Well, what if Brody goes into WCCW or Portland or the other smaller NWA areas and does Double-DQ types of matches with either the best face or biggest heel available, and gets his "cleaner" wins over Crockett-only guys, in Crockett territory?
I know it's a wild stab at this (I can't think of anyone outside of Race to carry the spot, off the top of my head, that makes as much or more sense than Harley did), but Brody might also be the only guy that had a "national" enough face to be a reasonable draw outside of Crockett.
I can only imagine how much he would have held up Crockett for to show up and lose to Flair at Starrcade cleanly, however...especially with the territory wars brewing, knowing even if he was blackballed to any degree, someone would probably have picked him up pretty fast once Vince got his ball really rolling (I'm looking at you, Verne Gagne, lol).