The WWE Forgotten Files - Billy Gunn

[Dave]

Monty Sopp, more affectionately known as Billy Gunn, wrestled for the WWE for over a decade. Having varying amounts of success as both a tag team wrestler and a singles competitor, Billy Gunn should have went down in the history of the WWE as one of the most varied and intriguing superstars to work inside the ring. However, we all know that to be a fallacy. For some reason, Monty Sopp has not been recognised as what he was, someone who wanted to entertain. Rather, he has been forgotten as time goes by and I want to see if you think that is just?

When Monty Sopp debuted with the WWE, he was known as Billy Gunn, a name that would stick with him for over a decade. Teaming up with his on-screen brother Bart, the Smoking Gunn’s were formed. In a run that would take Billy Gunn to the top of the pile in the WWE Tag Team division on numerous occasions, Billy got his first real run in the WWE. As a tag team with Bart, Billy wrestled against some of the competitors out there. Names like Owen Hart and The British Bulldog come to mind. Billy was also involved with a on-screen relationship with Sunny at one point until she betrayed the Gunn’s after they lost the tag team Championships. The break up of the Smoking Gunn’s really did wonders for Billy’s career and it really was a case of someone in the right place at the right time.

After having a brief role under the Honky Tonk Man, Billy Gunn was eventually teamed up with the newly repackaged “Road Dogg” Jesse James. Together, both of these men formed the New Age Outlaws. The New Age Outlaws really were one of the first teams to bring the Attitude Era to the boil and were eventually teamed up with D-Generation X after helping Shawn Michaels win a casket match against The Undertaker. At this time, The New Age Outlaws were rubbing shoulders with some of the rising stars in the WWE. The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin were amongst the names. During this, The New Age Outlaws were able to keep a hold of the tag team Championships and defend them continually. After being defeated by Mankind and Kane for the titles, they eventually won them back in a handicap match.

After some time of feuding with Road Dogg and Ken Shamrock, D-Generation X seemed to fizzle out for Billy Gunn. Gunn was then pushed into singles competition and eventually won the King Of The Ring tournament in 1999. However, the push that seemingly came with a lot of the King Of The Ring winners never really materialised for Billy Gunn. He was put back into tag competition with Jesse James once more and won the Tag Team Championships once again. A short time after this, Billy Gunn suffered an arm injury that ut him out of the company for a while as he nursed his injury.

When he returned, he was repackaged as Mr Ass. It’s from here on out that Billy Gunn’s career became very mundane. It seemed, at this point, he WWE were no longer interested in him. After having him feud with multiple people, nothing really seemed to stick. He feuded with both the Radicalz and the Right To Censor. However, nothing really gave him a major push and as he teamed with Chuck Palumbo, the Tag Team Championships seemed to be the highest that Billy Gunn was ever likely to go. Having being beaten by Eddie Guerrero for a chance at the WWE Championship, Billy Gunn was seemingly not long for the WWE.

In 2004, Monty Sopp was released and made a shoot interview with remarks mainly aimed towards Triple H. After his release, Sopp disappeared into obscurity, or TNA as it likes to be known. However, his WWE tenure was successful in places. When he left the company, he was one of the longest serving people in the company and a 10 time Tag Team Championship.

Needless to say, Billy Gunn really did get a raw end of the bargain. Since 1993, Billy Gunn was always really over. The fans loved him as Mr. Ass and “The One” Billy Gunn. However, he did become stale towards the end of his run in the WWE. His tag team with Chuck Palumbo was over but never really successful and he probably knew that he would never be as relevant as he was in The New Age Outlaws. Billy Gunn was one of my favourite wrestlers back in the Attitude Era. He had a really good mix of comedy and charisma in his gimmick and made people care about his plight. However, he never really set the heather alight and although I have many fond memories of Billy Gunn, I can’t help but think he could have made more of himself after the King Of The Ring victory. Whether that is his fault or the WWE Creative.

What could have been, never materialised and Tag Team Championships were the top of the agenda for the most part.

I would love to know what you thought of Billy Gunn. Did he flip flop around too much to ever be considered as a main event talent. Was he too comedic to ever really get that push? What was it that made Billy Gunn a tag team competitor through and through and most importantly, why has he been forgotten so readily by the WWE?

 

[Ferbian]

I don't know whether he particularly flopped as to be a main eventer, but I think he was a great talent for the mid-card, a great tag team wrestler really.

Billy Gunn / Monty Sopp wasn't too comedic to get a proper push, Shawn Michaels and Triple H got great pushes after D-Generation X, and Billy could probably have gotten the same kind of push, or well a decent push to say the least if WWE had followed up on it.

