Real Name: Frank GoodishHometown: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Height/Weight: 6'7"/300
Signature Moves: Big boot, running knee drop, leg drop, one-armed bodyslam
WCCW Titles Held: WCCW American Heavyweight title (four times), WCCW Texas Heavyweight title, Texas Tag Team titles (once each with Mike York, Gino Hernandez and Kerry Von Erich), WCCW Brass Knuckles title (four times), WCCW American Tag Team titles (three times with Kerry Von Erich) and WCCW Television title.
Notable WCCW Feuds: Fritz, Kevin and David Von Erich, The Fabulous Freebirds, Skandor Akbar, Kamala, Gary Hart, One Man Gang and Abdullah the Butcher.
Need to Know Facts: Born Frank Goodish on June 18, 1946, Brody was one of professional wrestling's best big men, and one of its true renegades.
Goodish, like many other pro wrestlers, was a former college football player. After being expelled from the University of Iowa's football team for "behavior unbecoming an athlete", he was quickly recruited by West Texas State University (which also at one time or another had such future wrestling greats as Tito Santana, Tully Blanchard, Ted DiBiase and numerous others on its team), where he played defensive tackle in 1967-1968. Going on to participate on the Washington Redskins' Taxi Squad, Goodish then played for the Canadian Football League's Edmonton Eskimos as well as other semi-professional teams before becoming a full-time sports reporter.
Only a year into his professional career, Frank "The Hammer" Goodish, as he was then known, not only captured Tri-State's version of the United States Tag titles (the precursor to the Mid-South/UWF tag team titles) with long-time partner Stan "The Lariat" Hansen, but also captured the prestigious Florida Heavyweight title in that very same year.
It was in the mid-1970's that Goodish first seriously challenged for a world singles title when he went to work for the World Wide Wrestling Federation (where then-owner Vince McMahon Sr. gave him the name "Bruiser" Frank Brody), challenging its wildly popular champion Bruno Sammartino, who wound up barely escaping with the belt. He eventually left the WWWF after nearly coming to blows with Gorilla Monsoon in a backstage confrontation.
It was during this time that wrestling promoters throughout the United States really began to take notice of Brody, and he quickly became one of the most feared villains in the industry. He frequently traveled to numerous territories throughout North America, and was already a legendary figure in Puerto Rico feuding with Puerto Rican wrestling superstar Carlos Colon. In 1979, Brody would wrestle his first match for All-Japan Pro Wrestling, where his name would become eternally legendary.
Brody formed a successful tag team with Kerry Von Erich, and the duo would go on to capture the American Heavyweight tag team titles on three different occasions.
Brody returned to Japan several times in 1981, winning the coveted NWA International Heavyweight title from Dory Funk Jr. Brody also teamed with Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka to win the 1981 All-Japan World Tag Team title tournament. Meanwhile, back in the States, Brody would work as a babyface in Joe Blanchard's Southwest Championship Wrestling promotion, co-holding its tag team title as a babyface, while engaging in a memorable feud with Blackjack Mulligan in Georgia as a heel.
In 1983, Brody would return to Japan and once again team with Stan Hansen. Together, Brody and Hansen captured the All-Japan Real World Tag Team titles in a tournament, as well as the PWF tag team titles in April of 1984. Also in '84, Brody entered Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA), where he became "King Kong" Brody due to the promotion already having a longtime "bruiser" -- the great Dick "The Bruiser" Afflis. Brody and Abdullah the Butcher were managed in the AWA by the evil Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissey to attempt to end the career of Al-Kaissey's former protege Jerry "Crusher" Blackwell.
In 1985, Brody shocked wrestling insiders by defecting to All-Japan's rival promotion, New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was also in '85 that Brody once again returned to World Class to battle Terry Gordy, culminating in a barbed wire match in Texas Stadium, which saw Brody defeat Gordy in a bout that was vicious even by today's standards. Between the years 1985 and 1987, Brody also worked for such promotions as SCW, Georgia, Florida, Central States (Missouri), WWC (Puerto Rico) and Memphis.
Returning to WCCW to take over booking duties from George Scott in 1986, Brody continued his long-running feud with Abdullah the Butcher after attacking Abby's manager Gary Hart. The two madmen shed blood all across Texas during the summer and fall of 1986, culminating with a steel cage at the Cotton Bowl extravaganza in October, with Fritz Von Erich as the special referee. In December of 1986, World Class put together a "loser-leaves-town" match between the two, which was won by Abby with help from Hart. But like many heroes before him who lost this type of match, Brody would return under a mask, as Red River Jack, before getting the suspension overturned in 1987. In March 1988, Brody won his last title, capturing the NWA International Heavyweight title from Jumbo Tsuruta.On July 16, 1988, Bruiser Brody was attacked in the dressing room prior to a card in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Brody died the following day on the operating table of multiple stab wounds to the abdomen, leaving behind a wife and a son. Fellow wrestler Jose Gonzales (Invader I) was charged with Brody's murder, but was later acquitted. Following Brody's murder, a number of wrestlers refused to work in the former wrestling hotbed of Puerto Rico as a protest of the verdict, which would ultimately cripple the Puerto Rican wrestling scene.
