411’s Dark Side of the Ring – ‘The Brawl for All’ Report: Russo & Cornette Snipe Back & Forth At Each Other

-Welcome to the latest episode of this amazing series. The first 2 shows have been intense and heavy. This week we bring things down a bit as we focus on the craziness that was WWE’s Brawl of All. This event is one of the wildest in wrestling history and one that will never be repeated. Let’s get to it!

-As a reminder Chris Jericho is the narrator and he tells us that in 1998 the WWF took 16 of their wrestlers and let them have unscripted fights. Cornette calls it the worst idea in the history of the business.

-Show opening!

-In the late 90s we had the Monday Night War between WCW and WWE. Some of the ideas from that period are still used today and some were immediately forgotten. Vince Russo pops up and talks about how bad the WWE was in 1996. He goes over characters like The Goon, TL Hopper, and Mantaur. To Russo the WWE was going backwards and he knew the internet was taking over. They knew it wasn’t real and they wanted to see what was happening behind the scenes. For the opposite take we have Jim Cornette and he hates when people use the word “fake.” To him there is nothing fake about it as guys have destroyed their bodies in this business.

-Russo talks about Vince’s inner circle when he started and how they were lifers. He came to Vince as a wrestling fan. Cornette mentions that the WWE is Vince’s life and doubts he has seen a movie in the last 40 years. Russo tells the story of getting the call to Vince’s office thinking he was going to be fired. Vince had his inner circle with him and had a copy of RAW magazine and wanted that to be the product on TV. From that point Russo became the head writer.

-Cornette first thought Russo was a goof and realized he just wanted to make wrestling The Jerry Springer Show. Russo says that was their goal as they would write RAW with The Springer Show on in the background. Russo was writing for the college dorms that were gathering every Monday Night. He was trying to grab the attention of the casual wrestling viewer.

-Jim Ross joins us next and says the idea for The Brawl for All came from Vince Russo, so you would have to get in his head. Russo admits he is not a fan of JBL as he thought he had a big mouth. He calls Bradshaw a bully and heard him tell everyone if things were real he would beat them. Russo wanted to see this because he knew at least 10 guys would kick Bradshaw’s ass. Vince gave his blessing when Russo pitched the idea. The top stars weren’t going to be involved obviously, so they needed to find 16 guys.

-Enter Bart Gunn who introduces himself by showing a scar on his side from a broken bottle. Nasty! He goes over his tag run and how teams always split and he was fizzling out when the team split. He was approached about being in the Brawl for All and it was presented that the winner was going to get a run with Austin. The idea of getting a run with the top guy got him to sign up for it as it meat a lot of money.

-Russo thought of Charles Wright (The Godfather) as the toughest guy. The Godfather is here and he goes over all his various gimmicks and admits The Godfather was his favorite. Brawl For All was an easy sell for him as that was something he liked to do anyway. Droz is here and seeing him today is kind of jarring as I haven’t seen him since his TV days and the accident.

-Cornette first heard of the idea at one of the shows and he wasn’t thrilled. JR wasn’t as dismissive of the idea at first and just knew some guys were thinking of living out their fantasies of being bar fighters.

-Commercials!

-The pairings were chosen by drawing names out of a paper bag. Savio Vega actually drew the names out of the bag. Russo mentions that everyone knew Blackman was the real deal and puts over Mero for being a gold gloves boxer. JR kills Brackkus by saying he had as much business being in that tournament as he would. Damn! Cornette sums up Hawk by saying he would have no problem ripping someone’s eye out and eating it. Droz had no fear, Savio had a belly, but could take care of himself. Bart Gunn was dependable and reliable. Bob Holly was a bad ass on a street level, Dan Severn was a UFC Champion. Ron Harris walked into bars to fight and 2 Cold Scorpio wanted to get past Flash Flunk. The one name that stood out was Dr. Death Steve Williams.

-The pairings are shown on a helpful bracket: Canterbury/Bradshaw, Blackman/Mero, Brakkus/Savio, Droz/Hawk, Oulette/Dr Death, Bart/Holly, Godfather/Severn, 8-Ball/Scorpio

-JR is all over talking about Doc as you would expect. Bart calls out that Doc was JR’s boy. He was brought into the WWE to have a run with Austin. They figured this tournament was a way to get him heated up for that run. For Russo this was a way to answer the question everyone asked: who was the baddest man?

-Jericho narrates the rules and states the winner was going to get $75000. All the talking heads sit down to watch the first Brawl for All show. Godfather mentions he was set to face a UFC Champion and yet was out back with the girls smoking weed. Amazing! That was his way of showing he had no fear and it was also no secret he smoked a lot of weed. Cornette rightly points out that you can tell that nobody knows how to box in this thing.

