All language subtitles for Dark Side Of The Ring S02e04 The Brawl For All

In 1998, the World Wrestling Federation
enlisted 16 wrestlers in a radical

experiment, an unscripted, legitimate,
prize -fighting tournament.

Let them fight for real, man. Put on
gloves. Let them go out there. Let's

legitimately see who the toughest guy
is.

The brawl for all was probably the worst
idea in the professional wrestling

business. Wrestlers risk their bodies
and their careers for a chance in the

spotlight. For some, it would all come
crashing down in the brawl for all.

A lot of people did get hurt. I would
f*** up.

It was looking kind of sad.

The guys were gassed and blowing up, and
the crowd wasn't really getting with

it.

They got hurt.

They got embarrassed.

And they got their career short.

There's a train wreck. Come on. Watch
it. Just watch.

You'll see.

By the late 90s, wrestling had become a
global phenomenon.

Two companies were competing for
dominance in a TV ratings war. As every

night, millions would tune in to watch
WWF or WCW.

The battle was fought through an
escalation of bold and provocative new

Some still resonate today.

Others are long forgotten.

On this episode, we reveal the inside
story of what's been called wrestling's

worst idea ever.

This is Vince Russo here for The Brand.

We will talk about anything today but
professional wrestling. Why?

Because I hate wrestling, bro. I don't
want to talk about wrestling. I'll talk

about your mother, your grandmother,
your grandfather.

My name is Vince Russo. I was a head
writer at WWF Magazine.

Around the time when I started writing
the magazine, like 95, 96, the product

was horrible. There were characters at
the time that were so bad.

PL Hopper, The Goon, Mantar.

I'm like, there's no way he's getting
his head in the ring.

And sure enough, he cannot get in the
ring.

Times were changing, and the WWE kept
going backwards.

With the Internet, the secret was out of
the bag. People know this is fake.

What they really want to know is what
kind of really goes on behind the

That's where everything was moving.

There's a lot of people that try to say
it doesn't matter whether people know

that it's rigged. I don't like to use
the word fake.

It does matter. Why don't you like to
use the word fake? Because there's

fake about it.

It may be predetermined. It may be
choreographed. It can be manipulated.

But there's nothing fake about guys
breaking their bodies down. I'm Jim

Cornette. I've been a promoter, a
matchmaker, manager, trainer, everything

wrestling for the last 40 years.

When I started working for the WWF at
the time, Vince is in a circle. They

lifers. They had been in the wrestling
business forever, and I felt that they

were looking at the wrestling business
from within.

I came as a fan.

Vince McMahon is somebody that is never
going to be fully understood. He's a

genius and a demon. Vince McMahon has no
other hobbies.

I doubt very seriously if he's gone to
the grocery store or been to a movie in

over 40 years.

But Vince McMahon has always been the
WWF.

I got a call from Vince's assistant.

And she said, Vince wants to see you up
here immediately.

So I literally think I am going up to
his office to be fired. Then as I walk

his office, all the minions, Bruce
Prichard, Jim Ross, Pat Patterson, Jim

Cornette, and Vince has got the Raw
magazine in his hand. And he slams it

on the table and he says, this is what
our television show needs to be.

And from that point on, I...

became involved in the writing of the
show.

Vince Russo brings an outsider's
perspective to the secretive world of

matchmaking, and he isn't afraid to push
his own vision of what wrestling could

be. At first, I was like, okay, he's a
goof.

He's never been involved in wrestling.
He doesn't know how this stuff works. We

can try to explain it to him. And within
a few months, I realized he didn't want

to learn. He wanted to do wrestling the
way he wanted to do it, which was the

Jerry Springer Show.

The Jerry Springer show was the hottest
thing on TV.

We literally would sit there and write
Monday Night Raw with the Springer show

playing in the background. This approach
would become the Attitude Era.

You had angles where guys were stealing
each other's wives or, you know, one guy

stole the other guy's dog and cooked it
and fed it to him. Back then, man, you

had fraternities on college campuses
gathering every Monday night to watch

across the country. So, number one, you
can't, you don't want to insult their

intelligence because they'll never watch
it again. And number two, you don't

want to mamby -pamby it.

That's what I was all about during the
Attitude Era was.

What was going to make a casual
television viewer watch this product if

weren't a wrestling fan?

To maintain their edge, WWF needs a
constant stream of original ideas,

audiences have never seen before.

Look, here's the deal, man.

You've got to bring something to the old
man. He's looking for an idea.

What's the next big thing?

I don't know.

How about this? Okay.

I'm Jim Ross.

Gun wrestling in 1974.

So my career has lasted for many
generations as a broadcaster, as

and executive vice president.

