Original subtitles

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Championship Sports.

Why, now all of you have heard about the tragic and untimely death of Bruiser

Brody. Very disappointing to all. A wrestler prior to a bout in Puerto Rico.

menacing looks gave him the reputation of a madman inside the ring. But a

longtime wrestling promoter and others remember a very different man.

If you could picture a man coming into the ring, 6 '6", 6 '7", 350 -some pound,

he'd look like danger coming.

It was the kind of danger you were drawn to.

People would actually run from him. They'd just all run and scatter.

He had a chain.

He'd sometimes hit people with it. He was just a wild guy.

Bruiser Brody's larger -than -life presence and in -ring brutality

undeniable authenticity to professional wrestling.

Brody coming down the aisle is like a tornado coming to your house, but you

still want to see it.

He'd beat you up with two -by -fours, chairs, anything he could get his hands

on.

on july 16 1988 this insanity bled out of the ring into real life

when bruiser brody was violently killed in a locker room moments before the

opening bell in the world of professional wrestling it is still the

where its characters live in two worlds where fantasy bleeds out into reality

Hi, I'm Mick Foley.

In my career there was one man more than any other I wish I could have had the

opportunity to step into the ring with. That person was Bruiser Brody.

The day that I got my hands on an old VHS tape with vintage Brody matches was

the day that everything changed for me. I wanted to be the next Bruiser Brody.

The stories I've heard surrounding Brody's death have always troubled me.

After 30 years we tracked down three wrestlers willing to tell their version

what happened that night and to chronicle the life and death of one of

wrestling's greatest outlaws.

Just in case you don't know who I am, I'm Tony, Mr. USA Atlas, broad at the

shoulder, narrow at the hip, tower of power, too sweet to be sour.

One of the last people to see Bruiser Brody alive was Mr. USA Tony Atlas, a

former bodybuilder turned wrestler and a current WWE Hall of Famer.

Okay, LT, stand up. Take the clothesline over the top. Cameraman, watch out.

That was the shittiest finish I've ever seen.

Dirty Dutch Mantel is one of the business' most infamous villains in

the camera.

Has the taste returned to your mouth after I slapped it out just a few

ago? And one of wrestling's greatest minds behind the scenes.

In your experience, did you ever work with Brody? I never did. I never had a

match with Brody. Why's that?

He beats the shit out of you.

And then there's the madman from the Sudan, Abdullah the Butcher.

Abdullah was also Bruiser Brody's greatest in -ring nemesis.

I've been in the business for 53 years.

What else can I say?

My name is Abdullah the Butcher, right?

I'm not a wrestler. I don't grab holds. I use karate.

I use jujitsu.

Okay?

I'm not a wrestler.

I can beat you up any time that I want to beat you up.

You understand?

And the guy behind the camera, give me the fork so I can stab it all in his

head. Then you'll know.

Let me tell you something.

Don't you ever say that me and Brody,

was fake. We are not fakes.

We kept bringing them back and back.

And the people would say, when I seen that match, that was no bullshit.

What would a match resemble between Abdullah and Bruiser Brody? A bloodbath.

Every night.

We were like killers.

We kept pounding.

Would you get Abdullah Butzer and Bruiser Brody in the ring?

It's going to be a lot of blood.

Because Abdullah had this fork, and they did it every night. It was just

formula.

Oh, I loved the fork.

I'd stab him in the head, stick it into his mouth, do everything.

Probably 85 % of the match was outside the ring.

He struck fear in the hearts of fans.

When he went down to the ring, people moved out of the way.

That's an art.

Brody's reputation in the business was he was a main eventer.

He could make you a lot of money. So that's why he was so popular. That's why

many promoters wanted him. Because he could put asses in the seat.

He was

a superstar.

And at the time, he was one of the biggest stars in the late 70s, early

One of the biggest stars in the world.

Bruiser Brody, he was a legend.

He was a legend.

Back before he died.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my gosh.

Every time I come out here, I find something new.

Look at this, another one.

Some sentimental stuff associated with it.

