One MIND-BLOWING Secret From EVERY Month Of The WWE Attitude Era
32. September 1998 | Bart Norris
The Brawl For All was one of the dumbest and most injurious ideas in WWE history. It was actually a standout ratings hit, even during a time when the promotion was top-to-bottom red-hot, but it wasn’t worth it. The shoot tournament created no new stars. In fact, the very opposite was true: the guy who was thought to win it because he boasted such a fierce hard-man reputation, Steve Williams, was soundly defeated and badly injured during a shocking second round defeat to eventual winner Bart Gunn.
While the WWF could have simply promoted Williams as a badass shooter through a series of vignettes and some wins - i.e. something more traditional and less insane - what gets lost is that he was close to broken-down when he finally jumped to the WWF. He walked the All Japan Pro Wrestling King’s Road for several years, and even a healthy Williams was out-of-time. For better or worse, 1998 was a year premised almost entirely on entertainment value. Williams was a violent badass, but he wasn’t entertaining. You know who else wasn’t entertaining?
Bart Gunn.
But!
Surely, he was somewhat marketable with the asterisk of “with a mouthpiece”. He was instantly credible. In a very weird bit of wrestling logic, fans had actually seen his terrible fights against bum opponents, as opposed to Dan Severn’s legitimately impressive MMA exploits. Also, Jim Ross could have had a grand time relaying a badass Chuck Norris Facts-tier tidbit on commentary: per the September 21 Observer, Gunn hit dudes so hard that he damaged his own elbow through the jabbing motion.
Instead, the WWF, very annoyed that Gunn did what was asked of him, vanished him from TV.