A Farewell to Arms - professional wrestler Mike Barton - Interview

Wrestling Digest, August, 2001 by Tim Towe

Leaving his Bart Gunn persona behind in the United States, Mike Barton resurrects his career in Japan

MANY AMERICAN WRESTLERS who have wrestled in Japan look back on their time spent there with great fondness. Performers such as Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Rick Steiner, and Scott Steiner have extensive experience wrestling in "the land of the rising sun" and have mentioned what a profound effect it has had on their wrestling careers. In addition to great experiences, wrestling in Japan offers the chance for some American-born performers to prolong their careers. People such as Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, Terry Funk, Vader, and Scott Norton have achieved legendary status in Japan long after their careers faded in the United States.

Mike Barton may be the next in line. Formerly Bart Gunn of the WWF, Barton has found a new life working for All Japan Professional Wrestling as the "man with the golden left." We recently talked with Barton in Tokyo as he prepared for a match in the Champion Carnival. Among other topics, we discussed the WWF's Brawl For All, his boxing loss to Butterbean, and his experiences wrestling in Japan.

WRESTLING DIGEST: American fans really got to know you in the WWF when you teamed with Billy Gunn as part of the Smoking Gunns. What was it like working with Billy Gunn?

MIKE BARTON: Billy Gunn and I got along quite well. We're similar individuals. We like all the same stuff--the same movies, the same food, the same kind of lifestyle. Traveling together worked out really well. That chemistry helped us become one of the top tag teams in the WWF. We really didn't have a push, as they say. We pretty much developed it on our own in the time we were there, and it turned out to be really successful. [Editor's note: The Smoking Gunns won the WWF world tag team title three times from January 1995 to May 1996.] We tagged for about five years before they broke us up.

WD: What did you do after the breakup of the Smoking Gunns?

MB: We went our separate ways. He did Bronco Billy and way down the road, of course, D-Generation X. They still had me under contract, but they weren't really doing anything with me. I tagged for a while with Bob Holly as the Tuesday Night Express with Jim Cornette. Bob was a good friend of mine, and I still stay in close contact with him. For some reason, they quit using us for a little bit, and later they came up with the Brawl For All idea.

WD: what exactly was Brawl For All?

MB: It is essentially boxing with bigger gloves and is very similar to those toughman contests. I went in with the edge that I was going to win. That's basically what I did, and they were quite stunned. Actually the Brawl For All was quite interesting with the rules that they had, with the 20-ounce gloves. It kind of shocked people that I had three knockouts. I surprised a lot of people, except for myself.

WD: Who are some of the guys who participated?

MB: "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. He's the one who put me on the map. I need to thank him for my career here in Japan. The Goodfather and Bradshaw also participated, and they had me fight my tag partner, Bob Holly, in the first round. He's the only one I didn't knock out. He's a tough son-of-a-gun.

WD: This was certainly different than wrestling. why did you choose to do this?

MB: They weren't doing anything with me, and, actually, I didn't really want to do it. Then I sat back and thought about it. There were a couple of people in the WWF who said, "You ought to do this if they're not using you." There were a couple other people who knew I was going to win, and they said, "If you do this, they gotta do something with you." And I said it was a good idea, and I decided to enter.

WD: You essentially defeated all challengers during the Brawl For All leading up to Wrestlemania 15. You were supposed to resume your wrestling career, but a meeting with Butterbean at Wrestlemania on March 28, 1999, changed all that.

MB: Yeah. After the Brawl For All, they again didn't know what to do with me. I don't know if they thought I was uncontrollable or what. I was pretty much business-like. They told me they were trying to match things up with Butterbean. They finally decided to put that together and scheduled it for Wrestlemania.

WD: Did Butterbean beat you?

MB: Yes, he did.

WD: For all the fans who suspect, was it a shoot?

MB: I'd like to say it was a work but to be totally honest [it wasn't]. I give the utmost respect to boxers. They're tough sons-of-a-gun. Their training is unbelievable. Going into that fight, Butterbean had 40 professional fights. I myself had never boxed before, except in the back alleys and as a kid growing up. I never put gloves on, and I did this Brawl For All. I went and actually trained for five weeks before Wrestlemania at a gym in upstate New York where I actually learned how to box. I changed my whole strategy, learned how to box, how to hold my hands, throw punches, and it totally took me out of my comfort zone. I wasn't the same person in that fight as I was in other fights.