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Brawl For All


Just Dave

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So, because this quarantine is starting to get to my brain, I'm gonna do some stupid shit; watch the entire Brawl For All in it's entirety. If you'd like to participate and discuss, mock from afar, send the authorities to my house for a wellness check, feel free.

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Raw 6/29/1998

 

First of all, Jim Ross refers to it as "The Brawl for it All," which makes it sound like a "Three Ninjas" sequel. Ross quickly goes over the rules, which are, of course, convoluted as fuck. They're wearing 16 oz. boxing gloves but are scored for takedowns? It's hard enough to take someone down in a fight with MMA mitts. That's like asking them to play the guitar solo to "Hotel California" wearing oven mitts.

 

First up is Marc Mero vs. Steve Blackman. Blackman takes down Mero four times in the first round. Of all the ways they could've established Blackman as a badass, they pick this method. At the end of round 1, Blackman's up 25-0. Of course he is. Blackman absolutely rocks Mero with two spinebuster-like takedowns in the second round. The crowd still seems somewhat into this, chanting "lethal weapon." 

 

Blackman toying with Mero in the third round. Mero's gotta be thinking about what a mistake he made leaving WCW. He was a feature guy there. Now he's "Mr. Sable" and getting his ass handed to him by a mid-carder in a third-rate Toughman contest. Blackman wins handily but looks pissed to have to have done this to get exposure. There was enough awkward pauses in just this first fight for them to have called the tournament off. Ugh. 

 

Our second fight is Bradshaw vs. TAFKA Henry Godwinn. Mark Canterbury. He and Mideon should've reverted to Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pierce when they dropped the hog farmer gimmick. Those names were badass. I just noticed that both guys came out to the same intro music. Nothing screams "we think this is a big deal!" like shitty instrumental guitar muzak.

 

Canterbury fighting in sleeveless t-shirt and sweatpants. Bradshaw in his ring gear. The first round is an absolute snoozefest. The second round picks up slightly. Bradshaw gets angry enough about his spot on the card to throw a flurry of stiff rights. The crowd is starting to turn on this. I don't blame them. Imagine waiting for months for Steve Austin and the Rock to come to town and now you gotta watch a boxing match that would be the midcard on your standard ""bum fights" card. Canterbury shows some life in round three with a takedown, but he's clearly contemplating the choices he made in life that have led to this moment. The fight ends and everyone ponders asking for refunds. This crowd did get an Austin title win later in the night, so there's that...

 

7/6/1998

 

First up is Brakkus/Savio Vega. Who the fuck is Brakkus? I thought this was Ludvig Borga for a long time, but I guess it's a different dude. 

So, this first round isn't too bad. If you ever want to see a 'roided to the gills Aryan poster boy get his shit pushed in by a pudgy Puerto Rican dressed like one of my dad's friends that came to help us move, this round is for you. Vega unloads on Brakkus several times, and only the round ending saved a knockout here. Vega's the first fighter who looks like he might be enjoying this, which is odd, but there are people that enjoy Jason Aldean's music too, so who am I to judge?

 

Vega wears Brakkus's leathery ass out again in round two. Jim Ross is trying to sell the tv audience on how tough and brave these guys are for trying this. It's brave to jump out of a plane with no parachute, but that doesn't make it advisable. 

 

Round 3 is more of the same. Just complete domination by Vega, who has to be thinking about how far down the card he's fallen. Talk about a guy who could've gotten more from his career. 

 

Our second bout tonight is....Droz vs. Hawk? Fuck. I almost don't feel right watching this with the intent of making fun of it, due to where both guys are now. But I'll power through it. JR just said we're "ready" for another Brawl for All bout. Are we, Jim? Are we really? Both guys entering to the same shitty "generic WCW babyface" guitar music. Hawk throws some bombs in round 1, but they aren't of the "Irish Car" variety, so no one cares. Droz actually shows some fairly impressive boxing technique in round 2, and lands some heavy ones of his own. IDK if there was legit heat between the two, but they were both swinging from the fences from the first bell. Of course, if I've learned anything from the extensive martial arts training I've done, it's that sometimes beating the shit out of people you like is fun, too. Both guys spit their mouthpieces out over the course of round three, which is fucking dumb, but "fucking dumb" is kind of the common theme of this tourney. They fight to a draw, which sucks, but neither guy deserved to win or lose. And really, anyone who sat through this lost the fight, although a Jacqueline appearance is the cure for what ails the viewer after all this nonsense. 

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Regarding the music - a lot of the guys were coming out to stock themes the WWE didn't own at that time (I vividly remember Mero coming out to the same music as The Renegade). So whatever generic stuff Canterbury and Bradshaw came out to was likely what the Network dubbed in to replace those equally generic themes. 

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The funny thing is that wrestling has changed so much since then that if they did Brawl for All again today it would be way more competitive and watchable (still a terrible idea.) I would wager the bulk of the men’s and women’s roster either has amateur wrestling or some sort of martial arts discipline under their belt these days, even excluding the obvious people who transitioned over from MMA. 

As far as Hawk and Droz, that’s the only fight from this that I’ve watched recently. I didn’t get the impression they had heat. I think Hawk realized he’d bitten off more than he could chew and was working overtime to not to get exposed, and Droz was brand new to the business and had something to prove. 

