The Brawl for All was a fucking stupid idea from the jump, and the only person who came away from it looking good was Dan Severn solely because he got hurt before the damn thing started, but then I remember the story that most of the reason it existed was apparently Russo getting annoyed at Bradshaw running his mouth backstage that he could tale anyone in the company in a shoot fight.
During Survivor Series 99 they were laying it on thick that it was Billy Gunn that drove the car that hit Austin, but I guess they thought that would have been too obvious and decided to go for the "swerve bro!".
I think that was the original plan, especially because that was only a few months after Gunn won the KOTR and it was right after his feud with The Rock. Of course, The Rock completely destroyed him in that feud and Gunn just didn't have the mic skills to be higher than a mid carder, but they wanted to see if he could make it on the top of the card and I think it was worth a shot, too. Gunn had everything (other than awful mic skills) that they'd want in a top guy.
Should have been Kurt Angle, who IIRC debuted on the show the hit and run took place on. IIRC we got stuck witt Rikishi as part of a politicking deal where Rock pushed for Rikishi as part of his deal to put over Austin a second time at Mania. And HHH as the secret brains behind the plot was 100% damage control.
Bigalow was an even flightier Sid Viscious by way of Bruiser Brody. He was supposed to be the next big thing but he kept changing companies every year it seemed like as he kept insisting on short term big money deals because Brody and his generation told him he'd make more money as a floating monster for hire than staying with one company and get a consistant push either as a face or as a heel that lasted longer that his usual 6-12 months.
That is true. Billy Gunn had the look, could go in the ring, and had good charisma. It was his bad mic skills that buried him.
That's the one!
I hadn't heard that but it would make sense. Rikishi was over as fuck with Too Cool but anyone with an IQ over 30 could see he wouldn't make it as a main eventer, and we do know that The Rock takes care of his friends/family and will politic
At least Vince realized what a disaster the Rikishi heel turn was and shifted to Triple H, which led to the fantastic Three Stages of Hell match between him and Austin. It made the most sense from the start anyway, so the story took a long, fucked up road to get to the proper endgame but it still got there.
Dolph Ziggler of the Attitude Era
Vince got rid of managers for the same reason why he dismantled tag teams. He would have gotten rid of referees too, if he could have. He wanted each match to have as few people participating as possible, as fewer bodies means less money spent on talent.
The dark side of the ring episode on the topic has me convinced
Sid even got a huge reaction from the Philly mutants in the ECW arena, even though he was exactly the kind of wrestler they all claimed to hate. Dude was over everywhere he went.
You are 100% right. There was a ton of guys who couldn't speak for shit but got over in the 70s and 80s because they had a manager to talk for them. Billy Gunn would've been amazing if he had a manager to speak for him. Shit, they could've had Road Dogg be his mouth piece, although he was probably a bit too big/tall to be a manager.
Although Bigelow did not pull the shit that Brody did, which is why he didn't get stabbed in the locker room
Apparently Hogan's wife Sky Daily was into scientology and it was the primary reason Brooke cut ties with him and never let him see his grandkids.
Was that the second or third wife and which one got him all hooked on tinfoil hat shit like that book The Secret?