-The Godfather mentions this had nothing to do with wrestling. JR says he was so confused because the rules kept evolving. You had refs that had no clue how to ref a competitive fight. Russo says as a TV viewer he is entertained. Severn wins by decision, but backs out because he doesn’t want to damage his reputation. That sends The Godfather, who lost, to Round 2.

-Bart says he was in a tag with Bob Holly, but somehow they faced each other in Round 1. He doesn’t buy that it was drawn out of a bag. This was his friend, and yet they were really fighting each other. Bart wins and says things were awkward between them.

-Prichard debunks the idea that things were fixed to make it easier for Dr. Death. JR questions what Ouellete, who is blind in one eye, was even doing in there. Yet, the one eyed man gets Doc in the first round.

-Guys were getting injured all over the place. JR knew it shit the bed after just one week. Russo mentions Vince could have pulled the plug anytime he wanted, but didn’t.

-Commercials!

-Bart mentions he weighed 89lbs in 9th grade and was constantly bullied. As he grew and got bigger he went back and paid all those that picked on him a visit. Bart won his match and received a call from Prichard that he would he facing Dr Death next. Bart wanted them to change the bracket and save that match for last and he would be happy to work with them because everyone knew they wanted Dr Death to win. Bruce told him it was fine because they had all the faith in Steve. That told Bart right there that it was all designed for Steve. Bart wanted to know if he would get heat for beating Doc. Him saying that made the rounds to everyone and Cornette mentions Prichard was probably laughing about the idea that Bart Gunn was going to knock out Dr Death. JR doesn’t know what was wrong with having confidence in Steve because he was a 4 time All American in wrestling. Patterson came up to Bart before the show and laughed at the idea he was going to knock out Dr. Death. That only pissed Bart off and he was ready for the fight. All day the guys kept ragging him for the comment and it became standing room only at the curtain.

-Bart says he had tunnel vision and he knew he needed to knock him out. Dr Death got an early take down, but Gunn was able to get a few of his own. Cornette says that Doc tore a hamstring during the match and then it happened as he caught a left hand that knocked him out. Cornette says his heart sunk as he knew Doc’s WWE career was over. The injuries Doc sustained were pretty severe and within a year he was gone.

-Cornette mentions he ran into Russo and told him he cost the company 5 million dollars in one night because Doc was just beaten in front of millions of people. Russo didn’t see the problem as he figured Bart would be a big star now and Cornette just wanted to kill him. Russo thinks they could have done a lot with Doc, but his best years in wrestling were behind him. Bart says he had heat from the win because he knocked out JR’s boy. JR shoots back that there was no secret covert plan and that everyone needs to grow up.

-Bart is now set to see The Godfather in the one semi while Droz is facing Brashaw. Russo admits that Bradshaw knew the event was built around him. Bradshaw wins a close decision, but Droz feels he was hosed and he was bitter about it. Cornette feels Droz won the match and Droz thinks the office wanted Bradshaw in the finals with Bart. Russo just wanted Bradshaw to get his ass kicked because of how cocky he was. Should have just given him Joey Styles as a first round opponent!

-Commercials!!

-The Godfather shows us the club he was the manager of during the mid and late 90s. He tells us he hated having pimps in his club and he would knock them out by slapping them in the face. He was set to face Bart in the semis. Bart knew this was going to be tough because he knew Godfather had some boxing skills. Godfather admits he was too confident and admits again that he was smoking weed before the show. Bart admits he got stung with a shot early but then dropped Godfather, who went back to his corner telling them he didn’t have any legs. Soon after a big right knocks him out and Russo says everyone watching in the back was stunned. The Godfather says his wife was pissed because she really wanted that money and blamed the weed. Godfather blames not taking Bart seriously and shows a picture of his bruised legs after the fight. He was hurt pretty bad and had to use a wheelchair for a bit. He admits that it may have been the stupidest idea in wrestling.

-JR says it wasn’t a good thing because it was taking guys off the front line and costing the company money. Cornette rants about how brain dead you had to be to come up with an idea that is injuring your talent just to get even with a guy who was bragging how tough he was.

