Grappling With Tragedy: Brady Boone

Brian Damage

Grappling with Tragedy is a series of articles that deal with unfortunate, tragic incidents that have occurred throughout the history of professional wrestling. It is unlike the ‘Wrestling with Sin’ series that deals more with the seedier side of wrestling like arrests, murders and suicides. Grappling looks more at particular tragic incidents that have in some instances altered pro wrestling in some way.

Brady Boone

Dean Robert Peters was the captain of the gymnastics team for Robbinsdale High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. If that school sounds familiar, it is the same one that produced future pro wrestlers like Rick Rude, Curt Hennig, Tom Zenk and others. Like many of his fellow classmates, Peters followed them into the world of professional wrestling. Dean who stood 5 ft 10 in tall and weighed a little over 215 pounds, was considered to be small in the era of wrestling that he competed in. Despite that, Dean Peters was extremely fast and agile and stood out in the time period of the 1980’s.

Peters took the name ‘Brady Boone’ and wrestled primarily in the Pacific Northwest territory based in Portland, Oregon. He was booked as the cousin of one of the territory’s top stars…Billy Jack Haynes. After success in Oregon, Boone got an opportunity to wrestle for the World Wrestling Federation. Boone was used on the lower end of the card and was mostly seen as enhancement talent to bigger stars of the company. He would slowly move up the card a bit when the WWF booked him once again as the “cousin” of Billy Jack Haynes (who had also joined the WWF at this time) and teamed together sporadically.

Brady’s biggest push came when he was chosen to don a mask and wrestle under the gimmick of ‘Battle Kat.’ The character was Vince McMahon’s take on Tiger Mask from Japan or a luchador from Mexico. Unfortunately, Boone ran into some legal issues and was fired from the company and his gimmick was handed over to another wrestler (Bob Bradley).

Boone would continue to wrestle on the independent circuit and in Japan for All Japan Pro Wrestling before returning to the states and World Championship Wrestling. Brady was once again used primarily as enhancement talent putting over bigger stars in WCW. He would also semi recreate his Battle Kat gimmick in the WWF by wearing a mask and being called Fire Cat…The Japanese Warrior. After about a year jobbing and being used sporadically…Boone made the decision to retire from the business.

After his in ring career ended, Boone would transition to becoming a member of WCW’s referee crew. It was a way for him to still remain in the industry he loved and still be able to provide for his growing family. As a referee, Boone came up with a way to tell his wife and kids he loved and missed them while on the road and on TV. Boone told his wife that when he tugs on his ear during a match, that’ll be his sign that he’s thinking about his family.

On December 15, 1998…after a WCW taping..Boone was driving back to his home located in Odessa, Florida. During the drive, Brady’s 1995 Dodge Caravan flipped over on an elevated portion of Interstate 275 in Tampa and landed on the road below. Brady was killed in the crash. It was rumored that Boone had fallen asleep at the wheel. He left behind a wife and two small children…Jessy aged 7 and Kaley aged 6. His wedding anniversary was just five days prior to the one vehicle crash.

The following episode of WCW’s Thunder two days later…opened the show with a graphic informing viewers of his death. Friends and family of Boone said he was a good, Christian man who adored his family. He was also very active in his community and volunteering himself with local charities. Before his death, Boone was very instrumental in inspiring and helped train a young wrestler who would be known as Rob Van Dam. RVD would use many of Boone’s moves as a tribute to him. Dean ‘Brady Boone’ Peters was just 40 years old at the time of his death.