I don't think WWE has forgotten about him with the exception of the fact that he went to TNA I would say hurt his position with WWE just a little bit, I don't know the terms of how WWE and Monty parted ways but that could very well also have an impact on how WWE chooses to mention and remember him.

I think it's a shame although, as I said, he's one hell of a tag team wrestler, and should be recognized for what he did with the WWE's tag team division alongside Bart Gunn and Road Dogg.

 

[Poɘt]

Sopp/Gunn is one of my all time favorites. So many people are quick to label him a choker or someone that couldn't handle the main event scene, but anyone with some type of common sense should be able to recognize that you can never judge a wrestler on what they failed to do in WWE because of the type of circus that place is, especially when it comes to bumping down other top talent in order to move up.

Gunn is one of the most athletic men his size I've ever seen in wrestling. Him and Brock Lesnar are the only two guys that come to mind when I think of how big they were, yet how fast they could move...like cruiserweight fast, not to mention Gunn's vertical leap.

When you compare how he was pushed as a singles wrestler to how he was pushed as a tag team wrestler, there's no doubt WWE dropped the ball much more than Sopp dropped the ball when it came to his singles career. I have no doubts that if Monty Sopp was in his early twenties today, he would be well on his way to being a top guy in WWE; simply because you don't see talent like him these days (same can be said for many under used guys from the 90s/early 2K era). Very under appreciated/under recognize in the world of pro wrestling, but will always be one of my favorites.

 

[hatehabsforever]

Billy Gunn's perception by the casual wrestling fan was largely brought on by himself. As you correctly stated, he enjoyed a good run in the WWF/WWE for quite some time in both the singles and tag team divisions. I always thought he was pretty good. Unfortunately he was released and he chose to go to TNA to disappear.

I don't fault him for going to TNA. It's not like he jumped ship and chose to leave WWE for TNA. He was released, he had to make a living, so he elected to go south. That's fine. The problem is he burned all of his bridges along the way, blasting WWE, Vince McMahon, Triple H, cutting shoot interview after shoot interview, which was unnecessary and in fact a little stupid. Because once his time in TNA expired, he had literally no option left for him to return to the big time. Now I know a lot of his shoots were grandstanding as TNA apparently loves to do regarding WWE, but even still, why slam the door shut on a potential return down the road?

Christian (Cage) left WWE for greener pastures and enjoyed some success in TNA, but he kept his mouth shut about WWE and made no enemies. So when he grew tired of wrestling in obscurity in front of no audience, he was able to return, and whenever he chooses to retire from WWE, he'll be viewed favorably.

But Gunn will not be viewed in the same manner and definitely will not conclude his career in the WWE. As such, any perception of him will never be what it could or should have been.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I saw Gunn as nothing more than a tag team wrestler. They tried to push by him winning King of the Ring and feuding with the Rock but the Rock was so hot at that time, it was a lost cause for Gunn. You looked at The Rock and Gunn and wonder why those two were even feuding during that time. He became a singles competitor after teaming with Chuck and he was nothing special. Even he was teaming with Road Dogg, I thought he was the lesser member of that team in terms of charisma and ability.

 

[Cookie14]

I awlays thought he was a great tag team wrestler. His 10 tag title reigns show that he may well be one of the best ever. He was charismatic, entertaining, and good in the ring.

It's just a shame that he never really had any success as a singles wrestler. He could have been a decent IC Champ, or dominated the Hardcore division when that was at its peak.

For me though, it will always be difficult to think of his success, because, whenever I think of him, I just think of what he did during the end of his time with WWE (seriously, the Billy & Chuck 'wedding' was one of the worst things I've seen in wrestling!), and how he has reacted to the company since leaving. These memories completley take away from everything he accomplished.

 

[Judah's Lion]

looking at his tag team title reigns and the partners during those reigns, it's easy to see how versatile of a performer he really was.
he was a cowboy in the Smoking Gunns, a degenerate in the New Age Outlaws and gay in Billy and Chuck. not that there's anything wrong with that.
his tag team wrestling was second-to-none. he was great at what he did and i really believed in all of his title reigns. they never seemed to be ill-legit or anything. very credible wrestler.

who dropped the ball on this guy? i'm not sure that anyone is to blame. you can't say that he wasn't the right size because he was about the same size as Austin, Rock, Hart, HBK, Triple H, etc. even after he left, Benoit, Jericho, Guerrero and Mysterio were all right behind him in the big picture. so he easily had the size and the look.

his mic skills and move set were also great. hard to argue with the pops he got also, whether he was a face or a heel. he was always getting a loud and long reaction either way.