The idea came from Vince Russo.

So get inside his head. Hell, I don't
know.

The idea from the Brawl for All was
really simple, okay? I was not a big fan

of JBL. John Layfield.

I was from New York. John was, you know,
from Texas. I thought he had a big

mouth. I thought he was full of himself.

I thought he was a bully.

We were backstage at a show one day, and
John Layfield made the comment that if

this were real, I would beat everybody's
ass in the locker room.

So now I'm sitting there, and I'm
saying, you braggadocious bully bastard.

I know of at least ten guys in this
locker room that have kicked your ass. I

went to Vince McMahon, and I proposed
the idea of a brawl for him.

And he goes, what do you mean? I said,
Vince, we're becoming more and more and

more and more real. Let him fight for
real, man. Put on gloves. Let him go out

there. Let him fight. Let's legitimately
see who the toughest guy is.

Vince gave the idea his blessing, and we
went on with the brawl for all.

The top stars have nothing to gain
risking their reputation in an

fight. The challenge is to find 16
competitors.

with nothing to lose.

I got stabbed with a bottle, a wine
bottle, in a bar fight. They broke a

and stuck it in. When they stuck it in,
they went in and up, punctured a lung,

lung collapsed, shredded the diaphragm
and lacerated the liver.

Everybody knows me as Bart Gunn here in
the States, part of the smoking guns.

Cowboy gimmick. We rode horse adapt.
That was pretty cool.

Hey there, I'm Bart. And I'm Billy.

For whatever reason, everybody that
comes in as a tag team, eventually they

split up.

When Billy and I were split up, my
career kind of, I don't want to say

I guess it's good to say it fizzled out.

I had a hard time adjusting to it,
though. It was a little difficult.

When I first approached, it was Bruce.

He said, hey, we're going to do this
brawl for all, kind of a tough man

I go, how are you going to do that?

I said, no, I said, don't want to do it.
I thought it was a stupid idea.

And then Kevin Kelly, he said, this here
would be great for your career. He

says, you're kind of stuck right there
at the middle, and you go through this,

and they say you'll have a great run
with Austin because that's the winner of

the tournament. He's going to get a run
with Steve Austin.

At the time, he was the hottest thing
going.

And then, of course, you work with the
top, top guy, you get top, top pay. And

thought about it, thought about it, and
that's when I decided that I would go

ahead and do it.

The WWF approaches their toughest, most
underutilized wrestlers with the lure of

cash prizes and main event status.

Well, there are a lot of tough guys in
the locker room. I think when I looked

this thing, I'm like, Godfather, like,
was probably the toughest guy.

Big 6 '7", 6 '8 guy, worked in bars, had
been a bouncer.

My real name is Charles Wright.

I wrestled for many years in the WWF as
everything from Papa Shango to Kama,

joined the Nation of Domination with The
Rock and that whole group, and then

became my favorite person ever, The
Godfather.

Selling white girls on TV, talking about
getting high, and selling pussy. I'm in

the Nation of Domination now.

They're building up Mark Henry.

The Rocks take it over.

So now I'm like, I got to make a change.
They're not doing nothing with me.

Bruce Pritchard had called me and said,
hey, we're doing this thing. You get, I

think, $10 ,000 if you fight. There's so
much more if you win.

And you're wearing gloves.

And I'm like, hell yeah, I'll do it.
That's the stuff I do anyway. So I was

right from the beginning.

Darren Drozdoff was one of my favorite
recruits of all time. Came out of the

University of Maryland.

He just wanted to compete.

They brought me in as a football player
to see if I could learn the sport.

We saw footage of him puking on an NFL
game.

I threw up all the time.

If I was throwing up at that time, if I
could grab ahold of you, you'd get one

in the face.

I brought him to the WWE offices to have
a meeting with Vince McMahon.

Vince loves that kind of humor. If
you're a writer and you can come up with

skit that involves puking, taking a
dump, peeing, you'll probably buy it.

He's got to puke! He's got to puke! He's
got to puke!

Whatever it takes. I thought, we'll do
it this way. I'll come in as puke.

I got my foot in the door or whatever,
and I just went from there.

Russo's idea is gaining traction, but
not everyone in the WWF is convinced

work. I first heard about the Brawl for
All, I believe, at one of the TV tapings

when they were mentioning it was going
to be starting in the next few weeks.

as I grasped what they were talking
about, I got more and more concerned

it. You don't know it's not going to
work until you try it. I didn't kill the

idea in my mind's eye when I first heard
it. There was no precedent for it.

And you're taking guys out of their
element and putting them into their

imaginary element of what they pretend
they know, and that's bar fighting.

