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Brawl For All
Introducing MMA into the WWE.
While the WWE was moving into its Attitude Era, news reporters were more interested in the rapidly growing sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). They media warned about the barbaric form of competition, noting that even expert fighters regularly got knocked out or suffered serious injuries. Worse still, some men were forced to fight in cages. But it was because of this controversy that the MMA industry grew so rapidly.
It was actually Paul Heyman and Peter Senerchia that noticed the growing popularity of MMA first. Senerchia had been competing in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as the Tazmaniac, a caveman like character based on the Tazmanian Devil character from Looney Tunes cartoons. He was then repackaged as an MMA fighter simply known as Taz. Taz developed a more focused style which usually saw him wearing down opponents to earn submission victories instead of pins. He would use the kataha jamai (a karate choke) or a chicken wing and choke combination to beat opponents. Both of these were dubbed “Tazmissionsâ€. If the opponent did not escape the hold, they would pass out, and the referee would be forced to stop the match in consideration of the victim’s safety. Or the opponent would tap out instead of physically telling the referee that they had enough. This was more common in martial arts contests.
Vince McMahon subsequently copied the idea from ECW. He started hiring wrestlers with genuine hand to hand combat experience. And then there were others that he pressured into taking on MMA training so that they can use MMA gimmicks.
• Charles Wright was repackaged as Kama Mustafa, an MMA fighter who was similar to Taz. (Wright was competing as the Godfather when the tournament began).
• Justin Hawk Bradshaw was repackaged as a bare-knuckle boxer.
• Steve Blackman was an experienced martial artist.
• UFC star Ken Shamrock was hired.
• UFC star and professional wrestler Dan Severn was added to the roster.
• ‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams and Vader were well-known for MMA style matches in Japan.
• Marc Mero is a former amateur boxing champion who was told to focus more on boxing than his more flamboyant wrestling styles.
Beginning The Tournament
When the tournament came about, Justin Hawk Bradshaw was now Bradshaw of the Acolytes. And Wright was now the Godfather. As unlikely as it may seem, it was actually the future JBL that came up with the Brawl For All tournament, but he will never accept credit for it.
Bradshaw was allegedly notorious for commenting that if they were forced to brawl for real in the ring, he would do the best (…of all men in his size range or weight category). It was from this suggestion that the tournament was born.
Each match in the tournament would have 3 rounds, each lasting for 60 seconds. The combatants would be awarded 5 points each time they knocked their opponent down. If one fighter managed to knock out his opponent, then the match was automatically stopped and he would be declared the winner. They were not allowed to strike each other, except with their fists (i.e. no elbows, feet, etc.). They were also not allowed to use submission attempts or choke holds, and they had to wear boxing gloves. In short, they were boxing matches in which grappling was encouraged.
The competition was genuine. All sixteen participants were given a chance to withdraw, and all of them had to sign waivers acknowledging that they could get hurt and even injured. And the winner of the finals would win $75,000, and a match at WrestleMania XV. The first runner up received $25,000. And they all had only two weeks to train for the first round.
The tournament consisted of Steve Blackman, Marc Mero, Mark Canterbury, Bradshaw, Brakkus, Savio Vega, Droz, Road Warrior Hawk, Bart Gunn, Bob Holly, Quebeccer Pierre, The Godfather, Dan Severn, 8-Ball and Scorpio. The favourite to win the tournament was Steve Williams.
How the tournament progressed.
Almost every match in the tournament was a surprise. Knowing that most of Steve Blackman’s martial arts expertise was not allowed, the former boxer Marc Mero should have had an easy contest. But Blackman came very close to knocking out his opponent, and took very few hits himself.
Even though Savio Vega gave up a lot of size to Brakkus, Vega destroyed the German giant.
Even though Williams was the favourite to win, he did not even make it to the finals. He was beaten in the second round by the smaller Bart Gunn.
And Bart Gunn was the biggest surprise of all. He was easily considered the biggest underdog in the competition. Bart Gunn only narrowly won out above his former tag team partner Bob Holly. But he knocked out each of his next three opponents to win the tournament. In fact, Gunn was the only person to earn a knockout.
Injuries Galore
To this day, the tournament was considered to be cursed. All 16 competitors got injured.
Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn were both refused permission to compete. The WWE managed to find 15 willing combatants, but needed one more. They were concerned that the professional UFC fighters would serious injure someone, but Severn was invited into the tournament to make up numbers. Even though he won his match, Severn withdrew from the tournament, allowing the Godfather to advance anyway. Severn later revealed that he was told to drop out because of the risk that he could hurt someone. But he denies that he had an injury which hampered his wrestling performance.
Quebeccer Pierre fought his first match with an eye-patch on. This was necessary because he had suffered an injury in training. Several wrestlers suffered concussions and leg injuries. At least three men even suffered bone breaks in their legs. Savio Vega’s injuries were so bad that he would never wrestle for the WWE again.
Many of the wrestlers had “tough guy†images that were shattered by their losses in the tournament. Williams was the biggest victim, because the hope was that he would win the competition, and would then go on to become a monster main-eventer, much like the Undertaker or Stone Cold Steve Austin. But Williams’ loss really destroyed his image. He would never receive the push that he had been groomed for.
Bart Gunn had seemed like the only person who had escaped the curse. But that was until he reached WrestleMania XV. He had six months to prepare for one more BFA match against Eric “Butterbean†Esch. Esch was one of the most successful Super Heavyweight boxers. Despite his baby-face appearance and obese physique, Esch was a famously hard puncher. He had been a professional boxer since before Bart Gunn had his first professional wrestling match. Gunn had no chance. This was proven when Butterbean knocked Gunn out cold within 40 seconds. The embarrassing loss hurt his image so badly that the WWE had to let him go later in the year.