honestly, i think part of his problem was just "wrong place at the wrong time" kind of thing. no doubt his injuries hurt him (well duh! no pun intended here. of course injuries hurt.) in his push. everytime he was about to get a good push, he had issues with his shoulder or some other injury, but usually the shoulder.

i remember when Austin had a handicapped match with Undertaker and Kane on Raw. he was allowed to find a tag partner, but Austin didn't even bother looking for one. he just went to the ring to fight. then about mid-way thru the match, the song hits... "Oh you didn't know?" and out walks Billy Gunn! i was so pumped and thought for sure that this would be the start of a great run for him. he had a very good match with the other three in the ring, and obviously all three are legends in the WWE. so he was in good company.

then his feud with the Rock was great. Rock's promos helped of course, but they had good matches and it was booked well. but then again, before Gunn could really make something of it, he got injured.

then he returns and goes thru a name change (from Mr. @$$ to "The One" Billy Gunn) which was a very good idea. hard to take somebody with the original name as a world champ IMO. but "the One"...? that's just as good as "the Chosen One" that Drew is getting now in the WWE. and he feuds with Benoit and wins the IC title! this is the start of another good push. and then he gets injured.

i love Gunn (in the non Billy & Chuck way) and thought he was a great talent for his time and for all time. quite probably the reason he is forgotten so easily is becaue the WWE has a very young audience mostly and Gunn has been gone for like 6 years and so they just don't know his history. but i will always remember him as one half of some very great and entertaining tag teams and one of the guys that could have been an amazing world champion had he not had the injuries that stalled his pushes. just bad luck. but still great! in my book, at least.

 

[mister_b1LL]

I'm also waiting for the Jesse James forgotten file, and when that one comes up, my opinion of James will be the same as Billy Gunn. I couldn't see Gunn as more than just a tag team wrestler. But to me, that's not a terrible thing. The New Age Outlaws were incredibly successful in the tag division and were wicked entertaining. Hell they were one of the things I looked forward to when watching an Attitude Era RAW. Being successful in the tag division doesn't mean you weren't great. Look at the Dudleys. Gunn (and James) were great in that specific field. The reason why it didn't work out for him in the main event scene was probably because he wasn't good in that spot.

 

[DL23]

They say King of the rings create new stars and as much as that may be true, in Billy Gunn's case it hurt him, Gunn is probably one of the best tag team wrestlers you'll come across look at who he team with (proper tag teams) Smokin' Gunns, New Age Outlaws, "Show stoppas" with Big Show that derailed due to the Invasion angle.

As a singles star Billy couldn't cut it, look at his IC Title run, he was promised a long run and it last al of 3 and half weeks, because fans couldn't get behind his singles run, look at all the characters he used as a singles guy (Rockabilly, Mr Ass, The One and in 2003 didn't he return to Mr Ass Billy Gunn for a short time?) none of the could cut it, it's not Gunn's fault.

WWE had false hope for him, the New Age Outlaws were hot from late 1997 to early 1999 when WWE tested waters, Road Dogg had a legendary Hardcore title run along with a standard (for the time) month run with the IC Title, WWE give Gunn the Hardcore title and he looked pretty good in hardcore matches, and WWE assumed with the success of DX & NOA and his decent showing a singles guy in the hardcore division they chose to push him in KOTR, but it back fired because he looked good because he had props in the hardcore division, singles star he couldn't cut it.

Looking at his career he was an avereage wrestler who had A LOT of success, more then he deserved as a singles star, but tag team wrestling he earned his strips no doubt about it.

 

[TheTemp]

I watched Billy compete recently for CWE during their tours, and for WFX, both promotions out of winnipeg, and WFX has a major TV Deal now, but Billy can still go. Still puts on some very fun and interesting matches. Up close and personal, he's a pretty down to earth guy, polite, pretty cool. Got pictures with him and everything.

 

[JBK2008]

Gunn was a terrific tag team wrestler and although he did have a lot of success for an average superstar, he was still that, average. His singles runs, aside from that nice hardcore run, were short lived and barely memorable at best. When he returned in 2003 ro 04 to the Royal Rumble in the Rumble match, the reaction was similar to Charlie Haas. I mean people knew him, but just didn't believe he can win anything on his own. His tag team days were his best.

 

[DrFeelgood624]

Billy Gunn has always been one my favorites. I think Feuding with Rock when Rock was untouchable hurt him a lot. Billy Gunn was always entertaining and could fit in any role. I believe when he became The One he could of been so much more, but I never really knew if he was face or heel, and this probably confused the fans. Then he became a jobber until he teamed up with Chuck.

