Friday, June 18, 2010

Happy Birthday and Match of the Day

Today would have been the 64th birthday of Frank "King Kong Brody" Goodish and we celebrate with the match of the day, when he met NWA World Champion Ric Flair for the Heavyweight Title in 1983. This was in the wrestling hot bed of St Louis, Missouri and at what looks like the Keil Auditorium. In this era you sell out an arena with just the names and the title, no gimmicks, no fireworks or giant tv screens and not even tv in the US. This was taped for audiences in Japan, who were nuts for Brody and his monster like persona.
As Ric Flair said in his book "To Be The Man" this match played a huge part in him getting bookings and respect in Japan. This win over a man with Brody's reputation in Japan was a tremendous boost to Flair's marketability.
Of course this was also the day of the 1 hour time limit title match with 2 out of 3 falls and the fans knew they would get a least 30mins of action if not the full hour. These men were proud to put on a show like that, instead of the 10 minute bumpfest we see now that pass as wrestling matches.




Thanks to stupid Youtube we only get the first 10 minutes. The rest you cannot imbed.

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