Andrew Lutzke
Wars have always made men strive to improve, evolve, and create. This holds true in regards to the territorial wars throughout the years in the world of wrestling. The last great wrestling struggle between companies took place in the mid-90’s and were known as the Monday Night Wars. WCW’s strategy for this struggle was to sign away key talents from the WWF and other organizations across the globe to provide them with the roster depth to fill entire shows with must see action. The WWF tried to combat this by creating a roster based in youth and desire as well as displaying talent from smaller groups like the USWA and ECW in order to offer a bit of diversity to the product.
Ultimately a rebellious character created by Steve Austin and honed by Vince McMahon and Vince Russo gave the WWF the franchise star to rebuild around. After a year of being battered by WCW in the weekly ratings, the WWF had a star in the making but they still needed more help. The signing of Ken Shamrock was a major deal for the WWF, not only due to the size of Shamrock’s contract, but also due to the mainstream appeal Shamrock possessed as the face of the blood sport that was being banned across North America, the UFC. Shamrock’s signing came at a time when “toughman” boxing was scoring nice ratings in the cable and a 400-pound charismatic boxer known best as “Butterbean” was becoming a star on the small screen for his graphic knockouts in boxing matches that were scheduled to last only four rounds.
As 1998 rolled around, the WWF added several more very legit fighters to their cache of talent as Steve Blackman returned to the WWF after a decade of being away and was playing up his very real martial arts skills as he was dubbed “The Lethal Weapon”. Former UFC Superfight and tournament champion Dan Severn was also signed. He had spent several years working the independent wrestling circuit in between his shoot fighting matches and was the NWA World champion for a long run, despite lacking charisma or to be brutally honest, much in the way of entertaining “pro wrestling” skills. Marc Mero was also on the roster and announcers had played up his background as a Golden Gloves boxer since his debut in WCW in 1991. Finally, former NCAA wrestling star Steve “Dr. Death” Williams was added to the roster by his long time friend and then current WWF Head of Talent Relations, Jim Ross. All in all a lot of real-life ass kickers were occupying the locker room, along with a handful of former football players, powerlifters and other testosterone and steroid filled athletes making for an exciting cocktail of potential locker room bad asses.
The wrestling war was still being lost in the spring of 1998, however Vince McMahon’s investment in several million dollars in Mike Tyson as a special attraction had the WWF surging in a positive direction. This was an era of shocking storylines and crash TV. An era that opened the doors for mid-carder John “Bradshaw” Layfield to push Vince Russo towards an idea that morphed into a concept that became known as “The Brawl for All”.
Brawl for All
First Russo had to get permission from Vince McMahon to run a “shoot” tournament on WWF TV. Not only did McMahon agree to the idea, but he was also willing to put up well over $100,000 in prize money for the participants. The men would be paid $5000 dollars a match, with $75,000 going to the winner and $25,000 going to the runner up in the finals.
The rules were a bit convoluted as three ringside judges were to score each bout based on who connected the most punches in each one minute round (earning the man 5 points), along with points being rewarded for a “clean” takedown (also 5 points) and knocking your opponent down with a punch (10 points). A fighter had a standing eight count to recover from a knockdown or he would be considered the loser. There was to be no ground work or submissions and everyone would be required to wear 20 oz. boxing gloves. An earlier drafting of the rules was going to allow leg kicks as well but since everyone knew that would severely favor Steve Blackman, kicks were banned to make for a more competitive atmosphere.
The tournament was slated to begin in late June and go on until Summerslam, which was the originally planned date for the finale. In the weeks leading off to the June 29th kickoff, the field was narrowed down to mostly mid-card talent, with the exception of “Dr.Death”, who was being positioned to make a run with juggernaut Steve Austin. Winning the Brawl for All would be a mere formality before he’d be moved up the card.
Ken Shamrock declined a spot in the field, which he stated was due to the fact that he had spent the past year proving to the rest of the locker room that he wouldn’t shoot on them. The rules also shied away from Shamrock’s shooting strengths, since submissions were not allowed, and a loss would hurt his standing in the WWF where he was enjoying a high mid-card push.
When the time came, the turnbuckles were replaced with padded covers, the arena lights were dimmed to draw focus to the ring and Danny Hodge, the legendary wrestler/shooter was named the referee. (Hodge would be moved to the floor as a judge during the course of the tournament for his own well being. Hodge was in his 60’s not the best choice to try and maneuver around big men colliding in an unpredictable manner.) No athletic commission was regulating the bouts, but doctors and trainers were stationed at ringside.
