8 Wrestlers Who Tried To Look Cool (...& Immediately ATE Sh*t)
7. Bart Gunn KOs Steve Williams
This was probably as much a case as the WWF trying to make Steve Williams look cool or badass - but Dr. Death obviously had to radiate menacing body language, even in his performance of a legitimate shoot. He was not in his prime - those who walked the King’s Road of All Japan Pro Wrestling limped badly at its junction - but was a healthy Williams ever going to make it in the Fed?
That is debatable. Williams was awesome in AJPW. He was a monster, one of the most credible and scary wrestlers of his era. His brand of charisma and his skill-set was not exactly WWF-friendly. Williams was a grunting, intense jock who wasn’t the man you’d want trash-talking a babyface in a promo rally. There was a kernel of logic to the infamous Attitude Era Brawl For All tournament that was meant to propel Williams to the main event, though it was mostly very, very stupid.
The wrestlers were not trained fighters, and, unable to adequately protect themselves, half of them got injured. And, as fearsome as his reputation was, there was no guarantee that Williams would win the whole thing. If he had, though, fans might have bought him as a one-shot PPV-level challenger to Stone Cold Steve Austin, if Mr. McMahon was doing the talking for him. Williams, after a fun clobbering of Pierre Carl Ouellett, did not win.
The WWF tried to promote him as a badass in the build, screening his intense warm-up session, but Bart Gunn tore his quad with a takedown and knocked him goofy in the third round with a wicked left hook.