Every era of pro wrestling has its share of underrated midcarders that never quite got the push they deserved, and who fans now look back fondly on. For the Attitude Era of WWE, many fans consider one such undervalued performer to be D’Lo Brown, who spent 1997 to 2003 wrestling for the company.
Fans can still see Brown today from time to time on Impact Wrestling, but it’s likely many don’t know as much about him as they should. Let’s take a look at the career of D’Lo Brown and what fans should know about him, including why he’s the greatest European Champion of all time.
10 Originally A Member Of The Gangstas
Originally a certified public accountant, D’Lo Brown started his pro wrestling career in 1994, wrestling on the indies and a squash match against Earthquake in WWE before getting his first exposure in Jim Cornette’s Tennessee-based Smoky Mountain Wrestling. There, he was grouped with the controversial group The Gangstas — New Jack and Mustafa Saed — as their security guard, billed as “Downtown” D’Lo Brown, adopting the name that he would use for the rest of his career. The stint would be short-lived, however, as the Gangastas moved on to ECW and Brown signed to WWE.
9 Part Of The Nation Of Domination
After training in developmental and wrestling in Puerto Rico, D’Lo Brown began to appear on WWE television in 1997 as part of the Nation of Domination faction, first appearing as a background character. It wouldn’t be long before Brown began competing in the ring as part of the Nation, and, along with leader Faarooq, would be the only original members of the group to be part of the groups’ arguably most successful lineup, which included The Godfather, Mark Henry, and The Rock.
8 The Origin Of His Chest Protector
Fans remember two main things about D’Lo Brown: that bobblehead thing he did with his neck during his entrance, and the fact that he wore a chest protector in the ring, not unlike Roman Reigns about 15 years later. However, he didn’t start out wrestling with the chest protector.
While the stated reason for the chest protector was to deal with a chest injury he got during a match with Dan Severn, D’Lo Brown certainly used it to give himself an edge in the ring, as his finisher the Lo Down was a frog splash.
7 A Double Champion In WWE
In July of 1998, D’Lo Brown scored his first singles title, defeating Triple H to capture the European Championship. After feuding with X-Pac over the belt and trading it a couple of times, Brown ended up becoming a double champion after he beat Jeff Jarrett in a winner-take-all match for the Intercontinental Title and the European Title. Brown also gained Jarrett’s valet Debra in the process, leading to a match for both belts at SummerSlam, which D’Lo lost after being betrayed by Debra and Mark Henry. Jarrett gave Mark Henry the European Title for his help, but D’Lo Brown would win the belt back at Unforgiven, and ultimately become a four-time European Champion in his career.
6 Incident With Droz
D’Lo Brown’s wrestling career does feature one unfortunate moment that resulted in the end of an opponent’s career. At an October 1999 SmackDown taping, Brown was taking on Droz — a.k.a. Darren Drozdov a former football player and would-be Legion of Doom member who was only a couple of years into his career — when a running powerbomb went wrong, reportedly thanks to Droz’s baggy clothing. The botch caused to Droz land on his head, not only ending his career but also becoming a quadriplegic. Brown claimed responsibility for the unfortunate accident, while Droz himself reportedly holds no ill will toward D’Lo for the accident.
5 Lo Down
In the Summer of 2000, D’Lo Brown teamed up with Chaz — the former Headbanger Mosh — forming the duo known as Lo Down. A strictly undercard team, Lo Down wrestled on the minor WWE shows and gained Tiger Ali Singh as their manager, which resulted in them changing their look to a Sikh aesthetic to match Singh. Lo Down had a couple of shots at the World Tag Team Championship before Singh got injured, he and Mosh got released, and D’Lo was sent back to developmental.
4 Member Of Thuggin’ & Buggin’ Enterprises
Following stints in Puerto Rico and in WWE’s developmental territories of Ohio Valley Wrestling and the Heartland Wrestling Association, D’Lo Brown quietly returned to WWE television in 2002, once again wrestling on minor shows. Later that year, he gained a manager in former referee Teddy Long, which soon turned into a full-on stable, Thuggin’ & Buggin’ Enterprises
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However, D’Lo Brown’s run with the group would end in early 2003, as Teddy Long himself would kick Brown out of the group to replace him with Rodney Mack.
3 Impact Wrestling Run
A month after being released from WWE in February 2003, D’Lo Brown debuted in Impact Wrestling, where he first teamed up with AJ Styles to go after the NWA World Tag Team Titles. When that didn’t work, he challenged Styles for the NWA World Heavyweight Title, tying up in a Best of Three series before Styles ultimately beat Brown in a steel cage match. It wouldn’t be until April 2004 that Brown would finally capture gold in the Impact Zone, winning the Tag Team belts with Gran Apolo, though their reign would only last about a week.
2 Wrestled In Japan
After leaving Impact Wrestling in 2004, D’Lo Brown found his way to Japan, where he spent about a year in All Japan Pro Wrestling as a member of the factions Roughly Obsess And Destroy and Voodoo Murder and wrestled__who. While he was a midcard tag team guy in AJPW tours, he found more success in Pro Wrestling NOAH, where he teamed with fellow WWE alum Bull Buchanan and won a tournament to capture the vacant GHC Tag Team Championship, defeating Akira Taue and Go Shiozaki. This reign would also last only a week and end at the hands of Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura.
1 Impact Wrestling Color Commentator
D’Lo Brown enjoyed two more runs in Impact Wrestling. The first not only had him working backstage as an producer, but also on-screen as a member of the Aces & Eights faction. In 2019, he returned to the company once again in a backstage capacity while also doing color commentary alongside Matt Striker for Impact broadcasts in a stint that lasted about a year. In 2022, he once again donned the Aces & Eights cutte, for a couple of appearances to celebrate Impact’s 20th anniversary, including staging a run-in during a match at Slammiversary.