Brody: The Triumph and Tragedy of Wrestling’s Rebel

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INTRODUCTION

by Jim Ross

In my 30 plus years in the often crazy world of pro wrestling I have never encountered a college-educated individual as simultaneously complex and simplistic as my friend Frank Bruiser Brody Goodish — arguably the greatest brawler ever to lace up a pair of wrestling boots.

My first job in wrestling coincided with Frank’s. I was a rookie referee while my pal was a rookie wrestler working for the controversial Cowboy Bill Watts in Mid South Wrestling, and we spent many hours discussing our lives. Little has worked out as we predicted over 30 years ago.

Frank never fully trusted a wrestling promoter. Wrestlers had no contracts and were at the mercy of promoters who decided what to pay these road warriors and how often and where these men would wrestle. If a wrestler was off work for any reason, he simply did not get paid. Many promoters attempted to keep people with low self esteem or a lack of courage under their thumbs. Six-foot-five, three-hundred pound Frank did not fit under anyone’s thumb. Through countless battles over money and violent disagreements over the creative direction of the Bruiser Brody persona, Frank and his obsession survived and achieved unparalleled success. He became known as fiercely independent, not to be trifled with, and just as intelligent as he was intimidating.

The business became the first Cerebral Assassin’s passion. Driven by this, Bruiser Brody became one of the biggest stars in the history of wrestling. Fans in Japan still talk of Brody in reverential terms. Frank’s wild matches on such platforms as WWE’S 24/7 are must-see, as are the promos from this once-in-a-lifetime performer.

Then the passion betrayed Brody, allowing him to be senselessly murdered in a Puerto Rican locker room. His admitted killer never spent a day in jail.

Brody is a page-turner that addresses the life and death of one of wrestling’s most controversial, talented, and influential performers. He was taken from his wife, his son, his friends and his fans much too soon. This story is long overdue. And once you read it, you will feel like you know Frank Bruiser Brody Goodish. And you will miss him as much as I do.

CHAPTER ONE

MURDER

Frank Goodish, famous internationally as professional wrestler Bruiser Brody, was murdered by Jose Huertas Gonzales on July 16, 1988, in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

No motivation is sufficient and no excuse is acceptable. No matter what speculation floats on the Internet. No matter what lies are told or what rumors evolve. No matter whose agenda is being served.

There is no forgiving. There is no excuse. There is only one solitary fact. Frank Goodish, Bruiser Brody, was murdered by Jose Huertas Gonzales on July 16, 1988, in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

Once upon a time, however … The wrestling business in Puerto Rico was red hot. This was primarily thanks to Bruiser Brody, who ignited the explosion with his tag team partner Stan Hansen. Brody and Hansen came to San Juan and at least 28,000 emotional fans were on hand at Roberto Clemente Stadium to see the belligerent pair tackle Abdullah the Butcher and hometown hero Carlos Colon (who was, of course, part owner of the promotion) on June 2, 1984.

A rematch on September 15 drew another huge mob to see the violence. And still a third collision involving the quartet erupted October 15. All three features drew over 20,000 spectators each time. It was an amazing feat in a market that size, or, for that matter, in any market.

Over time, obviously, this kind of business could not be sustained, although Brody always made for a hot ticket. He had more than a few bloody engagements with Abdullah. As wrestling changed on the mainland and in Japan, Frank found himself picking up more dates in Puerto Rico for Colon and his business partner Victor Jovica.

By that time, though, Hansen had said adios to Puerto Rico. I had had my fill and it just wasn’t worth it, he maintains. Dealing with them on their home turf was always a battle. A gringo is a gringo, and that’s what we were. Frank felt he could handle it. He always believed he was invincible. I’d had more than enough, though.

Part of the problem was money. Checks bounced or were short. Kevin Von Erich, who had known Brody since Kevin was a small boy, remembers that once the Puerto Rican office owed Frank big bucks. They hated him and were mad at him, but he had a lot of money coming.

Kevin’s father Fritz, a powerful promoter from Dallas, where Frank started in the ring, got along well with Colon and, according to Kevin, brokered a deal so that Frank got a percentage of the money he was due in addition to his payoff on trips until the full amount was paid. He wanted his money. Frank said ‘That’s mine’ and my dad agreed, recalls Kevin. Carlos was a good man and tried to work it out.

This does bring up a question, though: if Carlos was a good man and the promotion meant well, why did the checks bounce?

Buck Robley, a close friend and often a booker for Frank, explains, Money was a problem. Checks bounced. It was always a fight for money, although the first couple years were good.

