Brian Pillman
Brian William Pillman was an American professional wrestler and professional football player best known for his appearances in Stampede Wrestling in the 1980s and World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, and World Wrestling Federation in the 1990s.
Pillman created a legacy as "The Loose Cannon", a wrestling gimmick that would see him do a series of worked shoots that would gain him a degree of infamy for his unpredictable character. He was also known for being extremely agile in the ring, although a car accident on April 15, 1996, from which he received extensive ankle injuries, limited his in-ring ability. By the end of his career, he worked with his long-time friend and former tag-team partner Stone Cold Steve Austin in a storyline involving a firearm and with The Hart Foundation during the first instances of the developing Attitude Era. In October 1997, he died unexpectedly due to an undetected heart disease.
Early life
Brian William Pillman was born on May 22, 1962, at the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a Welsh mother named Mary; he had three sisters named Angie, Linda, and Susan, as well as a brother Phil. His father died of a heart attack when Pillman was three months old. Pillman developed multiple throat polyps as a child beginning at age two, undergoing between 31 and 40 operations to tend to them and receiving an electrolarynx. As a result, Pillman spent a large part of his early childhood in a hospital, only going home for Christmas. His mother chose to send him to a public school so that he could spend more time with his friends, leaving him as the only Presbyterian in his Catholic family. As a child Pillman played many sports, including basketball and hockey, but was rather fragile and often made fun of by other children due to his raspy voice, which had been damaged by the operations, prompting him to learn how to box.Football career
Pillman graduated from Norwood High School in Norwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. While attending Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Pillman played football for the Redskins as a linebacker. A Division I-AA First-Team All-American in his junior year and a Second-Team Division I-A All-American in his senior year, he went undrafted in the 1984 NFL draft. He joined his hometown Cincinnati Bengals as a free agent and later the Canadian Football League for the Calgary Stampeders in 1986. Pillman also played for the Buffalo Bills in preseason action in 1985, but he was the last player cut before the start of that season due to an assistant coach finding steroids in his room. His attempts to make the roster of the Bengals were covered in a series of articles in The Cincinnati Enquirer written by Peter King. Pillman and New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh were roommates and defensive teammates while at Miami.Professional wrestling career
Stampede Wrestling (1986–1988)
Following the end of his football career, Pillman remained in Canada and began training as a wrestler under Stu Hart and his sons. He made his in-ring debut in November 1986 for Hart's Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling promotion. Pillman quickly formed a tag team with Hart's son Bruce known as Bad Company, winning the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship by defeating Ron Starr and the Cuban Assassin in the finals of a tournament on April 5, 1987. Their reign lasted until October, when the titles were held up following a controversial ending to a match between Bad Company and their opponents, Jerry Morrow and Makhan Singh. Bad Company defeated Morrow and Singh in a rematch in November to regain the titles, eventually losing them to Morrow and the Cuban Assassin in July 1988. While in Stampede Wrestling, Pillman had his girlfriend at the time, Trisa Hayes, portray his sister in order to get him over as a face by seating her at ringside and having heel wrestlers taunt her so that he could rescue her.After finishing with Stampede in late 1988, Pillman worked briefly in 1989 for New Japan Pro-Wrestling as part of its "Battle Line Tokyo Dome" tour, where he wrestled in singles matches against Masa Saito, Tatsumi Fujinami, Black Cat and Naoki Sano and in tag team matches with Big Van Vader against Riki Choshu and Fujinami.
World Championship Wrestling (1989–1996)
Flyin' Brian (1989–1993)
Pillman returned to the United States in May 1989 and began appearing in vignettes hyping his in-ring debut for World Championship Wrestling the following month, where he became known as Flyin' Brian due to his athletic ability and variety of aerial maneuvers. He unsuccessfully challenged Lex Luger for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship at the Halloween Havoc pay-per-view on October 28 and at Clash of the Champions IX on November 15.During this time, Pillman began teaming with "Z-Man" Tom Zenk and feuded with the Fabulous Freebirds, who they defeated on February 12, 1990, to capture the NWA United States Tag Team Championship. They successfully defended the titles against the Freebirds on February 25 at WrestleWar, but lost them at Capital Combat on May 19 to The Midnight Express. He defeated Buddy Landel on July 7 at The Great American Bash and at Clash of the Champions XIII on November 20. At WrestleWar on February 24, 1991, Pillman participated in a WarGames match, teaming with Sting and The Steiner Brothers in a loss to The Four Horsemen and Larry Zbyszko. On March 21, Pillman wrestled at the WCW/New Japan Supershow I in the Tokyo Dome, where he, Zenk and Tim Horner lost to Kuniaki Kobayashi, Shiro Koshinaka and Takayuki Iizuka.
On June 12, at Clash of the Champions XV, Pillman teamed with El Gigante against Windham and Arn Anderson in a Loser Leaves WCW match, which they lost. Per the stipulation, he was forced to leave WCW. However, Pillman instead re-emerged as the masked Yellow Dog, competing in a series of bounty matches with his mask on the line. At The Great American Bash on July 14, he defeated Johnny B. Badd by disqualification after Badd's manager Teddy Long tried to remove his mask. The Yellow Dog gimmick was short lived as Pillman was reinstated in August. Also that month, Pillman wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling as part of its "Summer Night Fever in Nagoya" and "Violent Storm in Kokugikan" tours, facing opponents including Jushin Thunder Liger and Kensuke Sasaki.
