[[quoteright:185:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bad_news_brown_5476.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:185:[[CatchPhrase "Listen up, all you beer-belly sharecroppers, and you spineless cockroaches!"]]]]

Allen James Coage (October 22, 1943 – March 6, 2007) was an American Judoka and {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, best known for his work from late-[[TheSeventies 70's]] to late-[[TheNineties 90's]] as '''Bad News Allen / Bad News Brown'''. A twice Pan-American Gold medalist in UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} (1967 and 1975), he scored Bronze for U.S.A. at the Montreal '76 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames. Debuted in Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling in 1977 and made it his home for years, with the exception of an undercard run in Wrestling/{{WWE}} in 1980 and some appearances in the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance territory in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. He also competed in the Calgary, Hawaii, Bahamas and Florida territories before he returned to WWE in 1988. He left in 1990 to go back to Japan with some side trips to independent promotions in Canada, the GWF in Dallas, the UWA in Mexico, and, it would seem, anywhere except the continental U.S.

Among his in-ring achievements, he was a 4x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/canada/ab/stampede/ab-na-h.html Stampede North American Heavyweight Champion]], a 3x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/ca/s/hw/ams-t.html NWA Americas (Los Angeles) Tag Team Champion]] (1x w[=/=]Leroy Brown and 2x w[=/=]Victor Rivera) and a 1x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/fl/nwa/fl-south-h.html NWA Southern (Florida) Heavyweight Champion]]. He's also member of the Black Belt Magazine Hall of Fame and Canadian Wrestling Hall of Fame.

He retired from active competition in 1998 and tried his hand as commentator for a while in Canada, then he went back to the States where he became instructor on wrestling and judo. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2005, and died of a heart attack on March 6, 2007.
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!! "...so go tell your grandmother, your three legged dog and that ugly gold fish you got, these tropes are Bad News!":
* AFriendInNeed:
** After seeing how the older Hart brothers (not Owen or Bret) were mistreating Wrestling/ChrisBenoit in Stampede Wrestling, Bad News called Inoki to make a place for Benoit in New Japan Dojo. The rest is history.
** While in the New Japan Dojo, Wrestling/AkiraMaeda was often bullied by other students due to his Korean ancestry, until one day, after seeing him bullied by other students, Bad News told him to fight back without doubt the next time he was harassed. He indeed took it for the rest of his career.
** The Dynamite Kid story below.
* ArchEnemy: The Mongolian Stomper, Wrestling/HonkyTonkMan, [[Wrestling/RoddyPiper "Rowdy" Roddy Piper]], [[Wrestling/RandySavage "Macho Man" Randy Savage]], [[Wrestling/JakeRoberts Jake "The Snake" Roberts]], Wrestling/LexLuger. That said, he is the second example in the folder for Pro Wrestling on the page for HatesEveryoneEqually.
** TheRival: For reasons known only by them both, the term Wrestling/BretHart uses to call him whenever Bad News comes to The Hitman's mind is '''"His Nemesis"'''.
* ArtisticLicenceBiology: It was clear that what Bad News dumped in a trash can for "not being big and mean enough" to fight against Damien in a promo for his incoming match against Jake the Snake it wasn't a "Ghetto Rat", but a quite pissed off opossum.
** Regarding this same promo, some people accused him and WWF of ArtisticLicenceAnimalCare, but it wasn't the case, Bad News really didn't bumped the li'l critter nor let it fall head-first into the bin.
* BadassTeacher: One of his trainees is Wrestling/JinderMahal. He also had a hand in training American UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} and jujitsu legend John Saylor, founder of the Shingitai Jujitsu Association.
* BaldOfEvil: ...um "Smooth-Top Tweener" ...maybe?
* BashBrothers: [[{{Irony}} Ironically]] with Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher, Gerry Morrow, SD Jones and [[Wrestling/{{Yokozuna}} Kokina Maximus]].
