As previously noted, former WWE Superstar Billy Gunn stopped by 317 Gimmick Street for a conversation with WWE Hall Of Famer Steve Austin on The Steve Austin Show podcast. Among other things, Gunn talked about his former tag partner, Bart Gunn, WWE’s shootfight Brawl For All tournament, and Bart’s WrestleMania 15 fight versus Butterbean. Also, Austin and Gunn told an amusing story about shenanigans on the road.
According to Billy, he met his Smoking Gunns tag partner, Bart, at Eddie Mansfield’s pro wrestling school.
“Eddie Mansfield had a [pro wrestling] school and nobody ever went there except for me and Bart.” Billy said, “and so I went and he went and we kind of met up and we were the only ones that would ever come. Nobody else would come that would train or anything, so me and him were kind of self-teaching each other by watching stuff on TV and then we’d get in there and implement it. But the problem with that is you have no rhyme or reason for why you’re doing it. You’re just doing it because it looks really cool.”
During the podcast, Steve recalled traveling with the Smoking Gunns and ending up in a dive bar in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada (or possibly Red Deer, Alberta, Canada). Apparently, Steve took over the DJ booth, and made Billy and Bart dance.
“We were traveling and we stopped at a bar.” Steve continued, “we [were] hitting the goddamn beers and we had a spot show down there and there wasn’t [anybody] there. We got back. We had to kick it up a little bit! And I don’t know how I got the gumption to get in the DJ booth and I am for damn sure no DJ Jazzy Jeff and I was over there talking on the RF mic. And back then, I’m actually a pretty shy guy, but goddangit I was on fire that night and y’all were out there tearing up the dance floor. Literally, there were only six people in the club. It was awesome!”
Billy recalled the events in question slightly differently.
“[Steve] made me dance… kicked the DJ guy out ‘because ‘Stone Cold”s here to spin some tunes and get out of here!’ He’s spinning tunes; he’s making me and Bart go and dance with people.” Billy added, “it was highly suggested that if you’re going to spin tunes, that somebody’s going to dance, and it wasn’t going to be you along with the bigger lady over there.”
On the subject of the Brawl For All, Billy shared that he knew that then head of talent relations at WWE, Jim Ross, wanted ‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams to win the tournament and ‘The One’ begged ‘JR’ not to let ‘Bang Bang’ Bart compete because he knew his kayfabe brother would win.
“Of course, they did [want Dr. Death to win]. And I told JR from the get-go, ‘don’t put Bart in it.’ I told him from the start. I said, ‘don’t put him in it because he’s going to crush everybody.'” Billy remembered, “when they were putting that all together and he was in, I just started laughing. And, of course, JR, and I love JR to death, this was a Steve Williams thing, just because he was just coming into the business and he had that reputation, but I just think he was just in too deep.”
According to Billy, he could attest to Bart’s toughness and fighting ability, as he even witnessed firsthand Bart take on 15 guys at once in a barroom brawl. Billy said Bart only stopped fighting when someone stabbed him with a broken beer bottle.
“I’ve heard so many stories of him cleaning places out. I’ve seen him clean out one club in Orlando [Florida] and I think it was like 15 guys till he get a bottle stuck in his side.” Billy recalled, “he already whooped 10 guys. He looked down and goes, ‘oh, where did that come from?’ Like, he’s that guy!”
In Billy opinion, Bart lost to Butterbean at WrestleMania 15 because Bart took boxing lessons to prepare, but Bart was a fighter, not a boxer.
“I think it was a disaster all around and then you put him in there and the end result is WrestleMania with Butterbean. You put him in there with a professional fighter and it’s kind of like, ‘let’s put an end to Bart’s reign’, which, to this day, Bart still wants to fight him.”
Billy said, “[taking boxing lessons] is exactly where everything went awry. There was no part of boxing and no part of finesse and it was, ‘ding, ding, ding, and start swinging.’ So whenever they started to set this up, and said, ‘hey, we’re going to have you do this. We’re going to have you get ready.’ And now he’s taking boxing lessons, so he comes out trying to box and Butterbean just ducks his head and swings them! Like, I think that’s what bothers Bart the most is he knows that messed it up. That was the thing that put the brakes on it because he’d be like, ‘oh, now I’ve got to go face him? Now I’ve got to learn how to box and move my feet and stuff.’ What brought you to the dance was those big old mittens! Just sling those around!”
Billy said the former ‘Bodacious’ Bart resumed working as an electrician after his pro wrestling odyssey came to a close.
“He was a master electrician out at The Cape before he started getting into wrestling. Then when he got out of wrestling, no, he did this stint in Japan and it was a huge deal over there in Japan for eight, nine years, I think. And then, came back and redid all of his licensing. Now he’s a master electrician again, loving life.”
