Former NWA President Howard Brody Passes Away

Howard Brody, who served as the president of the NWA in the mid-to-late 1990s, has passed away. PWInsider reports that Brody passed from an infection stemming from the aftermath of a quadruple bypass surgery that he recently underwent.

Brody was heavily involved in wrestling for years, but he is perhaps most well known for running the NWA from 1996 through 2001. He was president of the organization during its extremely down period when it was on the verge of dying and kept it going, including brokering a deal with WWE to allow the usage of the name and likeness so that Jeff Jarrett, Jim Cornette and the New Midnight Express could do an NWA invasion-style storyline on Raw. The storyline didn’t last long but led to a revival of interest in the NWA and kept it alive.

In addition to his involvement in the NWA, Brody was involved in Ring Warriors along with Hiro Matsuda which almost brought NJPW to syndication in America. He worked with Herb Abrams’ famously short-lived UWF as well as Wild Women of Wrestling, and wrote a couple of books including the 2009 book Swimming with Piranhas: Surviving the Politics of Professional Wrestling and a co-authoring credit on Dusty Rhodes’ autobiography.

On behalf of 411, our condolences to the family, friends, and fans of Mr. Brody. He will be missed.