Billy Gunn was great tag team wrestler, and a good all around wrestler who just never went to that next level. I would love to see him in WWE one time soon or at very least mentioned, every time Ziggler does his fameasser, I hope Striker references Billy Gunn, but he never does.

 

[klunderbunker]

If there has ever been a guy that has had more overrated and handed more failed pushes than anyone else in history. He was constantly being given chances to be a big deal, but the problem was his main name. How seriously can you take a guy named Mr. Ass? He won the King of the Ring and his career went nowhere at all. He feuded with the Rock and his career went nowhere at all. He got over in a tag team that I've always thought was overrated but that's another story. He was handed a ton of chances and they just never materialized, but I've always wondered what would have happened if he had been pushed as Billy Gunn and not Mr. Ass. It could have changed a lot.

 

[The Brain]

Billy Gunn was a good tag team wrestler, but not much of a singles wrestler. There’s nothing wrong with that. He was a guy who looked like a wrestler and was somewhat talented in the ring, but he couldn’t make it on his own. WWE always needs tag teams so it’s good to have a guy like Billy Gunn. The Smoking Gunns were a good team in the mid 90s. Billy struck gold when he was paired with Jesse James. The New Age Outlaws were as over as anybody during the attitude era. This was easily the highlight of his career. His brief partnership with Chuck Palumbo was successful too.

Billy never had the same success when he tried going solo. He just didn’t have the charisma to make it on his own. He was always more comfortable and confident when he had a partner. He had at least three different runs as a singles wrestler and all three failed. Anyone remember Rockabilly? Now it’s true that was just a bad gimmick, but Billy looked awful in that role and it looked like he put no effort into it. Let’s not blame WWF for not pushing Billy. He did win King of the Ring in 1999. That’s a push right there. Then he feuded with the Rock, who was at his most popular, and got a match with him at SummerSlam. I’d say getting a match with the wildly popular Rock at the second biggest show of the year is a good push. Billy didn’t carry his weight and the fans weren’t buying him as a main event wrestler. He was reunited with Road Dogg before missing about nine months in 2000 because of injury. It looked like Billy was set up to be the one who ran down Steve Austin at Survivor Series 99, but that wasn’t the case. Instead he retuned as The One Billy Gunn and formed an alliance with Chyna. During this time Billy got a brief run as IC champ. This seemed like Billy’s time to shine, but he failed yet again. He even had bad matches with Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero during this time. If you can’t have a good match with Benoit or Guerrero you’re just not going to make it as a singles star.

A lot of people look at Billy Gunn as a failure because he couldn’t cut it in the singles ranks. I suppose not living up to his potential could make him a failure, but overall Billy did ok for himself. He managed to stay employed for over ten years and was certainly a successful tag wrestler. Plus he got to make out with Sunny. I’d trade an IC title reign for the chance to work with Sunny.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Billy Gunn was always entertaining to watch, he was fantastic in the NAO, had a good finisher and the ASS MAN music was awesome!

When he came back as the One Billy Gunn, I thought he would finally break into the main event bracket, but it was not to be. He certainly had the in ring ability, the athleticism and physique to be a mega star but something just wasnt there

Still, he had a hell of a lot of success in the WWE and definately wont be totally forgotton thats for sure! When I think of attitude era WWE, Billy Gunn is in the top 20 guys that spring to mind, and when you think there was Austin, Mankind, Taker, Rock, HHH, Y2J, Angle, Shamrock, Big Show etc thats no mean feat

 

[TheAnimal]

I dont think he was that great in the ring which hindered him. He wasnt terrible but he wasnt a great worker. On the mic i dont think he was that great either. He could talk if it wasnt for too long but he couldnt come out and cut the 10-15 minute promos the way The Rock or Austin could. I think as well at the time he was in DX, WWE had Austin, Rock, Mankind, Undertaker, HHH etc all in main events and there wasnt one thing he could do better than they could.

He was a good tag team wrestler so weaknesses etc can be hidden, plus he had the Mr Ass gimmick which is maybe too comedic to have a guy recover from and be WWE champ.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

I first started watching wrestling properly in mid 1999, just before KOTR actually, and when Billy won the tournament, and then went on to fued with The Rock, it made me believe that Billy Gunn was a up and coming star in the business.

It's 11 years later and the guy never went any further forward from that spot in 1999. Despite being a part of the HHH/Rock fued that year and the DX split fued, he fueded with The Rock, got his face shoved in a fat chick's ass, and that seemed to be the death of him right then and there.

As soon as his face hit that woman's ass, his ME aspirations seemed to get shoved up there as well.