When I come up here, I've never been to
bar fighting. Now the wrestlers are

living out their fantasies, and the
result is chaos.

With the unusual concept of combining
professional wrestling, and real

the architects of the Brawl for All make
final preparations.

They went around to all the talent and
asked who wanted to participate.

The story was, and I didn't see this
hat, but the story was that the pairings

were chosen at random by drawing names
out of a hat.

What we did, and we did it in my office,
had Savio Vega.

We had a brown paper bag. I wrote
everyone's name down on a piece of

threw it in the bag, and Savio drew the
names. And the first name drawn was the

first name on the bracket and so on and
so forth. So that's how the brackets

were made. As the brackets are set.

These 16 men become the official
competitors in wrestling's first ever

legitimate prize fighting tournament.
You knew Steve Blackman was like the

deal. Then you had a guy like Mark
Merrow, who was a legitimate gold gloves

champion. Mark Cannonberry, 6 '5", 300,
punches like a bull.

John Layfield Bradshaw, he's a big old
rough and tough Texan.

Baracus was a bodybuilder. He didn't
have the mobility.

Baracus had about as much business in
the brawl for all as I would.

Savio Vega always had like a little bit
of a belly, but could take care of

himself. Hogg would have no problem
pulling a guy's eyeball out and eating

biting his nose off his face.

Bart Gunn was hardworking, dependable,
loyal.

You could rely on him.

Droz was a no -fear kind of guy.

Bob Holly was a badass on a street
level. Carl Ouellette, big -time

kid. Godfather, he beat up people like
for a living.

Dan Severin was a UFC Hall of Famer, a
Super Fight Champion, a Triple Crown

winner. Ron Harris walked into bars for
one reason, and that was to fight.

Too Cold Scorpio had decided he would
try and break out of the Flash Funk ha

gimmick.

The one man that stands out is recent
WWF acquisition Steve Williams, also

to fans as Dr.

Death.

He's like a little brother. We brought
him out of college, gave him his first

job. Introducing first in the red
corner, from the University of Oklahoma,

Steve, Dr.

F. Williams.

He was a homegrown, sentimental
favorite.

I think he was four -time All -American
football, and I believe he's a four

-time All -American wrestler, too. Comes
kind of busy.

Does this face look like he's ever been
scared?

Jim Ross' boy.

A lot of heat for that, saying that, but
he's Jim Ross' boy.

You hear about the boy from Japan, he
beats the Japanese up, drop them on

head.

The reason we're bringing Dr. Death into
WWE was to eventually have a run with

Stone Cold.

So we thought if this works out and Doc
can pull his way through this

tournament, we might have him ready to
have a program with Austin.

These guys for years and years go out
there and they have a choreographed

You know at some point in the locker
room like these conversations really had

come up. Like how bad an ass is Steve
Blackman? Now it was real. Now a lot of

these questions were going to be
answered.

Scheduled over a two -month period.

The Brawl for All premieres June 29,
1998 on Monday Night Raw. Each match

consists of three one -minute rounds
with five points awarded for each landed

punch and each takedown. The last man
standing will receive a $75 ,000 cash

prize.

We are watching the Brawl for All for
the first time in over 20 years.

Look, look, look, look, look, look at
this. Here, look, look.

See?

Oh, this is great, man, catching up.
God, I was 28 years old, and I'm 50 now.

Maybe two, three, four hours before the
match, getting ready to fight a UFC

fighter.

Well, me, I was outside with some of the
girls smoking cannabis.

And that just goes to show you, one,
that I was always smoking cannabis.

not the big deal. It's I had no fear.

Anybody who knows anything can tell
right off the bat these guys do not know

to box, and it's just sloppy.

You've gotten away from all your moves
and all your setup.

It has nothing to do with wrestling.

Jim Ross had to try to explain to the
fans why these guys may be great

wrestlers, but they look like two drunks
in a bar right now.

It's not just the fans who are
frustrated.

The chaos of the fights makes them
difficult for anyone to follow.

I was so confused when everybody got
signed up and the rules kept evolving

takedown is legal.

I don't know if that's a takedown or a
knockdown or... Is that a takedown? That

should be a takedown right there.

You've got a referee that's never
refereed boxing or a competitive fight.

got judges that have never judged any
type of competitive fight. When you've

stupidity on this grand biblical scale,
anything is possible.

I mean, again, I got to be honest with
you. As a pure television viewer, I'm

totally entertained by this.

Dan Sever narrowly defeats the Godfather
in the first round, but senses his

reputation as a decorated fighter is at
risk if he continues on.

He decides to drop out of the tournament
altogether, which sends the Godfather

into round two.

