Joseph Hudson, best known to professional wrestling fans as Josephus in the Billy Corgan era of The National Wrestling Alliance, passed away yesterday following a medical episode. Dutch Mantel tweeted that it was believed Hudson passed after either a stroke or an aneurysm.
NWA President Billy Corgan paid tribute to Hudson tonight, writing the following on his Instagram account - “It’s with a heavy heart that I share that my friend and brother in wrestling, Joseph Hudson, has passed away suddenly from an as-yet undiagnosed medical issue. NWA fans would know him as Jocephus as well as The Question Mark; where thanks to the great fans at GPB Studios in Atlanta, Joseph was able to receive the kind of support in the ring he’d always dreamt of. He is survived by a young son whom he loved dearly, and if anything would pain him about leaving this Earth it would be not being able to be there for his boy. RIP Joseph, love to you and Godspeed”
Hudson initially debuted in 2009 as Jocephus Brody, obviously a tribute to the late Bruiser Brody, and worked a number of the independent promotions that ran his hometown of Nashville, TN on a regular basis, including the USWO, SAW and beyond working with legends like Mantel, Tony Falk and Wolfie D.
In 2011, he held the USWO title for a time, defeating Raven for the championship. During the same time period, he began working for Resistance Pro in Chicago, where he likely first crossed paths with Corgan.
In 2016, Hudson worked a number of events promoted by Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling promotion, working with Jarrett, Crimson and others, even appearing against Chris Sabin on a 2016 One Night Only Victory Road PPV.
After Corgan acquired the National Wrestling Alliance, Hudson dropped the Brody surname and was a regular for the promotion as Jocephus, an evil cult leader who initially feuded with then-NWA Champion Tim Storm. That feud that spilled over into Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and culminated with an empty arena match taped at Universal Studios Orlando before an Impact TV Taping.
Jocephus later had a short NWA storyline with David Arquette culminating in Joseph having his head shaved in Nashville, clips of which popped up in the You Cannot Kill David Arquette documentary.
Behind the scenes of the promotion, Joseph assisted in editing of video segments that aired on NWA Power episodes, the weekly YouTube series designed to showcase the old territory era studio wrestling show for a 21st century audience with a hint of levity with some of the undercard characters and commercial vignettes. The intimate nature of the tapings in Atlanta were infectious to watch with Josephus appearing initially under his usual wrestling name before disappearing and being replaced by the masked Question Mark.
For whatever reason, the character became a cult hit on the series thanks to the audience reaction and was quickly married to Aron Stevens, who was playing an obnoxious Hollywood star who had mastered the rare (fictional) martial art of Mongrovian Karate under his mysterious masked senses The Question Mark.
The pair had some fun comedy timing and were pretty entertaining on the series as a team. For Joseph, it became the first time that he was part of an act that clicked and truly became part of the DNA of a promotional consistently beyond a local level. He and Stevens had a short feud with Trevor Murdoch that helped build the NWA TV Title tournament and had the COVID pandemic not forced the NWA to pause, certainly the duo would have been an important part of the roster for a planned house show tour in major markets.
It is believed Joseph’s final match was the January 2020 NWA taping in Atlanta, where he and Stevens teamed in a loss to The Rock N’ Roll Express. To the best of my knowledge, he had not wrestled since the COVID-19 pandemic had taken hold.
Joseph also portrayed Bruiser Brody on the debut episode of ViceTV's Dark Side of the Ring, taking part in reenactments of Brody’s life.
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