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I'll never, ever understand how WWF thought going in that Williams was going to win this thing when Severn was initially in it as well. I know Dan dropped out after fully seeing how dumb it was, but there is no way he shouldn't have been the overwhelming favorite. Hell, Blackman might've been a better bet than Doc as well. And that's after Shamrock reportedly refused to enter, for the very true fact that if he wanted to fight for real, he could get paid a hell of a lot more to do it in UFC.

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59 minutes ago, (BP) said:

I believe the story that Severn dropped out because he hated the gloves and the execution of it, but the story that he was  yanked so he wouldn’t win it is plausible too.

I know what he said was that he had nothing to prove, but I think he just quit after having the first fight because he saw how dumb it was.

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my unpopular opinion: i think the Brawl 4 All tournament was fun.

yes, it was a terrible idea with bad execution. yeah, banking on Williams winning was a poor choice (in both fore- and hindsight). yes, killing Bart Gunn's momentum because he dared to win a shoot tournament was monumentally stupid. and yes, the crowds rightly shit all over it.

but seeing something unapologetically different, something that felt like it had real stakes, something unpredictable, was FUN. at least for me.

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3 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

I'll never, ever understand how WWF thought going in that Williams was going to win this thing when Severn was initially in it as well. I know Dan dropped out after fully seeing how dumb it was, but there is no way he shouldn't have been the overwhelming favorite. Hell, Blackman might've been a better bet than Doc as well. And that's after Shamrock reportedly refused to enter, for the very true fact that if he wanted to fight for real, he could get paid a hell of a lot more to do it in UFC.

Didn't they change the rules because they saw Blackman doing some of his regular training and realized how fucked everyone else would have been otherwise.

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Also, I can't decide which explanation for the Butterbean fight is dumber: that they truly believed Bart could win, or they wanted him to get knocked out for derailing their plans.

Edited by Brian Fowler
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Williams being expected to win so he could have a feud with Austin is still really strange to me. For like a year and a half (arguably at the peak of Austin’s run) he feuded with the same four guys almost exclusively as part of the overarching McMahon saga. There were a bunch of other workers he could’ve had great segments and matches with on the roster, but they were considering Dr. Death and Avalanche (or so I’ve heard) to challenge him. 

Edited by (BP)
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I think what's the most important fact about all this (and for some reason is the one that almost always gets underplayed every time the subject gets brought up) and why it is really very dark and disturbing is that it exposes the complete and callous disregard the company had for the safety and wellbeing of their performers.

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1 hour ago, (BP) said:

Williams being expected to win so he could have a feud with Austin is still really strange to me. For like a year and a half (arguably at the peak of Austin’s run) he feuded with the same four guys almost exclusively as part of the overarching McMahon saga. There were a bunch of other workers he could’ve had great segments and matches with on the roster, but they were considering Dr. Death and Avalanche (or so I’ve heard) to challenge him. 

If Williams came in 95-96 when they bringing in other guys like Spivey, Gordy, etc. to see if they had something left and were hard up for talent, doing that and feuding him with Bret, Diesel, or Shawn would not be an absolutely absurd idea. However, that's a lot of trouble to go through when you are no longer in a down period and have someone who has taken off like Austin. Also, what changed between 1987-88 and 1998 that made anyone believe that Doc could be a main eventer? The only difference would be he's ten years older and all the wear and tear from being in Japan has set in.

Edited by Elsalvajeloco
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2 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

If Williams came in 95-96 when they bringing in other guys like Spivey, Gordy, etc. to see if they had something left and were hard up for talent, doing that and feuding him with Bret, Diesel, or Shawn would not be an absolutely absurd idea. However, that's a lot of trouble to go through when you are no longer in a down period and have someone who has taken off like Austin. Also, what changed between 1987-88 and 1998 that made anyone believe that Doc could be a main eventer? The only difference would be he's ten years older and all the wear and tear from being in Japan has set in.

i always heard it was his short run/feud/match with Raven in ECW that made WWF brass think he was viable.

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7 minutes ago, twiztor said:

i always heard it was his short run/feud/match with Raven in ECW that made WWF brass think he was viable.

Also: Jim Ross.

The Between the Sheets podcast did an excellent show on this topic with Jordan Breen, very worth a listen. One of the crazy things was guys trying to go from work to shoot within the context of the same show, and one second they are in the back chatting and the next minute they are supposed to be pounding each other for real. The whole thing is complete madness.

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4 minutes ago, joseph2112 said:

Also: Jim Ross.

Given Ross had been fired twice (at least by my recollection), would he be even able to champion that if disaster in the actual tournament didn't strike? I can buy that he can sell Vince (McMahon, not Russo) on giving Doc a job. I can't suspend my disbelief enough for a main event push. I have never believed that.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Given Ross had been fired twice (at least by my recollection), would he be even able to champion that if disaster in the actual tournament didn't strike? I can buy that he can sell Vince (McMahon, not Russo) on giving Doc a job. I can't suspend my disbelief enough for a main event push. I have never believed that.

 

 

I think it was believed that he would win the tournament and they would set up a a big match between him and Austin. Maybe that would have been the push, win the Brawl for All and then set it up off that. 

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Just now, joseph2112 said:

I think it was believed that he would win the tournament and they would set up a a big match between him and Austin. Maybe that would have been the push, win the Brawl for All and then set it up off that. 

My conjecture is Jim was personally pulling for Doc to win and others gave him shit about that which would ultimately lead to the Williams and Oklahoma pairing in WCW not too long after that. I dunno if everyone else really thought Doc would win. I think the push thing was something that was fed to the internet guys and grew from there.

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