Marc Mero Reflects On Being Pitched Brawl For All Concept, Issues With JBL At The Time

Marc Mero was part of the infamous Brawl For All tournament in WWE, and he recently recalled how he was told about it. The shoot fighting tournament has often been called one of WWE’s worst ideas due to its poorly-designed concept and how it led to multiple injuries, some of which severely shortened careers. It took place in 1998 and saw Bart Gunn win, which “earned” him a fight with Butterball at WrestleMania XV where Gunn got knocked out in short order.

Mero participated in the tournament, losing to Steve Blackman in the first round. However, Blackman had to bow out after he blew out his knee and Mero went onto the second round where he lost to JBL (then Bradshaw). He spoke about the experience on Insight With Chris Van Vliet and recalled how he didn’t like Blackman at the time, though they have since made up and are on good terms. You can see the highlights below:

On the Original Pitch For Brawl For All:

“I don’t even remember what it was. All I remember was I got a call from, I don’t know if it was Pritchard or Vince. I think it was Vince that called me, and he said, ‘We’re gonna do this thing now where we’re gonna have the guys fight, kind of like a tough man contest.’ And he said every time you do it, I think it was five or $10,000 extra on top of your salary. And I didn’t blink at it. No problem, okay.”

On Brawl For All Being Perfect For Him Due to His Boxing Experience:

“Well, you would think so, but remember, I’ve already had five shoulder surgeries, five elbow [surgeries]. I didn’t have the speed or the power I had as a young, 20-year-old boxer. But the thing I did still have was I had an amazing ability to slip punches. No one could really hit me, so the only way I’m really going to lose is if I get taken down. Well, they put me in there with the take-down king, Steve Blackman, and he took me down over and over. I remember that son of a gun, never got hurt or anything like that, but he blew out his knee. So next thing I know, I got my money for the fight, and they call me back. They go, ‘Guess what? You’re back in the Brawl For All.’ I go, ‘Great, it’s another 10 grand or whatever,’ and they told me I’m wrestling Bradshaw, which I’m gonna be really honest, I couldn’t stand Bradshaw back then. I didn’t think a lot of people could, because he was a bully, and when we wrestled each other, he didn’t like me, and he would take liberties on me. He would power bomb me so hard where I thought my lungs were to come through my chest, it would hurt so bad. I didn’t like him.

“So they told me I had to fight Bradshaw. I was like, Yes, I want to fight that guy so bad. Bradshaw calls me and says, ‘Hey, man, if you bow out, I get to fight this guy, you’re kind of out of it anyways.’ I go, ‘No, I want to fight you.’ So he knew I had no fear of him. So obviously, it’s three rounds. We do our three rounds. They call it a draw, he took me down, but I hit a better shot. So they call it a draw. Then, remember, they’re ready to take off the gloves and everything and put the gloves back on. We’re going one more round. So we had to fight one more, we’re the only ones that did four rounds and not three, and they gave him a decision, which was in Cleveland. I remember the place was just booing, thinking that I won the fight. I want to say this to Bradshaw. We couldn’t stand each other back then. I love that guy. I mean it when I say that. What he has done after his wrestling career with building wells in Africa, I believe he’s helped so many people. If I see him now, just give a big hug or something, you know, like there’s no animosity or no bitterness. But back then, and what I love about going to wrestling conventions is like guys you may didn’t like back then or didn’t hang out with, it’s like everybody’s like we did something that not many people in this world could do. So it’s this camaraderie that you have, this unspoken word, that you just see someone, you go, ‘Hey, man, how’s it going?’”