There's a lot of it, though.

Here's a whole pile of photographs in here.

I mean, take a look at that. Oh, boy.

I first met Frank in Australia in the hotel that I was working in. I had no

of his character because I only saw Frank Goodish. I never saw Bruiser

Frank was very quiet, very intelligent, even back in those days,

just like a regular person.

So he never lost sight of who he was. He didn't become the character he created.

That's what's behind it. In my own case, I spent three years with the Washington

Redskins in 1969, 70, and 71.

I was an All -American high school football player.

I went to school on an athletic scholarship.

We're rolling for this, huh?

Yeah, you've been rolling. Okay, good.

Oh, okay, I'm sorry.

I won't.

I don't think you said anything there.

Yeah, I did.

Yeah. I don't think it's good that anybody knows that I'm Frank.

Frank was kind of a little bit of a renegade.

We were together for a long time, and he just came up with this idea, why don't

we stop off in Vegas and get married?

He said, I'm going to tell you now, it is not going to be an easy life.

Out of a year, he maybe would only be home three months of that year.

It was a challenge, but you do it.

When Jeff was born, he changed so much because then he wanted to do for his

family, and he wanted to provide for his son.

So it changed him, even made him softer than who he really was. When he was

around his son, they had a really good relationship.

I do believe I've subconsciously possibly blocked a lot of things out,

unfortunately. So a lot of stories I hear are stories other people have.

Tell me about my dad. At the same time, it's hard to hear these stories because

those stories that people are telling me, I don't have a lot of stories of my

own to tell. It was like the character that he created, that it was separate

from the person I knew.

I would take him to the airport and he would just be dad, husband, get out of

the car, had his hair pulled back, walk through those doors.

Take his hair down. He became Bruiser Brody on the other side. And I could

actually see the whole transformation take place.

In July 1988, Frank departed for a booking in Puerto Rico, an isolated

territory notorious for its wild blood feuds and the zealousness of its fans.

It was Blood City.

There's blood all the time. Big shows, you'd have three or four matches

Because remember, I told you, people believed.

And they believed when you saw blood that it was serious.

Ricky Rodriguez wants to stop him. Look, the blood is just coming out. The

people are violent people.

They wanted violence.

People throw rocks at you. They throw piss on you. They throw urine on you.

throw feces on you. They stole me.

They used to take cups, put glass or stones and throw them at me.

They want to see somebody get hurt. They want to see somebody get carried out on

a stretcher. Every place you go, they love violence.

Some weekly planners, 1987, 1988.

Just the daily activities, it appears, his workout schedule and regimen and

where he's traveling to.

San Juan, Puerto Rico, of all places.

Yeah, I believe it was the 16th or 17th that that happened, unfortunately.

In July 1988, Frank Goodish left his family in Texas and entered one of the

violent wrestling territories in the world.

His family could not have imagined that this would be the last time.

that they would see him alive.

In the summer of 1988, Bruiser Brody left his family in Texas and entered one

the most violent wrestling territories in the world.

It wasn't only his Puerto Rican fans who were waiting for his return, but some

unresolved business and a bitter, long -standing grudge.

The World Wrestling Council is Puerto Rico's main wrestling promotion.

which was established by wrestlers Gorilla Monsoon, Victor Jovica, and

Colon.

Carlos Colon!

Carlos Colon!

Carlos Colon was the boss.

He's also a WWE Hall of Famer now.

He was probably as big a star as Roberto Clemente.

Carlos Colon's right -hand man was Jose Juarez Gonzalez, a local wrestler

celebrated in the ring as invader number one.

Gonzalez also acted as the company's booker, the person in charge of the

creative direction and outcomes of wrestling shows.

Frank understood the value of his character consistently appearing as an

unbeatable monster to fans as a way to keep them coming back for more.

He took this aggression to a new level when he wrestled a young Jose Gonzalez,

when Gonzalez was hoping to make a big impression in the WWF.

Brody and Invader, they didn't really care for each other. Their personalities

did not match. Even their matches, you could tell there was something not quite

right with them.

