1. As we all know, Bruiser Brody died in 1988 at age 42, but lets say for a moment that he had not - what do you think would have happened to his career? His demise coincided with the dying days of the territories, so would he have gone to WWF? Would he have went to Japan and maybe come back for a promotion like ECW?
2. Give me a Top 5.......who - in your opinion - has the best musical entrance in Wrestling history? (This question was inspired by CM Punks music - at this point, I wish he would go back to the theme he used until last year)
2. Give me a Top 5.......who - in your opinion - has the best musical entrance in Wrestling history? (This question was inspired by CM Punks music - at this point, I wish he would go back to the theme he used until last year)
1. It would have been awkward as hell trying to pin him with that knife in his gut, I can tell you that. Oh, wait, you meant something different. I think he would have stayed in Japan and then retired fairly young. Berzerker was WWF's attempt to recreate him, so obviously that wouldn't have worked, and I don't see a place for him in WCW. Maybe a career revival in ECW, but how many bounced checks was he gonna take before he told Paul Heyman to go fuck himself?
2. DEMOLITION, mofo.
Jim Cornette would like a word.
ReplyDeleteThe Alex Karras/horse slugging scene from Blazing Saddles was inspired by Bruiser Brody doing the same thing to Rodan.
ReplyDeleteI think he would've went to the WWF and worked a program against Hogan, before inevitably butting heads with Vince McMahon and going back to work in Japan for awhile. Then he would've been in ECW for a bit, before retiring.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to Scott's question in 1: One bounced check. Then Brody would've beaten Heyman to death.
ReplyDelete1. I just can't see a guy like Brody being able to work at all within the confines of the WWf then. Vince had a lot of primadonnas to deal with, but Brody was legitimately a dangerous guy at times, and I don't believe he would have succeeded in toning it down enough to have any kind of run there especially with Hogan and his rumored fear of tough guys "shooting" on him. as far as ECW, he would have been near 50 when ECW was changed to the style he could have melded with, and he would have made huge money still in Japan as a "special attraction" in the bore-fest that was the heavyweight division.
ReplyDelete2. Demolition obviously as that song just fit them so well, but my guilty pleasure answer would be Rob Conway's Con Man gimmick theme. It's just so Randy Neuman and just funny as hell.
2. DX
ReplyDeletePunk- "CoP" as the agent-of-change babyface
"Ass Man." Seriously, how many themes better fit the character? The character was terrible, so was the theme!
Ass Man was easily the funniest theme ever.
ReplyDeleteI always loved Shane Douglas' ECW music. I'm pretty sure it was by Deep Purple, can't remember the name of the song. Problem was, once the music stopped you had to watch a Shane Douglas match.
Ah, that was called "Perfect Strangers," I believe. Unfortunately, not the Balki version.
ReplyDeleteIf Brody survives 1988, I can see him having a run in the NWA, actually.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's the one. He was using a knock-off version while he was in WCW too, probably done by Jimmy Hart. IIRC, DDP was using "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and Jericho was using "Evenflow". I have no idea how the hell they were getting away with that shit.
ReplyDeleteI figure Brody would have stuck primarily to Japan, probably joining Stan Hansen, Dr. Death, and Terry Gordy as the badass gaijin from hell that Misawa and co. had to go through.
ReplyDelete"Real American"
ReplyDeletefavorite theme: Kerwin White.
ReplyDelete"Jive Soul Bro," motherfuckers.
ReplyDeleteI think Brody had already missed the WWF boat. I guess they could have brought him in to face Hogan but WWF had somewhat moved past the typical buildup of a heel and feed to Hogan gimmick. Guys like Bossman and Earthquake were around for awhile before they got their run with Hogan. Would Vince have been willing to build Brody up? Would Brody have been willing to job to Hogan, much less anyone else?
ReplyDeleteBrody had limited name value with the typical 1988 WWF fan. It would have been in the buildup not any sort of name recognition like Flair or Rhodes had. Brody was notoriously obnoxious to deal with for promoters and often opponents. Now granted part of that is that he, along with Abdullah, were some of the last guys not to have a "homebase" of sorts and made money exclusively on traveling and name value, so that made him less inclined to ever look weak. But still, he had an attitude and I'm not sure that by 1988 Vince would have seen dealing with him as worth it, since the name value simply wasn't there with the WWF audience.
Definitely see him sticking to Japan, working ECW and fading away. He also might have worked WCW in the 89-92 period when WCW was dabbling with some older guys like Funk, Abdullah, Kevin Sullivan, etc.but I'm sure it would have ended with him no-showing somewhere and refusing a job.
Dusty and Crockett had four years to bring Brody in and there was no discernible effort to do so.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'm not sure where Brody could have gone from 1988 onward. I don't believe the stories about how he & Nord were supposed to come in and feud with Demolition and I don't buy Brody as a main eventer against Hogan for anything other than a typical MSG program--certainly there was no room for him to headline a PPV back then. All-Japan? Well, even granting that Brody had just done a clean job to Jumbo Tsuruta on one of his last tours, AJPW was rapidly approaching the age of 100% clean finishes. There would be no more double-countouts to avoid either guy having to do a job. Brody would still be protected but at some point he was going to have to put Misawa over, and if he stayed around long enough, Kawada and Kobashi as well. Would he have been willing to do that? Or would he do what he did in 1985 when Choshu's Army arrived and bailed?
Doing a shot for FMW is a possibility...again, though, at some point he was going to have to do a job for Onita.
The AWA was dying and he'd burned his bridge there anyway. World Class was dying and Fritz was no longer running things. I really don't think Dusty and Crockett (or later, Turner) needed the additional headaches.
