Bruiser Brody

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[BigBadMick]

I don't hate Brody. Liked a lot of his tags with Hansen and his matches with Terry and Dory, Blackwell, Abby, Flair.

 

He's by no means a top 100 lock, but I don't spit every time I utter his name either

[Shining Wiz]

Another guy who the interwebs have turned around on.

 

I think some/a lot of his aura is lost 25 to 35 years later watching on tape, but there's a reason he was as revered as he was at the time.

[JerryvonKramer]

I think there's a genuine disconnect with Brody, because ... well, he just isn't very good. That's the main problem most of us have I think. It's hard to know what you're missing when you just can't see it.

[Shining Wiz]

I think there's a genuine disconnect with Brody, because ... well, he just isn't very good. That's the main problem most of us have I think. It's hard to know what you're missing when you just can't see it.

 

Touche.

 

I'll have to see where my opinion falls after watching some more. He died when I was 8, and well before I had access to anything other than WWF on a regular basis, but what I have seen I have enjoyed.

[fxnj]

I don't think there's a disconnect so much as people coming in with a preconceived notion that he should wrestle as a one-dimensional brawler based on his look and hating him for not wrestling like that all the time. I don't think it's hard to see, though, that what got him so over was actually how he defied such a stereotype and wasn't afraid to show he could trade holds with the best of them, while at the same the wildman part of his gimmick gave him a unique unpredictability that meant you never knew how much of his stuff was mindgames or what move he would pull out next. But I guess it's more interesting to interpret that as him just sitting in holds and no-selling while Hansen carried the team 100%, even though there seems to be nothing to support that claim from anyone who wrestled him.

[Dylan Waco]

When on earth did Brody trade holds with the best of them?

[WingedEagle]

He absolutely looked and carried himself like someone who'd be an out of control brawler. He was okay at that when he did it, but I don't think means people reject him for working differently. If you're going to work holds, make it compelling. Give me a struggle. Show me someone fighting off pain or working to wear down your opponent in a dedicated fashion or avoid having the same done to you. Or work holds to set someone up for a high spot. Brody never did for me. There's also a time and place to not sell and it can be incredibly effective and pop a crowd if held off for a while. But when you never sell at all it renders one half of a match impotent and combine that with a sometimes lacking approach on offense, and you've got someone who's matches don't have a lot I look for.

 

I absolutely get the many digs at Kurt Angle here and can't really argue them, but I can still enjoy what he does for a bit before it becomes overkill. But at least he had some hot spots to keep me engaged. Brody rarely even delivered that much from what I've seen.

[goodhelmet]

I don't think there's a disconnect so much as people coming in with a preconceived notion that he should wrestle as a one-dimensional brawler based on his look and hating him for not wrestling like that all the time. I don't think it's hard to see, though, that what got him so over was actually how he defied such a stereotype and wasn't afraid to show he could trade holds with the best of them, while at the same the wildman part of his gimmick gave him a unique unpredictability that meant you never knew how much of his stuff was mindgames or what move he would pull out next. But I guess it's more interesting to interpret that as him just sitting in holds and no-selling while Hansen carried the team 100%, even though there seems to be nothing to support that claim from anyone who wrestled him.

 

This is bullshit. We didn't reject him because we expected him to be the best brawler of all time. We rejected him after watching a shit ton of matches and coming to the realization that the guy wasn't very good.

[PeteF3]

The next "unpredictable" thing I see Brody do will be the first. That is if you don't count the World Class matches where he actually sells.

[elliott]

Brody was really good at tagging out and letting Stan Hansen come in and wrestle. Probably like the 37th best guy who ever tagged out to Hansen.

[fxnj]

Brody never selling at all is what's bullshit. The dude pretty much made Tenryu into a main event level guy between the RWTL matches against Tenryu and the TC unification match. The 1988 title win over Jumbo is also a great example of a come-from-behind victory with him really getting the crowd into it and even having them celebrate with him his victory over the native guy. That match also happens to be a good example of him making smart usage of basic holds to set up for the big moments. Further, his singles matches with Dory and Baba serve as early examples of the epic AJPW title match archetype and they lend much of their greatness to how well Brody balances vulnerability with his otherwordly wildman gimmick by selling while on offense.

[JerryvonKramer]

Brody would sell for guys like Dory and Baba though because there were in positions of power (or for whatever other reason). I like the match with Dory a good bit as well as his tag with Snuka vs. The Funks (from 12/13/81).

 

Trouble is, those are the exceptions to the general rule. If anything they make it worse: it shows that it was a conscious decision of his not to sell 95%+ of the time. So he actively chose to have worse matches 95% of the time.

[Timbo Slice]

That Jumbo match was horrible. I remember watching it and couldn't believe that comeback even happened. Not because it was good, but because I couldn't believe that's how the match actually ended.

 

Parv is right on. He made the decision to coast. Not seeing it.

[Lee Casebolt]

If this were a Top 100 Businessmen in Wrestling poll, I'd give Brody strong consideration.

