12 Things We Learned From Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring: Brawl For All

5. Some Think The Brackets Were Rigged

On his podcast, Bruce Prichard claims that names were drawn at random from a brown paper bag by himself and Savio Vega, however, others claim that it was rigged. “Vince McMahon can’t keep his finger out of anything,” argues Jim Cornette. “So even something that’s supposed to be a legitimate shoot, he probably said to himself, ‘so long as they’re really fighting, we can play with the matchmaking all we want’.”

Bart Gunn also thinks it was rigged, and adds that his first round match was against his tag partner Bob Holly – which made things really awkward between them when Gunn beat him – “was a s****y thing to do.”

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6. Vince McMahon Could Have Stopped The Brawl For All

One of the biggest tragedies of Brawl For All is that it caused a lot of injuries. “I don’t remember what the first injury was,” confesses Jim Ross, “but it was several. One after another.” 

Savio Vega aggravated an old arm injury, which ended his career; Brakus injured his shoulder and knee and was forced to retire the following year. Droz claims that guys tore their biceps, quads, and ACLs. “It was like it was jinxed,” he argues. The Godfather says when he got knocked out by Bart Gunn in their semi final match he told the referee that he’d lost his legs. In fact, following the match, he couldn’t walk and spent the next few days in a wheelchair. “Maybe that was the stupidest idea in wrestling,” he says. “A lot of people did get hurt.”

Jim Ross argues they should have stopped the tournament after one week, and Vince Russo adds, “Vince [McMahon] could have pulled the plug on this thing anytime he wanted to, but he chose not to.”

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7. Brawl For All Ended The WWF Career Of Dr. Death

One of the reasons that Bart Gunn believes the tournament brackets were rigged because he wasn’t originally supposed to face “Dr. Death” Steve Williams in the second round, who was the tournament favourite. In fact, WWE were so convinced that Dr. Death was going to win – according to Bob Holly in his autobiography – that they’d already paid him the winner’s fee. “Anytime they talked about Brawl For All, they talked about Dr. Death,” argues Bart Gunn. It’s been reported that the plan was for Dr. Death to win the tournament then go on to have a lengthy program with Steve Austin over the WWF Championship.

Bart Gunn argues that he was put in the second round with Steve Williams because WWE didn’t have any confidence that Dr. Death would lose to him. He says that Bruce Prichard laughed at him when Bart said he was going to win, and throughout the day he was mocked by top brass in WWE because he was confident. “At that time I was furious,” Gunn says. “It just boiled my blood, because they snapped at me all day long… Everybody had something smart ass to say.”

In the match, Dr. Death tore his hamstring and was quite easily knocked out by Bart Gunn.

“I knew in my stomach, there goes Dr. Death’s WWF career,” says Cornette. And he was right. Dr. Death spent a lot of time in recovery and was released from WWE within a year of the Brawl For All.

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8. Droz Should Have Been In The Finals

The semi-final match between Droz and Bradshaw was a contentious one. Per the rules of Brawl For All, Droz should have won, but Bradshaw was declared the winner. Cornette, watching the fight in the documentary, agrees that Droz should have gone to the finals. Droz says that Bradshaw didn’t walk around bragging about being in the finals as he knew he didn’t really win, and posits the idea that WWE didn’t think Droz vs. Bart Gunn was a big enough final and rigged the Bradshaw victory.

• brawl for all
• vice
• dark side of the ring
• wwe

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