I grew up on pro wrestling in the 80’s and still love the pageantry and how the whole show works. Bruiser Brody has always been a favorite. Here is my attempt to capture some of the epic awesome madness of Brody, who wrestled frequently in Japan before being stabbed to death in a locker room in Puerto Rico. In Japan he would enter the arena to Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song and would swing a huge chain around and stomp through the crowd as fans scattered as though Godzilla himself was on a rampage.
Daniel Bryan and Shinsuke Nakamura: Artwork by Danny Kelly.
Ring the bell! Let’s get this blog going!
I’ve been told by my parents that when I was a wee toddler, I’d snap to attention whenever wrestling came on the TV. I don’t know what it was about the sight of over-sized men grunting and groaning as they pounded away on each that appealed to my unformed mind, but I’ve been hooked on it ever since.
Speaking of those early days, I always had a mental image of seeing a hulking brute wearing antlers. Until 2002, I was pretty sure I had dreamed it up. In 2002, I read an obituary for one “Moose” Cholak. The obit had a photograph.
Holy Foley! It wasn’t a dream! Actually, I wonder if Moose didn’t give Toddler Angelo a few nightmares.
Back to the present. This blog will be a tag team affair. Danny Kelly is a New Jersey-based artist who loves wrestling as much as I do, IF NOT MORE. So he’ll be tagging in with his own posts. Even better, he does a lot of wrestling-themed art. So there will be a lot of pretty pictures here, including the one posted at the top here.
