Leroy Brown

Roland C. Daniels (November 30, 1950 – September 6, 1988), better known by his ring name Leroy Brown, was an American professional wrestler.

He took his ring name from the Jim Croce song "Bad, Bad" Leroy Brown, which also became his theme song for many of his in-ring appearances.

He later used the ring name Elijah Akeem as he adopted a more militaristic black Muslim character, teaming with Kareem Muhammad as the Muslim Connection and later the Zambuie Express.

Brown started out his career working as a face in the south, portraying a simple, honest man who always backed up his friends.

He later portrayed a heel, acting like an arrogant, rich, self-obsessed character.

During his career, he won a number of singles championships such as the NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship and the NWA Mid-Atlantic Television Championship, as well as a number of tag team championships, teaming with Muhammad to win the NWA Florida Global Tag Team Championship, NWA United States Tag Team Championship and AWA Southern Tag Team Championships.

Daniels made his professional wrestling debut in 1977, adopting the ring name "Bad Bad" Leroy Brown, based on the Jim Croce song of the same name.

He took part in a tournament for the vacant NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship in September, his first major title opportunity, but was eliminated in the early rounds.

After this, he traveled to Texas to work for Fritz Von Erich's NWA Big Time Wrestling.

On March 31, 1978, Brown and Killer Tim Brooks defeated José Lothario and Al Madril to win the NWA Texas Tag Team Championship, Brown's first championship.

The reign only lasted a week before Brown and Brooks lost the championship to David and Kevin Von Erich.

By 1979, Leroy Brown began working in San Francisco for NWA Hollywood.

Brown teamed up with Allen Coage and together they defeated Los Guerreros (Héctor and Mando Guerrero) to win the NWA Americas Tag Team Championship.

They would later lose the belts to Mando Guerrero and Carlos Mata.

Working for NWA Hollywood also allowed Brown to travel to Japan, touring with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).

During the tour, he challenged Seiji Sakaguchi for the NWF North American Heavyweight Championship in July, but Sakaguchi retained the title by disqualification.

In his book Animal, George Steele describes Brown's problems in Japan, including how during a match, a Japanese wrestler was trying to break a bottle over Brown's head but had not prepared it properly; it took several hard blows to break the bottle.

The next day, several Japanese wrestlers watched the tape of the match over and over again, laughing at Brown's misfortune and pain.

Back in San Francisco, Brown defeated Chavo Guerrero to win the WWA Americas Heavyweight Championship, holding it for 50 days before losing it to Al Madril.

Later in the year, Brown returned to the eastern coast, competing for Championship Wrestling from Florida.

He became involved in a feud with then NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion Manny Fernandez, facing him on several occasions in January 1980.

After that, he moved onto a feud with Sweet Brown Sugar, whom he defeated to win the NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship.

He lost the title to Dusty Rhodes on February 16 in Jacksonville, Florida.

Brown eventually worked for Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling, teaming with Ernie Ladd for most of his time in Mid-South.

The two defeated Junkyard Dog and Terry Orndorff to win the Mid-South Tag Team Championship, and later traded the championship with Junkyard Dog and other partners such as Killer Karl Kox and Dick Murdoch.

In 1981, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (MACW) brought Leroy Brown as a regular worker, presenting him as a blue collar hero, wearing coveralls and a hard hat to the ring.

He showed up to help the faces take on Sgt. Slaughter and his army, backing them up whenever Slaughter's army tried to use the numbers to their advantage.

Brown and various partners such as Ricky Steamboat and Sweet Ebony Diamond challenged The Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Gene and Ole Anderson) for the Mid-Atlantic version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship.

In 1982, Brown was involved in a feud with then NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair.

The storyline started with an arm wrestling challenge laid out by Flair.

Brown won the challenge, leading to Flair demanding a rematch which Brown also won.

During a third arm wrestling challenge, Brown was attacked by Big John Studd, beating him up prior to Brown wrestling Flair for the championship at the Omni Coliseum, Georgia Championship Wrestling's venue for major shows.

Despite the attack, Brown won the match by disqualification as Flair intentionally disqualified himself to keep the championship.

Subsequently, Flair frustrated Brown at every turn, using underhanded tactics and placing a bounty on Brown to keep him away from the title.

During the feud, Flair would try to tempt Brown with fancy suits and the "jet set" lifestyle, hoping to tempt Brown to side with him.

After losing to Flair in June, Brown accepted the offer, turning heel as he became enamored with fine clothes, jewelry and fast cars.

Brown took Oliver Humperdink as his manager, becoming part of the heel group "House of Humperdink".

On November 27, Brown won a 20-man battle royal to win the vacant NWA Mid-Atlantic Television Championship, holding it for 28 days until losing the championship on December 25 to Mike Rotunda.

Following the loss, Brown left JCP and traveled to Florida.

In 1983, Florida bookers came up with a storyline where Daniels announced that he had changed his name to "Eljiah Akeem", referring to it as his Muslim name.