For entertainment...

[gordi]

 

 

I don't think you read very carefully.

 

Gordi: "You say that Brody never drew anywhere!"

 

jdw: "Uh... I've always pointed to him drawing very well in St. Louis, and being a decent through not earth shattering draw in Japan."

 

Gordi: "You dismiss every positive he had!"

 

jdw: "Er..." *looks back at what I wrote* "Er..."

 

 

I don't think Brody Fans slow down to read what I'm saying. They quickly get defensive at criticism.

 

John

 

Yeah, that honestly does sound like the sort of thing that I would do.

 

 

 

So did Hogan. Vastly better. That's one of the problems with the "gets oneself over with the crowd" concept. People want to apply it to the wrestlers they want to pimp as great workers, but when you see Hogan over there to the side waving "What about me, Brutha?" they just turn away and pretend not to notice.

 

 

 

 

I've always been willing to give Hogan his props as a master of crowd manipulation. I love watching him work the crowd in the Hulkamania years. He was every bit as believable as a big American blond muscle-head who couldn't be kept down as Brody was as an out of control dangerous wild man.

 

 

 

Brody left All Japan because Choshu's Army and then the Road Warriors showed up in All Japan in early 1985. He saw the handwriting on the wall and jumped.

 

Only a mark would buy that Brody jumped just because Inoki threw a wad of cash at him. Even Dave back in the day didn't write it up like that.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh NO! I don't want to be a mark! I take it all back!

 

For the record, here's how Meltzer wrote it up in Brody's Tributes obit:

 

Inoki was desperate for talent and looking for revenge on Baba as well. A contact was made, and Brody eventually signed a contract with Inoki. It was the most lucrative deal ever signed by a pro wrestler up to that point.

 

What a mark he is!

 

 

 

You can argue that Andre was physically larger... or that Pampero Firpo looked like more of a wild man... but Brody still somehow got over as a big, out of control, violent wild man.

Eh. I'm not sold either of those guys were great workers. And that's from someone who's enjoyed several Andre matches over the years, even when he was shot.

 

 

 

Speaking of not reading very carefully... Who was talking about Firpo and Andre being great workers? We were just talking about them having an impressive look. My take is that Brody combined frightening size with a wild visage. Your take, if I'm reading carefully enough, is that Brody looked like a clown. This would be an area where we do not agree, I'd say.

 

 

 

PWI does goofy things. It always has. I think being dead helped Brody there. After all, he rated two spots ahead of his better partner.

 

It's hard to argue against that.

 

 

The interesting thing for me is, even though we either misread or ignore each other about half the time, and eventually we'll end up repeating the same arguments without having changed our minds about any of the key ssues... I'm still enjoying this discussion. Ironically, it's actually making me into more of a Brody fan than I'd ever intended to be. I watched Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs. Shoehi "Giant" Baba & Dory Funk Jr. from '84 the other day, and I was all like, "YEAH! Brody is AWESOME in this!" when previously I might not have cared.