He has been the promoter of WWC territory in Puerto Rico for the past 40 years and also business partner with Vince. Brody's investments raised suspicion that he was planning to take the company over, and that didn’t sit well with González, who was also a booker for the organization.
Tony Atlas who was backstage at the time. He recapped the days events:
"Truth of the matter is I came out of the Panama Hotel and Brody was sitting there on the steps. I say 'Brody I'm running late..where's your ride?' He said 'Jose is supposed to pick me up'. Jose didn't show up for Brody so I said to him 'if you want, I got my buddy from Muscle Fitness, you can ride with us'.. Just us and his girlfriend and later Dutch Mantel came out. Brody sat up front, Dutch sat in back . We drove to the building. When we were in the locker room, I was drawing a picture in my sketchpad of The Youngbloods and Brody came over and said "wow you draw good, can you draw my son?" Jose came over to Brody. Carlos, Jose, and Victor Rica were sitting in a huddle, but only Jose came over to Brody. Brody had his bag in one hand and Jose tapped him on the shoulder and they went into shower.
Allegedly, Jose Gonzales who wrestled under the name Invader #1 (as well as "Sabu Singh" in the late 1960s) had a hunting knife concealed under a towel when he went into the shower with Brody.
When the ambulance came, the medic couldn't pick up Brody and so he asked the other wrestlers to help and no one did. Only I did. I got in ambulance with him. Dutch said he didn't see nothing and didn't help. Last thing Brody said to Carlos was 'take care of my kid for me', he must have known he was gonna go. The only thing I remember about Brody was that two days earlier Brody had said to me 'Tony, I finally got in'. Whatever that meant, he didn't say but I think he meant he got shares in the WWC, I know he wasn't talking about wrestling there. The only people who really know what happened are Brody, Jose, and Carlos. Next day, me and Afa went to the police and were told we'd be notified when there was a trial. We never were. Savio Vega , (TNT) came to my room that same night and said 'go to the airport.. don't to go bed tonight, find the first airplane and leave if you want to see tomorrow'. So I left. I went back several times for different promotions. I was better friends with Jose than I was with Brody.
I accompanied Brody to the hospital (El Meidico Centro) where Brody died at approximately 4:30 a.m.There were reports indicating he died on the operating table and other reports which indicated he bled to death in the hospital, because the doctors there ignored him, not realizing he regularly took lots of aspirin for pain. The aspirin caused his blood to thin and not clot which led to him bleeding to death. He was 42 years old, survived by his wife Barbara and their eight year old son Geoffrey."
Atlas also mentioned still contacting Jose after the murder."I talk to Jose, we just don't mention it. If you are in Puerto Rico the last thing you want to do is talk about that . If you get stabbed in there, it's like getting punched here. It's not a big deal there. What surprised them was Jose was so small and he did that to Brody. Different mentality there. When I took Brody to the hospital, there were a lot, like 30, there with stab wounds. That's why the doctors took so long to get him.
American wrestler Bobby Jaggers who was present in the WWC locker room when Brody was stabbed did an interview in which he said he believed Brody was stabbed because he owed money in taxes. He said Brody "would have his WWC pay checks mailed to him in Texas so he could avoid paying taxes on them in Puerto Rico". Jaggers also said he believed Jose was jealous of Brody because Brody was more popular with the fans than Jose was. The death of Bruiser Brody made major news headlines in both Japan and Puerto Rico. A few places in the United States such as Texas, St. Louis and Missouri all made mention of his passing as well. Either way, this just casts yet another dark cloud over the once bright enterprise known as Broken City Championship Wrestling. The Grand Wizard and his stable (including Abdullah the Butcher & the Berzerker) are claiming no responsibility.
However, one wrestler who said he was there when the attack happened and he said that Jose Gonzales was hiding in the shower area and when Bruiser Brody ducked his head to enter the area, Gonzales was said to have grabbed Bruiser Brody by the hair, pull him down a bit and stabbed him repeatedly in the stomach.
Brody would meet Jose Gonzalez, the man who ultimately stabbed Brody to death, during Brody's stay with the WWWF in 1976. Dave Meltzer and Tony Atlas talk about tension from the first meeting that may have led to their problems 12 years later.His original run with Vince Sr. ended when he got into a backstage fight with WWF mainstay Gorilla Monsoon.
The second tension arises early on 1988, January 30 to be exact, there was a tag team match between Bruiser Brody and Rocky Johnson against Japanese wrestlers Kendo Nagasaki and Mr. Pogo in Puerto Rico.
The third argument is that Brody attacked Maelo Huertas, Invader's brother, in a televised match , so wild that Maelo couldn't wrestle for weeks. It is said that this event could also be possible as a cause for revenge. Money is not believed to be a reason according to this story. These are the three other personal causes of the incident. Invader was in jail for a day (July 18-July 19) when he was released on a $125,000 bond that WWC (Carlos Colón) paid. The ambulance took 45 minutes to reach the building the night of the murder. Invader left the building and returned back in 45 minutes and did his match. He changed his clothes and it is probably that he left with the object he used as it wasn't found. After Colon testified in his defense, Gonzalez was acquitted.
In Brody's case, it was a violence so real that it ended up reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment