Former NWA president Howard Brody passes away

Former NWA president Howard Brody passed away on Wednesday due to an infection following quadruple bypass surgery.

The news was first reported by PWInsider who also noted last week that Brody was in rough shape following the surgery.

Brody was NWA president from 1996-2001, notably signing an agreement with the then-WWF to have Jeff Jarrett, Jim Cornette and the new Midnight Express as NWA talents on Monday Night Raw in a short-lived invasion-esque storyline.

Brody was a promoter both in the U.S. and overseas with the Ring Warriors promotion and TV show with the late Hiro Matsuda in an attempt to promote NJPW in the U.S. PWInsider noted that the show was among the first to be downloadable and streamable online.

Other accomplishments as noted by Mike Johnson and John Pollock:

• Brody made international distribution deals for Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling that allowed Cornette to close as a profitable business.
• Brody was the first promoter to bring wrestling (MACW) to China in 2003.
• He was among the first to bring ECW to Florida when the company began to expand.
• He was the point person for the sale of the Puerto Rico-based WWC library to WWE.
• He was the author of 2009's "Swimming With Piranhas: Surviving The Politics of Professional Wrestling" and also co-authored Dusty Rhodes' autobiography.
• He freelanced for both WWF Magazine and the Gold Belt Wrestling magazine.
• He also helped promote the UWF and Wild Women of Wrestling.