Spoken by someone who truly knows nothing about death matches. No offense intended, as I was t' same way until I started checking out CZW. Sure, anyone can death match wrestle, just like anyone can wrestle a normal match, but it takes special skill to be able to pull it off well. As for saying Brain Damage can't have a good match without weapons, that is just an assumption. Unless you have an example of where he's had several bad match without weapons, that is. And we shouldn't base stats off of guesses.
t' problem is this, I looked for a Brain Damage match on youtube and I could find is death match. That is t' one style he does and he is good with it maybe not 80's, perhaps 75-78 in my estimation from his matches with Beef and that from 2009 (gotta love t' content that makes YouTube and don't.) I personally don't get t' point of doing matches with log cabins of light tubes or weedwhackers in a vaccum like Tournament of Death but to each their own. Bully Ray however can do brawls, hardcore and could do deathmatch if thrown in. Brain Damage, who knows if he can. Because you nor I have seen him in such a match.
Exactly, we don't know, so we shouldn't just assume. And having seen Brain Damage's broader base of work, he is probably t' best death match wrestler I have ever seen. Period. He easily deserves mid-to-high 80s.
As for t' Brad Maddox thing, I think we should hold off. This may be a one-time thing, a short-time thing, or maybe even an angle. Let's give in a month or two then see. If he makes another appearance or two I would add him to t' main roster with a staff member gimmick. If after a month or two nothing changes, then add him to staff.
Okay, maybe that is true, but my point is just because someone does death matches doesn't mean they should have high brawl. Brain Damage could be a special case and actually be good at it. But there are tons of guys that do death matches that are terrible and shouldn't even have an okay brawl stat. Much like diving off a balcony shouldn't automatically give you a high speed stat, going through light tubes shouldn't give you a good brawl stat.
Doing something is one thing, being good at it is a completely other can of bees.