Bruiser Brody Page 2
During his 15 years in the sport, Brody wrestled both as a hated villan and a loved hero. He feuded with the best in the sport during his time in the ring...Dick The Bruiser (for the right to the name "Bruiser", which he lost...ever wonder why Brody was sometimes called "King Kong"?), Bruno Sammartino, the Funks, Ric Flair, Abdullah the Butcher, the Von Erich Family, Dusty Rhodes, Dick Murdoch, Harley Race, and many more. Probably his most remembered feud, though, was against Andre The Giant. At 6`8 and over 320 lbs., Brody was a legitimate physical challenge for Andre, and he gave the Giant some of the toughest matches of his career during their on-again, off-again 10-year feud. When Andre and Brody wrestled, the ring would literally move when one of them whipped the other's giant frame into the corner! It was one of the best feud's in wrestling history and of either man's career...
As was the case everywhere he wrestled, Bruiser Brody was one of the biggest stars/draws in the Puerto Rican-based World Wrestling Council. He had legendary feuds/matches there with Abdullah, Carlos Colon, and the Invader. But his feud with the Masked Invader (Jose Gonzalez, co-owner of WWC) proved to be the last of his career.
Frank Goodish a.k.a. Bruiser Brody was murdered in a Puerto Rican locker room on July 17, 1988, the victim of several stab wounds to the stomach. Jose Gonzalez was charged with the murder. The news of Brody's murder sent shockwaves through the world of wrestling, and everyone wanted to know just why someone would murder the well-liked (among his fellow wrestlers) Brody. Tony Atlas witnessed the murder take place while in the same locker room. In a statement to police at the time, Atlas told the authorities that Gonzalez had approached Brody (after a series of real-life confrontations between Brody-Gonzalez) in the shower with a long, concealed hunting knife and stabbed Goodish in the torso several times. Atlas would refuse to testify at the trial though, and Gonzalez was eventually acquitted. Brody's family attorney was quoted at the time saying that Atlas refused extradition (he was allowed to do so on a technicality) and that the case had depended entirely on his testimony. Without Atlas, they had no case.
Unlike in the United States, the jury in a Puerto Rican murder case does not have to come to a unanimous decision, and which ever way the majority of the jury votes is how the verdict is rendered. Although Puerto Rican law came to a different conclusion, most familiar with the case believe Brody's murderer walked away a free man. The World Wrestling Council, once a wrestling hot-bed, all but disappeared after the negative publicity and devastating loss of American talent who refused to work in Puerto Rico after Brody's murder. But the loss of the WWC pales in comparison to the loss the sport suffered when Frank Goodish died. Wrestling lost a true legend on that steamy August night, the likes of which we may never see again.