[thebrainfollower]

Really? Given that his business practices contributed to his vicious death I'd place him towards the absolute bottom.

[JerryvonKramer]

More or less blackballed from the NWA and so never worked JCP during their peak national run and never worked for Vince vs. Hogan.

 

When Flair and Hogan were drawing 10,000+ gates everywhere 85-7, Brody was genuinely working Kansas for Central States because no other promoter would touch him. Great business acumen.

[MikeCampbell]

I can see consideration for Brody and Hansen as a team. But, there's just no way that Brody belongs anywhere near a list of all time greats.

[jdw]

Another guy who the interwebs have turned around on.

 

I think some/a lot of his aura is lost 25 to 35 years later watching on tape, but there's a reason he was as revered as he was at the time.

 

People were rethinking the hype about Brody less than 10 years after he died. I've told the story plenty of times of Yohe telling Meltzer that Hansen carried the tag team and was better than Brody. Dave didn't agree, and on it went. This was before the interwebs.

 

It's an old discussion / debate... 20 years old by now. All the interwebs was (i) allow more people to come to it semi-fresh, and (ii) with the ease of getting more matches allow older fans to think about Brody as they were watching his stuff.

[Matt D]

I got 3 DVDs in the mail today from Mark (OdessaSteps) as an XMas present. He was dubbing old tapes. One was some 85 Crockett. One was an hour or two leading up to Shocker losing his mask. The third (unmarked) was a Brody comp. He was trolling me. Freaking Brody.

[W2BTD]

I never thought Brody was anything special (aside from a million dollar look), and he wouldn't sniff my list, but I can also see what people who like him see in him. I get why he's not very well liked here, because of the heavy emphasis a lot of you put on selling. Clearly, that was not Brody's specialty. He's not nearly as good as his general reputation, but he's also not complete dogshit like he's portrayed on this site. He's closer to the dogshit, though.

[Danish Dynamite]

Yeah, well... I think I started off with his two or three best matches, 'cause I liked him, when I first saw him... Then I saw a lot more of him... Damn, I would have loved for him to be as good as my initial impression...

[El McKell]

Brody is boring as hell and the Inoki match I watched feels like a miracle from Inoki to get an exciting big match feeling event out of Brody. I’m posting in all the threads of wrestlers I’ve looked into who haven’t had any posts during the 2026 run so they are still considered to be nominees but I don’t have much I can say about this man. Immigrant Song rules.

What I watched for this so far and my match ratings
Bruiser Brody vs Ric Flair (11/02/83) *¾
Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr (08/12/84) **½ 
Bruiser Brody vs Antonio Inoki (18/04/85) ***¾
Bruiser Brody vs Abdullah The Butcher (04/08/86) **¾
Bruiser Brody vs Genichiro Tenryu (15/04/88) ***
 

[fxnj]

I have no memory of the posts I made earlier in here about Brody being a great mat worker, and I certainly wouldn't say that now. What I will say is that Inoki/Brody is one of the most fascinating match series I've discovered recently and a massive example of why you can't quantify art. The premise is basically the two having these great spectacles with some of the loudest sustained crowd heat I've ever seen in a decent sized arena, whilst Brody is doing just about all the things we'd normally associate with bad wrestling. He's making goofy faces and noises, refusing to sell most of time, sandbagging on moves, sitting in holds with often poor technique, and doing some of the worst looking leg drops I've seen.

Initially I attributed the crowd response and overall entertainment value to Inoki giving an absolutely masterful performance, which is true, but once I read Sleaze's review of their first match and watched their rematch (which features one of the greatest entrances ever from Brody, BTW), I realized there was something far more interesting in play. All those things I listed off as normally being done in bad wrestling (minus the shitty leg drops) are actually the reason why the crowd is going so apeshit and are really what serves as the launching pad for Inoki's genius.

The goofy faces and barking pretty much set the tone for the whole thing by making Brody come across as this alien entity within the pure sports world of NJPW. Brody refusing to sell gets him across as an Undertaker-esque horror monster and makes all of Inoki's offense feel that much sweeter, whilst also helping make it believable for Inoki to lose his cool. The sandbagging on moves like a butterfly suplex is actually a cool bit of underutilized realism that further gets across Brody as a monster by showing how standard big moves don't always go smoothly on him. Brody sitting around in poorly applied holds is normally something I'd hate, but Inoki selling like he does gets Brody over as a guy who's so strong he doesn't need proper technique, and seeing Inoki sell big for a not great looking arm lock applied to his bandaged elbow in their first match also helps sell the seriousness of the injury.

Simply put, swap out Brody for someone doing the exact opposite of all the things mentioned above, and the match wouldn't be as good. He undeniably had the "it" factor with the crowd, and it was the result of his carefully protected character and his willingness to break the rules of wrestling. It's truly a series only Inoki and Brody could have. For his detractors confused on why he's so highly regarded by older fans and workers, I think this series offers probably the most accessible route to understanding his work.