Jeffrey Mark Beltzner (April 18, 1964 – August 23, 2021), known by his ring name Brick Bronsky, was an American actor, film producer, professional wrestler and sports promoter.
Following the close of Stampede Wrestling, and the subsequent collapse of the NWA territory system, at the end of the decade, Beltzner returned to his home state where he became a mainstay for local independent promotions throughout the 1990s.
He and Flex expanded into other areas of sports promotion and, in 1992, they organized the first boxing matches held in the Lehigh Valley region in nearly ten years.
Jeffrey Mark Beltzner was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania[1] and attended and graduated from Parkland High School in neighboring South Whitehall Township, where he developed an interest in bodybuilding and later won state and tri-state power lifting competitions.
Following his graduation, he worked as a child-care worker for the Lehigh County detention home before enrolling in a wrestling camp run by Brad Rheingans, a champion amateur wrestler and competitor at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
[3] He was most visible in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling in Calgary, often appearing on its weekly television program, and was "probably the strongest guy in the territory at the time".
[8] He received additional training from Mr. Hito, joining him in several six-man matches, and faced many of the toughest Stampede veterans such as Bad News Allen,[9] Gerry Morrow,[10] "Great" Gama Singh[11] and Steve DiSalvo in late-1987 and 1988.
He was mainly used as a preliminary wrestler at various house shows, however, he did make an appearance on the April 29, 1989 edition of WWF Challenge where he and Terry Daniels lost to The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard) at the War Memorial in Syracuse, New York.
As its financial troubles worsened in the early-1990s, however, Lloyd Kaufman attempted to recreate his earlier success in the form of Jeff Beltzner and later Jane Jensen (Tromeo and Juliet).
[3] Both men were also involved in volunteer work with local youths in the Lehighton area during this time and counseled high school students across the United States about the dangers of drug and steroid abuse.
After five years of steroid use, Beltzner developed degenerative connective tissue disease and eventually tore the short head of his biceps off the bone.
[1] Beltzner himself would feud with "Handsome" Frank Stalletto in both IPW and American Commonwealth Wrestling[6] before becoming the promotion's first heavyweight champion on November 30, 1996,[1] in New Britain, Connecticut by defeating Dave Powers in a one-night tournament.
[5] Beltzner, Flex and John O'Mara, who was a local standout athlete, began promoting sporting events from their Lehighton, Pennsylvania gym The Racquet and Fitness Factory in early 1992.
[24] They also held a wrestling show at the gym on March 22 to raise money for the Carbon County Association of Retarded Citizens.
Town officials raised concerns that the building may be unsafe, such as the absence of proper fire exits, to accommodate the hundreds of people that the gym was bringing in on the weekends.
[27] That same year, with fellow professional wrestler Tony Halme, he also had a minor role in Joe Coppoletta's independent action film Death Match (1994), starring Ian Jacklin, Martin Kove and Matthias Hues.
[28] Two years later, he appeared in Jean-Claude Van Damme's The Quest (1996), portraying the champion fighter brought to the underground fighting tournament from Russia.
[29] The following year he starred in Class of Nuke 'Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown (1991), alongside co-star Leesa Rowland, as student journalist Roger Smith.