Former WWE Superstar and UFC fighter, Ken Shamrock recently joined the “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” podcast. Shamrock shared an interesting insight, stating that he declined an offer to participate in the notorious 1998 Brawl For All tournament.
Highlights from his conversation on the podcast are as follows:
Shamrock offered his perspective on being approached by WWE to compete in Brawl For All. He explained, “I was solicited. My response was no. I earned substantial income through UFC. Now, they expected me to compete for free. Pro wrestling veterans would understand how difficult it is to gain the confidence of the co-competitors. If your peers do not have faith in you, they will not perform with you. They won’t let you undertake actions that could potentially hurt them. Bret Hart significantly drummed in me the importance of fostering relations within the locker room. I made it a point to greet everyone, extend a handshake. I welcomed their suggestions and established connections because that was important in building trust. They needed to know they could depend on me when we were in the ring together. Yet, they invited me to a fight. The idea of then engaging in a pro wrestling match, after brutalizing these wrestlers, seemed counterintuitive to my purpose there.”
Shamrock opened up about his perception of the Brawl For All. He articulated, “I am unsure about the reward amount. A sum of 50 grand or so upon victory, I presume. They approached me for a pre-decided task. We agreed on a contract for that. Now, there’s an additional ask of a real fight. It appeared like dual responsibilities. To me, it felt incorrect. I remain unaffected by taunts and mockeries. Accusations like, ‘You’re fearful to confront the pro wrestlers,’ or ‘You’re hesitant to compete with this guy’ fail to perturb me. You won’t be successful in provoking me into fighting someone. If a fight is on cards, it will happen after negotiations and a proper setup. I won’t be coerced into a battle. I had this feeling that they were trying to ridicule me into it. It wasn’t WWE, but the fanbase collectively. As I refused to participate, there was a hullabaloo behind the scenes with people starting rumours about me being frightened. I was shocked at how quickly people chose to forget my capabilities.”
On being questioned about Bart Gunn’s fight with Butterbean, he commented, “Butterbean would have mercilessly defeated me. I was not in a position to compete with him in a boxing match.”
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