Introducing MMA into the WWE.
While the WWE was moving into its Attitude Era, news reporters were more interested in the rapidly growing sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). They media warned about the barbaric form of competition, noting that even expert fighters regularly got knocked out or suffered serious injuries. Worse still, some men were forced to fight in cages. But it was because of this controversy that the MMA industry grew so rapidly.
It was actually Paul Heyman and Peter Senerchia that noticed the growing popularity of MMA first. Senerchia had been competing in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as the Tazmaniac, a caveman like character based on the Tazmanian Devil character from Looney Tunes cartoons. He was then repackaged as an MMA fighter simply known as Taz. Taz developed a more focused style which usually saw him wearing down opponents to earn submission victories instead of pins. He would use the kataha jamai (a karate choke) or a chicken wing and choke combination to beat opponents. Both of these were dubbed “Tazmissionsâ€. If the opponent did not escape the hold, they would pass out, and the referee would be forced to stop the match in consideration of the victim’s safety. Or the opponent would tap out instead of physically telling the referee that they had enough. This was more common in martial arts contests.
Vince McMahon subsequently copied the idea from ECW. He started hiring wrestlers with genuine hand to hand combat experience. And then there were others that he pressured into taking on MMA training so that they can use MMA gimmicks.
• Charles Wright was repackaged as Kama Mustafa, an MMA fighter who was similar to Taz. (Wright was competing as the Godfather when the tournament began).
• Justin Hawk Bradshaw was repackaged as a bare-knuckle boxer.
• Steve Blackman was an experienced martial artist.
• UFC star Ken Shamrock was hired.
• UFC star and professional wrestler Dan Severn was added to the roster.
• ‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams and Vader were well-known for MMA style matches in Japan.
• Marc Mero is a former amateur boxing champion who was told to focus more on boxing than his more flamboyant wrestling styles.
Beginning The Tournament
When the tournament came about, Justin Hawk Bradshaw was now Bradshaw of the Acolytes. And Wright was now the Godfather. As unlikely as it may seem, it was actually the future JBL that came up with the Brawl For All tournament, but he will never accept credit for it.
Bradshaw was allegedly notorious for commenting that if they were forced to brawl for real in the ring, he would do the best (…of all men in his size range or weight category). It was from this suggestion that the tournament was born.
Each match in the tournament would have 3 rounds, each lasting for 60 seconds. The combatants would be awarded 5 points each time they knocked their opponent down. If one fighter managed to knock out his opponent, then the match was automatically stopped and he would be declared the winner. They were not allowed to strike each other, except with their fists (i.e. no elbows, feet, etc.). They were also not allowed to use submission attempts or choke holds, and they had to wear boxing gloves. In short, they were boxing matches in which grappling was encouraged.
The competition was genuine. All sixteen participants were given a chance to withdraw, and all of them had to sign waivers acknowledging that they could get hurt and even injured. And the winner of the finals would win $75,000, and a match at WrestleMania XV. The first runner up received $25,000. And they all had only two weeks to train for the first round.
The tournament consisted of Steve Blackman, Marc Mero, Mark Canterbury, Bradshaw, Brakkus, Savio Vega, Droz, Road Warrior Hawk, Bart Gunn, Bob Holly, Quebeccer Pierre, The Godfather, Dan Severn, 8-Ball and Scorpio. The favourite to win the tournament was Steve Williams.
How the tournament progressed.
Almost every match in the tournament was a surprise. Knowing that most of Steve Blackman’s martial arts expertise was not allowed, the former boxer Marc Mero should have had an easy contest. But Blackman came very close to knocking out his opponent, and took very few hits himself.
Even though Savio Vega gave up a lot of size to Brakkus, Vega destroyed the German giant.
Even though Williams was the favourite to win, he did not even make it to the finals. He was beaten in the second round by the smaller Bart Gunn.
And Bart Gunn was the biggest surprise of all. He was easily considered the biggest underdog in the competition. Bart Gunn only narrowly won out above his former tag team partner Bob Holly. But he knocked out each of his next three opponents to win the tournament. In fact, Gunn was the only person to earn a knockout.
Injuries Galore
To this day, the tournament was considered to be cursed. All 16 competitors got injured.
Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn were both refused permission to compete. The WWE managed to find 15 willing combatants, but needed one more. They were concerned that the professional UFC fighters would serious injure someone, but Severn was invited into the tournament to make up numbers. Even though he won his match, Severn withdrew from the tournament, allowing the Godfather to advance anyway. Severn later revealed that he was told to drop out because of the risk that he could hurt someone. But he denies that he had an injury which hampered his wrestling performance.
Quebeccer Pierre fought his first match with an eye-patch on. This was necessary because he had suffered an injury in training. Several wrestlers suffered concussions and leg injuries. At least three men even suffered bone breaks in their legs. Savio Vega’s injuries were so bad that he would never wrestle for the WWE again.
Many of the wrestlers had “tough guy†images that were shattered by their losses in the tournament. Williams was the biggest victim, because the hope was that he would win the competition, and would then go on to become a monster main-eventer, much like the Undertaker or Stone Cold Steve Austin. But Williams’ loss really destroyed his image. He would never receive the push that he had been groomed for.
Bart Gunn had seemed like the only person who had escaped the curse. But that was until he reached WrestleMania XV. He had six months to prepare for one more BFA match against Eric “Butterbean†Esch. Esch was one of the most successful Super Heavyweight boxers. Despite his baby-face appearance and obese physique, Esch was a famously hard puncher. He had been a professional boxer since before Bart Gunn had his first professional wrestling match. Gunn had no chance. This was proven when Butterbean knocked Gunn out cold within 40 seconds. The embarrassing loss hurt his image so badly that the WWE had to let him go later in the year.