He was a pretty decent guy, if he liked you.

If he didn't like you, he would beat the living crap out of you.

But I've just seen Brody take people in the ring many a time and just beat them

unmercifully. He would just beat them to death.

Well, I've tried to piece it together over the years. What brought this on?

Let's go back in the past, in the mid-'70s. They were grooming, I heard,

Gonzalez to be like the next Puerto Rican star.

Bruiser Brody came in and had a match with Jose Gonzalez and just beat the

out of him.

He ate him up.

I mean, the whole face was rolling, the head was rolling up. Looked just like a

pumpkin. Brody beat him so bad that SD had to take him to the hospital.

SD Special Delivery Jones, he was a wrestler.

We put him in the car and SD took him to the hospital.

And he turned to SD Jones and said, one day I'm going to kill that man.

He was angry.

I mean, his head looked like a pumpkin, brother.

Bruiser Brody was worried about one image, and that was Bruiser Brody.

Once the people see you get beat once or twice, that brand...

And he knows that. The brand becomes kind of violated, and he didn't want

to happen, and that's why he acted the way he did. I don't know about the other

professional wrestlers.

I only know about Bruiser Brody.

And when I go in the ring, it doesn't matter whether I'm in Texas or New York.

It doesn't matter whether people like me or dislike me. I'm going to be just as

aggressive every night.

But I also heard that Brody was making huge money in Japan.

And he had wanted to invest in a wrestling promotion somewhere.

And he had Puerto Rico in mind.

And there was an owner, a part owner, a minority owner, named Victor Quinones,

who had 10 % or something. But a lot of it was owned by Gorilla Monsoon.

And I think Victor Quinones was brokering a deal between Monsoon to sell

shares to Brody, which were made Brody.

Probably a minority owner. I thought he bought part of that company.

They wanted his money, but they didn't want his ideas.

And Brody ain't that type of guy.

Brody had his opinions. If you didn't like them, too bad.

Can you tell us your name?

David Manning.

I was the booker for World Class Championship Wrestling.

I was a little worried because Frank was going to Puerto Rico to wrestle.

Frank said they owed him around $20 ,000, $25 ,000.

And he had asked for the money politely. He had...

Been waiting for the money. He told me before he left, remember I said this,

coming back with my money.

And he said, if I have to beat every one of them up, I'm getting my money.

Brody had mentioned to people that if he took over, he was going to get rid of

Jose. And also, Jose Gonzalez had just lost his three -year -old daughter. She

died in a swimming pool accident. She drowned about three months earlier.

Now his job is being threatened, and he doesn't like Brody in the first place.

So you add all those ingredients, it's like fire and gasoline.

An explosion was going to happen, and it did.

Can I please tell the story? I beg you.

Because I want to tell it. Okay.

I want to tell the story.

See? Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because for two days I've been

talking about everything but Brody.

And I want to tell this story so bad I'm ready to explode.

I've been carrying this story around in my chest for how many years now?

This is how me and Brody started our day.

Yeah, we were working out in the gym that morning.

The same routine we did, you know, this last day here on Earth.

I go to the gym every morning anyway.

And so me and him, we worked out together.

And he said, Tony, you want to go get something to eat? So I said, oh, sure,

I'll go get something to eat. And then he turned to me.

At breakfast, he said, I waited a long time to get in down here. So I just got

the impression that maybe, just maybe, that he bought in the company.

He said, you are going to see a lot of changes.

We was at the hotel, and Bruiser Brody and Dutch Mantell were sitting on the

steps outside in the front of the building. And I said, Brody, I figure

gone by now.

He said, I'm waiting on Jose Gonzalez.

He's supposed to pick me up.

And I, right then, I said, well, that's unusual.

Why would Jose, the booker, leave his main event?

And I said, you can ride with us if you like.

So we went to the show, and traffic was horrible leading into the stadium

because cars were lined up, so you know it was going to be a sellout.

And we hopped out, and we took our bags to where the dressing rooms were.