I personally enjoyed Billy's work. I was never going to get up and cheer for him, but i also didn't sit there and think 'oh great, a Billy Gunn match, where's the remote?' I've never seen any of his Smokin' Gunns stuff, nor his Rockabilly gimmick so i can't comment, but i have seen a LOT of NAO matches, and to me personally, it always seemed like Road Dogg was the focus of that tag team. They entered with his music, with him on the mic, and him doing all the entertaining stuff during the matches i.e. Shake, Rattle and Roll plus the shaky knee drop, whereas Billy showed off his power and slapped his ass a lot.

Then they split, was involved in the aforementioned fueds, went BACK to being in a tag team with Road Dogg, where they pretty much acted as if they'd never split, and then he got hurt. Even then during that reformation, they drilled into the audience, the idea that Road Dogg was better than him. They had a match in late December '99 which Foley forced them into as a result of the McMahon/Helmsley faction being blackmailed into re-hiring him. Basically Billy just got the upper hand, except he went for the Fame-Asser and Road Dogg just stood up straight and Pumphandle Slammed him instead and won.

Then he got injured and X-Pac pretty much took his place as Road Dogg's tag partner (although ironically, Dogg ended up being second fiddle to X-Pac).

Then he came back and did so little i can't even remember him being there. I remember he tagged with Show for a bit, and then later he fueded with the new comers for a while, and then got hurt again.

Then he's repackaged as 'The One' Billy Gunn, and spends the beginning of that new gimmick playing Chyna's lackey as she gets crippled by RTC. Gunn wasn't even that important to the angle! He continues to do nothing until eventually being paired up with Chuck 'Seriously, is anybody a bigger waste of space than me?' Palumbo, as the homosexual tag team, who aren't really homosexuals at all, because they were faking it because their manager Rico was simply THAT intent to having a gay marriage on a wrestling show, he didn't care that the participants weren't actually gay.....

Stupid right? Well guess what? It got worse......

Not only did this segment take up 20 minutes worth of TV time, it ended up not focusing on Billy and Chuck at all. The focus ended up going towards the Raw vs Smackdown/Steph vs Bischoff fued and all the momentum went to 3 Minute Warning (for all the good it did them), and Billy and Chuck were gone nearly straight away afterward. Then Billy comes back for a random RR appearance in 2004, and that was it, gone.

My interpretaion of Billy's career over and done with, i'll summarise his WWE run.

Billy Gunn was yet another of those superstars that was hyped repeatedly as being 'the most gifted athlete in WWE/F' by the announcers. He also won KOTR, a tournament that at the time guaranteed a decent push for 70% of the guys who won it.

Mable went nowhere because he was a blimp with no talent, yet they gave him the belt.

Owen Hart never transcended to the ME due in part to the whole situation with Bret.

Billy Gunn never went any further forward, because he was repeatedly injured. He was the late 90's equivalent of Mr Kennedy. Everytime his momentum got going and the fans began to rally behind him, he'd get hurt and disappear for several months and had to start over.

I've not seen his shoot interviews but surprise surprise, most of his issues with WWE were related somehow to HHH.

Personally i feel that while Billy did get some rather stupid gimmicks, that wasn't enough to keep in the mid-card imo. Even when he took the name 'Mr. Ass' he wasn't announced as Mr Ass or called Mr Ass, that was his nickname just like 'The Rated R Superstar ' is Edge's. Once he became 'The One' he'd have had no problem being accepted as a ME'er, but for some reason, this period was when his ring work was at it's worst, and whether that was due to ring rust or something i don't know, but it made them put him in another stupid gimmick that didn't work either.

Getting hurt so often didn't help either. If he'd remained healthier, he'd probably have been given a better chance mid-way through his WWE run instead of having a different gimmick every time he came back.

From watching Billy Gunn's career, and then this decade, watching Shelton Benjamin's, i'm never going to put any faith in a wrestler who's hyped as 'the most gifted athlete on the roster' ever again.

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

He shined more as a tag team wrestler..he and Road Dogg took the tag division by storm in 98, 99, early 2000...they were just great...

For me...Billy Gunn's biggest break came when he won the KotR...If WWE had given his the same contract as past wrestlers, he would have gone on to face the WWF Champion at Summerslam the next month..but it never happened..instead he had a 'Kiss my Ass match' with The Rock(Which he lost)...I don't see why they didn't give him a title match..i mean he didn't have to win..but why not give him a title match...Taker/Austin feud was finished before SummerSlam started, so I don't get why they did this...

He will always be remembered by me from his WWF/E days...and because of the New Aged Outlawz!!!