One of the most embarrassing gimmicks that WWE pulled off during the Attitude Era was the Brawl for All. Today's wrestling fans got a chance to learn all about this monumental flop thanks to the Vice series Dark Side of the Ring, and even the men involved talked about how it was destined to fail from the start.
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That is disappointing since there were some big-time names in the tournament, which saw the professional wrestlers really fighting under MMA-style rules, only to have the winner knocked out in an embarrassing WrestleMania match with professional boxer Butterbean. Here is a look at where 10 of the Brawl for All competitors are now.
10 SAVIO VEGA
When Savio Vega was coming up in WWE, he was an up-and-coming Latino superstar. He was paired up early with Stone Cold Steve Austin for a series of matches because WWE trusted him to bring Austin along and help him break in with WWE-styled wrestling.
Vega won his first-round match with Brakkus and then lost to Darren Drozdov in the quarterfinals. Over the last five years, he 55-year-old Vega has been working in local and international wrestling promotions.
9 DARREN DROZDOV
Darren Drozdov is the tragic name on this list. He came into WWE and caught on with a gimmick where he would puke during his matches, picking up the nickname Puke. He also worked one of the most controversial angles in Road Warriors history, where he was a third member of the team.
In the Brawl for All tournament, he went to a draw with Hawk, beat Savio Vega, and lost to Bradshaw. One year later, Droz was wrestling D-Lo Brown and ended up a paraplegic after a powerbomb attempt featured two vertebrae in his neck.
8 BART GUNN
Bart Gunn made his name in WWE as one-half of the Smoking Gunns tag team with his fictional brother Billy Gunn. He also worked later with Bob Holly as the New Midnight Express. However, his career changed when he won the Brawl for All tournament.
Gunn went on to get knocked out by Butterbean and then ended up out of WWE. He went on to Japan and worked there for many years before retiring in 2007. He now works as an electrician.
7 2 COLD SCORPIO
2 Cold Scorpio was a star in ECW and was a huge fan favorite there. He was part of the NWA World Championship tournament finale, where Shane Douglas beat him before leaving and forming ECW.
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WWE signed him and renamed him Flash Funk, and he worked in the Brawl for All tournament, replacing Ken Shamrock and losing to Godfather in the quarterfinals. He is still wrestling at the age of 54 and is also training wrestlers in Colorado.
6 QUEBECER PIERRE
Pierre of the Quebecers was not someone who most people gave a chance in the Brawl for All tournament. He was a few years paste his day in the Quebeckers and ended up losing in the first round to Dr. Death Steve Williams (who is now deceased). He left WWE in 2000 and drifted along until he ended up resurrecting his career in Ring of Honor in 2019 as PCO and became the ROH World Champion.
5 DAN SEVERN
While Dr. Death Steve Williams was who WWE thought would win the tournament, Dan "The Beast" Severn should have been the favorite. He was a former UFC Champion and holds an amazing MMA record of 101-19-7.
He took part in the Brawl of All but then decided that he did not want to continue after beating Godfather in the first round because he felt it would diminish his shoot fighting accomplishments. He owns an MMA camp in Michigan.
4 BOB HOLLY
When asked about the Brawl for All, Bart Gunn said that the entire tournament soured his relationships with Bob Holly, who was one of his close friends in the business up to that time. The two men were tag team partners in the New Midnight Express and then fought against each other in the first round for a shoot fight.
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Gunn beat Holly, but it was Bob who went on to have a successful WWE career after the tournament bombed. Holly was a four-time tag team champion and six-time hardcore champion in WWE. Holly still occasionally wrestles in the indies, but is mostly retired and living and traveling with his wife of 10 years.
3 THE GODFATHER
Godfather is the one member of the Brawl for All tournament that went on to become a major star after the fact and still pops up on WWE television here and there. He portrayed an MMA fighter when he was in the Nation of Domination, but when he took on the role of The Godfather, he became a future WWE Hall of Fame superstar. He entered the HOF in 2016 and has a club in Las Vegas he runs.
2 STEVE BLACKMAN
Steve Blackman was another competitor in the Brawl for All tournament that could have won. He was a martian arts instructor and was an actual tough guy, one of the stalwarts of the WWE Hardcore Championship, where he held the title longer than anyone, with six reigns for 172 total days as champion. Blackman beat Marc Mero in the tournament but had to withdraw due to an injury. He retired as a full-time wrestler in 2004 and now works as a bail bondsman in Pennsylvania.
1 MARC MERO
Marc Mero was a Golden Gloves boxing champion in New York. He decided to become a professional wrestler instead of a boxer but then had a chance for a shoot fight at Brawl for All. He didn't fare very well. Mero lost to Steve Blackman in the first round but then got to move on when Blackman came up injured. He lost to Bradshaw in the second round. He retired in 2006 and is now a motivational speaker in Florida.
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