Best of WWF Brawl for All

[Holy Moment]

• I've compiled the best fights from the WWF's ill-fated foray into real combat.
  
  "Dr. Death" Steve Williams vs. Bart Gunn was one of the most significant fights of the tournament. Williams, a former All-American wrestler, was expected to win the entire show and be pushed from there on out. It didn't pan out that way when his opponent scored a takedown of his own and injured William's leg, leaving him open for a huge KO.
  
  Other fights include:
  
  Scorpio vs. 8-Ball
  
  Golden Gloves boxer Marc Mero vs.former football coach Bradshaw
  
  Bodybuilder Brakus vs. Savio Vega
  
  Bradshaw vs. Bart Gunn

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[Azatdawn]

Ah, I remember this, good stuff.

I get the idea behind doing this, but really, I can't help but thinking this played a part in hurting their product no matter what the outcome. The way they handled it made it even worse.

[Phrost]

How did I miss this phase of Pro Wrestling?

[Bad Apple]

How did I miss this phase of Pro Wrestling?

Consider yourself lucky you missed it. Bart Gunn the eventual winner wishes he did. Although it was marketed as a "shoot" it was supposed to be a setup for Dr Death as an incoming badass and when Gunn beat him not only did it tarnish his reputation he blew out his hamstring on top of that. Several of the other wrestlers suffered injuries too.


Had Dr Death won as he was supposed to that would have been the end of it but since Bart Gunn won he was later fed to Eric "Butterbean" Esch on a ppv and Esch absolutely BUTCHERED Gunn in about 30 seconds. Gunn was pretty much fired after that.

[Holy Moment]

How did I miss this phase of Pro Wrestling?

The tournament only lasted for two months. I think they gave Bart Gunn a year to train for Butterbean at Wrestlemania.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S652hvQaWfY

Incidentally, both fighters later went into MMA. Both share a win over Wesley Correira and a loss to Ikuhisa Minowa. Perhaps it's high time for a rematch.

[Holy Moment]

I added Bradshaw vs. Droz just to remind everyone that this was still the WWF. Even though the fights were real, the "officials" were all WWF employees and weren't about to give a lesser star the nod.

[King Blood]

This angle was terrible in every possible way. it killed a lot of guys' "toughguy" credibility, it was boring with a ruleset that guaranteed damn near unwatchable fights, an it unmercifully exposed the business. They basically said 'This is real, the other **** we've made billions is fake!" Horrible experiment and should be brought up any time Vince wants to dabble in the shoot game without getting consultation from Antonio Inoki.

[Holy Moment]

it was boring with a ruleset that guaranteed damn near unwatchable fights

I disagree. I enjoyed the unique ruleset and think one can learn things from watching these fights. Brakus vs. Savio Vega, for example, is a good example of how bodybuilders function in actual combat. Bradshaw vs. Marc Mero is a good example how a skill-less fighter can pose a threat to a trained boxer if he has a size advantage.

From a business standpoint, though, yeah it was a pretty ungodly clusterfuck.

[Odacon]

Oh man we went NUTS for this when I was a kid, we knew wrestling was fake so when they started knocking the **** out of each other for real my friends and I went ballistic, mainly because we thought the main event guys would be doing it as well. Imagine how that would have went lol.

[Bad Apple]

... it unmercifully exposed the business.

Because up until then it was still real to you damn it ? When the WWF picked up Shamrock and then Severn this kind of thing was almost an inevitability. Almost as inevitable as it's failure.

Fake wrestling liked to brag about the legit fighting/wrestling backgrounds of some of their guys and this spectacle was an important lesson of just how perishable those skills can be.

This is a teachable Bullshido.net example of untrained vs poorly trained and then poorly trained vs trained



This was Bart Gunn's "reward" for winning the tourney (and Dr Death's injury)