Bart Gunn briefly went into solo competition, his most high-profile match occurring on Monday Night Raw, in April 1996, which he lost to "Ringmaster" Steve Austin via the Million Dollar Dream.
Under his new manager Jim Cornette, Polchlopek recreated the Midnight Express tag team as "Bodacious Bart" with partner Bombastic Bob in March 1998.
According to his interview in the Dark Side of the Ring episode on Brawl For All, he sat home for months following this after being told by Vince Russo that WWF creative had nothing for him at the time.
[9] He would compete in the 1998 World Strongest Tag Determination League, teaming with Johnny Ace, and finishing in 4th place with 8 points.
On June 9, Gunn and Ace defeated Kenta Kobashi and Jun Akiyama to win the World Tag Team Championship.
[12] In the spring of 2000, Barton entered the Champion Carnival, defeating Masao Inoue in the first round but losing to Takao Omori in the second.
Johnny Ace, however, left All Japan during the split and retired from wrestling, taking an office job in WCW and later the WWF.
On the January 17, 2000, edition of AJPW TV, Williams defeated Barton unexpectedly in a match,[15] with the feud continuing for a week in the house show circuit before being postponed.
Barton would ultimately defeat Kawada in tag-team action, but come short against Tenryu in the first round of the Triple Crown Tournament.
Most notably, in January 2002 the pair celebrated Abdullah The Butcher's birthday together in the ring singing and telling jokes, as well as Williams cheering Barton on when he was facing Genichiro Tenryu in the Champion Carnival 2002 tournament.
In October 2000, Barton entered a tournament for the vacant Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, losing in the first round to Genichiro Tenryu.
[14] In November, Barton and Steele entered the 2000 World's Strongest Tag Determination League, finishing in 4th place with 10 points.
[25] On July 20, Barton and Steele won The Stan Hansen Cup Four Way against The Varsity Club, KroniK, and George Hines & Johnny Smith.
Their last match in AJPW was on October 27, 2002, where they teamed with George Hines to defeat Arashi, Nobukazu Hirai & Nobutaka Araya.
They ultimately emerged victorious, defeating Makai Club members Tadao Yasuda and Kazunari Murakami in the finals, but an injury to Steele prevented them from getting the title match.
During the tournament, on October 21, the two received a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Title against champions Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yutaka Yoshie, but came up short.
Polchlopek made his mixed martial arts debut against UFC veteran Wesley Correira at Rumble On The Rock: Beatdown on June 17, 2006.
He won his debut via TKO after the ringside doctor determined Correira was unable to continue fighting after suffering a large cut.
In his second and final fight, on November 5, 2006, he faced Ikuhisa Minowa at PRIDE Bushido 13, losing via unanimous decision.