* BreakTheCutie[=/=]WouldHitAGirl: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. He never struck Wrestling/MissElizabeth per se... but more than once he shoved her right into Randy Savage during his feud with the Macho Man over the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWF World Championship]].
** Possibly his most fiendish acts ever were having used an old tactic on Savage's arsenal, grabbing Liz and hiding behind her when the opponent was chasing him ... but Bad News took things a step farther, he implied that she was providing favors for [[{{Kayfabe}} WWF President]] Jack Tunney in order to keep him from getting shots at Savage's strap, which stung just as hard or worse. Those tactics earned him a special place on The Mach's hate list and a series of street fights in which Brown was [[NoHoldsBarredBeatDown badly beaten]].
* BrooklynRage: Billed from Harlem, but he hailed from St. Alban, Queens actually.
* BullyingADragon:
** A popular story tells that Bad News stood up to Wrestling/AndreTheGiant when Andre apparently cracked a racist joke with Brown in earshot. Andre not only backed down, he never told another joke like that again (at least not with Bad News around). Ironically, Allen later commented that he was not sure if he could really take on Andre in a brawl, but he was nonetheless willing to try because his honor (and by extension all the black people's) was on the line.
** Another story tells that Bad News's friend, the equally badass Wrestling/DynamiteKid, got jumped by the Rougeau (Wrestling/{{Jacques|Rougeau}} and Raymond) Brothers backstage at a WWF event in the 80's. As soon as Bad News saw what was happening, he went after the Rougeau Brothers, and even at a 2 on 1 advantage and sporting brass knuckles, they were terrified to mix it up with Bad News and ran away. It should be noted that this story is told differently by everyone who had not come from Stampede, as according to others, Raymond wasn't there at all, and Dynamite Kid had been using Raymond's absence to relentlessly bully Jacques (Raymond being a noted tough guy who'd been Jacques' protector in the locker room). Dynamite had even broken Jacques' jaw, and Jacques finally had enough and beat Dynamite with a roll of quarters (not brass knucks).
** Then another story tells how the three Guerrero brothers, Héctor, Chavo Sr. and Mando, confronted Coage in a locker room in New Japan Pro Wrestling to complain about how he worked too stiff with them. Allen apologized, but they would have none of it and decided to attack him, only for Coage to wipe the floor clean with the three men. Supposedly, Wrestling/ChavoGuerreroJr [[WorthyOpponent became a personal fan of Coage]] after hearing this story from his relatives, and warned all the other wrestlers in the WWF to never mess with Coage if they wanted to live.
* CatchPhrase: The phrases he used to [[BookEnds start and finish]] his promos:
** "Lemme tell you beer-bellied share-croppers/spineless cockroaches one thing...!!!"
** "...so go tell your grandmother, your three legged dog and that ugly gold fish you got, this is Bad News!!!"
* DarkAndTroubledPast: At 15 he used to hang around with a local gang and he even spent half of a month in a youth house in detention. Seeing the conditions many of his then friends would end up in leaded him to abandon that life and started to practice judo.
* TheDreaded: Possibly and in the same vein of Wrestling/HarleyRace, Wrestling/{{Meng}} and Wrestling/RickRude, one of the most feared and legit [=BAMF=]'s ever in pro wrestling.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: While he was in the WWF for a couple of years at the time, his gimmick was perfectly summed up in the commentary of Wrestlemania V during his entrance:
-->'''Wrestling/JesseVentura''': Look at that, he don't want no friends, he don't NEED no friends.
-->'''Wrestling/GorillaMonsoon''': He doesn't have any friends....
-->'''Ventura''': Yeah, and he's happy that way, look at how happy he looks. (Bad News scowling and swatting away the fans)
* FashionableAsymmetry: He sported one glove on his right hand.
* FinishingMove: ''The Ghetto Blaster'' (Lateral Gamengiri, often called wrongly an Enzuigiri[[note]]A proper enzuigiri takes a step on a kneeling opponent's knee/midsection/shoulder or is assisted by "Leg-feed". The Gamengiri is a twisting one-leg drop kick aiming to a side of the head[[/note]]).
