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LARRY MATYSIK has taken advantage of his roots in St. Louis professional wrestling to write another book, "Brody: The Triumph and Tragedy of Wrestling's Rebel."
Matysik, author of "Wrestling at the Chase," teamed with Barbara Goodish, the widow of Frank "Bruiser Brody" Goodish (also known as "King Kong Brody") to tell the story of the professional wrestler, one of the legendary wild men of the sport.
Matysik met Goodish in 1978 when the wrestler came to St. Louis. Matysik was working with legendary wrestling promoter Sam Muchnick at the time. The wrestler and the ring announcer became friends.
Goodish's widow, Barbara, wrote some of the chapters from her perspective.
Goodish, an admitted free spirit, was a college football player at three different colleges, a sportswriter for the San Antonio Express and a professional wrestler.
At 6'5" and 320 pounds with long wild hair and a beard, Goodish not only acted the part of wild man wrestler, occasionally he became the part.
"He could make people believe it was real," Matysik said. "The wild man was part of his personality. But so was the father, the husband and the nice guy who played square with everyone.
"He was a stand-up guy. He was a rebel. He fought for himself."
Matysik said Goodish wrestled as Frank Bruiser Brody after he was given that name by Vince McMahon Sr., an old-time promoter in New York.
"But when he came to St. Louis, we already had Dick the Bruiser and we figured there might be some confusion," Matysik said. "I had this publicity picture of Brody posing next to the Empire State Building with King Kong on it. Sam Muchnick said, 'Call him King Kong Brody.'"
So in the Midwest, he was King Kong, but in other areas, including Japan, where he was a legend, he was Bruiser.
Goodish was killed in 1988 in Puerto Rico in a locker room by another wrestler in murky circumstances. The wrestler claimed it was self-defense and was never charged, but Matysik writes that it was nothing less than murder.
"I wanted to show all sides of him, not just his wild times and his tragic death," Matysik said. "It's not so much, how did he die. It's how did he live?"
The book is published by ECW Press and is available at area bookstores and on-line.
 Brody: The Triumph and Tragedy of Wrestling's Rebelby Larry Matysik and Barbara Goodish and foreword by Jim Ross $22.95 CAD |
