If it did, then why didnt it ruin the careers of all the other people that got KTFO'd in the tourney ?
Good question. Lets list all of those who participated in the Brawl for All and see what effect(if any) it had on their careers afterwards:
Steve Blackman: An Attitude Era mainstay. The Lethal Weapon floundered around the midcard. Got over somewhat, with his biggest notoriety teaming with Al Snow unofficially named "Head Cheese" and a 6 time Hardcore Champion. Another major career note was his match with Shane McMahon at Summerslam 2000 where he knocked Shane O'mac off the titan tron. After he lost the Hardcore Title to Raven in December, he made less and less TV appearances in 2001 before mounting injuries sidelined him and eventually lead to his release. Now works as a bail bondsman in Pennsylvania.
Marc Mero: His WWF run fizzled out in the second half of 1998, as he was not only taking a backseat to his then-wife Sable, but Ms. Jackie too. Jobbed out the door to Duane Gill(later known as Gillberg). After years in the wrestling wilderness, he made a brief return to TNA from late 2004 to early 2005.
Was back in the spotlight around June and July 2007, when he commented on the Chris Benoit murder-suicide, appearing on numerous cable news programs and criticizing both the wrestling industry and World Wrestling Entertainment.[86] In an interview with WFTV, Mero admitted to using both anabolic steroids and recreational drugs over a period of seven years and claimed that steroids had contributed to the early deaths of many wrestlers.[6][87] In interviews, Mero produced a list of 25 (later expanded to 31) wrestlers with whom he had wrestled and who had since died, calling for greater regulation of the wrestling industry.
Today, the former Johnny B. Badd contributes much of his time to the nonprofit organization he founded in 2007, Champion of Choices.
Mark Cantebury: The former Henry Godwin lost in the first round to Bradshaw. Him, as well as Dennis Knight (aka Phinias Godwin aka Mideon) dropped their pig farmer gimmicks and became known as Southern Justice, who were Jeff Jarrett's run-in buddies. Sadly for Cantebury, that gimmick was short-lived and he went onto retire due to nagging injuries(possibly with the B4A contributing to it).
He did however have a short comeback in WWE's developmental territory Deep South Wrestling from 2006 to 2007.
Bradshaw: Out of all the Brawl For All tournament winners, I'd say he had the most success post-tournament, kinda throwing a middle finger at Vince Russo. He went on to form a tag team with Faarooq known as The Acolytes. While at first henchmen in The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness, the bar room brawlers made a name for themselves in the tag team division winning its championship on three occasions. During that time, they got over as The APA(Acolytes Protection Agency) by having numerous WWF superstars watch their back(for a price) whenever any of them need backup.
Bradshaw also had runs as European Champion and Hardcore Champion before his career devolved into something of a jobber on Velocity.
It later did a 180 as he ditched his tag team partner Faarooq in 2004 and became a Ted Dibiase/JR Ewing-type character. Immediately targeting WWE champion Eddie Guerrero and then winning the championship. For the next 280 days, the big Texan earned a reputation as a cowardly heel who merely escaped with the title by the skin of his teeth(thanks to shady means, or with the help of his Cabinet, consisting of Orlando Jordan and The Basham Brothers) before losing it to up-and-coming star John Cena at Wrestlemania 21.
While his efforts to reclaim Smackdown's top prize has failed, he was kept in the upper midcard, winning the US and IC championships along the way, thus making him the tenth person to become Grand Slam Champion. He later called it a career immediately after losing the IC title to Rey Mysterio in 21 seconds at Wrestlemania 25.
While certainly not a dignified way to go out, he definately made a name for himself(for better or worse) in the WWE. Not bad for someone who competed in what many figures in the industry called a joke of a tournament.
Brakkus: Lost in the first round match to career midcarder Savio Vega. Went out to defeat Vega's former Los Boricuas Jesús Castillo, Jr. of Los Boricuas in a squash match on 27 July 1998(three weeks later), episode of Raw is War in his final televised WWF match. Left the WWF shortly thereafter and then had a brief stint in the indy scene.
The German Powerhouse retired from professional wrestling in 1999 as a result of injuries to his knee and shoulder sustained in the bout with Vega in 1998. He went on to work as an International Sports Sciences Association-certified personal trainer and sports nutritionist in San Francisco, California. Though lets be honest, even if it wasn't for the Brawl for All ending his blink-and-you-miss wrestling "career," I doubt he would've gone anywhere in the comic book style WWF anyway. He was void of personality and had an unremarkable stage presence, not to mention his wrestling ability is far from desirable.
Savio Vega: On August 10, he lost a quarterfinal match to Darren Drozdov. As a result of a severe arm injury, he wouldn't appear on WWF television until July 1999. He would make a number of appearances on WWF Super Astros, and would participate in WWF Shotgun and WWF Jakked/Metal dark matches (sometimes with other Boricua members). He was soon released from his WWF contract in September 1999.
This above paragraph is from wikipedia, and until reading that, I had no idea he was in the company for that long, and I was a super mark back then. He did go on to various indy promotions(mostly in Puerto Rico) and won several championships there.
Darren "Droz" Drozdov: Was wrestling for a year afterwards until a botch powerbomb from D'lo Brown put an end to his wrestling career. He also became a
quadriplegic in the process. Really though, if he stuck around, I don't see him becoming anything other than maybe a hardcore champion, or getting a tag team title run.
Road Warrior Hawk: His best days were already behind him and seeing the company mock his real-life alcoholism was sad to watch. He sadly passed away in October 2003.
Bart Gunn: As discussed in this thread, he won the tournament, but at Wrestlemania XV, was knocked out by Butterbean. At the very least, he parlayed that win into a successful stint in Japan, so it wasn't all too bad for him.
Bob Holly: After floundering in the lower midcard for several years, he got his biggest break in the hardcore division at Hardcore Holly. He was also a trainer on Tough Enough. While he certainly didn't go on to main event success, he was employed by the company for 10 more years. He even helped mentor Cody Rhodes into a tag team championship win, which was okay given his veteran status.
Quebecer Pierre: Still going to this day in Ring of Honor, more than 20 years after the tournament.
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams: See all the comments on this forum.
The Godfather: During that time, he came up with a pimp gimmick and got over as a result. Later had runs as IC champion and tag team champion. Looks like the tournament had no effect on him.
Dan Severn: While the beast may lack in the charisma/personality department, there's no denying he's made a name for himself in the world of MMA. He actually thought the tournament was pointless and withdrew from it saying he had nothing to prove. Left 6 months later he left the WWF due to creative differences.
According to Severn, WWF asked to him to tattoo "666" on his forehead ("the mark of the beast") and become an Undertaker disciple, presumably as part of his Ministry of Darkness stable forming during that time.[47] This caused Severn to ask for his release from the company.
He continued to go onto having a respectable MMA career and still wrestles from time to time.
Scorpio: The former Flash Funk wasn't really doing much before or after the tournament and was released in 1999.
8-ball: Part of the Harris Twins, neither of them had much of a career anyway. Going through way too many failed gimmicks.
All in all, the Brawl for All didn't really seem to have any effect(either negative or positive) on those who competed in it. Those who got injured in it(such as Savio Vega and Brakkus) didn't have much going for them anyway. In the process, it only produced one future World Champion in Bradshaw who made it to the finals.
So yeah, if the tournament was solely to show the World what a legit tough guy Steve Williams really was, then it was a bigger waste of time then previously thought.