Bobby Jaggers (Jeaudoin), who met Brody when both were starting in the business, thought there might have been heat between Frank and the office over the method used to collect personal taxes from the wrestlers for Puerto Rico. Some suspected part of that money ended up in the office’s pockets. I know he went to the office and flat refused to let them take any money out or have him give money back. He said he’d pay his own taxes, Bobby notes.

Frank was always a planner, Buck remembers, and a few times he got checks from Colon just before leaving on a long trip. Frank would take so much cash for expenses on the road, leave so much with his wife Barbara for the house, and put the rest away, says Buck. Then the check would bounce, Barbara would have to get money from the savings, and Frank would just go ballistic. He would get the money eventually, but it was always a big argument.

An even bigger headache, perhaps, was the testy relationship between Frank and Jose Gonzales, the booker for Colon’s and Jovica’s World Wrestling Council. Victor Quinones, who worked in the company with Colon and Jovica, was the man who made all the details fit together in that operation.

Quinones pointed to 1976 in the World Wide Wrestling Federation as the year when the seed of hatred was planted between Frank and Jose.

Brody was going into a long and profitable run against titleholder Bruno Sammartino. Frank understood he wasn’t to sell anything for anyone until he squared off with Bruno, by order of Vince McMahon, Sr., who ran the company. Gonzales was led to believe that he was coming into the WWWF as an upcoming star who would be the replacement for the likes of Pedro Morales and Victor Rivera. The first part of that equation was accurate; the second was, obviously, incorrect.

The two were booked together often and Brody simply ate Gonzales for lunch. The volatile Brody was much bigger and clearly more charismatic, and when it came to the drive and hunger for success, Brody was in a league of his own. On one television taping when the two were paired, Gonzales complained to Gorilla Monsoon, Senior’s assistant, about how Brody was manhandling him. To keep peace, Gorilla suggested they do a 50-50 match (both wrestlers getting a roughly equal amount of offense) for television.

Naturally, in the bout itself, Brody beat the daylights out of Gonzales and gave his foe nothing. Brody saw Jose Gonzales as little more than a mere job boy, who was about half of his size. How could Brody sell anything for someone like that and have any credibility as a challenger for the indestructible Bruno?

When Brody got to Puerto Rico years later, he found Jose Gonzales arrogant and in a position of power. Gonzales was both the booker for the World Wrestling Council and in main events as the masked Invader I. Frank was irritated but, as Quinones noted, didn’t put up with any of Jose’s shit.

That was probably an understatement. Jack Brisco, a former world champion, says, Frank would belittle Gonzales in front of the boys. He probably pushed over the line. Puerto Rico is such a little place. It’s tough to stay there and make a living. Obviously, Brisco believes Brody cost Gonzales the respect of both the dressing room and the local talent.

Buck Robley agrees that Frank had no respect for Gonzales and that influenced how the big man treated him. He intimidated that little midget! scoffs Buck, applying the term midget to Gonzales because Jose was so small for a main event wrestler of that era. "Over the years, there was hatred building up and Frank got inside Jose’s head. He would never answer to him.

Frank would scream at Jose when he tried to give a finish in the dressing room and the midget would be so scared he wouldn’t do anything, Robley says. Then, all of a sudden, Frank would say ‘It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.’ But when he got in the ring, Frank would double cross Jose on the finish.

According to Buck, Frank never really tangled with Colon, except for demanding bad checks be addressed. He was the money man. Don’t mess with the money man, says Buck. But the poor booker got the wrath of Frank. Frank would say he wasn’t going to cut off his head [bleed] for that asshole.

Terry Funk, a friend of Frank’s from the time Frank was in college at West Texas State, wrestled in Puerto Rico often and knew all the players quite well. Frank could push harder than anyone I’ve ever seen, and Gonzales was certainly one of those he just ate up, says Funk. Frank just belittled him.

Funk understood the problem with Gonzales. "Jose was not at all gifted as a booker. He only knew one way and didn’t know how to change anything.

It’s tough to build a finish with the main event. Lots of egos, lots of talent. Everyone has to work together and have respect. If they don’t want to do one thing, a good booker helps figure out something else, explains Funk, who was an imaginative booker in his own right. "I’d always be tweaking things, sometimes even when the guys went into the ring. It’s an ongoing process, to have a great match. Sometimes it happens right in the ring!