I think Brody was more done than we may care to admit.
Since the only possible answer is Steve Regal's REAL MAN'S MAN theme, I'll go with my #2 pick of the Rock's heel entrance from 2003ish.
ReplyDeleteI don't really buy Brody as a WWF guy either, but...Vince got off on getting "loose cannons" to work for him. Bad News Brown played ball and worked with Hogan, and he had that reputation (and he was an *actual* dangerous shooter, not "I'm a badass because I sandbag and no-sell guys who are trying to work" fake-tough like Brody). He brought in David Schultz. Hell, even Dusty would qualify in that category--he wasn't a loose-cannon shooter type but he was an independent-minded guy who always tended to book himself. He would have brought Brody in in a heartbeat *if* he thought he could make money with him.
ReplyDeleteWhich Japan heavyweight division was the "bore-fest" again?
I've only really heard about Bruiser Brody through others and some YouTube clips. But why was he such a respected and revered figure in wrestling? He reminds me of the Stan Hansen and Terry Funk mold but did his death enhance his reputation/legend?
ReplyDeleteAnd Raven was using Nirvana's Come as You Are
ReplyDeleteThe Best Entrance music is Hollywood Rock circa 2003, just an epic theme!!
ReplyDeleteNo "Natural Born Killa" by Ice Cube and Dr. Dre?
ReplyDeleteI never understood why they didn't give the "Evenflow" knock-off to Raven, since his finisher was called the "Evenflow" DDT, wasn't it? That's WCW for you...
ReplyDeleteBecause there is no law against bad knockoff music.
ReplyDeleteBecause Jericho had Evenflow and didn't he come in first?
ReplyDeleteBrody would have definately had a ECW run, maybe even the Funk role of semi-main eventer/mentor. Foley loved the guy and you know he'd push for a feud or tag run with him. The ECW arena would've come unglued if Cactus revealed Brody as his partner to get revenge on Sandman/Funk.
ReplyDeleteTop 5 Entrance Themes
ReplyDeleteAustin's
Iron Man for the Road Warriors
Undertaker's Theme - I think it is a huge part of selling that gimmick, especially once they worked in the gong.
2001 for Flair
Pomp and Circumstance for Savage - I wonder how many kids have done the Macho pose at graduation?
Was just about to say the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI recently acquired some old VHS tapes of All-Japan during the late eighties from a friend who is stationed there. It is IMO hard to watch as the action can be average speed to time-bending slow at times and some of the guys there seemed to have the same WCW-style issues of just seeming old. Some guys were good, Kawada, early Vader, but for the most part to me it was dreck. Maybe my opinion is due to never really being a fan of Japanese wrestling outside the J-Cups and G-1 Climax Tag Tournaments I have on old tapes acquired in my trading days.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking that Nord-Brody tag team would be pretty awesome. That said, Brody's shoot interview with Apter (which you can find on YouTube) pretty much states that he didn't want to go to any national promotions. Plus, with his Luger match in Florida, I don't know how interested either Vince or Crockett would have been in the guy.
ReplyDelete"Don't diss the man cause we'll bum rush your mother!"
ReplyDeleteBret said that Bulldog convinced everyone to stay in the locker room after Montreal because he was afraid of a Brody incident happening, as if Vince would actually try and stab Bret to death.
ReplyDeleteToo lazy to think of history, but I really miss Mark Henry's theme, fit him perfect.
ReplyDeleteUndertaker's Ministry theme is awesome.
One of these days I need to get a good sounding copy of Raven's theme and listen, because people always said that at the time and I just didn't hear it. It certainly wasn't as obvious as the others, anyway. If anything he should've had a JHV of "Come Out And Play".
ReplyDeleteBrody would've gotten paid in ECW. Paul knew who he could fuck with and who he couldn't, and Brody is firmly in the "couldn't" category. I could see Brody being in the Terry Funk role before Funk, or just as a crazy and dangerous brawler in his own right. Plus if he was deteriorating, working hardcore would have helped him paper over the gaps. And he was pretty much one of the forerunners of that style anyway. He'd have been fine.
ReplyDelete"Late eighties All Japan" wouldn't have included Vader.
ReplyDeleteAnd the fact that it played the whole match makes it that much better.
ReplyDeleteNo love for The Ultimate Warrior's entrance theme? Still one of the best ever.
ReplyDeleteI fucking HATED "Come Out and Play" as a Raven theme. He was a depressed grunge slacker. Offspring wasn't anywhere near the character's wheelhouse. The WCW theme as a huge improvement.
ReplyDeleteHe had about two matches with All Japan in the tape of matches from 87-88, the his contract was traded to New Japan. These tapes had a little Japanese guy pop up with facts during some matches and thanks to the magic of subtitles, that was one of the facts he gave.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was perfect for him, just not something I still find myself humming out of boredom. But that over-blown Hollywood video that went with it was classic narcissism.
ReplyDeleteHe'd have been fine to a point. I still say Paul would've stiffed him once and they'd find his body in an alley in south Philly with a chain wrapped around his neck and a furry boot lodged in his ass.
ReplyDeleteSee I dug it because Offspring still fit into that edgy alternative description (my how THAT has changed in the years since) but it had a little more aggression, so I felt like it suited him. Since they used stuff like "River of Deceit" and Alice in Chains songs when covering babyfaces, I thought it made some kind of sense for Raven to have it as a theme. But you're right, it is a little odd to have a "grunge" character and have them come out to a song that isn't grunge. Sort of like how it's odd that CM Punk hasn't come out to a punk song in years.
ReplyDelete