-The finals are set with Bart vs Bradshaw and it’s a massacre. Bart knocks Bradshaw down, but he stupidly gets up even though he looks out on his feet and gets crushed once again. Cornette calls the knockout scary and Russo says he couldn’t help but be happy. Cornette is annoyed to this day because Russo still doesn’t realize he did anything wrong and calls Russo a skid mark on the business. We get insight from JR about the Russo/Cornette feud. Russo doesn’t know when this is going to end on Cornette’s part. Russo says he had a curse filled tirade on his answering machine and he can’t believe someone is this angry over wrestling. I will quote Cornette with what he told Russo: “I would just like to tell you, you no good piece of shit, you mother fucker, what a piece of shit you are, and how you narrowly escaped getting put in a fucking hospital by me with a damn baseball bat for all you have done to me, my friends, and the careers you’ve ruined and the shitty wrestling you’ve produced. I just wanted to make sure you knew that from my own lips.” Epic! Cornette says that wrestling has been the most important thing in his life and that is why he can rightfully be angry over wrestling.

-Commercials!

-Bart is given golden boxing gloves that he still owns. He felt great because he knew it meant he was going to get a bigger push. He says JR told him that they didn’t think anyone could take Doc off his feet and they should have done their homework on him. There are no hard feelings though and Bart knew that meant he had heat.

-The WWF now had to do something with a guy they didn’t expect to win. Cornette says that Bart is a good guy, but he wasn’t presented right in the previous 5 years. JR mentions that nobody got over from the tournament and they sent Bart home. Russo didn’t have any plans for him and then Vince got the idea for Bart to face Butterbean. The man himself is here and he is looking in rough shape as well. He flat out admits that from what he understood Vince was pissed that Dr Death lost and this was Bart’s punishment. Wow!

-JR says Butterbean looks like an appliance, buy boy can he hit. Russo says it was suggested they have a boxing match against each other. Bart took the match because he was tired of sitting at home and he was sent to boxing school. Godfather is back and says he was smoking weed with Butterbean and Gillberg. Bean told them that he knew wrestlers were tough guys but he was going to be Bart in just seconds because there is a difference between their sports. Bean says that Vince gave him a smile because he knew what was going to happen to Bart.

-The bout takes places at Mania XV and Cornette says that any amateur is going to get killed by a pro. Bean knew it was over once Bart tried to actually box him. He gave him a few shots and hoped he would stay down because he could see he was wobbling. Bart shows heart for getting up, but then he gets absolutely drilled with a shot that looked like it was going to rip his head off his shoulders. Just unreal and terrifying!

-Bean says his kids were upset because their friends told them their dad killed a man on PPV. Fantastic! Bean thinks Bart would have had a 50/50 shot if he would have brawled like he did the other guys but it was over the second he tried to box him. Bart says he was disappointed in himself and knew his career in wrestling was over after that knockout.

-Commercials!

-Back with Bart checking old photos and a producer brings up that Bart has never watched the Mania XV bout. He was in Japan and saw Butterbean doing MMA. He thought that was a second chance so he trained and beat a guy Butterbean beat. He was offered a match with Bean on 4 days notice and he said no as he wanted 12 weeks to train. The fight never happened though.

-Droz had a career for another year until a tragic injury. They talk about the incident as D-Lo hit a powerbomb that paralyzed Droz. D-Lo says that it haunts him and they tried the move and they just feel forward. He was crying next to Droz and kept apologizing to him. Droz calls D-Lo a good guy and still wishes him the best. Props to Droz for not carrying a grudge. He says that he is still alive and jokes that he’s not kicking, but he still gets to do things he loves. Cornette says Droz has been paralyzed for 20 years because of 1 wrong move and that’s why he gets angry when people call wrestling bullshit.

-Russo admits he does feel bad as he watches some of the fights. He doesn’t want to see people get hit like that and it’s scary to him because of what we know about concussions now. He would never advise something like that again. JR says it sucked and it was done to help create new stars and new opportunities and it didn’t work.

-This was just a reminder why wrestling has winners chosen in the board room. Bart says they should learn from their mistakes and never do it again.

-Next week we take at look at Jimmy Snuka and the death of his girlfriend.

-I loved this episode and anytime you can get Cornette and Russo offering their opinions on something you know it will lead to fireworks. For his part Russo seems to want to just move past everything, but we know Jim has a grudge and he explained why here. His tirade here was epic and worth the watch alone. This show continues to find the right people to discuss things and they covered this as well as you could want them to. The whole idea was insane and should have been canned after the first night but I guess credit to them for delivering to the end. I can see Bart getting heat on him, but obviously it wasn’t deserved. Putting him in there against a Pro was insane and I guess that was kind of the point. Obviously something like this would never, ever happen again in the WWE and really, I don’t even know who in their mid-card could even pull this off as most of them do their fighting on video game consoles with Street Fighter and the like. This was another in a long line of good shows from this series and it was nice to have something that wasn’t quite as serious as the last 2 episodes, but it seems we are back to the real dark side of wrestling next week. As always thanks for reading!