Bob Holly Reflects on the Brawl for All and Bart Gunn’s Toughness, Discusses Where Steve Blackman Is Now

– As previously reported, former WWE Superstar Bob Holly appeared on Stone Cold Steve Austin’s podcast. Below are some additional highlights (transcript via WrestlingInc.com).

Bob Holly on Steve Blackman preparing for the the Brawl for All: “Let me tell you something. That whole thing with that Brawl For All, [Blackman] was dead serious about hurting people. I mean, this guy, I kid you not, Steve, he isn’t anybody to mess with. I pushed his buttons on purpose, but I knew my boundaries. I knew my limitations. I knew how far I could go with him because I knew Steve. I wasn’t about to push him over that edge where I was going to come up missing because I’m serious – Steve is no joke. I’d put him in the same class as Meng, basically. Like, I put those two right there. Yeah, yeah. Steve’s dangerous. He’s dangerous. I talked to him actually probably about five [or] six weeks ago for the first time in years. Yeah, he’s one of those kinds of guys where if you’re messing with him, just joking around, he questions, ‘okay, is this guy really messing with me or is he wanting to start something?’ He’s always that serious! [Blackman]’s a good dude, funny, one of the nicest people you’d ever meet, but he’s just somebody that’s dangerous. He’s flat dangerous.”

Bob Holly on Blackman’s current whereabouts: “[Blackman] owns a bail bondsman business, so he’s doing that. He has a marital arts school, an MMA school. He runs that, but that’s what he’s doing now. Yeah, he sounds like he’s happy. He doesn’t really have any desire to put himself back out there as far as wrestling, or appearances, or things like that. He’s content doing what he’s doing. I know he’s married. He has two kids now and he seems happy, so he seems perfectly content with what he’s doing.”

Bob Holly on how an injury took Blackman out of the Brawl for All: “[WWE] decided on this Brawl For All. I can’t remember who came up with this crazy concept, but I wasn’t even supposed to be in it. I wasn’t even on their radar to be in it. Tiger Ali Singh backed out of it, he said he was going to beat everybody, but when it came down to it, he backed out of it and so [Bruce] Prichard called me and asked if I wanted to be in it. I was, so I got in it. When Steve Blackman heard about it, he wanted in, so they put Steve in it. And, actually, Blackman probably would’ve won the whole thing. He was taking this thing so seriously, and this is the mindset of Steve Blackman, he was taking it so seriously he was actually working out with guys, preparing for this Brawl For All, shooting in, taking guys down, like, obviously, boxing was included. He was practicing, doing that, and the guy that he was practicing, training with was a lot heavier than Steve and ended up rolling on his knee and it messed his knee up, so he had to back out if it.”

Bob Holly on Bart Gunn winning it: “Obviously, Bart [Gunn] was in it. I was riding with Bart Gunn at the time and he had called Bruce Prichard and told Bruce that he was going to win the whole thing and Bruce was like, ‘I have no doubt you will; good for you; I think you’ll do well in it; blah, blah, blah.’ And Bart was like, ‘no, Bruce.’ See, I actually think he thought Bruce was patronizing him and he’s like, ‘no, Bruce. I’m going to win this whole thing.’ Long story short, Bart ended up winning it, but one the way there, when Bart did fight Steve Williams, he knocked Steve out. It actually screwed up their whole plan for Steve Williams to work with [Austin] because they had no idea that Bart was going to knock him out. Like Bart said, if they would have just told him what the deal was, he would’ve had no problem putting Steve [Williams] over basically. And so, Bart just went out there and did what Bart does. Bart knocked him out and ended up screwing up their whole thing and that’s how Bart ended up moving on and obviously knocking out The Godfather, and knocking out Bradshaw, and making his way to the end.”

Holly on how Bart Gunn messed up WWE’s plans: “It screwed up their whole storyline as far as Steve Williams working with [Austin] when Bart knocked Steve [Williams] out because their whole plan was for Steve Williams to win the whole thing and they thought he would. And, actually, the sad part about this whole thing is seeing somebody like Steve Williams get knocked out because of who he used to be, how big of a deal he was, and what a stud he was. And it was just really tough seeing it happen, but the boys all popped when it happened because [Jim Ross] was going around telling everybody how Steve Williams was just going to walk through everybody and people were tired of hearing it. The boys were tired of hearing that. And when Bart knocked him out, it just blew the roof off the back. The boys popped because everybody was sold out at the monitor watching the thing and when Bart knocked him out, the boys popped. You cannot plan for something like that to work out in your favor because it’s not. When you dangle $100,000 carrot in front of somebody, especially a bunch of hungry boys, it’s not going to work out like you think it is and it didn’t. And unfortunately it didn’t. And when you really stop and think about it, because of who Steve [Williams] was, 1987 All American, he’s a big deal in Japan, and then, all that gets wiped clean from getting knocked out. It’s like, almost all of his credibility went out the window, in a sense. It didn’t, but it did. Do you know what I’m saying? It’s like, here is this guy who is supposed to be one of the baddest men on the planet and then Bart knocks him out? It almost wipes out his whole credibility even though anybody can get knocked out at any given second. And that’s why you don’t pit the boys against each other like that. It was a bad idea to start with. And it’s like, if they wanted [Williams] to work with [Austin], there [are] a whole bunch of different ways to get him there instead of having him come in and try to do a shoot fight for $100,000. It’s just not going to work out.”

Bob Holly on facing Bart Gunn: “I had no idea how bad [Gunn] was. I knew he was a big freaking country boy. Obviously, there’s a lot of toughness there, but I didn’t realize to what extent until I started watching him drop everybody. I was like, ‘holy hell!’ I guess I survived that son of a b—h! I don’t know how I did because I know he hit me… Steve, I was on one side of the ring, he hit me, and I was on the other side of the ring. I stood there and I was like, ‘how in the f–k did I get over here?’ I did! I was like, ‘how in the hell, did I get over here?’ And all I know is I got hit and then the next thing, I was on the other side of the ring standing there. I was like, ‘how in the hell did I get over here?’ But I know he hits like a mule. I do know that, but it did surprise me that he walked through everybody like he did. It shocked me.”

Bob Holly on how he and Bart agreed not to shoot in on each other: “Me and Bart, we agreed not to shoot in on each other. That’s one thing because we watched the past fights, and, to me, they were kind of boring because guys [were] shooting in on each other and going down to the mat. And we wanted to fight and that’s what we agreed to do, ‘okay, you don’t shoot in on me, and I won’t shoot in on you, and we’ll just stand there and fight.’ And that’s what we did. And, obviously, he ended up moving on, which I’m happy for him [about], but it would have been nice [to win the tournament]. I mean, I still got $5,000 for getting in the thing.”