Nobody knew what was going on, and
that's when Guy started saying, let's

punch each other.

They get excited. Just throw punches.

Somebody gets knocked out, they get
knocked out.

At the time, I was wrestling with Bob
Holly. We were a tag team. We were

actually Midnight Express.

But my first bout and his, they put us
against each other.

I just thought that was a really shitty
way of doing it.

So yeah, we drew them. We drew them all
out of the hat. It's just the way it

came out.

No, I'm not buying that one.

As the reality of the situation takes
hold, Brotherhood...

and professional relationships are put
aside.

My friend, my partner, we're going to go
out and whack each other. It started

kind of weird. We traveled together. We
shared a room. You know, we always ate

together, go train together.

Well, I got to hit him or he's going to
hit me.

I didn't go easy on him. I wanted to
win.

Do you recall what it was like
afterwards?

Yeah, well, actually, we had to get in
the car because we stayed in the same

room that night.

It was a little quiet, a little awkward.

I think we might even have had a match
or something the next day together, you

know, as a tag team.

Vince McMahon can't keep his finger out
of anything. So even something that's

supposed to be a legitimate shoot, he
probably said to himself, as long as

they're really fighting, we can play
with the matchmaking all we want.

People have talked about they've had the
Dr. Death theory that this was skewed

to Dr.

Death, putting him in there with a one
-eyed guy. No, it wasn't.

Carl Ouellette had sight in one eye.
Should have been a brawl for all hell

What are we thinking?

He's blind in one eye.

I don't remember who the first injury
was.

It was the first of several. One after
the other.

I tore my bicep and I tore my quads and
tore my ACLs. It was like it was jinxed.

Vince could have pulled the plug on this
any time he wanted to, but he chose not

to. It didn't take but one week of TV to
convince me that this...

thing has shit the bed i dreaded having
another night of brawl for all matches

because you never knew who's going to
get hurt tonight because it seems to be

inevitable and enough is enough the
brawl for all tournament is already on

rocks but through the chaos an unlikely
hero is set to emerge

when i was in the ninth grade

i weighed 89 pounds i was the shortest
kid in class So I got picked on

constantly. They slap you in the head,
they push you, they trip you, knock your

books out of your hands.

Then I got older, grew up, got a little
bigger, and then I kind of went back,

and everybody that kind of picked on me,
I went back and paid them a visit, let

them know what it was like.

After an awkward victory over his tag
team partner in the first round of the

Brawl for All, Bart Gunn awaits his next
opponent.

Well, what happened was Bruce calls me
up.

He says, oh, Bart, just going to let you
know we're going to be fighting Dr.

Death. I go, really?

He says, yeah. I said, oh, so you
changed the brackets around.

And I go, well, Bruce, why don't you
guys leave it like it is and save us for

the end? I said, you know, I'd be more
than happy to work with you guys because

everybody knows you guys want him to
win.

He goes, no, no, we got all the faith in
the world in Dr. Death.

That tells me right there it was
designed for him.

Absolutely. I already knew that because
any time they actually advertised the

brawl for all, they talked about Steve.

I said, okay.

I said, well, let me ask you this.

Am I going to get heat with you guys
when I beat them? She goes, oh, no, no,

We got all the confidence in the world
in them.

Now, Bruce at that time had known Doc
for a long time just like we all had and

think kind of giggled. Sure, yeah, knock
out Dr. Death. When they said that, it

kind of made me feel like now they're
already putting him with me now.

Maybe they don't have any confidence in
me and I'm just a nobody.

Well, why wouldn't you have confidence
in Dr. Death?

Is that a sin?

He was a...

Four -time All -American in wrestling in
Division I.

They don't give that stuff away.

As soon as I walked in the door, Pat
Patterson walked right up to me. He

oh, so you're going to knock out Dr.
Death, are you?

And at that time, I was just furious.

It just pulled my blood because they
nagged at me all day long. Oh, yeah,

going to knock them out. You're going to
knock them out. I go get something to

eat or anywhere in the hall, somebody
would have something smart out to say.

They're all back there. They got their
little clans and yakking. So just kept

all bottled up all day long.

When that match came on, it was standing
room only at those monitors.

It became very, very, very real.

As both men head to the ring, Dr. Death
is the overwhelming favorite.

At that time, I was so furious because
of what everybody in the office was

saying.

And I was more tunnel vision. I wasn't
seeing it any other way. I was going to

go out and beat him.

So they were toe -to -toe. Just thinking
in my mind, okay, this is it. This is

what I'm going to have to do.

The stakes are high in this matchup, and
the brawl for all.

He took me down.