Now, looking back on it, it was kind of strange.

Because when I walked in, I got a strange feeling.

But Jose was sitting there. I said, he's here.

As soon as I come to the door, I saw the three of them sitting there, talking.

Jose, Carlos Colon, and Victor, they were sitting in the football huddle.

Yeah, it kind of seemed a little strange.

Because I've never really seen them together like that.

And it didn't look like they were in conversation.

They were just sitting there.

which was even more strange.

Gonzales gets up from his seat, looked me straight in the face, and left.

Never looked at Brody, never looked at Dutch, and he walked out of the dressing

room. And Brody sat down right beside me.

And I sat there maybe five minutes.

And that feeling of tension, it just got stronger. So I said, I got to get out

of here.

I got to move. I got to something. Maybe if I move around, it'll go away.

So I get up and walk out. I go and I sit in the dugout and I'm watching the

crowd come in.

So I had my art pad. I set my bag down. I set my chair and I started sketching.

Brody came over and he looked at it.

He said, that is freaking fantastic. He get all excited. Big smile is on his

face and everything.

And he said, I wonder if you could do one for me.

So he opened up his little pouch.

reached in and pulled out a picture of his son.

Jose came back into the dressing room.

I looked up, and Jose was standing there.

And he had a towel over his head.

Brody, can I talk to you for a minute, please?

Just like that.

Can I talk to you for a minute, please?

And Brody said, yeah.

And he walked in there.

And that's where it happened.

It's not unusual to discuss match plans privately.

But on this evening, the conversation between Brody and Gonzalez would descend

into an unthinkable nightmare.

In Puerto Rico, before his match, Bruiser Brody is summoned to a private

with talent booker Jose Gonzalez.

There was a history of bad blood between Brody and Gonzalez, and wrestler Tony

Atlas was witness to the growing tension.

He had a bag in his hand.

The picture of his son in this hand.

And when he turned away with the picture, that's when I noticed Carlos

at me. As I'm looking at Carlos, I hear this sound.

So I looked up.

Brody was halfway hunched over.

I thought Jose punched him in the stomach. That's what I thought. That the

thought came to me, damn, he hit Brody.

I said, oh, this is going to be a fight.

So then he hollered again.

I looked at Jose's face, and his eyes was bloodshot red.

Then I saw the knife.

The knife went in the air like this, with blood dripping off of it. I sprung

out of my chair, wrapped my arm around Brody's waist just like this. I yanked

him back just in the nick of time to keep from his throat getting cut.

And because I pulled him back, the knife came down and cut his ponytail off.

That's how sharp that knife was.

Carlos shoot right by me.

And he grabbed Jose and pushed him up against the wall and said, no, Jose, no,

Jose. And Carlos was keeping people away from Jose, telling the rest of them, y

'all stay back, stay back. So I take Brody, and I take him and I lay him down

the ground.

I felt his intestines and blood all over this arm here. This whole arm was

drenched in blood.

And he looked up at me, he said, brother.

don't let them hurt me no more. Please, brother, don't let them hurt me no more.

He said, don't let them.

Not him.

Them. That's why I didn't know who the hell he was talking about. Who else is

involved in this, I'm thinking.

I said, ain't nobody going to do anything to you.

Carlo tried to approach Brody after I laid him down.

I told Carlo, I said, don't bring your ass over here. I will knock your mother

head right off the shoulder. He said, Tony, calm down. I said, Car me down. I

said, y 'all just stabbed your guy. I had nothing to do with it. I said,

a goddamn liar.

I said, y 'all worked together. So then Brody tugged at my leg.

And he said, let him over.

So as I make my way back to the tunnel, I could hear the noise.

And it was kind of dark in there, but I could see the lights in the dress room.

Something was going on.

And that's when I asked Mark Youngblood what happened. He said, invader,

invader, stab Brody.

The dress room is in a panic.

And I see Brody laying in front of me. And Carlos is leaning over him, talking

to him.

He said, Brody, is there anything I can do for you?

That's what Carlos asked Brody.

