Dead and buried: The pro-wrestler stabbed to death at a show in 1988
A professional wrestler is meant to be intimidating and scare the shit out of the average person on the street, but few wrestling stars passed this test quite like Bruiser Brody.
Standing at 6ft8 and weighing in at 300 pounds of pure muscle, the man born Frank Donald Goodish surprisingly got his start as a sports writer, before becoming the subject of column inches himself years later.
His life changed when Fritz Von Erich, the man essentially in charge of professional wrestling in the south, despite his name, scouted him. Von Erich told the young Goodish that he should get in the ring himself, as he towered over everybody. He knew that if Goodish added a bit of muscle to his frame, any promoter in the world would be lucky to have him.
A couple of years after that, Goodish had transformed into Bruiser Brody, one of the scariest men in wrestling. The fear he struck in the heart of everyone who saw him came not only from his intimidating, wild man look, but because he’d mastered the best-kept secret in the world of professional wrestling. He knew the most convincing way of looking like you were kicking the shit out of someone was to actually kick the shit out of them.
Brody was for real in every sense of the word. While this made him an incredible, unforgettable spectacle, it also made him one of the most notoriously difficult people in wrestling. He’d regularly decide that the match wasn’t working for him and just beat his fellow wrestler within an inch of his life. Thanks to his aura, he somehow still got booked, providing him with endless fresh bridges to burn across the world. Brody wasn’t the only person who treated his wrestling persona like that; just look at the life and times of New Jack.
However, Brody might have been the one to pay for it more than anyone else in the industry. By 1988, Brody was still one of the more notorious names in the industry, but was starting to move into a behind-the-scenes role, taking jobs as a booker and producer for some Texas wrestling territories. Nevertheless, he still had a packed-out in-ring schedule, and on July 16th, he was booked for a show in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.
Before his match, a fellow wrestler and booker by the name of José Huertas González came up to him and asked if they could step into the shower area of the locker room to discuss some business. Due to the layout of the area, what went on between González and Brody had no witnesses. Two screams were heard, then Brody staggering out of the shower area, clutching his stomach. González had stabbed Brody, claiming self-defence. An ambulance was called, but due to Brody’s size, the paramedics wouldn’t lift him, which is why fellow wrestler Tony Atlas had to carry Brody down to the vehicle, but he didn’t last the night.
González stuck to his self-defence story throughout the whole trial and was eventually acquitted of murder. However, the trial has since been criticised by those from within professional wrestling due to a number of the witnesses for the prosecution not receiving their court summons until after the trial had ended. Despite this, the prosecution made no attempt to appeal the decision. Perhaps this was because they were aware of the person they were representing.
After all, Brody was a violent man. According to his family, this was never a side of him that showed up at home, but he regularly saw fit to endanger the lives of people he worked with. Compulsively hurting people at the expense of his career and livelihood. One of those people, nearly a decade before his death, had been one of the very few people Brody had worked with for Vince McMahon Sr in the WWWF. A fellow wrestler, known as Invader 1, had been brutalised by Brody, leading to both of them being cut from one of the biggest companies in wrestling.
Fellow wrestler SD Jones had talked to ‘Invader 1’ after that match, and swore blind that the masked luchador had said to him (per NZ Herald), “One day, I am going to kill that man.”
The man who played Invader 1 was none other than José Huertas González.