Brian Pillman.
BIO.
As soon as Brian Pillman was born
he faced his first battle. Young Brian, born the 22nd of May 1962 was diagnosed
with throat cancer. He underwent a total of thirty-six operations during
his lifetime, and as a teen was given an artificial larynx.
This ordeal gave him an instantly
recognizable raspy voice.
Despite these problems, Brian succeeded
as an athlete during high school.
He was accepted to Miami of Ohio
University on a football scholarship.
Though Brian didn't make the NFL
draft, he joined the Cincinnati Bengals training camp and made the team.
He spent a year playing with the Bengals before he suffered an ankle injury
and was released. He moved to play for the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL.
But during his time there he suffered more problems with his ankle and
decided it was time for a new vocation.
It was in Calgary that Brian met
up with the Hart family and he was soon training in Stu Hart's infamous
"Dungeon" with Stu and the other Hart brothers.
He began his wrestling career in
Stu Hart's promotion Calgary Stampede Wrestling.
Here Brian proved to have a natural
flair for the business and formed "Bad Company" with Bruce Hart. They went
on to win the International Tag team titles, but soon thereafter the team
suffered a loss and fell from tag team contention.
About a year later, Brian was contacted
by WCW and packing his bags he moved to Atlanta, GA for his first shot
at the big time.
Brian immediately impressed people
with his high flying, daredevil style of wrestling and three months after
making his debut, he was granted shots at Lex Luger's United States Heavyweight
Championship. Although Luger retained his title, during bouts at Halloween
Havoc and Clash of the Champions IX, Brian gave every match his all which
produced some thrilling contests.
The next setp in Brian's career
came with a partner.
He and Tom Zenk were a successful
tag team. They held the resurrected United States Tag team Titles for three
months, between February 1990 and May 1990.
Following their loss to the Midnight
Express at Capital Combat, the team disbanded and Brian spent much of the
next year in one of his many career ruts.
He continued winning, but had no
established program at the time. That all changed come the Spring of 1991.
Brian joined forces with Sting and
the Steiner brothers to battle the Four Horsemen. Sting's team met the
Horsemen team of Ric Flair, Barry Windham, Sid Vicious and Larry Zbyszko
[substituting for Arn Anderson] in the two ring double cage in War Games.
It was a brutal, bloody match which the Horsemen won after Sid knocked
Pillman out with two devastating powerbombs.
Pillman then went on to face Horsemen
Barry Windham in a taped fist match at Superbrawl and again at Clash XV
teaming with El Gigante against Windham and Anderson. He lost both matches,
and unfortunately the second match was a loser leaves town match. So Brian
was forced to 'leave' WCW.
He returned to WCW shortly thereafter
as the masked "Yellow Dog", a moniker Windham had used earlier in his career
in Florida.
Pillman enjoyed a fairly successful
time in WCW, winning the newly created Light Heavyweight Title and having
several tremendous matches with Jushin Liger whom the WCW had brought over
from Japan.
Later on though, Liger returned
to Japan, leaving Pillman with no serious opponents. He successful defended
his title against Johnny B. Badd, then went on to face his former partner
Tom Zenk.
Zenk was followed by Scotty Flamingo
at Beach Blast and Brad Armstrong.
It was during this time that WCW
instituted a stupid rule banning moves off the top rope. This killed all
of Brian's 'air pillman' moves until September when the rule was lifted.
Shortly afterwards though, Brian
fell into another career rut and was teamed with another man going nowhere
fast, Steve Austin.
The two became a regular team and
named themselves the Hollywood Blondes. They went on to win the tag team
titles and defended against such as the Four Horsemen team of Arn Anderson
and Paul Roma.
They beat the Four Horsemen in their
first match, but before a rematch at Clash of the Champions, Pillman injured
his ankle once again.
Later, the Blondes split up with
Austin being pushed towards the U.S. title.
Pillman's career fell sharply and
after losing to Austin at Clash of the Champions XXV in November, he achieved
very little of note. He made a few brief appearances in ECW and linked
arms with Sting and Dustin Rhodes to face Steve Austin, Paul Orndorf and
Rick Rude in a Thunderdome match.
Pillman was beaten quite bloody
by the heels.
In April of 1994, Pillman's contract
came up for renewal. Following enormous speculation, Brian was resigned
for $450,000 over a two year period. He faced Steve Regal at Spring Stampede
for the TV title, achieving a draw when the time limit expired.
Then along came the 'Orange Skinned
One' Hulk Hogan and his band of decrepit cronies [the nWo] and Brian fell
into obscurity.
Then at the beginning of 1995 he
was repackaged as "California' Brian Pillman. He teamed with Austin again,
reforming the Hollywood Blondes. Unfortunately, the reformation ended abruptly
when Austin was fired from WCW in September, following a serious muscle
tear.
Brian appeared to have been left
in the lurch, but he recovered and got the win over Jushin Liger in the
opening match of the debut edition of WCW Monday Nitro on Labour Day 1995.
Pillman then went on to become a
member of the Four Horsemen with Ric Flair, Chris Benoit and Arn Anderson.
The symbol of excellence in pro wrestling had been reborn. Two months later,
following the typical Horseman formula of running in whenever needed Brian's
unstable side emerged and so was born the "LOOSE CANNON".
The Horsemen went on to feud with
the Dungeon of Doom after Pillman badmouthed them on an episode of Nitro,
but after only a short time, Pillman fell out of contention with the group.