Brody said, just take care of my family.

And I don't know what Carlos was saying, but I'm sure he was saying, hang on

there, man. We're going to get you help. We're going to get you help. But I do

remember Brody looking up at Carlos and telling Carlos, tell my wife I love her.

That's the only thing I heard him say.

So that right there tells me that.

He doesn't have a lot of faith in his own survival.

The shower had a door on it that wasn't clear.

It was translucent.

You could see light behind it and figures.

Vader never came out of that shower.

He never came out. And he was in there with Jovica, who was part owner of the

company. And they were screaming at each other. There was nothing I could really

do, just watch.

He walked out of the shower.

Walked around Brody's feet, went to his bag, got his keys, and he left.

And his shirt, they said, was torn.

Which tells me that whatever happened in that shower, that it was a physical

confrontation with Brody ripping the shirt.

It took at least 35 to 45 minutes for the ambulance to get there. They tried

put Brody on the gurney. They couldn't lift him.

It was about 300 -some pounds. It was too heavy. So I got down in the squat

position, squatted all the way down, and slid my arm underneath him.

And he looked up at me and said, don't you drop me.

And I said, don't worry, brother. I curl more than what you weigh.

So I pulled him gently and laid him on the girder. The old man walked back to

the back of the ambulance to shut and lock the door.

He said, before I shut the door.

Is there anybody here that want to go with him to keep his company?

So I said, I go.

And I jumped and got on the ambulance. And I remember guys looking at me like,

what in the is wrong with Tony? He should stay out of this. You could

feel they thinking this. Nobody was saying nothing, but you could almost

they were thinking what is wrong with him. Like I've said before, I'm not a

religious person.

Never have been.

Probably never will be.

But I did go and say a little prayer for Brody, for whatever worth it could be.

It could help him find.

Couldn't hurt.

And we were sitting in the ambulance.

Brody was laying there.

And I started crying again.

I mean, I couldn't hold back the tears.

And I sung this song.

If heaven ain't a lot like Dixie, I don't want to go.

My voice got choked up. Everything got choked up.

I just told him, I said, you're going to be all right, brother. I said, I'm

going to stay with you, man. I said, I'm with you, man. I'm with you.

There's an old saying in professional wrestling.

Consider yourself lucky if you make it out with one true friend.

On this night, Brody had that true friend in Tony Atlas.

But he would need more than that to make it out alive.

Tony Atlas finally made it to the hospital with Bruiser Brody in critical

condition. Although Atlas' struggle to save Brody's life was far from over. We

get to the hospital and he laid there for probably about 15 or 20 minutes. I

freaking tired of waiting on a doctor. So I finally got one doctor that spoke a

little bit of English.

And I said, I've been telling people my friend been stabbed.

How come nobody going to see him? He told me, he said, a stab in here is like

cold in the U .S.

There's no big deal.

He said, well, I would get to him when I can and turn to walk away from it. I

grabbed him around the waist, yanked him up all the way up on my shoulder just

like this.

And I carried him there to Brody.

So finally he looked at Brody. He lifted Brody's hand up and was like this the

whole time, just like this.

At the same time he lifted his hand up, I remember I was taking his shoes off.

When I saw his feet, and it was blue.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Because I knew this is real bad. So I said, doctor,

please get him in now, now. You got to go now. He started calling on people.

Come on, come on. We need some help here. We need some help here.

I got so freaking mad when I saw that I punched the wall.

I burned my fist probably about up to my elbow in that wall. That's how hard I

hit that wall.

While chaos and confusion erupted at the scene of Bruiser Brody's stabbing,

rumors began to fly and word reached across the stadium.

to Abdullah the butcher in a second dressing room.

The doctor came and says, Brody was cut or stabbed or whatever.

I said, come on.

You know, I thought it was a joke.

In my opinion, I thought it was working an angle.

But when the doctor told me, then I says, holy shit.

Because the doctor wouldn't be lying.

That was it.

Brody was...

He'd already been taken out.

