Allen James Coage (October 22, 1943 – March 6, 2007) was an https://infogalactic.com/info/United_States https://infogalactic.com/info/Professional_wrestling with the https://infogalactic.com/info/World_Wrestling_Entertainment, https://infogalactic.com/info/Stampede_Wrestling and other promotions, better known by his https://infogalactic.com/info/Ring_name Bad News Allen and Bad News Brown. He won a bronze medal in heavyweight https://infogalactic.com/info/Judo at the https://infogalactic.com/info/1976_Summer_Olympics. He remains the only American heavyweight judoka to have won an Olympic medal.
Early judo and wrestling training- Allen Coage was a US Grand Champion for Judo and received a full scholarship to the Kodokan with the help of https://infogalactic.com/info/Hank_Kraft. Prior to his training as a wrestler, Coage trained in judo for the better part of two decades, under the direction of renowned instructor Yoshisada Yonezuka, and earned a spot on the United States Olympic team at the Games in https://infogalactic.com/info/Montreal. He even trained in https://infogalactic.com/info/Japan with judoka masters, living in near poverty and continuing on solely for the love of his sport. After his bronze medal victory, Coage attempted to open his own judo school. Later, he decided to try his hand at professional wrestling. He began training with https://infogalactic.com/info/Antonio_Inoki around 1978.
New Japan Pro Wrestling, World Wide Wrestling Federation, and Stampede Wrestling (1977-1988)- After short stints with https://infogalactic.com/info/New_Japan_Pro_Wrestling and the then-https://infogalactic.com/info/World_Wrestling_Entertainment, Bad News Allen found a long-term home in https://infogalactic.com/info/Stu_Hart's https://infogalactic.com/info/Stampede_Wrestling, centered in Allen's adopted home city of https://infogalactic.com/info/Calgary. Allen remained with Stampede from 1982 until 1988, with some tours of Australia and https://infogalactic.com/info/Championship_Wrestling_from_Florida during that time, and had matches with wrestlers such as the https://infogalactic.com/info/Dynamite_Kid and https://infogalactic.com/info/Bret_Hart. He often referred to himself in interviews as "the Ultimate Warrior," a name that was later used more famously by wrestler https://infogalactic.com/info/Warrior_(wrestler).
Return to WWF (1988-1990)- Allen returned to the World Wrestling Federation in early 1988 as Bad News Brown, and it was during this time that he achieved his greatest notoriety. While the roster was mostly filled with ultra-virtuous https://infogalactic.com/info/Face_(professional_wrestling) and cowardly and monster https://infogalactic.com/info/Heel_(professional_wrestling), Bad News was something entirely different; a tough loner. While other heels were likely to form alliances with one another, Bad News was reclusive. He didn't respect anybody, and was just as likely to attack heels as faces (character traits that would later be employed to great fame by https://infogalactic.com/info/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin). His dislike for all fellow wrestlers was clear when he abandoned his teams at the https://infogalactic.com/info/Survivor_Series of https://infogalactic.com/info/Survivor_Series_(1988) and https://infogalactic.com/info/Survivor_Series_(1989). Some memorable moments from his WWF tenure included winning the https://infogalactic.com/info/Battle_royal_(professional_wrestling) at https://infogalactic.com/info/WrestleMania_IV by eliminating https://infogalactic.com/info/Bret_Hart, who was then a heel, after a sneak attack, a brief feud with then-champion https://infogalactic.com/info/Randy_Savage in early 1989 that led to main-event matches, feuding with https://infogalactic.com/info/Roddy_Piper (starting before the https://infogalactic.com/info/Royal_Rumble_(1990) and culminating at https://infogalactic.com/info/WrestleMania_VI) and with https://infogalactic.com/info/Jake_Roberts (where Bad News had a sewer rat against Jake's snake) and attacking WWF President https://infogalactic.com/info/Jack_Tunney on https://infogalactic.com/info/Bruce_Prichard#Brother_Love_Show. Bad News also had a brief run challenging https://infogalactic.com/info/Hulk_Hogan for the https://infogalactic.com/info/WWE_Championship. On the March 11, 1989 edition of https://infogalactic.com/info/Saturday_Night%27s_Main_Event Bad News memorably took a microphone towards the end of his match with Hogan and told him that it was time for the Ghetto Blaster (his finisher). As he was getting ready to execute it however, Hogan got out of the way, leading him to miss the move terribly and suffer an eventual loss. Bad News eventually left the WWF after https://infogalactic.com/info/SummerSlam_(1990), claiming https://infogalactic.com/info/Vince_McMahon failed to live up to his promise to make him the company's first black champion. The same BS that Kamala and Ahmed Johnson would say but you never hear it from Afrifican wrestlers who can draw and have a lick of talent. I remeber watching him and his matches nwere brutal. You had a run with Hulk Hogan in the Prime of wresling when they ran 3 sold out shows a night and you wrestled the popular wrestle on the planet. You never hear complaints from people with talent who are african American like Ron Simmons or Booker T , New Day, or even Koko b. Ware or Doomk. Sasha Banks?
Allen returned to the World Wrestling Federation in early 1988 as Bad News Brown, and it was during this time that he achieved his greatest notoriety. While the roster was mostly filled with ultra-virtuous https://infogalactic.com/info/Face_(professional_wrestling) and cowardly and monster https://infogalactic.com/info/Heel_(professional_wrestling), Bad News was something entirely different; a tough loner. While other heels were likely to form alliances with one another, Bad News was reclusive. He didn't respect anybody, and was just as likely to attack heels as faces (character traits that would later be employed to great fame by https://infogalactic.com/info/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin). His dislike for all fellow wrestlers was clear when he abandoned his teams at the https://infogalactic.com/info/Survivor_Series of https://infogalactic.com/info/Survivor_Series_(1988) and https://infogalactic.com/info/Survivor_Series_(1989). Some memorable moments from his WWF tenure included winning the https://infogalactic.com/info/Battle_royal_(professional_wrestling) at https://infogalactic.com/info/WrestleMania_IV by eliminating https://infogalactic.com/info/Bret_Hart, who was then a heel, after a sneak attack, a brief feud with then-champion https://infogalactic.com/info/Randy_Savage in early 1989 that led to main-event matches, feuding with https://infogalactic.com/info/Roddy_Piper (starting before the https://infogalactic.com/info/Royal_Rumble_(1990) and culminating at https://infogalactic.com/info/WrestleMania_VI) and with https://infogalactic.com/info/Jake_Roberts (where Bad News had a sewer rat against Jake's snake) and attacking WWF President https://infogalactic.com/info/Jack_Tunney on https://infogalactic.com/info/Bruce_Prichard#Brother_Love_Show. Bad News also had a brief run challenging https://infogalactic.com/info/Hulk_Hogan for the https://infogalactic.com/info/WWE_Championship. On the March 11, 1989 edition of https://infogalactic.com/info/Saturday_Night%27s_Main_Event Bad News memorably took a microphone towards the end of his match with Hogan and told him that it was time for the Ghetto Blaster (his finisher). As he was getting ready to execute it however, Hogan got out of the way, leading him to miss the move terribly and suffer an eventual loss. Bad News eventually left the WWF after https://infogalactic.com/info/SummerSlam_(1990), claiming https://infogalactic.com/info/Vince_McMahon failed to live up to his promise to make him the company's first black champion.
Allen returned to the World Wrestling Federation in early 1988 as Bad News Brown, and it was during this time that he achieved his greatest notoriety. While the roster was mostly filled with ultra-virtuous.