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Question

Hi Scott,

First time emailer, long time fan etc.etc.

I was just watching the Brawl For All again for the first time in years and it got me thinking.

Had Steve Williams legit won the tournament as everyone expected, would he then have gone on to face Butterbean in a shoot fight at WrestleMania or was that strictly thrown together by Jim Ross in an attempt to humiliate Bart Gunn.

How do you think a shoot fight would have gone between Williams/Butterbean, would Doc have survived a little longer or would it be squash city still?

​The Williams deal was specifically intended to create an opponent for Steve Austin to face as World champion.  They were actually trying to protect him in their minds.  

Butterbean facing Bart Gunn was more of a "make the best out of a bad situation" deal, according to Meltzer.  They legitimately thought that Butterbean was some overhyped wannabe boxer and Gunn could knock him out because reasons.  Like, why would you book a wrestler to get demolished by a boxer at WRESTLEMANIA of all shows?  Vince can be petty about things, but someone so paranoid about competition letting a boxer get one over on his product?  Highly dubious.  Also keep in mind that this was close to a year after Brawl for All ended, so it wasn't like Bart was fresh in the public eye and thus in need of "humbling" or anything.  ​

Comments

  1. I would say that Vince doesn't care about humiliating his own guys if it involves a celebrity, which is why a WWE wrestler has never beaten a celebrity, either in a match or angle in like ever and Butterbean was a D-list type of celebrity.

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  2. Steve Williams was kind of awesome at one point in his career, I wonder how he would have worked out as an Austin opponent. I'm guessing we might have seen McMahon be less physically active in the Austin feud, content to use Williams as his surrogate. Or Williams would have just been a one and done since he always had a very NWA style charisma about him. It's an interesting "What if?"

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  3. I dunno....austin cut a really fast pace in his matches and by then Williams was slow and plodding.

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  4. The more I learn about JR, the more I dislike him.

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  5. What are the chances they would have done something with Steve Williams vs. Steve Williams?

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  6. Biggest argument against JR the wrestling mind:

    Gordy in 97
    Williams in 98

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  7. Mightn’t have been
    too bad. It wasn’t like Austin’s matches in the latter half of 1998 against
    Kane/Undertaker, Undertaker, and Undertaker were particularly dynamic affairs.

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  8. His ring attire, which heavily featured his love handles, was enough to keep him out of the main event alone.

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  9. Was Gordy suppose to get a big push originally?

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  10. Yeah, Austin didn't really have a great set of opponents between Foley and the Rock. I wouldn't have minded seeing McMahon bring in a few "hired guns" to keep it interesting. Williams couldn't have been any worse on the role than Swat Team Bossman (R.I.P).

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  11. Big difference between drawing 50K and drawing 100K. They might draw the 50 on the WM name, but they'll need something more to get over the top.

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  12. Hey now, I added a couple of sarcastic jabs at the beginning, too. Let's not diminish my hard work.

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  13. "If you don't like the wwe, you don't understand how the world works." Lmao, wrestling fans ladies and gentlemen! You gotta love em!!!!

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  14. They were just desperate for Austin challengers at that time too if I recall. He was light years ahead of everyone else in the company and it was basically either have him continue to fight mankind and the UT or try something new. It would be as if today, they just kept recycling Orton, Cena, Kane and the Big show in prominent spots - that would get really old and people wouldn't like it.

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  15. To be fair, Butterbean was a joke as a boxer.

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  16. I don't think so. He was just there to be a sacrificial lamb for Undertaker so they could stretch out the Mankind feud some more.

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  17. Of course, during this time practically every week people would speculate on when, not if, Ric Flair would show up as Vince's ideal Corporate Champ.

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