Let’s Get It On
The first match, between Marc Mero (doing a boxer gimmick) vs. Steve Blackman (Martial Artist gimmick) gave off a very early UFCish vibe where different styles were being brought together in a clash of disciplines. However after Blackman’s dominant, takedown heavy victory, the rest of the first round lacked in the aesthetics that could have given the matches some zest. Bradshaw and Mark “Henry Godwin” Canterbury had a sloppy slugfest that exposed the men as untrained pugilists and just bar room wannabes. Worse yet, Canterbury aggravated old injuries and was taken out of WWF action after the match. German bodybuilder Brakkus had a panic attack prior to his match with Savio Vega as he didn’t realize the bout wasn’t going to be fake. He fought anyway and lost on points after he suffered from a bloodied nose.
The next match was used by the WWF to try and inject some storyline attributes into the bouts as Road Warrior Hawk (wearing his facepaint) boxed Darren Drozdov who was attempting to become a member of the Legion of Doom, with subtle indications that he wanted Hawk’s spot. They fought to a draw, and Droz advanced after Hawk came out of the scrap with a legitimately broken nose. To further muddy the waters, tag team partners Bob Holly and Bart Gunn were paired off next, with instructions to do a worked shoving argument after their real contest. Gunn won and advanced to meet the winner of the “Dr. Death” Steve Williams vs. Pierre Ouellet bout. Williams was given a video package to build up his resume, including a bit with Super Bowl winning coach Barry Switzer bragging him up. Pierre legitimately had only one eye, so his participation in a shoot fight seemed highly questionable. Dr. Death wound up winning via TKO when Pierre backed away from fighting several times and took refuge on the ropes.
Dan “The Beast” Severn had to be considered a heavy favorite to win the tournament with his background as a two-time All-American NCAA wrestler and two time participant in the Olympic trials. He was originally not asked to be part of the tournament but accepted the WWF officials offer to participate only hours before bell time. Severn did not adapt well to wearing the gloves and struggled greatly en route to victory over the game Godfather. Severn would drop out after that performance and that allowed the Godfather to advance in his place. The final first round match between 8-Ball and Scorpio was of so little importance, only clips of it were shown during RAW. Scorpio won.
Round two saw Savio Vega mess up his arm in a loss to Droz. Vega would never work in the WWF ring again. Bradshaw bullied his way past Marc Mero, who was replacing the injured Steve Blackman. The Godfather out classed Scorpio and lastly the bout the Brawl for All will forever be remembered for: Bart Gunn vs. Dr. Death took place. Gunn understood the game, and offered to lay down for Dr. Death if the WWF officials wished for him to, however, Bruce Pritchard and others laughed off the request and wished Gunn luck in trying to stop Williams.
During the bout, Gunn was able to avoid most of Williams’ takedown attempts by hovering near the ropes. He then left JR in stunned silence by taking Doc down at the end of round 2 with a double leg of his own. Then in round 3 Williams injured his hamstring while being taken down again. This left Williams a sitting duck for a plethora of punches that knocked him unconscious.
The semi-finals bore witness to another sloppy brawl with Bradshaw winning a narrow decision over Droz, followed up by Bart Gunn knocking out the Godfather. This set up a Bradshaw vs. Bart Gunn finale. The match was over in a mere 35 seconds as Bradshaw was overcome by hard bombs and he went to sleep.
Instead of capitalizing on Gunn’s win by trying to create a new star, he was shelved for six months before returning to TV where Dr. Death attacked him twice.
Gunn was given a match at Wrestlemania 15 against Butterbean under the “Brawl for All” rules. Butterbean told the WWF officials he’d gladly lose for a payday. Butterbean was actively looking into getting a WWF gig, so he was also trying to show he was a team player. The officials turned him down and the only shoot fight in Wrestlemania history was set for March 28th, 1999. The judges for the contest were wrestling legend Gorilla Monsoon, Kevin Rooney, who trained Mike Tyson, and Chuck Wepner who had boxed Muhammad Ali, wrestled Andre the Giant, and inspired Sly Stallone to write “Rocky.”
The bout was a massacre as Gunn never knew what hit him. He went down in the first 30 seconds before wobbling into another combo that sent him to sleep for good. Gunn was shipped off to All Japan Pro Wrestling soon after, where Dr. Death had been a megastar. He and Williams would have a multitude of matches in the early 2000’s there.
Fan Reaction
The ratings for the “Brawl for All” segments on RAW averaged a net loss of .5 ratings points, and the finale dropped even more than that, so the concept failed there. The fans at the live events greeted the contests with chants of “We want wrestling!” and “Boring!” so the concept failed there as well. The winner, Bart Gunn, went on to have zero impact on the WWF, so yet another failure can be marked there, making the Brawl for All a complete disaster.
It’s a good reminder that when ideas take shape, sometimes the shape matches something you deposit into the toilet.
