Ken Shamrock Rejected WWE’s Offer to Take Part in the Brawl For All

– During a recent interview with Insight with Chris Van Vliet, former WWE Superstar and UFC fighter Ken Shamrock discussed his career and turning down an offer to participate in the infamous Brawl For All tournament in 1998. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Ken Shamrock on WWE asking him to taking part in Brawl For All: “I was asked. I said no. I got paid big money. Big, big money to fight (in the UFC). Now they’re asking me to do this thing for free. I think anybody who has been involved in pro wrestling understands how hard it is to gain trust in the locker room. If guys don’t trust you, they’re not going to work for you. They’re not going to allow you to do things that they feel they may get hurt with. That was one of the things that Bret (Hart) really instilled in me, making sure I had a relationship with the locker room. I would go up and say hi to people and shake their hands. Be open to suggestions and building relationships because you’ve got to build trust, and these guys have to trust me to go into the ring with them. Then, they ask me to fight. Now, I’m going to go in there and beat the hell out of these guys, then go back and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to do a pro wrestling match.’ I felt that was going against the grain of what I was trying to do there.

On his view of the Brawl For All: “I don’t know how much they were paying. 50 grand or something if you won it. I’m thinking, ‘You guys asked me to come here and do a certain thing. We negotiated a contract for that. Now, you want me to actually fight. I’m doing two things now.’ I felt like, ‘This is not for me.’ I am not persuaded by insults and ridicule. People saying, ‘You’re afraid to go against the pro wrestlers. You’re afraid to get in there. You’re afraid of this guy.’ That does nothing. You’re not going to shame me into trying to fight somebody. If I’m going to fight them, I’m going to fight them, and we’re going to negotiate something and we’ll do it. I’m not going to be shamed into fight. It felt like that’s what was trying to happen. Not WWE, the fanbase as a whole. By me saying, ‘No. I’m not going to do that.’ There was that whole scene behind the scenes with people saying, ‘Shamrock is afraid.’ I’m thinking, ‘Wow, how soon people forget.'”

On Bart Gunn’s fight with Butterbean: “Butterbean would have knocked the piss out of me. I have no business boxing that dude.”