* HiddenDepths: Second American ever to win an olympic medal in judo, using his fame and name in order to advise and help youngsters from troubled NY ´hoods to change their minds and hearts whenever he could.
* IHaveManyNames: "Big" Allen Coage, "Bad News Allen/Brown" (of course), in Mexico he was known as "Buffalo Allen".
* IKnowKarate: Or UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}; he tied for the Bronze at the 1976 Olympics. He also trained UsefulNotes/{{Aikido}}.
* IWorkAlone: His whole gimmick in WWE was a misanthropic loner who hated everybody. This was less so everywhere else, as noted above, he was a 3x tag team champion in Los Angeles and he teamed regularly in Japan and Mexico.
* JiveTurkey: Obviously a Kayfabe-only gimmick quirk. He delivered his words in a slow and proper pace as shown when he was commentator in the ill-fated '99 "Stampede" revival and many interviews after.
* LastOfHisKind: He was the last [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/bah/bah-h.html NWA Bahamas Heavyweight Champion]], since he won it in December 1986 and it was retired in 1987.
* LegacyCharacter[=/=]SpiritualSuccessor: Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin has a lot of similar traits to Bad News: Black trunks, bald, goatee, a big mouth that could be backed up, not getting along with anybody, heel or face and an absolute contempt against authority figures.
* NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught: ''Wrestling/RoyalRumble '90'', just right after being eliminated by Wrestling/RoddyPiper, Brown (Standing on the apron) took Piper out over the top-rope. A discussion with the referees was ensured, then Brown and Piper went to a vicious bunkhouse brawl that took them up to the aisle, and continued all the way to the locker rooms. Piper was ''still legal'' by then, but he didn't returned, eliminating himself; effectively. In a sense it was a very effective use of the BatmanGambit and WrestlingPsychology tropes by Bad News, because ''it worked out for him pretty well!''
* JustForFun/OneMarioLimit: He used the RedBaron "The Ultimate Warrior" prior to coming to WWE as Bad News Brown. However, it goes without saying that nowadays the name "The Ultimate Warrior" conjures up [[Wrestling/UltimateWarrior one image]], and it's ''not'' a badass black martial artist from Harlem, NY, or even a 1975 Creator/YulBrynner movie. It's the wrestler whose birth name was Jim Hellwig.
* PowerStable:
** (in Stampede): Foley's[[note]]Led by JR Foley, real name John Foley, no relation to those [[Wrestling/JimRoss other]] [[Wrestling/MickFoley guys]][[/note]] Army
** (in Florida): [[Wrestling/SirOliverHumperdink The House of Humperdink]]
* RedBaron: "The Ultimate Warrior" (as said above), while in Japan, "Kuroi Osuushi" (黒雄牛,"The Black Bull").
* RunningGag: His loner personality made him a liability to Survivor Series partners. He walked out on his team twice, in 1988 and 1989.
* ScaryBlackMan: And how! Somewhat implied in his interviews, though never expressed outright.
** This was ''technically'' his WWE gimmick, as highlighted by that nickname of his. He was just as scary in real life, as several of these other tropes in here will show you.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Abandoned his teammates in both of his ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries'' matches (1988 and 1989), getting himself counted out.
* SexForServices: What Brown accused WWF President Jack Tunney and Miss Elizabeth of doing to keep him from wrestling Randy Savage for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Randy made Brown regret his words.
* ShoutOut: Used a variant of the enzuigiri as a finisher to honor his wrestling mentor, Wrestling/AntonioInoki.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The proper pronunciation of his surname is "Coe-Ash".
* StoutStrength: Not a very muscular frame, considering his height was in late-80's and had a noticeably big bread basket. Nevertheless a former Judo Olympic medalist and Aikido practitioneer obviously has an upper hand even in the most threatening situations.
* TermsOfEndangerment: "Beer-bellied share-croppers" and "Spineless cockroaches."
* YouDirtyRat: Carried a big, rabid one around in 1990 to counter Jake Roberts' snake Damien.