Brian William Pillman (May 22, 1962 – October 5, 1997) was an American football player and professional wrestler best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation, Extreme Championship Wrestling, and World Championship Wrestling.
Pillman had 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 an accident in April 1996 limited his in-ring ability.
Football career
Brian graduated from Norwood High School in Norwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. While attending Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Pillman played football for the Miami Redhawks as a Defensive Tackle where he set records for "tackles for loss." A two-time Second Team All-American, he went undrafted to the National Football League, joining the Cincinnati Bengals (his hometown team) as a free agent in 1984 (where he won the Ed Block Courage Award for his team) and later the Canadian Football League for the Calgary Stampeders in 1986. He also played for the Buffalo Bills in preseason action in 1985 but was the last player cut before the start of that season. His attempts to make the roster of the Bengals were covered in a series of articles in The Cincinnati Enquirer . During his football career, Pillman began taking steroids and painkillers in order to perform, resulting in him having health problems the rest of his life.
Professional wrestling career
Stampede Wrestling (1986–1989)
Following the end of his football career, Pillman remained in Canada and began training as a wrestler under Stu Hart and his sons. He debuted in November 1986 in Hart's Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling promotion.
Pillman quickly formed a tag team with Hart's son Bruce known as Bad Company (not to be confused with Badd Company). In April 1987, Bad Company won the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship, defeating Ron Starr and the Cuban Assassin in the finals of a tournament. Their reign lasted until October 1987, 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 1987 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 (also known as Beulah McGillicutty), 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.
National Wrestling Alliance / World Championship Wrestling (1989–1994)
In 1989, Pillman returned to America and began wrestling for the National Wrestling Alliance, which evolved into World Championship Wrestling, where he was known as Flyin' Brian due to his athletic ability and variety of aerial maneuvers. He was known for his missile dropkick and diving crossbody. Along with The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty of the WWF), he was one of the first American wrestlers to incorporate a variety of Mexican lucha libre moves into his arsenal. He held the NWA United States Tag Team Championship with "The Z-Man" Tom Zenk between February 1990 and May 1990. Pillman later feuded with Barry Windham, who he harassed while dressed as the masked Yellow Dog after losing a Loser of the fall-leaves-WCW match (Pillman was eventually reinstated). He also held the short-lived WCW World Light Heavyweight Championship twice between October 1991 and February 1992, feuding with Brad Armstrong, Jushin Liger, Richard Morton, and Scotty Flamingo.
Pillman turned heel in September 1992, frustrated by Brad Armstrong's knee injury and vacating the WCW World Light Heavyweight title, when he was scheduled to wrestle Armstrong for the title at the Clash of the Champions. In November 1992, he formed a team with Barry Windham, gunning for the NWA and WCW World Tag Team Championships held by Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas. Windham and Pillman lost to Steamboat and Douglas at Starrcade on December 28. Their team lasted until January 1993, as Windham had his sights on the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Pillman continued the tag team title hunt by forming a tag team with "Stunning" Steve Austin known as the Hollywood Blonds. On the March 27, 1993 edition of WCW Power Hour , the duo won the championships from Steamboat and Douglas. The team quickly became popular for their brash attitudes, and critically acclaimed matches with Steamboat and Douglas through the spring of 1993.
After the feud with Steamboat and Douglas ended, they went on to feud with The Four Horsemen, mainly Ric Flair and Arn Anderson, mocking their ages and parodying Flair's interview show " A Flare for the Gold ", with their own " A Flare for the Old ". They would lose the NWA and WCW World Tag Team Titles to Anderson and Paul Roma at Clash of the Champions XXIV (Lord Steven Regal substituted for Pillman, who was injured). After the Hollywood Blonds separated in October 1993, Pillman became a face, feuding with his old partner Austin. He would also go after the WCW World Television Championship, held by Lord Steven Regal, with whom he wrestled to a 15-minute time limit draw at Spring Stampede.
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1994)
Pillman would venture into Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1994, as part of a talent exchange between ECW and WCW. His most notable match there was teaming with Shane Douglas, replacing an injured Steve Austin, with Sherri Martel as their manager, losing to Ron Simmons and 2 Cold Scorpio.
World Championship Wrestling (1994–1996)
Pillman made his return in late 1994 as a face, but slowly progressed into a tweener, feuding with wrestlers such as Brad Armstrong, Eddie Guerrero, Alex Wright, and Marcus Bagwell. In September 1995 at Fall Brawl, Pillman formed a team with Arn Anderson, and began feuding with Ric Flair and Sting. After costing Flair a match to Arn Anderson at Fall Brawl, the Four Horsemen reunited and beat down Sting at Halloween Havoc. This incarnation was Flair, Anderson, Pillman, and Chris Benoit. On September 4, 1995, he wrestled the first match on the very first episode of WCW Monday Nitro , defeating Jushin Liger in a SuperBrawl II rematch.
At the end of 1995, Pillman developed his "Loose Cannon" gimmick, cultivating a reputation for unpredictable behavior. During this period of time, Pillman changed his once Hollywood Blond and Flyin' Brian clean athletic look for an edgy, out of control image. Almost all of the time Pillman could be seen wearing leather vests, weird sunglasses, a lot of jewelry and crazy graphic T shirts with skulls, monsters, and sayings on them. Brian mostly preferred T shirts by a company called Liquid Blue. Brian frequently blurred fact and fiction with his worked-shoots, and outed Kevin Sullivan as booker during the February 1996 SuperBrawl VI pay-per-view in an I Respect You Strap match where the loser announces that they respect the other wrestler, much like an "I Quit" match. Brian Pillman grabbed the microphone, saying, sarcastically, "I respect you, booker man". The words "booker man" were cut from the commercial tape. In a match with Eddie Guerrero on the January 23, 1996 edition of Clash of the Champions, Pillman 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 (Heenan has since stated that he didn't know it was Pillman grabbing him and he blurted out the remark because he thought he was a fan grabbing him).
Pillman was fired by WCW President Eric Bischoff in February 1996 after SuperBrawl VI. 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 World Championship Wrestling with more legitimate heat. Bischoff claims it was a plan he and Pillman came up with together. It would later backfire on Bischoff as Pillman did not return.
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1996)
Immediately following his departure from WCW, Pillman returned to the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion, appearing at the annual Internet convention, ECW CyberSlam, on February 17, 1996. During an interview conducted in the ring by Joey Styles, Pillman insulted Bischoff, calling him a commentator, a " gofer ", and a " piece of shit ". He turned his attention to the ECW audience, derisively calling them "Smart Marks". After Styles attempted to end the interview, Pillman threatened to " yank out Johnson " and urinate in the ring. Pillman was confronted by ECW owner Tod Gordon, booker Paul Heyman, and wrestler Shane Douglas, who had him removed from the ring by security guards. While being dragged from the arena, Pillman attacked a plant sitting in the audience with a fork he produced from his boot. Although he did not wrestle for ECW, Pillman made several further appearances with the promotion, engaging in a war of words with Douglas, setting up a proposed feud.
He gained the backstage ire of New Jack when he referred to the tag team consisting of New Jack and Mustafa (The Gangstas) as "Niggas with Attitudes" (not as a racist comment, but in reference to the rap group N.W.A) when crashing one of their interviews. With his "Loose Cannon" persona, Pillman became the talk for all three major promotions, as he successfully left WCW, he w
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