RD is Russo's Butterbean. He also has a slight cold. Sadly he does not suffer from Burgess Meredith Penguin cough.
Vince remembered when McMahon first told him in his limo about the other WWF which may necessitate a name change. RD calls McMahon a dim-bulb.
Today the two will fight over one of Vince's most infamous things: 1997's Brawl For All. First Vince promotional considerations Yoo-hoo in a can, which apparently is hard to find. He then maintains his desire to remain apathetic. (:05)
Vince wanted to try out something new, partly due to wanting to see something new, and having to tell McMahon (so people would know who to blame). RD does his Dr. D impression. Vince also had verbal heat against JBL, leading to backstage at Raw where he told Vince and their shared friend Kevin Kelley he would definitely knock people out for real. Vince wanted to see if he could prove it but without hurting anybody. RD: "I don't think you were thinking at all!" There was also the opportunity to counter the then still growing UFC. But as expected McMahon "gets off".
It's then that Vince washes his hand of the entire concept by handing it off to McMahon to squander into the ground. (:18) He then hands it to Bruce Pritchard to make calls to see who is available. Vince only heard who would be involved, but he noticed that the promise of good money (for once) drew in many people (who also might have wanted to punch Marc Mero in the face).
Vince absolutely refutes the theory that Steve Williams was the favorite to win, placing it all on Jim Ross boasting like he was trying to sell turkeys or something, and in fact making more fans to root against him. (:25) Vince enjoyed working with Steve regardless. During this JBL said nothing being sheepish on what was happening as a result of his words, while Bart Gunn felt determined to go all the way and win and discount all those thinking otherwise. Vince thought Godfather would win.
Vince admits that if he had known more about the dangers of brain injury and damage as he does now he would never have pitched the idea, especially as people started getting injured for real. (:30) He refutes Bryan Alvarez stating that people knew about the dangers back then (they didn't as much). RD states for Bryan that knowledge or not, the danger of head trauma was still real. Vince still disagrees; even after his own concussion by Ric Flair in '99, he kept getting in rings and further risking his head, even knowing he was concussed but without knowing the full ramifications. RD philosophically agrees with he and Bryan.
In turn Vince tries to be philosophical when he saw JBL get knocked out by Bart "Simpson" Gunn; he was not pleased, only shocked that it happened as it did. (:37) RD: "You never been in a bar fight, Vince Russo?"
Vince did not remember if he had the idea for Bart to fight Butterbean at Wrestlemania, but he was influenced by him "100%" that he thought it would be a proper and fully competitive bout. They even had Mero's boxing trainer to train Bart, furthering his confidence to try to box. However, according to Bart that also brought him out of the mentality of the earlier free-for-all brawl, and this confusion got into his fight. Vince was shocked he lost so quickly without even having some sort of fighting chance.
Now in hindsight and knowing what happened with Bart after (including Japan), would Vince have done it all over again? "Yes." He does take all the responsibility for what happened to Bart after in WWF which wasn't helped by recent events and Steve Austin cutting better promos. RD thinks a good manager would have helped his case, even if they weren't in vogue during the Attitude Era.
That just leaves one more question from RD: (:45)
"Who wins in the Brawl For All finale: Riddler or Joker?"
Vince has the more athletic Riddler. But what about Joker's baseball arm?
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