Frank always wanted to do the right thing for the money in the end, Funk goes on, but he did not have respect for Jose. He would take over in the ring and change stuff. He’d take liberties in the ring. In the States, that didn’t mean anything really. Hell, Frank did it to Verne Gagne [owner of the American Wrestling Association based in Minneapolis] all the time. But on that little island, everything is very macho.

Bobby Jaggers says, Frank always told me Jose didn’t know a thing about the psychology of the business. The big guy would say, ‘Dory Jr. [Terry’s older brother] and Terry must just puke when they come down here to work for him.’

Robley adds, Jose became the ‘Yes man’ for Carlos when Jose got the big push, but Frank knew better. He gave Jose no respect — and there was no reason he should have respect for Jose.

Frank was wary at times about his outings in Puerto Rico. He recognized that the relationships there were often uncomfortable. Once, he was slated in a match that had boxing great Joe Frazier as the special referee. Obviously, the finish would in some way involve the boxer, portrayed as a fed-up official, landing a punch on Brody. If they want to double cross me, I’d be vulnerable, admitted Frank; this was especially true considering the power of Frazier.

Here is a legitimate heavyweight professional boxer, with no glove on his hand, who really knows how to hit and me just giving him my jaw, a worried Frank said. If they want to get me, he could wallop me and I’d end up a vegetable. Brody was as careful as could be, but nothing developed and the bout went fine with a worked punch.

Victor Quinones often ended up becoming the middle man for Colon, between Brody and Gonzales.

As Quinones got tighter with Frank, he would advise Colon: Frank isn’t going to do this, but he might do that. According to Quinones, Gonzales often wanted him to give Brody the finishes. Eventually this became a problem because Quinones had other duties the night of a card, so Colon and Jovica expected Gonzales to handle his own responsibilities.

Colon and Jovica kept the pressure on Gonzales as time went on, once telling Jose to order Frank not to come to the matches wearing shorts, Quinones remembered. Of course, the shorts were part of Brody’s public image, so any intelligent person knew exactly what would happen if Gonzales told him not to wear them.

Further internal pressure was on Gonzales after the drowning death of his young daughter near the start of 1988. He was unbalanced, disturbed in the mind for a long time after that, said Quinones. Jose suffered. He was insane.

But it wasn’t all yelling and battling. Quinones was not the only one who remembered driving to matches in Puerto Rico with both Gonzales and Frank. The trips were relaxed, calm, and without trouble. There was even one such excursion only a day or two before that fateful evening.

Both Quinones and photographer Fast Eddie Gries recalled partying when both Frank and Gonzales were present. They said there was no trouble then. Of course, the talk wasn’t about finishes and money. Nor was personal pride for Gonzales on the line at times like those.

And Buck Robley makes an interesting point when he suggests that the Puerto Rican office turned Brody into a babyface at Gonzales’ suggestion — So Jose wouldn’t have to wrestle him and get beat up all the time.

In the shrinking wrestling world of 1988, Puerto Rico was one of the few paydays remaining, even if collecting that mediocre pay promptly and in total was occasionally in doubt. Those conditions often made Frank claim he wouldn’t work there. Nonetheless, he felt that many of the problems in working the island had been put behind him, and he was fairly comfortable heading there that summer.

On July 16, the show was outdoors at the Juan Loubriel Stadium. It was a typically hot, oppressive, uncomfortable day in Puerto Rico. Frank went with Dutch Mantel and Tony Atlas to the facility. The babyfaces (including Frank) used one dressing room and the heels used the other, on opposite sides of the baseball field. Jaggers recalled that Frank took a look from one dugout and spotted Bobby peeking out from the other side, where the heels were housed. Figuring that most of the gathering crowd did not understand English, Frank yelled at Bobby to inquire whether or not Jaggers’ wife had arrived yet. When Bobby acknowledged that she had, Frank said to tell her hello and let’s get together later. Then he disappeared back into the tunnel to the dressing room.

Inside was the typical milling about, grapplers at various stages of getting dressed and preparing. Frank noted a portrait that Atlas was painting of Chris and Mark Youngblood. He was impressed, and asked Tony about doing a painting of Frank’s son Geoffrey. He dug out a picture of himself and his son to give to Atlas.

Gonzales, carrying a towel, walked by and asked Frank to come and talk with him in the bathroom. That was nothing unusual; many important wrestling meetings have taken place in the bathrooms of dressing rooms. Most promoters and bookers didn’t take the time to talk with talent in an office or under respectful circumstances. The bathroom at a building was a handy location for giving instructions or trying to sell a wrestler on an idea, which perhaps showed how little esteem those in charge had for the people they