At Halloween Havoc on October 27, Pillman defeated Richard Morton in a tournament final to win the inaugural WCW Light Heavyweight Championship. He successfully defended the title against Badd on November 19 at Clash of the Champions XVII before losing it to Liger at a house show on December 25. Pillman regained the championship from Liger on February 29, 1992, at SuperBrawl II. At WrestleWar on May 17, he defeated his partner Tom Zenk to retain the title. He and Liger participated in a tournament for the NWA World Tag Team Championship, defeating Biff Wellington and Chris Benoit in the first round on June 16 at Clash of the Champions XIX. At Beach Blast on June 20, Pillman lost the Light Heavyweight Championship to Scotty Flamingo. Pillman and Liger then lost in the quarter-final of the tournament to Nikita Koloff and Ricky Steamboat at The Great American Bash on July 12.
In September, Pillman turned heel by slapping Brad Armstrong out of frustration for his knee injury and vacating the title when he was scheduled to defend it against Pillman at Clash of the Champions XX. He lost to Steamboat at Halloween Havoc on October 25 and defeated Armstrong at Clash of the Champions XXI on November 18. Pillman also started teaming with his former rival Windham, challenging for the NWA and WCW World Tag Team Championships against Steamboat and Shane Douglas at Starrcade on December 28 in a losing effort. Their team lasted until January 1993, as Windham had his sights on the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Hollywood Blonds (1993–1994)
Pillman subsequently began teaming with "Stunning" Steve Austin as the Hollywood Blonds, defeating Erik Watts and Marcus Alexander Bagwell on February 21 at SuperBrawl III. On the March 27 episode of Power Hour, they won the championships from Steamboat and Douglas. At Slamboree on May 23, they successfully defended the titles against Dos Hombres in a steel cage match. Pillman and Austin then feuded with Ric Flair and Arn Anderson of The Four Horsemen, mocking their ages and parodying Flair's interview show, "A Flair for the Gold", with their own called "A Flair for the Old". They successfully defended the titles against Anderson and Paul Roma at Beach Blast on July 18 before losing them in a rematch at Clash of the Champions XXIV on August 18. Prior to the event, Pillman suffered a leg injury during a tag team match on an episode of Main Event, so he was replaced in the match by Lord Steven Regal.The Hollywood Blonds separated in October after Austin turned on Pillman to join Col. Robert Parker's Stud Stable, turning Pillman face and starting a feud between the two. At Clash of the Champions XXV on November 10, he lost to Austin after interference from Parker. On January 27, 1994, at Clash of the Champions XXVI, he defeated Parker in a match where the loser had to wear a chicken suit. At SuperBrawl IV on February 20, Pillman, Dustin Rhodes and Sting defeated Austin, Paul Orndorff and Rick Rude in a Thundercage match. He challenged Regal for the WCW World Television Championship on April 17 at Spring Stampede, but the match ended in a 15-minute time limit draw.
Four Horsemen and "Loose Cannon" (1995–1996)
After several months of inactivity, Pillman made his return to WCW programming in January 1995, originally to be renamed California Brian as a face who had moved to California to pursue acting work on Baywatch, with Pillman slowly progressing into a tweener. He lost to Alex Wright at The Great American Bash on June 18. On September 4, Pillman wrestled the first match on the inaugural episode of Monday Nitro, defeating Jushin Thunder Liger. After costing Flair a match to Arn Anderson at Fall Brawl on September 17, Flair recruited the help of Sting to team up against Pillman and Anderson at Halloween Havoc on October 29. Pillman and Anderson attacked Flair before the match, forcing Sting to come out alone. When Sting needed a tag the most, Flair came out at the last minute with a bandage on his head, tagged Sting and immediately turned and attacked him, removing the fake bandage from his head to show it was all a plan between Pillman, Anderson and Flair. These actions signaled the reunion of The Four Horsemen; this incarnation consisted of Flair, Anderson, Pillman and Chris Benoit.In the middle of 1995, Pillman again returned to New Japan Pro-Wrestling to compete in the Best of the Super Juniors. He wrestled against the likes of Dean Malenko, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Black Cat, Koji Kanemoto, Shinjiro Otani, Gran Hamada, Black Tiger, Wild Pegasus, Wright and El Samurai in singles matches and in tag team matches together with Wright, Norio Honaga, Hamada or Malenko against Akira Nogami, Koji Kanemoto, Takayuki Iizuka, El Samurai, Malenko and Honaga.
At the end of 1995, Pillman developed his "Loose Cannon" gimmick, cultivating a reputation for unpredictable behavior and blurring fact and fiction with his worked shoots. He changed his once Hollywood Blond and Flyin' Brian clean athletic look for an edgy, out of control image. Even his allies in the Horsemen, especially Anderson, were wary of his behavior and tried in vain to keep him in check. In a match with Eddie Guerrero on January 23, 1996, at Clash of the Champions XXXII, which Pillman won, he grabbed commentator Bobby Heenan by the collar, causing Heenan, who had a history of neck problems, to blurt out "What the fuck are you doing?" live on the air. On February 11, Pillman outed Kevin Sullivan as booker at SuperBrawl VI in an I Respect You Strap match, where the loser announces that they respect the other wrestler, much like an "I Quit" match. Pillman lost to Sullivan in under a minute after grabbing the microphone and telling Sullivan "I respect you, booker man." The words "booker man" were cut from the commercial tape.
The day after SuperBrawl VI, Pillman was fired by WCW President Eric Bischoff. In Bischoff's autobiography, he said that Pillman was fired so that he could go and develop the "loose cannon" gimmick in ECW then return to WCW with more legitimate heat. Bischoff claims it was a plan he and Pillman came up with together, but Pillman wound up not returning. Pillman's final televised WCW match was actually on the February 19 episode of WCW Prime, taped long before SuperBrawl VI, where he teamed with fellow Four Horsemen member Chris Benoit to defeat The Barrio Brothers.