10 Facts You Didn't Know About WWE's Brawl For All
As the Attitude Era really picked up steam, then-WWE Head Writer Vince Russo had a talk with Vince McMahon and convinced him to try a brand new concept, The Brawl For All. “Everyone knows it’s fake, bro. Let’s make it real,” is something the fictionalized Russo would say.
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McMahon eventually agreed. Despite some of his advisors feeling it would be a bad idea, you’ll never know unless you try. Not only did the WWE try, they saw it through to the end and even included a match at WrestleMania. It’s one of the worst debacles in wrestling history, and it’s also one of the most talked about. Recently, Dark Side Of The Ring was the latest entity to dissect and discuss the tournament. Here are 10 facts that you didn’t know about Brawl For All.
10 Created To Shut JBL Up
Of all of the most ridiculous and absurd ideas that Vince Russo has created is certainly the Brawl For All. Perhaps if he thought up this grand scheme for a real reason that would help the industry, and it flopped, maybe that would be ok. But 16 men risked their actual wrestling livelihoods and reputations on the line all because Russo wanted to teach JBL a lesson is absolutely carelessness and disregard for the very business you work for and the people in it.
9 Cornette Vs. Russo
There can be multiple lists on this site ranking Jim Cornette’s rants and tirades on his ludicrous hatred of Vince Russo. Even if you respect the Louisville Lip, they often times seem like a wrestler cutting a promo or Corny going completely off the deep end. Plenty of fans know about the massive heat Russo has with Cornette, but James E. was able to articulate it on Dark Side.
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Vince would always bemoan and ridicule a lot about the industry. Despite ruining Dr. Death’s career and costing the WWE all kinds of money in the process, Russo still didn’t understand how wrong he was and still is about his perception of the business.
8 The Real Fighters Bowed Out
In 1998, the WWE had a unique trio of real-life prizefighters on their roster in Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, and Steve Blackman. Each and every one of them could have trounced the rest of the field on their way to an easy payday. It was also an easy way to get severely hurt by facing someone who wasn’t trained or have their reputation ruined should they happen to lose a completely untrained amateur. All three of them bowed out of the competition for these reasons at various points.
7 Bart Wanted A Rematch
After surprisingly winning the Brawl For All competition, Bart Gunn’s reward was seldom being used and then being fed to prizefighter Butterbean. 35 seconds was all it took to more or less completely end Bart Gunn’s career in WWE.
When Bart traveled to Japan, he managed to have a decent career there, as well. During this time, he was offered the chance at a rematch against Butterbean, and it was one that he wanted, too. But he needed it on his terms, which would have required significant time to train. He opted it was a better idea to not take the fight.
6 Participation Was Voluntary
The idea for the legit Tough Man contest meant finding guys on the roster who thought and/or knew they were legitimate tough men. Bruce Prichard and several other agents traversed the locker room and presented the idea to everyone.
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The mid-card guys were presented with chances to launch themselves to the stratosphere, but participation in the tournament was not mandatory.
5 Butterbean Was Willing To Work
In an early edition of Something To Wrestle, Conrad Thompson and Bruce Prichard discussed the Brawl For All. One of the nuggets of information during the podcast was that Butterbean was willing to do business and work the WrestleMania XV Brawl For All match against Bart Gunn. He wasn’t necessarily willing to lose, but he was willing to make the Bart look better than a complete chump.
4 Butterbean Knew He Would Cream Bart
All fighters need to be confident before going into a fight, but there's confidence, and then there is absolute certainty. According to The Godfather on Dark Side, he was hanging out with Gillberg and Butterbean prior to WrestleMania XV. The boxer paid the wrestlers the proper amount of respect for their toughness and what they put their bodies through. But he explained to them that none of them were trained fighters and he was going knock Bart Gunn out and hit him hard.
3 Bart Gunn Initially Declined
As the agents traversed the locker room, Bart Gunn initially declined. He knew it was a bad idea. It wasn’t until Kevin Kelly had suggested that, should Bart win, it would really help his career and the winner would get booked to do work with Austin that Gunn reconsidered. Whether or not Kelly was in the position to make that claim, it was all Bart needed to hear.
2 “Legitimate” Matches
According to Bruce Prichard, all of the names in the Brawl For All were put into a hat. From there, Savio Vega picked the names out of a hat and that’s how the brackets were chosen.
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Bart Gunn doesn’t believe that, especially when he was paired up with partner, Bob Holly, in the opening round. He was also slated to face Dr. Death in the next round. The Doctor was the supposed favorite to win and was expected to steamroll over Bart until he knocked Dr. Death right out.
1 Brawl For All 2
Despite being one of the biggest flops in the wrestling business, Vince McMahon seems to be a glutton for punishment sometimes (e.g. the XFL). In 2010, as WWE was gearing up for the first season of NXT, Vince was considering pitting all of these aspiring talents like Wade Barrett and Daniel Bryan in a new Brawl For All contest.
