No ones been able to figure out the idea behind the Brawl For All tournament: why anyone thought it might work on any conceivable level. Running for two months in summer 1998 on RAW, with a selection of midcarders who had legit hardman reputations or shootfighting competing in a genuine shoot fight with a $100,000 purse for the winner, this tournament was one of the biggest dancing turkeys that WWF/E have ever had a hand in and they created the Gobbledy Gooker. The prize money was the equivalent of about two years pay for most of the wrestlers involved, which meant that the tournament consisted of sixteen large, violent men ham-fistedly trying to hurt one other to win. In case youre confused, thats the opposite of how pro wrestling is supposed to go. And of course, the problem with booking a shoot is that you cant work the outcome. They tried, of course: Dr. Death Steve Williams was the man they wanted to win, a man with a serious rep in Japan who was being brought in to provide a real heel opponent for the companys new tweener sensation, Stone Cold Steve Austin. They fixed the rules in his favour, they worked the scoring to try and skew the winners of each round but you cant cook an egg and turn it into steak. Unbeknownst to the office, midcard lifer and tournament cannon fodder Bart Gunn was a skilled boxer as well as a tough son of a well, gun. He beat Williams in the finals and actually seriously hurt him, ruining their plans and the reputation of Dr. Death, whod be released not long afterwards to no reaction. To make matters worse, the crowd crapped on the tournament from on high like seagulls with tummy trouble. Throughout the segments on RAW, the only real crowd response was booing and the occasional, we want wrestling chant. To this day, the Brawl For All tournament is considered one of WWF/Es biggest ever screw-ups: theyd even paid Williams the prize money up front, and so the whole thing cost them twice as much, to say nothing of all the legitimate injuries that the performers sustained during the course of the angle.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
