American retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist , Ken Shamrock has been a key figure in both UFC and WWE . He also pioneered the “shoot style of wrestling”, making it popular in the American circuits, among his other unique maneuvers during a fight. Such was his undeniable persona that he was nicknamed “The World's Most Dangerous Man”. In a recent interview, Shamrock has commented on his reluctance to be a part of the Brawl for All tournament.
The tournament in question, Brawl for All, was designed by Vince Russo to screen out the toughest man from their current roster. While the fight itself would be ruthless, with many able wrestlers ending up being grievously injured, still it continued to be a popular event among the fighters. Of these “tough guys”, the unarguably capable contenders were Dan Severn and Ken Shamrock. Dan Severn took part in the fight, successfully gaining victory over The Godfather, but he did not remain in the following matches. Shamrock was offered to fight a similar match, but he refused to be a part of it.
“I am not persuaded by insults and by ridicule”: Ken Shamrock defends his stance
In a candid interview with Chris Van Vliet, Ken finally opened up about why he had declined the offer to be a part of the Brawl For All contest. Shamrock said:
“I was asked, I said No. Listen, I got paid big money, big, big money to fight [in the UFC]. So now they're asking me to do this thing for free? Listen, I think anybody that has been involved in pro wrestling understands how hard it is to gain trust in the locker room. If guys don’t trust you, they’re not going to work for you. They’re not going to allow you to do things that they feel they may get hurt with. So that was one of the things that Bret really instilled in me was being able to make sure that I had a relationship with the locker room. I would go up and say hi to people, shake their hand, be open to suggestions, building relationships, because you got to build trust.” (Via Chris Van Vliet/Inside the Ropes)
Stressing the importance of having a healthy relationship with his fellow wrestlers from the locker- room who he would further go on to fight against in pro wrestling, Shamrock stated, “These guys got to trust me to go in the ring with them, and then they asked me to fight. I’m like, so now I’m going to go in there and beat the hell out of these guys and then go back and say, Hey, we’re going to do a pro wrestling match. I just felt like that was kind of going against the grain of what I was trying to do there. I guess they were paying, I don’t know how much it was, 50 grand or something if you won it? You guys asked me to come here and do a certain thing, and we negotiated a contract for that, and now you want me to actually fight? So I’m doing two things now, and I just felt like, Yeah, this is not for me.” (Via Chris Van Vliet/Inside the Ropes)
Shamrock stood his ground when people blamed him for not taking part in the brawl, defending his stance by further adding, “I am not persuaded by insults and by ridicule, people saying ‘You’re afraid to go against the pro wrestlers and you’re afraid to get in there, you’re afraid of this guy, you’re afraid of that guy…’ That does nothing. You’re not going to shame me into trying to fight somebody. I mean, if I’m going to fight them, I’m gonna fight them, and we’re gonna negotiate something, and we’ll do it. But I’m not gonna be shamed into fighting.
It just felt like that’s what was trying to happen, not WWF, just the fan base, because they were pro wrestlers and they’re pro wrestling fans, and by me saying, No, I didn’t want to do that. I’m not going to do that. There was that whole scene behind the scenes where people were saying, Yeah, the Shamrock is afraid. I’m thinking to myself wow, how soon people forget.”
Shamrock in the true spirit of a fighter and a team- player showed what it means to be successful but at the same time, choosing which battles to fight and which ones to drop.
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