Bruiser Brody

## Professional wrestling stats

### Known as

Bruiser Brody, Frank Goodish, King Kong Brody, The Masked Marauder, Red River Jack

### Trained by

The Sheik

**Frank Donald Goodish** (June 18, 1946 – July 17, 1988) was an American professional wrestler who earned his greatest fame under the names **King Kong Brody** and **Bruiser Brody**.

Goodish was an All-State football and basketball player at Warren High School, Michigan, and played football at West Texas A&M University (then known as West Texas State) and with the Washington Redskins in the NFL.

As a wrestler, he helped innovate the "brawling" style and was infamous for his wild and legitimately uncooperative demeanor.

## Professional wrestling career

Brody 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 feuds with the likes of Kamala the Ugandan Giant, Abdullah the Butcher, and Jerry Blackwell. In Japan, he was in a tag team with Stan Hansen. Brody 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.

In 1985, he had a very short stint with New Japan Pro Wrestling in a feud with Antonio Inoki and many of their matches ended in no contests or disqualifications.

In 1987, Brody began working primarily for the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico after getting fired from New Japan. Brody continued his feud with Abdullah the Butcher, as well as engaging in a feud with Carlos Colon. He briefly returned to All Japan Pro Wrestling 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. Brody ended up losing the title back to Jumbo Tsuruta four days later.

Brody had an infamous cage match with Lex Luger in Florida at NWA Florida in January 1987. In the middle of the match, Brody stopped "working" and stood around. Luger and Bill Alfonso, the referee of the match, were puzzled and attempted to speak to Brody who did not respond.

Luger and Alfonso decided to forgo the planned finish of the match and Alfonso disqualified Luger in a spot where Luger continually punched Brody in a corner and did not back off. After the match, Luger recalls asking Brody if he did anything wrong to upset him to which Brody responded "no" and Brody's reasons for not working were not very clear, stating that "the match just wasn't working".

In Larry Matysik's book, *Wrestling at the Chase*, Matysik states that before the match Brody told him "I'm not putting up with any of his bullshit" and that Brody was upset that Luger wouldn't sell for him. However, when watching the match, it is clear that Luger did sell for Brody. In a later shoot interview, Bill Alfonso said that there was a miscommunication issue on who would lead the match and there was no ill will ever between the two.

Another scenario was that Brody was upset with the promoters (Brody had a contentious history with wrestling promoters for much of his career) and decided to embarrass the promotion by being uncooperative in the match. It should also be noted that this match occurred right before Luger went to Jim Crockett Promotions, and many people believe that Brody wanted to punish him for bragging about "being called up".

However, since there is no way to prove this theory, it is possible that it is in fact just a wrestling urban legend stemming from Luger's well-documented history of alienating himself from his co-workers.

Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer claims that Luger refused to lose to Brody as he left the territory, so promoter Hiro Matsuda ordered Brody to make Luger look bad, and congratulated Brody afterwards in front of the other wrestlers.

## Death

On July 16, 1988, Brody was in the locker room before his match with Dan Spivey in Bayamón (a city near San Juan, Puerto Rico), when José Huertas González, a fellow wrestler and booker, asked him to go into the shower to discuss business. Brody entered the shower stall and a few minutes later a scuffle ensued, followed by two groans, loud enough for the entire locker room to hear. Tony Atlas ran to the shower and saw Brody bent over and holding his stomach. Atlas then looked up at González and saw him holding the knife. When the paramedics arrived, Atlas carried Brody downstairs to the waiting ambulance, as, due to Brody's enormous stature, paramedics were unable to lift him.

Brody's last words (as told to Atlas) were, "Tell my little son I love him, and tell my wife I love her, too." González, who always maintained his innocence, was initially charged with first-degree murder but was later reduced and tried for involuntary homicide. Dutch Mantell received his subpoena after the trial was over and Tony Atlas refused to testify, and without his testimony the District Attorney had no case. Some wrestlers were scared to death and made no declaration to the police at the time of the events. However, Tony Atlas declared what he saw to the police but later refused to testify, several years later came back to Puerto Rico to work with the promotion. In January 1989, González was acquitted on all counts, citing self-defense. Carlos Colón testified against Brody during the trial.
Brody had an open casket viewing for his funeral. He was then cremated afterwards.