segment debuted on the June 19, 1988 airing of *Wrestling Challenge*, and would be "promoted" to the WWF's "A-show," *Superstars of Wrestling*, first appearing on the October 8, 1988 edition.

The segment was patterned largely after *Piper's Pit*, where Brother Love would berate face wrestlers (especially Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior) and openly support such heels as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and Bobby Heenan. It was explained that DiBiase was Brother Love's main "benefactor." More than once, a wrestling feud was set up because of what occurred on "*The Brother Love Show*" (including Hulk Hogan's feuds against Big Boss Man (1988–1989) and Earthquake (1990), and the Jake Roberts-Rick Martel feud from late 1990 to early 1991). *The Brother Love Show* was also the setting for the unveiling of Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Championship belt and Rick Martel's "Arrogance" cologne.

Brother Love made his pay-per-view debut at the inaugural SummerSlam event in 1988 at Madison Square Garden when he interviewed face wrestler "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. He later featured prominently in WrestleMania V in 1989 where Rowdy Roddy Piper in his first appearance in the WWF since his 'retirement" after WrestleMania III, "de-skirted" Brother Love of his "kilt" after taking over *Piper's Pit*. A year later, Sgt. Slaughter bestowed a medal upon Brother Love during SummerSlam for being the "greatest American."

Occasionally, Brother Love provided color commentary for the WWF's televised events. His most famous assignment was alongside Sean Mooney for the WWF's televised event at Madison Square Garden on January 21, 1991, where he was roughed up by the Ultimate Warrior on his way to the ring to face "Macho Man" Randy Savage in a steel cage just two days after Savage had caused the Warrior to lose the WWF World Heavyweight Championship to Sgt. Slaughter at the Royal Rumble.

On November 19, 1990, Brother Love managed The Undertaker, who at the time was known as "Cain the Undertaker," for his in-ring debut during a taping of *WWF Superstars of Wrestling*. That match, and another one for a taping of *WWF Wrestling Challenge* the following night, aired on television after his appearance live at the 1990 Survivor Series in which he was part of a Survivor Series style match between a team led by Dusty Rhodes and a team led by Ted DiBiase. DiBiase would reveal the mystery partner as The Undertaker. This was the first time Brother Love appeared on television as The Undertaker's manager. Brother Love continued to manage The Undertaker until February 1991, when he sold his contract to Paul Bearer.

Brother Love was released from the WWF in May 1991 after the Ultimate Warrior attacked him and beat him nearly unconscious, breaking his ribs, while also destroying *The Brother Love Show* set, slamming the lectern, tearing the curtains and knocking down a light.

He returned to the WWF in September 1992 and portrayed two short-lived characters. He first appeared as **The Wizard**, a heel color commentator on *All-American Wrestling* (who never appeared on camera during the character's brief run), and then as **Reo Rodgers**. Rodgers did commentary from time to time in his short stint, and his interview segment, "Reo's Roundup," lasted only two segments before the character was dropped.

Brother Love returned to the WWF in November 1995. He hosted *The Brother Love Show* once again, this time on *Monday Night Raw*. In what would prove to be a monumental moment in WWF history, Brother Love hosted Ted DiBiase introducing The Ringmaster into the World Wrestling Federation, who would eventually transform into Stone Cold Steve Austin. Brother Love then quietly disappeared from the WWF again soon after.

Brother Love resurfaced once again for one night in January 1997, making a surprise appearance on the debut episode of *Shotgun Saturday Night*, helping the Flying Nuns defeat The Godwinns. Love then named the team The Sisters of Love. The gimmick was quickly scrapped, with the team later finding success as The Headbangers.

Through the remainder of the Attitude Era, Brother Love was occasionally seen on-screen as himself, either cleaning up between matches at ringside, or as one of the people called in to break up a backstage fight. During the fall of 1998 and into early-1999, he provided color commentary on *Shotgun Saturday Night*. He was also the only backstage employee to have an interview segment on the *Raw is Owen* memorial broadcast.

In 2001, Brother Love participated in the gimmick battle royal at WrestleMania X-Seven. He was eliminated by Sgt. Slaughter.

On the February 6, 2003 airing of *SmackDown!*, Brother Love confronted The Undertaker, then portraying a biker gimmick, in his feud against The Big Show. Brother Love pleaded with The Undertaker to forgive Big Show for his recent actions, but The Undertaker however wasn't pleased and gave Brother Love a chokeslam, followed up by a Tombstone Piledriver in the middle of the ring. Love later appeared in the Bar Room Brawl at Vengeance 2003, lasting all the way to the end before being knocked out by Bradshaw.

*The Brother Love Show* made a short-term return on a couple of *SmackDown!* brand house shows in the summer of 2003 as a replacement for planned *Piper's Pit* segments (Roddy Piper had been released from his contract). These segments saw Love and Mr. McMahon attempt to humiliate Zach Gowen, only to get their comeuppance in the end.

On December 1, 2008, he was released from the WWE once again.

On January 22, 2018, he returned to the WWE for a one-off appearance as Brother Love on the *WWE Raw 25 Years* anniversary special. In April 2018, he and co-host Conrad Thompson began a podcast titled *Something Else to Wrestle*, airing exclusively on the WWE Network. On February 23, 2019, it was reported that WWE had officially signed Love on to join their creative team.