WWF attempted to do matches without a predetermined finish, which is something I never thought I'd see in the WWF and wonder what that means if they run in states where pro wrestling isn't regulated but where boxing or Tough Man contests are as far as tax laws and the like are concerned. They are trying to do a Tough Man type of tournament, with shoot matches, fighting with three one minute rounds to minimize the guys gassing out, with 20 ounce gloves to minimize the damages of the punches, and with takedowns legal but with the wrestlers immediately stood up to eliminate any ground fighting or submissions. They had corner men who could throw in the towel, and used wrestling legend Danny Hodge as the referee (interesting to note that Jim Ross made a much bigger deal of Hodge's standing as an amateur wrestler and Golden gloves boxing champion as compared with his lengthy history as a major star in pro wrestling to where from a historical standpoint he'd probably have to rank along with Jushin Liger as the greatest junior heavyweight wrestler in history). The rules were that every takedown would be worth five points, a knockdown would be worth ten points, a knockout would end the match, no actual wrestling holds were legal (can you imagine the silliness that when pro wrestlers in the U.S. shoot they aren't allowed to use any wrestling holds) and whoever delivered the most punches in a round would get five points. No tournament bracketing was announced, but two matches took place. Neither got over live, and in fact the normally receptive modern WWF crowd that accepts almost anything was chanting "We Want Wrestling" during the Marc Mero vs. Steve Blackman shoot, and delivering loud "boring" chants during the Mark Canterbury (formerly Henry Godwinn) vs. Bradshaw shoot. For the record, in the first two "matches" in WWF history where the outcomes weren't pre-planned, Blackman continually took Mero down, and Mero wasn't able to show any of his vaunted boxing skills (and, in fact, what of the fight was standing Blackman more then held his own as well) enroute to a one-sided decision that basically exposed that Mero couldn't wrestle and that in a real situation against a wrestler, his boxing skills wouldn't do him any good. Bradshaw was awarded the decision over Canterbury, although if you kept score, it should have been a draw as Bradshaw won two of the three rounds, giving him a 10-5 edge, but Canterbury did take him down once. There was a period in the second round where Bradshaw rocked Canterbury although he never knocked him down. That was more like watching a low level tough man contest as two big guys banged away with no form or skill, and even with the short one minute rounds, both were noticeably gassing 40 seconds into it. We don't know much in the way of details of where this is going, although we did learn about it several days ahead of time when the WWF was basically asking a lot of its wrestlers that were going nowhere (they won't let any of the top guys get exposed by showing they may lack skill fighting) on the roster to enter this cross between a bad Tough Man contest and an unskilled version of Draka or Shootboxing with the hopes that a good showing might make an impression on the fans and help get them over, and that they would be paid extra for doing the shoots. Neither Dan Severn or Ken Shamrock were allowed to enter. Under the rules they have, Severn in particular would destroy everyone in there because he'd be able to take them all down at will time after time and pile up an insurmountable lead in points and with those almost pillow like gloves, nobody is going to knock him out. Shamrock probably would as well and is probably more proficient with gloves than most of the guys they'd have there as well if he felt like standing, but since there are no submissions, the rules work away from his strength in real fighting. There was also the theory they are doing real matches to set up an eventual Severn-Shamrock showdown and try and push that it's real, because it could do box office if both promoted correctly and if people believe it's real but it's doubtful after KOR that Severn can do any box office within the guise of what people believe as worked pro wrestling. Of course no matter how it's hyped going in, Severn-Shamrock in the WWF is going to have a worked ending because they can't take the risk of having a match like their second UFC bout. We did get one office report that while this would start out as shoots, that eventually angles would be done with it which lends credence to that theory. There is an argument that airing shoots exposes the rest of the show as works, but in this day and age when people have seen shoots and works and everyone knows wrestling is a work, that argument really doesn't hold water. It does, however, risk exposing guys as not being good fighters in real life which is very different from participating in matches that are worked and the fact that big guys are pounding away without even staggering the other makes it weird when they bump for single punches in the future, but again, everyone knows pro wrestling itself is a work. But when none of the top guys are put at risk, there is really no harmful effect on box office to this (unlike RINGS which really hurt itself at the gate when its superstar Kiyoshi Tamura was routed by Valentijn Overeem). While people are talking about this as an idea being revolutionary in pro wrestling, and it is in the United States, this was done with regularity for years in the All Japan womens promotion where all the women in their early years had to prove themselves in kickboxing rule shoots as being able to handle legit combat to legitimize them before being pushed as wrestling stars, although that went out of vogue in the early 90s. In those days, the shoot matches were really dull as compared with the worked matches, but they also booked them with five three minute rounds because that promotions' training emphasized stamina whereas in WWF it's readily accepted that very few of these guys would be able to last if the rounds were long. Mero vs. Blackman started out with a 5.5, an exceptional number, and fell to a 5.4 for the third round, so those numbers had to be considered great particularly for those two. Bradshaw vs. Canterbury did a 5.2, which was a big drop from the 5.6 that the Helmsley-Shamrock-Hart three-way dance ended up at, so while it was a good number for any quarter, it was the second lowest of the show (Regal vs. Drosdov with the Sable interview clocked in at 4.7), I would have to call that as nothing to make a point with other than it probably was a hell of a lot better number than the two of them would have done had they worked a pro wrestling match in the same time slot. In that sense, after one week, from a ratings standpoint the experiment would be somewhat successful, although definitely not to the live audience.