The Career

Born José Rodriguez in New York City, “The Unpredictable” Johnny Rodz came up through Antonino “Argentina” Rocca’s school in the 1960s — one of the same lineages that produced an entire generation of Latino professional wrestlers in the New York territory.

He spent nearly two decades on the World Wide Wrestling Federation / WWF roster, wrestling out of Madison Square Garden through the ’70s and into the mid-’80s. He shared the ring with Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, Pat Patterson, Tony Garea, Pedro Morales, Andre the Giant and most of the era’s headliners.

His character was simple and unforgettable: he’d do anything to win. Eye rakes, foreign objects, refusing to break a hold — anything. The “unpredictable” nickname stuck because the audience genuinely never knew what he was about to pull. He was the blueprint for the heel-with-no-rules archetype that ECW and AEW would later make the centre of the sport.

WWE Hall of Fame · 1996

Inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996 — the second class ever inducted, alongside Bobo Brazil, Ernie Ladd, Killer Kowalski and others. The induction recognised what the locker room had known for decades: that Rodz had spent his career making other people look like a million dollars, and that the business runs on people who can do exactly that.

The School at Gleason’s Gym

After hanging up the boots, Rodz turned full-time to training. He set up at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn — 130 Water Street, under the Brooklyn Bridge — the most storied athletic gym in the city, the same building that produced world-champion boxers for half a century.

From that ring he’s trained over 400 professional wrestlers across four decades. The list reads like a who’s-who of late-’90s/’00s pro wrestling:

• Tazz — ECW World Heavyweight Champion, WWE
• Tommy Dreamer — ECW Hall of Fame, “Innovator of Violence”
• D-Von Dudley — WWE Hall of Fame, Dudley Boyz
• Big Cass (William Morrissey) — WWE main event run
• Masha Slamovich — TNA, WWE NXT
• Vince Russo — WCW & WWE head writer
• Matt Striker — WWE commentator and wrestler
• Marti Belle, Prince Nana, Big Vito, Will Ferrara, Nicole Bass and 380+ more.

Why he matters

You can count the active full-time pro-wrestling trainers in the world on two hands. You can count the ones who are also WWE Hall of Famers on a single finger. The reason WUW alumni keep showing up on RAW, SmackDown, Dynamite and Impact isn’t because Rodz teaches a flashy moveset — it’s because he teaches the fundamentals the modern game forgot: bumping, ring psychology, story-telling, locker-room respect.

If you’re serious about wrestling for a living, this is where it starts.

Train with Johnny →   ·   See the alumni roll →