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For a brief moment in time, pro-wrestling organization WWE (then known as WWF) made an ill-fated decision to have real fights in the ring. As this video shows, it all went horribly wrong.
It was back in 1998, at a time when the company was in a battle for ratings with WCW. The WWF came up with a unique concept, the “Brawl For All,” a tournament that would pit some of the company’s stars against each other in real, non-scripted fights.
The rules drawn up were mixed, but not MMA. Maybe call them mixed up. Punches and takedowns were allowed, but kicks and submissions were forbidden. Each match would consist of three, one-minute rounds, with 5 points being awarded for landing the most punches each round, 5 points for a takedown, and 10 points for a knockdown. A KO ended the fight.
The ‘Brawl For All’ 16-man tournament proved to be a disaster from start to finish. One of the officials at the time, Jim Cornette, later declared it, The stupidest thing that the WWF has ever done. There’s even a Dark Side of The Ring episode on it.
The fights between the WWF wrestlers who volunteered to compete for a $100,000 prize were nearly all unskilled and extremely sloppy. In fact, they looked about the same as if you took 16 top boxers, and had them perform in pro wrestling exhibitions. For the record, professional wrestling is extremely demanding, and played a far wider role in the development of MMA than most people realize. Just because pro wrestlers didn’t do well in a real fight with weird rules, is no criticism of rasslers.
Worse, in addition to looking terrible, several participants suffered serious injuries that would keep them from returning to the ring for months afterward. In sum, fans that had become accustomed to carefully choreographed routines and storylines hated it.
Most of the fights would end by decision, but the 6ft 4, 265lb Bart Gunn, aka ‘Bodacious Bart’ emerged as the unlikely winner after a series of impressive stoppage victories against the likes of ‘Dr. Death’, ‘The Godfather’ and Bradshaw.
This was the finals, pretty much the best of the best, and it was terrible. The referee didn’t know how to assess a dazed fighter, and let it go on too long. The only saving grace was for pro wrestling fans who didn’t like Bradshaw, who was known for working too stiff, and ended up, well, stiff.
The tournament had done more harm than good, and nobody ‘got over’ from it, so it was a surprise when WWF announced another match under “Brawl For All” rules between Gunn and professional boxer Eric”Butterbean” Esch. It was to be held at Wrestlemania 15 in 1999.
According to highly respected journalist Dave Meltzer, WWF officials genuinely believed that Gunn was talented enough to beat Esch. So they sent him to a boxing gym to prepare for several months prior to the fight.
However, they had grossly underestimated the 5ft 11, 425lb “Butterbean.”
What Happened
Vinnie Paz was the referee, and the judges were Chuck Wepner, Kevin Rooney, and Gorilla Monsoon. The judges were not needed.
Bean throws a right, and follows it up naturally enough with a left hook. Gunn reacts by turning his back and spinning a full 360 degrees. This is the clearest sign that he doesn’t belong where he is, and it happened in seconds.
Bean adroitly weaves away from two shots, and throws three shots to the body. With Gunn’s attention dropped down to his pounded ribs, Bean throws a shot to the head that staggers Gunn, and then a second one that drops him to the canvas.
Vinnie Paz is a great boxer, but maybe as a ref, not so much. He allows Gunn to continue and Bean lines up and lands as hard a straight right as ever he’s thrown. It’s over in just 35 seconds.
The Aftermath
The fiasco was hugely embarrassing for the WWF. They immediately scrapped the ‘Brawl For All’ series, and have never had a real fight in the squared circle since.
Gunn was released from the company soon afterward. He would briefly compete in MMA several years afterward, TKO’ing Wesley ‘Cabbage’ Correira due to a cut in 2006, before losing by submission to Ikuhisa Minowa at PRIDE 13 a few months later. Several other wrestlers who’d competed in the tournament also saw their career fizzle out.
The WWF never used “Butterbean” again, although he would go on to have an extraordinary combat sports career, fighting from 1994 to 2013 earned a record of 77-10-4 in professional boxing, 3-4 in kickboxing, and 17-10-1 in MMA.
The Lessons
Mixed martial arts centers on solving problems that the opponent creates. Typically this involves skillsets, in a sort of rock, paper, scissors, with rock being striking, paper being wrestling, and scissors being submissions. It’s not that complex, but if someone is a better striker, you don’t want to stand with them the entire time.
The WWE sent Gunn to train with Syracuse boxing legend Ray Rinaldi, but there is no earthly way to overcome Butterbean’s many long years of competition, in a few weeks of training. Gunn learning to box should have been a part of his training, but, ironically, it was wrestling that the World Wrestling Federation should have focused on the most. It was wrestling that had the highest chance of seeing Gunn reach victory.
Butterbean’s wrestling is very nearly non-existent, as you can see, over and over.
Pro wrestling is unique, in that the promoters can create whatever appeals to the local audience. Japanese audiences admire stoicism and appreciate technique, so Strong Style was developed, in which the performers receive real shots. In South and Central America, the birthplace of Magical Realism, the audiences love masked characters performing seemingly impossible aerial moves. And in the USA, the fans loves drama, so storylines were developed, by scriptwriters.
The WWF could have developed any rule set they wanted. Brawl For All should have allowed takedowns and hooks (submissions) on the ground. They should have allowed in wrestlers with real shooting (real wrestling) ability. Men like Roddy Piper, Haku, Bret Hart, Rick Steiner, Steve Williams, Kurt Angle and a host of others would have destroyed boxers if takedowns and hooks were allowed. The dominance of wrestlers over boxers would have burnished the brand and jacked some of the UFC’s swagger.
The stupidest thing that the WWF has ever done, it could have been one of the greatest. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
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