But the police walked in and thinking, well, it's just another crazy, wild

wrestling brawl. They didn't think it was real.

I was banging on the operating room door talking about what the fuck is going on

in there, what's going on in there. And the doctor came out, and he said, Tony,

he had two 8 -inch cuts.

He said, we got his intestines back together.

He said, the only problem we have now is that his liver was sliced.

He told me we're going to be okay. He said, he's stable.

He said, but what you need to do, you need to go home because everybody in

is more afraid of you.

I wanted to be as far away from that dressing room as I could be.

Then I saw Invader walk in.

Then he had on a different shirt.

He continued business like nothing had happened.

I don't know why he came back.

I really don't.

I'm thinking, man, what balls this guy's got. The thing that was so horrible

was when I got back to the dressing room.

It was more horrible than the stabbing.

It was more horrible than him laying on that table. The most horrible thing that

happened on that night was going back to that dressing room and hearing

laughter.

First, I couldn't believe they didn't cancel the show.

That was the first thing I thought.

And opening up the door, and the blood on the floor ain't even dried yet.

And they in the dressing room laughing and joking. And Pat Lee turned on the

back, talking about how great the matches were and what a wonderful show

I took the freaking chair and I threw it across the damn hallway.

There was a policeman that said, hey, hey, hey, come down, calm down.

He said, did you see what happened? I said, hell yeah, I saw what happened. He

said, did you get a look? Did you get a look at the fan that stabbed him? I

said, what were you told?

He said, everybody in here.

Said that Brody was stabbed before he got in the dressing room. That a

fan stabbed him in the hallway. He stumbled into the dressing room. I said,

that's a damn lie. I said, that's some of the bitch sitting right there is the

one that stabbed him. He said, you mean Vader? I said, yes, I mean Vader. That

sucker right there, that's who stabbed Roosevelt.

I said, ask everybody in the dressing room. He said, they all telling a

different story. I said, they're all liars. I said, he's some of the bitch

stabbed him. He was telling the cops, hey, hey, that's the guy you need.

The rest right there, he pointed to Jose Gonzalez.

A woman sitting right in the chair right there was putting his resting gear in

his bag.

It's like nothing happened. That's the part that messed with my head so much.

was like nothing happened.

If you're a policeman and you come into a situation that you think could be

staged, they didn't think it was real.

Tony knew it was real, so they were actually engaging each other from

perspectives. That's why the disconnect.

In professional wrestling, the line between fiction and reality is

blurred. As the night's events continued to unfold, it would be nearly

impossible for anyone to tell the difference or to know the truth.

While Bruiser Brody was fighting for his life at the hospital, Tony Atlas'

eyewitness account of the stabbing was making the rounds.

So then that night you wrestled. Carlos Colon, your time is over.

That night I wrestled Aaron Sheik, the night of the murder.

I just went and did it.

I just went in the match. He locked up with me. He said, how's Brody?

Doctor said he's going to be okay.

He said, you wrestling fan, they told me that they dangerous.

I said, Jose Gonzalez did it. Right there. The Sheik just straightened right

just like that.

That mother.

Jose Gonzalez Vader Muller killed the King Kong of the Brody. He rolled right

out of the ring and went straight back to his locker room. We only wrestled for

maybe one or two minutes.

I go to my room and a guy named Fabio Vega, they call him TNT.

He said, Tony, I got your bag.

I went to your room and got your bag for you.

I said, for what?

He said, don't go to your room. They are looking for you because you talking.

So I took my bag, and I went down to the beach, and I walked the beach the whole

night. I tried to lay down and get some sleep, but kept waking up every time I

hear something.

I kept looking.

I'm paranoid as hell now.

I go back to that hotel.

Walked to the front desk, and I told the girl, and I said, listen, if Brody gets

any calls to his room, please put them through to my room.

They said, okay.

The phone started ringing about midnight.

Kept ringing, ringing, ringing.

By this time, it's 1 o 'clock in the morning. I said, I'm going to answer and

give them a piece of my mind.

So I picked up the phone, and there was this woman. And she said, this is Nancy.

