10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 1998
9. The Truth About The Brawl For All
You'll remember the Brawl For All: it was the WWF's experimental attempt to do actual shoot fighting beyond the predetermined action elsewhere.
It was a strange and exceptionally foolish concept, but in 1998, by which time wrestling had long since acknowledged itself as a sham, the two sat alongside one another easily enough. The real problem was that virtually everybody involved, bruising lugs who weren't trained to defend themselves, were left utterly ravaged by the experience. The action was also dire, since few were trained in the technical side of mixed martial arts. It wasn't even blistering in an unrefined, Frye/Takayama sort of way; just a bunch of meatheads slowly hitting and injuring each other and getting gassed even in the one minute rounds implemented to avoid precisely that.
Also, as an intended vehicle with which to launch Steve Williams as a double tough challenger to Steve Austin, it was the ultimate failure: the WWF could not control the outcome of real fights, and Williams got battered by Bart Gunn.
And yet, there was a certain, undeniably compelling aspect to it, and this was reflected in the ratings. The Brawl For All was a few things at once, one of which was a resourceful use of otherwise totally unmarketable midcard acts who didn't move the needle before or since.
As Dave Meltzer wrote in the August 10, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter, words that read as inexplicable today:
"Whether [the Brawl For All] has been a success or a failure is really hard to analyze at this point. If you look at it specifically from a television ratings standpoint, which is what this was primarily designed for, it has been a success. Wrestlers who normally do poorly in the ratings have generally done well, and have been usually behind only the Steve Austin-Vince McMahon-Undertaker-Mankind-Kane main event program and DX as the highest rated segments of the show nearly every week."