Allen James Coage (October 22, 1943 – March 6, 2007) was an American Judoka and Professional Wrestler from New York City, best known for his work from late-70's to late-90's as Bad News Allen / Bad News Brown. A twice Pan-American Gold medalist in Judo (1967 and 1975), he scored Bronze for U.S.A. at the Montreal '76 Olympic Games. Debuted in New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1977 and made it his home for years, with the exception of an undercard run in WWE in 1980 and some appearances in the National Wrestling Alliance territory in Los Angeles. 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 Stampede North American Heavyweight Champion
, a 3x NWA Americas (Los Angeles) Tag Team Champion (1x w/Leroy Brown and 2x w/Victor Rivera) and a 1x 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.
"...so go tell your grandmother, your three legged dog and that ugly gold fish you got, these tropes are Bad News!":
- A Friend in Need:
- After seeing how the older Hart brothers (not Owen or Bret) were mistreating Chris Benoit 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, Akira Maeda 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.
- Arch-Enemy: The Mongolian Stomper, Honky Tonk Man, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Lex Luger. That said, he is the second example in the folder for Pro Wrestling on the page for Hates Everyone Equally.
- Artistic Licence – Biology: 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 Artistic Licence Animal Care, 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.
- Badass Teacher: One of his trainees is Jinder Mahal. He also had a hand in training American Judo and jujitsu legend John Saylor, founder of the Shingitai Jujitsu Association.
- Bald of Evil: ...um "Smooth-Top Tweener" ...maybe?
- Bash Brothers: Ironically with Abdullah the Butcher, Gerry Morrow, SD Jones and Kokina Maximus.
- Break the Cutie/Would Hit a Girl: Downplayed. He never struck Miss Elizabeth per se... but more than once he shoved her right into Randy Savage during his feud with the Macho Man over the 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 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 badly beaten.
- Brooklyn Rage: Billed from Harlem, but he hailed from St. Alban, Queens actually.
- Bullying a Dragon:
- A popular story tells that Bad News stood up to André the Giant 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 Dynamite Kid, got jumped by the Rougeau (Jacques 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, Chavo Guerrero Jr. 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 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!!!"
- Dark and Troubled Past: 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.
- The Dreaded: Possibly and in the same vein of Harley Race, Meng and Rick Rude, one of the most feared and legit BAMF's ever in pro wrestling.
- Establishing Character Moment: 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:Jesse Ventura: Look at that, he don't want no friends, he don't NEED no friends.Gorilla Monsoon: 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)
- Fashionable Asymmetry: He sported one glove on his right hand.
- Finishing Move: The Ghetto Blaster (Lateral Gamengiri, often called wrongly an Enzuigirinote ).
- Hidden Depths: 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.
- I Have Many Names: "Big" Allen Coage, "Bad News Allen/Brown" (of course), in Mexico he was known as "Buffalo Allen".
- I Know Karate: Or Judo; he tied for the Bronze at the 1976 Olympics. He also trained Aikido.
- I Work Alone: 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.
- Jive Turkey: 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.
- Last of His Kind: He was the last NWA Bahamas Heavyweight Champion, since he won it in December 1986 and it was retired in 1987.
- Legacy Character/
Spiritual Successor: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin 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. - Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Royal Rumble '90, just right after being eliminated by Roddy Piper, 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 Batman Gambit and Wrestling Psychology tropes by Bad News, because it worked out for him pretty well!
- One-Mario Limit: He used the Red Baron "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 one image, and it's not a badass black martial artist from Harlem, NY, or even a 1975 Yul Brynner movie. It's the wrestler whose birth name was Jim Hellwig.
- Power Stable:
- (in Stampede): Foley'snote Army
- (in Florida): The House of Humperdink
- Red Baron: "The Ultimate Warrior" (as said above), while in Japan, "Kuroi Osuushi" (黒雄牛,"The Black Bull").
- Running Gag: His loner personality made him a liability to Survivor Series partners. He walked out on his team twice, in 1988 and 1989.
- Scary Black Man: 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.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Abandoned his teammates in both of his Survivor Series matches (1988 and 1989), getting himself counted out.
- Sex for Services: 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.
- Shout-Out: Used a variant of the enzuigiri as a finisher to honor his wrestling mentor, Antonio Inoki.
- Spell My Name With An S: The proper pronunciation of his surname is "Coe-Ash".
- Stout Strength: 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.
- Terms of Endangerment: "Beer-bellied share-croppers" and "Spineless cockroaches."
- You Dirty Rat!: Carried a big, rabid one around in 1990 to counter Jake Roberts' snake Damien.