Cologne, well, Nancy Cologne is Carlos Cologne's wife.

I'm calling to let you know there's been an accident and I think you better come

to Puerto Rico. So I call the hotel and they put me through to Dutch.

She said, who is this? I said, well, this is Dutch.

And she said, well, what happened, Dutch?

And I knew it was pretty serious, but I was saying, well, Brody had an accident

and it's pretty serious.

and that maybe you should come to Puerto Rico. He didn't have any details.

After I got the call, I tried to go to sleep. I couldn't sleep. Like I said,

adrenaline was flowing.

About 8 o 'clock, I get up. I go downstairs to the front desk.

I said, can you do me a favor? And she said, yeah, what do you need? I said,

you call the hospital that my friend Brody is in?

She said, yeah.

So she calls out there, and she's speaking in Spanish.

And I hear luchador.

I hear Ressler, and then she starts crying.

And I look at her, and she said, I'm sorry, your friend didn't make it.

I said, what?

She said, no, he died last night.

How did you first learn that Brody had passed?

Abdullah told me at the meeting.

And I slept on the beach the whole night. So now I'm going back to the

I saw Abdullah and some of the wrestlers in the lobby.

And they said, Tony, we're having a meeting.

And they're waiting on you to tell them what happened.

Did you ever have any hotel room meeting?

Hotel? Hell no.

No. No, sir.

No, no. Abdullah told us that he didn't have a meeting. He lied.

Maybe they did.

But not me.

You understand?

He lied to you. If that's what he told you, I'm telling you what happened.

I had 5 % of the business.

You see what I mean? In a way that people did not want to talk to me.

What do you mean?

Well, if you own some of the territory, right, who's going to come and say, oh,

this happened, or this guy done this, this guy done that?

They were in their own little bunch.

So why would they come and talk to me?

Brody was a friend, and I didn't want to be in all the gossip, what they were

talking about.

Nobody heard me say shit.

That's a shame.

That's a damn shame that he done that.

Dutch Mantell asked him. He was there in the meeting.

I think we all met in somebody's room.

And somebody said, ma 'am, are they investigating this or what?

I mean.

A man died. What's going on here?

I just started thinking, in this territory, this happened?

That's why I left.

I said, well, I saw it.

So I go down, I make my report to the police department. He said, your story

different than everybody else's. He said, we will be contacting you for a

date.

He said, now that we got a witness to it, we're going to arrest him.

Then they took me, and I gave my statement, and then all through the

took statements from the wrestlers.

He did say, he says, you tell Carlos Colon we run this island, not him.

I think they asked, did I see a weapon?

I did not see a weapon.

As a matter of fact, no weapon was ever recovered.

That weapon, whatever was used, what knife was used, has never been

I've got my bag.

I went to the airport and I left.

Then I made arrangements.

I said, I got to go to the airport.

Got on the plane with Jeff, get off the plane, waiting to see if anybody was

going to pick me up.

So I looked around and here's Abby.

I was going and this lady and this little boy walked up and she says, oh,

Abdullah, you don't know me, but I'm Frank's wife.

She says, how's he doing?

I said, what?

She said, well, how's he doing? I said, they didn't tell you?

Tell me what? I said, he's gone.

And she grabbed me.

And she said, oh, no.

All you think about is surviving.

All I thought about was I saw a man get stabbed to death, holding on, and Dan

with a picture of his son in his hand.

He never put that picture down, brother.

When I put him on the ambulance, he had the picture in his hand. He laid on the

floor, he's still holding that picture.

He go in the operating room, he never put that picture down, brother.

Never.

The irony of Brody's greatest nemesis delivering this news was only the

beginning of the unthinkable events that would follow.

Alone with her son in a foreign land and dealing with the shocking circumstances

of her husband's death, Barbara Goodish found the strength to make the necessary

arrangements.

Nancy was Carlos Colon's wife.

She took me to the morgue, and of course, everybody is speaking Spanish.

They took me to the window, and you could just see all these bodies in

And then, of course, the reality, boom.

