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PWInsider.com is saddened to confirm the passing of former NWA President Howard Brody earlier today. Brody had recently undergone a quadruple bypass surgery and unfortunately caught an infection while during the aftermath of the surgery.
Over the course of his time in professional wrestling, Brody promoted numerous shows in the United States and internationally. He headed the Ring Warriors promotion and TV series alongside the late Hiro Matsuda, nearly bringing New Japan Pro Wrestling to Saturday morning TV syndication in the United States. He made international distribution deals that allowed Jim Cornette to close Smoky Mountain Wrestling in the black. His Ring Warriors show was among the first Internet shows available to be downloaded and viewed, well ahead of the technology that would make streaming commonplace today.
Brody was the first promoter to bring professional wrestling internationally to China under the MACW banner in 2003 and was among the first to bring ECW (Dory and Marti Funk being the others) to Florida when that promotion was starting to expand. This wasn't known to many, but Howard was also the point person for Carlos Colon to sell the WWC/Puerto Rico library to WWE several years ago.
These are only a few of his accomplishments, as he was something of a real-life Forest Gump in and around professional wrestling, crossing paths with everyone from Vince McMahon to Antonio Inoki to ECW and beyond.
Brody held the post of NWA President from 1996 through 2001, bringing that brand back from near extinction via an agreement to allow WWF the usage of the name, initials and for Jeff Jarrett and others to appear as NWA personalities for a short time on WWF Monday Night Raw. While the storyline and use quickly fizzled out on WWF programming, it was a HUGE boon to the NWA, which suddenly had a surge of interest from promoters wanting to be official members.
Most importantly, Brody pnned one of the most underrated books in wrestling history, Swimming with Piranhas: Surviving the Politics of Professional Wrestling, which I highly suggest. The book was extremely personal and important to Brody after he co-authored Dusty Rhodes' autobiography and when that book wasn't 100% embraced, Brody took it very personal and poured a ton into his follow-up, wanting to prove himself as a writer. He nailed that accomplishment with flying colors.
Howard was always one of the truly good guys in professional wrestling, who chased his own dreams and in doing so, helped lots of others to get opportunities and indeed, in some cases, make a good amount of money for themselves. Howard was a friend and will be greatly missed. I enjoyed every single conversation I ever had with him and with his passing, an important piece of independent professional wrestling history goes with him. There is zero argument Howard had a huge place in his heart and soul for professional wrestling and today, the business will be far emptier than it was with him around.
Our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Howard Brody.
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