I was kind of surprised at that.

But then at some point, Bart switched up
his game plan and took Doc down.

Uh -oh.

He was like halfway out of the ropes,
and he's like, damn, brother.

And then I just said, sorry, what do you
want me to do with the shoot?

It's not like we're out there working.

Then at some point, Doc tore his
hamstring. And now suddenly, Dr. Dusty

Williams has become a 300 -pound one
-legged man in an ass -kicking contest

where you need to be mobile.

You know, right there at the end, I
caught him a couple times. He was

staggering. And I thought, man, he's
fixing to go down.

And then it happened. Boom, boom, boom.

And down goes Doc.

He's out, cold.

And I was like, oh, shit.

And my heart sunk. And I got a bad
feeling in my stomach because I knew

went Dr. Death's WWF career.

Dr. Death's injuries are so severe, He's
forced to undergo a lengthy

rehabilitation, but the damage to his
reputation proves far worse.

Within a year, he'd be out of the WWF
entirely.

There comes Russo walking down the
hallway.

I said, are you happy?

You just cost the company $5 million in
one night. And he looked at me and went,

what are you talking about? I said, you
idiot.

Dr. Steve Williams just got beat on live
television in front of everybody.

What difference does it make how Bart
Gunn's going to be a star now?

I said, I want to kill you.

I would like to just squeeze you until
your britches are full and your eyeballs

pop out.

Dr. Death, I'm sure we could have done a
lot with him, but it's not like he was

coming in at his peak or his prime or on
his way up. It's probably fair to say

his best years in wrestling were behind
him, but no doubt about it, you know,

that injury definitely cut his career
short.

Kind of quiet when I went back.

Management didn't say anything to me. I
had all the heat on me then, because I

just knocked out JR's boy.

This whole Dr. Death element in the
Brawl for All has been so grossly

overthought that it has embarrassed me
about some of my peers and some of my

friends that actually believe there's
another story. There's this covert

that's going on. We'll never really know
the answer.

Come on.

Grow up.

I didn't really see anybody from the
office after that.

So it's kind of like, you know, you guys
were picking at me, and, you know, I

did what I was going to do.

Bart secures his place in the semifinals
where the godfather awaits.

In the other match, Draws takes on
Bradshaw.

Oh,

yeah.

Absolutely. Well, I'm sure I reminded
him a couple times.

Should have gotten freaking points for a
takedown there.

That was a takedown under any rule,
screwy or not. That was a takedown. How

would you call this one, JR? Who do you
think? What's close? Very close in my

book. I'm on Draw's side here.

Here's your winner, Rachel.

There it is.

Boo. I cried bullshit.

Now I'm going to be bitter for the next
couple days.

You guys are going to be bitter. I got
tears in my eyes. I'm, like, fired up,

like, shit.

And I had me wondering, of course, I
don't know if the people upstairs, if

wanted me to fight Bart at the time, and
I still think that it was, you know,

that I won the fight. But Bradshaw
didn't go around bragging because he

I so badly wanted Bradshaw to get his
ass kicked.

That's all I cared about because he was
so cocky. He was so confident when he

made the remark. He couldn't back out of
it now because I would be the first one

to say, wait a minute, whoa, I just
wanted him to get his clock clean. I'm

honest. With only one fight left before
the final, it's up to Bart Gunn or the

Godfather to keep Bradshaw from having
the last word.

Working at this club right here in the
90s, and I was the manager from 5 o

'clock in the morning to 1 in the
afternoon, and I hated pimps. And I

if there's any pimps behind this bar,
they better not be here in the next five

minutes because I will knock you off
your bar stool.

And I swear to you, I would walk behind
the bar, the pimp was sitting there just

cracking me as hard as I could, and
they'd start running. But yeah, man.

I used to be able to knock people out by
slapping them in their face.

The Godfather's second round victory
over Too Cold Scorpio advances him to

final four.

He's just two wins away from claiming
the $75 ,000 prize.

Standing in his way is tournament
underdog Bart Gunn.

Well, this is going to be a tough fight.
It's big, but I'm watching him like

shadow boxing stuff.

I go, wow, he's got boxing skills.

I went into that fight way
overconfident.

I'd been smoking all day, yeah, but I
smoke all day, all the time.

Just before I fought Bart, he says, I'm
going to knock you out.

And I'm like, yeah, okay, good luck.

Do you remember anything of what you
were thinking before going into that

Get him.

Don't let him take me down.

Don't cold face, okay?

I get myself up, come out throwing
leathers.

And here we go. This is going to be a
slugfest, JR.

You know, we were punching. I think he
kind of caught me.

Pretty good.

