In the genre of tag team wrestling, Jim Brunzell is one of the best and most skilled. Popularizing himself in the American Wrestling Association with partner Greg Gagne as the High Flyers, the team would win the championships on two different occasions, with one of them lasting over a year.
His fame as a tag team star led to his acquisition by the WWE and Vince McMahon. In the WWE, he would team with Brian Blair and become known as the Killer Bees. While the tag team did not achieve tag team championship success, they were very popular in the mid-late eighties, being a staple fan favorite team.
Unfortunately, Brunzell would flounder in the midcard level, leave, come back as a WWE Raw enhancement talent in 1993, and then quit the company. Brunzell would quit the profession altogether in 1999, after nearly 30 years in the business.
Brunzell would become a buzzworthy name in professional wrestling again this year. Only this time, due to being a member of a class action lawsuit filed towards WWE in July. On a recent episode of the Pancakes and Powerslams Show, Brunzell explained why he decided to include himself in the case, specifically after remembering an incident that happened against the Barbarian.
“There was a point in the middle eighties, toward the end there, I worked in Salt Lake City, and I was working against the Barbarian. His finish was a high leg kick coming off the ropes, and he comes flying off the ropes and hit me in the chin and I slammed the back of my head on the mat. I was out. They had to help me in the locker room, I just couldn’t get my bearings. So, for two days, I was sort of nauseated and dizzy, and you know what, I told the guy, and the agents said I still had to wrestle every night. Then, I was in [Los Angeles], and this doctor (Ungar, I believe), was examining me. I told him, I don’t feel too good, I took a bump on the back of my head in Salt Lake City three nights ago. He looked at me and said, ‘Jim. You can’t wrestle. You have a third degree concussion.’
“So, I can’t remember who the agent was who said, ‘He has to work tonight, because we have no substitute.’ We went over and I was working with Hercules, Ray Fernandez, and the doctor told him, ‘The only way that I will let Jim wrestle tonight is if you don’t hit him in the head, slam him, or – in any way – kick him in the head.’ We agreed and had a pretty decent match, and he got disqualified. But, the reason why I did that, was because there [was] no thought in head injuries during that early time of the [WWE]. And what this lawsuit is trying to get is money from the WWE to put it in a pool to compensate for these guys that might have early dementia, and it’s the same lawsuit that got the four billion dollars from the NFL.”
The lawsuit includes fifty other former WWE names, and Brunzell stated that it was led by the same company that won a four billion dollar lawsuit filed against the NFL.
