Sport’s Strangest Crimes returns to BBC Sounds with comedian Adam Hills telling the story of the life, legend and death of Bruiser Brody, one of 1980s wrestling’s biggest stars.
Frank Goodish was a larger-than-life character, said to stand 6ft 8 inches tall and weigh in at over 300lbs. He had a shaggy mane of jet black hair and bushy beard to match, giving him an imposing presence tailormade for professional wrestling.
Better known as Bruiser Brody, Frank was a monster in the ring and every inch the ‘wrestling bad guy’, he was also a family man and loyal friend according to those who knew him well in the industry.
Unlike today, in the past, professional wrestling could be a secretive industry shrouded in mystery for anyone not in the business. But what happened on the small island of Puerto Rico on one hot night in 1988 is an astonishing tale, and indeed one of Sport’s Strangest Crimes.
Frank became embroiled in a violent feud, which may have ultimately led to his death. It’s a tale full of both violence and kindness, truth and lies, impossible rumours and incredible realities.
The podcast investigates how what started out as a professional wrestling storyline feud or ‘work’ as it’s known in the business, ended in a bloody altercation that left one of wrestling’s biggest stars of the time, dying in the locker room backstage at a wrestling event.
Talking about the podcast, Adam Hill says: “This was a deep dive into a murky crime, made even murkier by the mystery and myth surrounding the outwardly glitzy world of professional wrestling. I hope we managed to tell the story of Bruiser Brody in a way that his alter ego, Frank Goodish, would have liked.”
Adam talks to wrestlers and industry experts to uncover the reality of that night and work out the facts from what has become wrestling folklore. He asks what happened to the Bruiser’s attacker after that night and looks at the trial that followed.
Working on the series was rather eye-opening for Adam, who says: “I learned that wrestling is a lot like stand-up comedy – you’re putting on a show, with a line-up of other talented people with big egos, and sometimes there are backstage disputes. In comedy though, it’s very rare to be body-slammed.’
Sport’s Strangest Crimes: The Ballad of Bruiser Brody is being released as an eight-episode boxset on BBC Sounds, weekly on RSS from today, Wednesday 27 March.