I think, oh, that kind of stung a little
bit.

And somewhere in there, he hit me with
something that knocked me to the ground.

And I remember going back to the corner
saying, I don't have my legs. I don't

have my legs. I don't have my legs.

Every single person was at the monitor,
and nobody could believe it.

His head hit the ropes, her come real
close to it, kind of went out of the

and kind of hang in there. Like, wow, I
hope he's okay.

I mean, the reputation of the godfather
and, you know, Bart being under the

radar, I mean, unbelievable.

My wife was really upset because she was
counting on that money. She was not

happy about it. She blamed it on me
smoking.

And I'm like, eh.

I didn't give Bart the amount of respect
that I should have.

This is a few days after that fight. I
was f***ed up. And I couldn't walk.

I had to get in a wheelchair.

My leg got infected.

I got this cut out. Oh, whoo.

Maybe that was the stupidest idea in
wrestling right there.

Because a lot of people did get hurt.

The injuries were a big, big deal.

Here's what it meant. It meant taking
guys off the line. They were sitting at

home. They couldn't work. They couldn't
earn.

And that cost the company money because
they weren't able to be productive.

It wasn't a good thing.

How morally and intellectually bankrupt
and irresponsible do you have to be to

create a situation where your stars get
legitimately injured just to get even

with a wrestler who was bragging about
how tough he was in the locker room?

He can't be feeling good about getting
in the ring with Bart, man. There's no

way. At that point, that was like the
finals. There was only one more left,

that was Bradshaw.

After a rollercoaster two months of
combat, the Brawl for All final is set.

one -time long shot against the man who
inspired it all.

Both men are trained very diligently for
this contest.

Come out, just a couple punches, caught
him. There he goes!

Unbelievable!

Golly! It's like, wow, it's over.

Then he got back up. I was like, whew.
You okay?

Let's go.

Well, this may not last much longer. Oh,
there it is.

Oh, my God.

Whoa.

There's your winner.

Take a look at a guy that has just made
a name for himself in this business.

Oh,

my good night.

Man, he even had the jittery legs. Did
you see the jumpy legs?

The smelling salt ain't doing nothing to
him.

When Bradshaw got knocked out, it was
scary because his eyes obviously weren't

there and he twitched a little bit and
you could tell he wasn't home even a

while afterwards.

When I saw Bradshaw get knocked out, I
could not hold back those emotions.

I'm sorry. This whole tournament was
because of him and his mouth and there

was laying on the canvas unconscious.

Bro, you know the old saying, don't,
don't, never, never ask for, how's that

You get what you asked for, or you know
what I mean. He didn't understand even

then what he had done to this day.

The moron doesn't understand what he's
done.

I believe he sabotaged the talent, the
integrity of the business, got people

legitimately hurt, and killed a future
superstar, and doesn't realize he did

anything wrong.

There, in a nutshell, you have the skid
mark on the underwear of life that is

Vince Russo.

I'm 57 years old. Jim Cornette is my
age. When is this ever going to stop?

Cornette believed in the stake of the
business.

Russo more of the sizzle of the
business.

and therein they have a tremendous
controversy and conflict.

They'll never be on the same page in my
lifetime.

Jim Cornette leaves a message on my
answering machine, threatening to kill

threatening to kill my entire family. I
said, I'd just like to tell you, you no

good piece of shit.

What a piece of shit you are and how you
narrowly escaped getting put in a

hospital by me with a goddamn baseball
bat for all you've done to me and my

friends and the careers you've ruined
and the shitty wrestling that you

produced. I just wanted to make sure
that you knew that from my own lips.

And I'm just like, bro, this is
wrestling. Like, are you serious?

Like, you're going to kill me over
professional wrestling. Why is he doing

to me? Just over wrestling?

Just over wrestling?

That's what it's always been because he
just, I can't believe that he would do

this to me just over wrestling.

And wrestling has been the most
important thing in my life.

With a disastrous brawl for all finally
over, Bart Gunn has proven to be the

toughest guy in the locker room.

And he was ready to jumpstart his
career.

But he was in for a brutal awakening.

Well, these here are the gloves that
they gave me for winning the Brawl for

It is my privilege and honor to present
you with these golden boxing gloves.

What was your reaction to winning this
whole thing?

It was great.

I thought, man, I'm finally going to get
a great push.

Jim Ross comes up, talks to me. He says,
hey, to be honest, we didn't think

anybody could take Steve off his feet.

He goes, I guess we should have did our
homework on you a little better.

And I said, well, probably so. You know,
I tried to work with you guys, and he's

like, well, I just want you to know
there's no hard feelings.