Just really started to sink in.

Not sure how long it took before it set in. We were in the hotel room and I

remember crying just incessantly for hours, hours and hours and hours,

screaming.

I still didn't realize the magnitude of what had happened. And it probably took,

I don't know how long, 10, 15, 20 years maybe.

When everything happened, it was like, what do I do? How do I bring him back to

the States?

And it was like I heard his voice.

And it was like he was saying, Barbara, you know what to do. And at that moment

it was, I need to cremate him down here and take him home with me.

There was a very simple ceremony in Puerto Rico.

I mean, nobody was there except me and Jeff and some of the wrestlers and some

of the Puerto Ricans. And Jeff picked out his dad's casket.

It was blue.

When did you hear Jose was arrested?

About three, four days later. From what I hear, he was taken down to a local

precinct, never was put into sale.

Bail was made for him immediately by some big businessmen there, and he

back home the same day.

And so did you come to learn anything about Jose Gonzalez?

I know that the... I'm not even going to say his name. I know that the attacker

did it.

From what I can hear from everybody, the whole court case was a sham.

I mean, do you think there was a cover -up? No, there was not.

The only guy that could have covered was Javik and I, and we didn't do that.

You know, we told the judge and the courtroom, we said what we saw.

Because I didn't see any stabbing, I didn't see any weapon, I didn't see

anything. A guy named Tony Rumba, the Boston bad boy, banging on doors. I told

him, Tony, put your channel, put the TV on a certain channel.

They're talking about the Puerto Rico thing. I flipped the TV on. I see Jose

TV coming out of the courthouse.

I said, what they had to hear? He said, no, they have a trial. They let him go

for self -defense.

And you got to be kidding me. They never contacted me.

So you never got contested? Never.

Never did.

Never did.

Finally, my subpoena came in the mail for my appearance.

And I already knew the verdict by the time my subpoena arrived at my door.

It was 10 days late. That's why the verdict came back not innocent, but not

guilty. And Jose never testified.

But they believe what his attorney put out, that he was just merely acting in

self -defense.

The fans in Puerto Rico believed wrestling was real. That was the major

that Jose was acquitted, because they believed Brody was this character, this

wild -looking psychopath, hulking figure, and his defense was self

Do you believe it was really self -defense? I don't know, really, I don't

You know, I respect the law.

So sad, I really, you know, I...

I wouldn't want to talk about this anymore because it makes me sad.

One month after Bruiser Brody's passing, All Japan Pro Wrestling hosted a

massive tribute show, inviting both Barbara and her son Jeff to be honored

front of the 17 ,000 fans in attendance.

The honor.

that they respected and being in that ring and hearing that 10 bell count and

hearing everybody chanting this whole building chanting his name brody brody

brody and i'm just standing there in the ring with jeff and it was the most i

mean just to know how much he was respected may peace be with you bruiser

bruiser brody was a brawler mythic proportions

and will always live on as such in the world of professional wrestling.

I didn't ever guess that I was going to be a professional wrestler.

Once I started in professional wrestling, learned the ropes, if I had

over again, I think that I would probably even pass up my three years in

and devote them to wrestling because it's been that good to me.

It was one of its biggest stars in the 1970s and 80s, and it's considered one

the all -time greatest wrestlers in Japanese wrestling history.

where he is still celebrated today as an icon.

Yeah, justice would be great.

Some personal justice would be more gratifying than some legal justice,

honestly.

Mr. Brody, every dog has his day.

You cannot kill a legend.

See, legends never die.

So if that was Jose, Seen me to kill a legend?

He fell.

Miserably.

Nobody knows the exact circumstances, including the words, if any, exchanged

between Frank Goodish and Jose Gonzalez on the night of Brody's death.

It remains one of wrestling's darkest and most intriguing mysteries.

Join us next time as we continue to explore the untold stories of

wrestling.

I wish he was here.

Yeah. I wish he was here.

He ditched it out.

I ditched it out. And we kept going and going and going and going.

Brody.

Oh, shit.