In the mid-2010s, Beer City Bruiser burst onto the Ring of Honor scene with a beer keg over his shoulder and quickly became a fan favorite. While the big man never held gold in ROH, he did form memorable tag teams with his fellow Milwaukee native Silas Young and Brian Milonas, who were dubbed The Bouncers. Unfortunately, early in his tenure with ROH, the former ROH Tag Wars winner was told he would need hip replacement surgery, which he worked through for years and ultimately put off until just recently.
In an exclusive Haus of Wrestling interview, I asked Bruiser if his injury played a role in him not re-signing with Ring of Honor after Tony Khan bought the promotion early last year.
“It factored into it,” he confirmed. “I had conversations with QT, Christopher Daniels, I’d met Tony a couple of times, and I had conversations with them. They brought Brian (Milonas) in for a couple of things, and my name came up, and The Bouncers came up, and we kind of left it at, ‘Hey, get your hip fixed, and let’s see where you’re at after that.’ That’s how it was because I was talking to WWE, too. They had said the same thing, ‘Get your hip fixed, and let’s see where you’re at.'”
Bruiser noted that he feels he has had a very full pro wrestling career, knocking many items off his bucket list in the process. Paramount to all those accomplishments may be his performance in the Honor Rumble at ROH x NJPW: G1 Supercard event that took place at Madison Square Garden in 2019. With that in mind, he is keeping his options open when it comes to finding outside-of-the-ring opportunities in the business.
“I’ve gotten a lot of positive vibes from major companies because, and I think it’s because I was honest, right off the bat, ‘Hey, I’m old, for one, I’m getting older. For two, I have this injury, but my brain is still there,'” he laughed. “You know what I mean? Arn Anderson, when he stopped, the first thing he did was go backstage. I’ve gotten to know Arn since moving to North Carolina, and he’s actually helped me a lot to make that transition from thinking as a wrestler to thinking as an agent or a producer.”
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