And I think as soon as he said that, I
thought, wow, I do got some heat.

After his victory in the Brawl for All,
Bart Gunn is awaiting his big career

push. The WWF are now faced with the
problem of what to do with a wrestler

didn't expect to win.

It was always the plan that whoever
would win the Brawl for All would get a

promotional push. When it was Bart, the
wind kind of came out of those sails.

I'm not knocking Bart Gunn. Great
athlete, good wrestler, good guy.

But the way he had been presented for
the previous five years was at a level

here, not here.

Examine the facts.

Nobody got over.

Not one son of a bitch that fought in
that Brawl for All got over.

End of story.

They sent me home.

Now they don't know what to do with me.

Vince Russo called me up, and he said,
Boris, we don't really know what type of

a storyline gimmick to put you in. I
kind of sat home for a long time, not

anything. The longer I sat at home, the
more frustrating it was.

They let him twist in the wind for a
little while, and then, of course, Vince

McMahon got the idea because it's a
gimmick.

Butterbean! Let's let him fight
Butterbean at WrestleMania.

Well, my understanding is when Bart
knocked out Dr. Death, Vince got pissed.

So they called me in for his punishment.

Butterbean's an overachiever. You know,
he's got that bald head and he's very

white. He looks like some sort of
appliance.

But boy, does he hit. Oh, my God.

Eric Esch, a .k .a. Butterbean, is a 300
-pound professional prize fighter with

more than 50 wins under his belt.

What he lacked in technique.

he more than makes up for with raw
hitting power.

So at some point it was suggested
Butterbean and Bart have a boxing match

because Butterbean was a great
personality, great for wrestling.

I think it was presented to me, and, you
know, I was like, ah, you know, I

don't, you know, sure, I guess.

You know, because I was sitting at home,
I was tired of sitting at home. And

they said, hey, we're going to send you
to a boxing school, you know, and they

start teaching me how to box.

The crossover match serves as both the
promotional push Bart has been waiting

for and a chance for the WWF to cash in
on Butterbean's mainstream popularity.

The man that will face Butterbean, Bart
Gunn. Well, JR, you know, I'm not

training just to beat him. I'm training
to knock him out.

Me, Butterbean, and Gilbert, we were
chilling. I think me and Gil were

Butterbean wasn't smoking. And we were
talking about it.

Butterbean, he told me, he said this,
and I've already told Vince.

He goes, you guys are tough guys. I give
you that, okay?

But you're not professional fighters.

I will beat that kid in seconds.

It's two different sports. He had no
chance against me. You know, Vince kind

smiled at me when I went to the ring. He
knew that it was over for Bart. He knew

that I was going to knock him out, and
he wanted me to knock him out.

Walking into WrestleMania was kind of
like no experience I've ever had up to

that point. This place was huge.

On March 28, 1999, the WWF resurrects
the Brawl for All concept on their

largest stage, WrestleMania XV.

A talented amateur can't stand up next
to a professional in any field. So there

was no reason to believe that even
though Bart was a great -looking athlete

Butterbean was a big, fat, round, baked
potato with arms and legs, Butterbean

was a trained and experienced
professional boxer.

I didn't feel the same as I felt with
the other fights because I'm different

now. I'm a boxer now, and I got this
other persona.

Here we go, round one, brawl for all.

Butterbean and Bart Gunn.

I remember being in the crowd.

Something was off.

This wasn't the guy that I saw knock out
the Godfather and the guy that I saw

knock out Bradshaw. This wasn't one of
those fights.

Now I'm out there as a green boxer
trying to, okay, hold my hands like

hold my feet like this.

When Bart tried to box, I said, this is
it. I got him now, so I just went in,

charged him, just give him a couple good
shots, put him to the mat.

And then when I went to the corner, I'm
like, man, I hope he don't get up

because it's going to be bad if he does
because he's wobbling.

When Vinny let the fight go on, I'm
going, hey, you don't need to do that.

out of it. So I just give him one last
good right hand.

His head actually turned around
backwards.

Yeah, you know, when I got home, my kids
come home from school, and they were a

little upset. They go, Dad, my friend
told me you killed a guy on TV. You

Bart Gunn.

I said, he's not dead. He just looked
like it.

I'll be honest, if he had a 50 -50
chance, if he went out and brawled like

did with the other guys.

But with me, he actually tried to box,
which was stupid.

Very disappointed, very, very mad at
myself.

You know, just wasn't happy at all.

After WrestleMania, I knew I was done.
There wasn't a future left there for me

at all.

The end. That was the end there for me
in the States.

A lot of old stuff here.

You said you hadn't watched the
Butterbean fight.

Can you talk about why that was the
case?