He went on to engage in an intense
feud with Kevin Sullivan, before being fired from WCW.
Later, he showed up in ECW and threatened
to take a piss in the middle of the ring during a broadcast. Shane Douglas,
Tod Gordon and Paul E. Dangerously ran in to stop him.
Pillman rolled out of the ring and
a fan took a swing at him. Brian pulled the fan into the ring and attacked
him with a fork.
He was then ejected from the building
by security.
On March 11th, he purchased ringside
seats for Nitro. He had with him several handmade signs for his independant
1-900 number and ended up being escorted from the building.
He received surgery the next day
for a throat injury suffered whilst being ejected from Nitro, and returned
the following Monday. He hopped the railing and joined an attack on Hogan
and Savage. He was offered a spot in the main event of Uncensored 96' but
because of throat complications pulled out.
Apparently Pillman was still under
WCW contract and they were trying to create an image of Pillman being completely
nuts before he returned to WCW to face Kevin Sullivan again. If that was
the plan then the night of April 15th was a bloody big stumbling block.
It was the night Brian Pillman almost died.
Pillman was driving in his humvee
along Kentucky Route 33 and hit a tree trunk. He shot across the road and
hit another which caused his vehicle to flip. Pillman was thrown thirty
feet through the air.
He went to hospital with a severely
broken left ankle, dislocated jaw, broken nose and cheekbone and severe
facial cuts.
Pillman had a steel rod inserted
into his ankle and his ankle was fused into a walking position. He was
released on April 19th, returning for plastic surgery on his face. On April
17th Brian's contract with WCW expired.
Brian was confined to a wheelchair
and returned to ECW on June 1st. During the interview he mentioned the
rap group 'NWA' and New Jack of the Gangstas took offense to this. This
led to a backstage confrontation between the two and ended Pillman's stay
in ECW.
Afterwards he went on to join the
WWF on a three year contract.
He spent the next few months commentating
and interviewing until October when he needed his ankle breaking again.
Doctors found his ankle was not healing correctly so were forced to break
it and reset it.
On TV his absence was explained
by having Steve Austin attack him before his operation. This led to one
of Vince McMahon's lowest points, the gun angle on Monday Night Raw.
Pillman was being interviewed from
home when it was revealed that Steve Austin was on his way over. Austin
arrived and broke into the house and Brian pulled a gun on him. The signal
was cut, but not before Brian yelled "Let him go, I'll f**king kill him"
Under orders from the USA Network
the gun incident was neither shown nor mentioned again. Brian was kept
from TV for several months following it. He showed up to present an award
at the Slammys.
He returned to Raw on April 21st,
attacking Steve Austin. He became an unofficial member of the Hart Foundation
and took great delight in attacking Austin. Pillman went on to, along with
the other members of the Foundation, become embroiled in a feud with Austin.
He tagged with Owen Hart and Davey-Boy Smith in one match to face Austin
and the LOD and tagged with Jim Neidhart in another match.
In the main event of In Your House
XVI, Pillman joined the rest of the Harts to beat Austin, Goldust, Shamrock
and the LOD in a ten man tag team match. Pillman then turned his attention
on Goldust. He met him at Summerslam with the stipulation that if he lost
he would wrestle in a dress until he won again.
Naturally Brian lost and donned
a dress, Goldust interfered in every match attacking his opponent so Pillman
would continue to lose. Another dress shot, then Pillman snapped and began
what would have been one of the most heated feuds of 1997.
Pillman was in the ring taunting
Goldust when he said "You know your daughter Dakota? She's my love child,
it was so good"
Goldust went nuts and Pillman demanded
a match where if he won, he would acquire the services of Marlena for thirty
days. Marlena accepted on Goldust's behalf, leading many people to believe
that the two had something going on. Goldust lost and Pillman gained the
services of Marlena.
He then began to make his "XXX Files".
During them he made many comments about Marlena. Such as.
"I'm taking Marlena for a long,
hard ride"
Naturally Goldust went nuts every
time and a match was scheduled between Brian Pillman and Dude Love at In
Your House XVIII: Badd Blood. If Pillman lost he would have to face Goldust
in a no DQ match. Unfortunately that match never took place.
TITLES
HELD.
The Stampede
International Tag team Titles twice.
The NWA United
States Tag team Titles once.
The WCW Light
Heavyweight title twice.
The WCW World
Tag team titles once.
HIS
DEATH.
When Brian
failed to make the plane that would take him to the Pay-Per-View, police
were asked to search his hotel room at the Budget Inn, Bloomington, MN.
It was in that room that Brian Pillman was found dead.
An autopsy
carried out later, determined that he had died of a heart attack.
There were
wild rumors flying that his death was due to drugs or booze, but his heart
was 75% diseased and this was what led to his death. It was the same thing
that had killed his father when Brian was just a kid.
Brian was
not aware that anything was wrong with his heart. He died peacefully in
his sleep on the 10/05/97.
He is survived
by his wife and six children.
The superstars of the WWF mourn the
passing of their friend and their work mate, Brian Pillman.
The man who will be remembered for
his toughness, his spirit, his loving nature and by the moniker, the Loose
Cannon.
Rest well, Brian, and know, that
you will never be forgotten.
[Thanks to Scotty of the best Brian Pillman
page on the web, for information contained within and for the pic of the
WWF Superstars above. You can visit Scotty's page here. Thanks man]
MEMORIES.