Hulk Hogan vs Bruiser Brody. The match that never happened

[glorious83]

As Brody’s wife indicated on a podcast a couple of weeks back Brody had intended to go to WWF at the time and finish his career with a run against Hogan. I’m interested to hear people’s thoughts on how this would have went and how it may have altered WWF’s plans with hogan vs macho and hogan vs Warrior. (If hogan were to remain champion at the time.)

[dangerousdanpotato]

I doubt it would have affected those plans; I can see Brody as another heel challenger to Hogan for a run on the house show loop, with maybe a match at MSG or even on an episode of SNME.

[buckethead]

Oct 8, 2022 19:57:16 GMT -5 dangerousdanpotato said:

I doubt it would have affected those plans; I can see Brody as another heel challenger to Hogan for a run on the house show loop, with maybe a match at MSG or even on an episode of SNME.

Yep... nothing more than a feud between PPVs and gets a SNME in best case scenario. It might even be another Killer Kahn, no one cares, and it gets a short house show run.

This "dream" match has always been overhyped by fans.

[BorneAgain]

Brody in WWF always felt like a hypothetical irresistible force vs immovable object scenario. He could often be very stubborn and protective of his image and even with the idea that its his final run for big money, its hard not to imagine Brody being... well Brody causing some issues with Vince and/or Hogan.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Oct 8, 2022 20:53:21 GMT -5 BorneAgain said:

Brody in WWF always felt like a hypothetical irresistible force vs immovable object scenario. He could often be very stubborn and protective of his image and even with the idea that its his final run for big money, its hard not to imagine Brody being... well Brody causing some issues with Vince and/or Hogan.

I don’t know, even Gary Hart, who was both close with Brody and had dealt with the headaches of booking him (including a cage match with Abdullah the Butcher, who also didn’t like to do jobs) said that Brody understood the run would end with him taking the leg drop and a 3 count in the middle of the ring. Brody was pretty intelligent about how the business was going. I want to say it was Larry Matysik, Sam Muchnick’s protege in St. Louis, who said that Brody told him pretty early into Vince’s expansion that Vince would win the wrestling war and while it might not be their vision of the business, a whole generation of fans would come along thinking that Vince’s vision was what wrestling was and wouldn’t accept anything else.

I think Brody knew that his window in the States was closing. I think he was ready to work the program on top with Hogan for the big money and spend the rest of his career bouncing back and forth between Japan, where he would still be a big deal, and Puerto Rico, where he was supposed to be buying into the territory.

I don’t think it would have been a small program by Hulk standards. I can definitely see them getting a PPV or two out of it. I don’t think it would have been on the level of Andre or Savage, but it would have drawn a ton of money and been remembered fondly.

[XIII]

Brody would never do anything to jeopardize a big payday, his main issue was with small time promoters that were trying to take advantage of the wrestlers with shit pay/promises. Not to say that everything that he ever did was justified, but he knew the score when it came to Hogan and the WWF. He’d come in and get a big payday, ultimately lose and then he’d be gone again,

I could see him coming in right after WM 5 as Hogan’s next challenger, maybe not do the Zeus stuff or at least shorten it significantly. Brody/Hogan at SummerSlam and as part of a Survivor Series team. Maybe he’s in the Rumble and then probably back to Japan.

[GodzillaIsMyMonster]

Yea. Brody understood his place so to speak.

He would have had a SNME against one of the over mid card baby faces, like a Tito or Hacksaw.

A ppv or two with Hogan.

Would be awesome.

[hassanchop]

The only thing that could go wrong would be if Vince doesn’t honor whatever word he keeps to Brody, and he pulls a Nailz on him before Nailz. And Brody just uses that as leverage to go to Japan or Puerto Rico.

[tafkaga]

Wasn't Brody's size pretty grossly exaggerated in the territories? I'm picturing him looking rather tiny standing next to Hogan.

[dirtyoldman]

Could Brody have worked as a new opponent for champion Warrior which was something Warrior really needed?

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Oct 9, 2022 10:48:36 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

Wasn't Brody's size pretty grossly exaggerated in the territories? I'm picturing him looking rather tiny standing next to Hogan.

He was billed at 6’8” but looking at him standing next to Stan Hansen, I’d put him closer to 6’5” or 6’6”.

So, not tiny by any means but not quite as big as billed.

[sungod2020]

Oct 9, 2022 11:16:57 GMT -5 dirtyoldman said:

Could Brody have worked as a new opponent for champion Warrior which was something Warrior really needed?