I don't know if I want that on air,
but... I

just never watched it. I was mad at
myself that I made some mistakes.

But it always stuck in the back of my
mind. And then I saw, when I was in

Butterbean. I saw he was over there.
He's doing MMA.

I thought, wow, this is interesting.

Because I always wanted to get a second
chance.

And I said, you know, I'm going to do
MMA.

And I got a fight with Wesley Cabbage.

And Butterbean fought him.

Butterbean beat him, I think, in the
second or third round. Went over there.

very first MMA fight and stopped it in
the first round. So I said, yeah, I beat

this guy quicker than Butterbean beat
him.

One night, like on a Tuesday night, I
said, hey, we got you a match with

Butterbean. So really great.

Yeah, we want you to come fight Friday.

It's like in four days.

And I said, no, no, no, no, no.

I've learned from my mistakes.

You can't even set up a match with me
and Butterbean. I went 12 weeks to train

for it. So that didn't happen.

Could have turned out the same thing.
Could have beat me again.

But I would have got to do it a little
bit better my way.

It may sound crazy to a lot of people,
but that's just kind of the way I'm

driven. And then kind of time passed,
and then sad things happened in my life.

And after that, I was kind of done with
the whole fighting thing, and then I

didn't do any more.

I miss being at the curtain and going
through the curtain and out and

performing. You know, you got the
excitement in the crowd, the adrenaline

Me going to work every day, there's not
adrenaline rush there anymore.

But I enjoy sleeping in my bed every
night, you know, sitting there with my

dinner at the house.

You get tired of it.

eating out all your meals, you know,
seven days a week.

So... Droz's career in the WWF would
continue

for another year until a tragic accident
changed his life forever.

Do you mind if I ask you a few questions
about your injury? No problem, man.

Okay. Prior to it happening, what was
your plan for the wrestling business?

You know, I really had no clue.

And the funny part is I was actually
going to win that match.

You know, I didn't get a lot of wins.

Droz was wrestling D 'Lo Brown one
night. And D 'Lo was a very smooth,

accomplished wrestler.

We were just going to do a powerbomb.
And he had powerbombed me before.

When he picked me up, I don't know if I
slipped or what.

I have this, these memories are seared
in my brain perfectly.

Which stinks.

Pulled him up and we didn't go.

And we just fell forward.

But I remember going back down like this
isn't right. I couldn't get my hands

down really.

And I just remember hearing crack,
crack.

And I just went, oh, I just broke my
neck.

I said, stop messing with me. You okay?

Can't move.

One of the cardinal rules is you're
supposed to leave the ring the same way

went into it.

And I remember crying next to him,
telling him, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm

it should never happen.

I was going, it's okay, dog, it's okay,
it's okay, it's okay.

Nothing we could have done would have
changed, you know, it just happens.

So, but he's a good guy, man. I still
wish, I wish him the best last time I

him. Neither of us, we've talked about
it, we don't know what happened.

Neither of us blame the other.

It's one of those unfortunate accidents
that happen.

Bottom line is I'm here, still alive,
I'm still kicking. Well, not kicking

really, but I can't kick.

But I still get to go out and I hunt.

You know, I do all the things that I can
do. It's just, you know, you learn to

do things differently.

Draw is still paralyzed to this day.
It's been more than 20 years.

Things happen, you know, in this
business.

And it's not ballet. And that's why it
especially angers me when people

it one move.

He's been in a wheelchair for the rest
of his life.

So don't tell me that wrestling is a
bunch of bullshit.

Just some of the ways that people that
have gotten into it treat it is

I feel bad.

How come? Because I don't want to see
anybody get hit like that, man. Oh, my

God.

Especially now with just all the stuff
we know about head trauma and

man.

Oh, man.

I really should have been thinking, man,
these guys are out of their element

with what we know about concussions
today. Just knowing all that today,

didn't know back then, no way, no way
would I ever propose it again.

I think the brawl should be remembered
for what it was, a cluster.

It sucked.

There's no reason to embrace it.

It was simply a bad idea that featured a
lot of guys looking to get a rub in a

new event. That's what it was developed
to do.

Create some new stars, new rubs, new
opportunities. And it just didn't do it.

The Brawl for All remains the only prize
-fighting tournament to be put on by

the WWE.

What could have been a career -defining
moment for its champion instead became a

stark reminder of how wrestling's
winners are always chosen in the

Bruce has said that the Brawl for All is
the, quote, absolute worst idea in the

history of the business.

I agree with that, but they're the ones
that put it on.

So explain that one.

I think they should learn from their
mistakes and probably should never do it

again.

Should just kind of let it disappear.