That wouldn't have sounded like a bad idea, especially since his feud with Rick Rude from a year earlier was already played out. 

[auph10imitated]

Looking at it in the respect he doesn’t die in 1988, I would have signed him in late ‘88 and debut as a monster, he wins the Royal Rumble and gets into a feud with first Rumble winner Hacksaw Jim Duggan who he beats at Wrestlemania and he faces Hogan at Summerslam (but have Savage/Hogan on the HS loop in the summer of 89)

Savage/Brody/Powers of Pain vs Hogan/Snake/Demolition at SurSer which starts a Snake vs Brody feud with Brody beating Jake at Wrestlemania 6, which is to set him up as Warriors challenger through 1990.

He feels like that big monster heel that was missing during these years which they tried with Zeus and failed, had some success with Earthquake before Undertaker coming in

[Aceorton]

I dunno. I still have a really hard time seeing Brody in the WWF maintaining anything near the mystique he had built up and doing whatever he was told to do.

Then again, if you'd asked me in 1990 if Flair would ever show up in the WWF with the world title belt, I'd have considered that unfathomable, too.

[buckethead]

Oct 9, 2022 23:18:34 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

I dunno. I still have a really hard time seeing Brody in the WWF maintaining anything near the mystique he had built up and doing whatever he was told to do.

Then again, if you'd asked me in 1990 if Flair would ever show up in the WWF with the world title belt, I'd have considered that unfathomable, too.

Also take into account how he didn't like losing... because "they'll see it in Japan".

If he's not going here to earn one last payday before retirement, it was never happening. He's not going to lose to Warrior, Jake, Hogan, or anyone else and then head to Japan.

WWF got the second rate Brody clone..who had the seal of approval by Brody himself. Were WWF fans at the time blown away?

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Oct 9, 2022 23:42:18 GMT -5 buckethead said:

Oct 9, 2022 23:18:34 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

I dunno. I still have a really hard time seeing Brody in the WWF maintaining anything near the mystique he had built up and doing whatever he was told to do.

Then again, if you'd asked me in 1990 if Flair would ever show up in the WWF with the world title belt, I'd have considered that unfathomable, too.

Also take into account how he didn't like losing... because "they'll see it in Japan".

If he's not going here to earn one last payday before retirement, it was never happening. He's not going to lose to Warrior, Jake, Hogan, or anyone else and then head to Japan.

WWF got the second rate Brody clone..who had the seal of approval by Brody himself. Were WWF fans at the time blown away?

Well, again, even people close to Brody like Gary Hart said he was ready to do business and do the job to Hogan for the kind of money it would bring, plus everything he could still make in Japan. Let’s face it, jobbing to Hogan on a PPV is pretty different from jobbing to Greg Gagne in a middling arena in Minnesota.

Also, comparing Berzerker to Brody is like comparing Renegade to Ultimate Warrior or “Nature Boy” Paul Lee to Ric Flair. Yes, there were surface similarities but that’s as far as it goes.

[auph10imitated]

I feel like a two year run with the WWF would have been all he required to keep his allure and draw in Japan. I mean someone like Andre was still a decent draw in japan after leaving the WWF in 1990, why wouldnt Brody had he wanted to carry on

Wins '89 Rumble
beats Duggan (WM5)
loses to Hogan (SS 89)
loses Survivor Series match
beats Jake Roberts (WM 6)
loses to Warrior (SS 90)

He is gone in the fall of 1990.

[XIII]

Losing to Hogan would never hurt his drawing power in Japan, if anything it would make his price higher. Hogan was god tier in Japan too.

I do think that it would have to be a Hogan program for Brody to come in, no way would he go for losing to Warrior that would probably bring out the worst of him. lol

[This Player Hating Mothman]

The whole reason you protect yourself that hard for so long is to get exactly the kind of payday that'd come with being brought in for a Hogan feud. Brody never came off as so big a mark for himself that he wouldn't understand that. Just doesn't track with what those who knew him have said about him.

[A Platypus Rave]

Oct 10, 2022 5:41:01 GMT -5 This Player Hating Mothman said:

The whole reason you protect yourself that hard for so long is to get exactly the kind of payday that'd come with being brought in for a Hogan feud. Brody never came off as so big a mark for himself that he wouldn't understand that. Just doesn't track with what those who knew him have said about him.

Yeah, from all accounts dude was well aware that Vince could provide him a massive payday working with Hogan.

the only issue I could see happening is if Vince tries to pull any of his mind trick shit with Brody, in which case Brody walks... but I'm sure Vince would also be aware of Brody's reputation and not want to piss him off.