Shining a Spotlight 10.11.07: Brian Pillman

I know I had said last week that this was going to be a look at Hell in the Cell. However, I realized that last week marked another anniversary worth remembering. That last weekend was the 10th anniversary of the passing of a man whose name is still remembered, not just for his great in-ring abilities but for his even greater actions outside the ring.

Brian Pillman.

Ten years after his death, he remains one of the most controversial, enigmatic, notable and infamous figures wrestling has ever known. He was a man who overcome incredible adversity in his life and broke into athletic, hard-hitting sports despite his size and his youthful ailments. He made a name doing stuff in American rings that was years before its time. But Pillman’s true fame lies in the fact that he conceived one of the greatest con job the wrestling industry has ever known, one that fooled even his fellow workers and veterans. It made him the hottest commodity in the business only to have a twist of fate ruin it all and lead to his death.

Like James Dean, Jim Morrison and others, his early death has enhanced Pillman’s legend and made his name more memorable still. While most know him for his end, the fact is that Pillman’s entire life was one of notable moments and great personal struggles that make both his success and his fall all the more gripping to read about today. That’s especially true in this current environment where so much of the dark side of wrestling is being pushed forward.

As I said, Pillman’s fame is infamous but matched by the great respect he gathered in so many, respect that remains today. That was proven when WWE released the Loose Cannon DVD last year and instead of a burial job, fans were treated to a wonderfully balanced look at Pillman’s life with so many, including his widow, talking about how great a guy he was. The DVD is one of the best WWE has ever put out and should be watched for its terrific examination of a worker who deserves it.

Born in 1962, Pillman was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. His first test came when he was only eight years old and cancerous tumors were found on his throat. He underwent a series of over 40 operations that had to basically cut his larynx down, removing the lymph nodes and leaving him with the raspy voice that would be with him for the rest of his life. Despite his ailment, Pillman continued to persevere and threw himself into athletics such as hockey and football. He was drawn to wrestling and it’s telling that two of his favorites were Road Warrior Hawk and Bruiser Brody, two men famed for keeping in character even outside the ring.

He attended the University of Miami in Ohio as a defensive tackle and would be a free agent for the Cincinnati Bengal in 1984 and later played for the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders in 1986. He played for the Buffalo Bills in the preseason of 1985 but was cut although his attempts to make it into the pros became the basis for a series of Cincinnati Enquirer articles. It was also here that he began to take steroids and painkillers to handle the grind, beginning his substance abuse problems.

In 1986, with his football career over, Pillman decided to go to wrestling. Moving to Canada, he trained at Stu Hart’s legendary Dungeon and soon made his debut for Stampede. He and Stu’s son, Bruce, formed a tag team, Badd Company that quickly became the number one team in the promotion, winning the International Tag Team titles several times and having terrific feuds with the likes of Jerry Morrow and Makhan Singh. Pillman quickly showed his great technical skills along with his amazing aerial abilities, able to leap from the top rope onto opponents who were more than halfway across the ring. One interesting facet was Pillman first testing the waters with using fan reactions by having his then girlfriend, Buellah McGillicutty, be at ringside and be attacked by heels so Pillman could race to rescue her. He also got notoriety when the Stampede workers (infamous for their wild ribs) arranged for him to be attacked by a professional bodybuilder. Instead of getting his ass kicked as expected, Pillman came out having beaten the much bigger man down and even plucking out one of his eyeballs. Needless to say, no one ribbed him after that.

In 1989, Pillman made his move to the big time by joining WCW (then still under the NWA banner) as Flyin’ Brian. He soon got over with his terrific ring skills and his flying, a style of wrestling that just wasn’t seen in the mainstream US at that time. In a promotion marked with big and beefy workers, Pillman made a name for himself by taking to the air against opponents almost twice his size with incredible ease, which got him over big. His good looks helped win him female fans and in fact, they even had him coming out with cheerleaders for a time while Jim Ross would put him over big in commentary as “the Cincinnati Kid!” At Halloween Havoc, he challenged Lex Luger for the US title, a terrific match that made him a star, despite the fact he failed to win the belt. He would then form a good tag team with Tom Zenk, the duo winning the reinstated United States tag titles in early 1990. They would break up shortly after losing the belts to the Midnight Express and Pillman would be shuffled around the card for a bit thanks to the tumultuous period of WCW at the time. He would be allied with Sting and the Steiners against the Four Horsemen, culminating in a War Games match at Superbrawl in 1991 where Sid nearly broke Pillman’s neck with a powerbomb gone wrong.

Pillman would be forced into a program with the infamously horrible El Gigante, losing a match to Arn Anderson and Barry Windham where the loser had to retire. Soon after, a wrestler in a bright yellow costume with the name “The Yellow Dog” began to harass Windham and it took no effort at all to figure out it was Pillman. As with so many of these “suspended wrestler comes back under a new identity that fools no one” angles, Pillman was reinstated and the entire bit was forgotten (even the DVD skips it totally). He would rebound nicely by beating Ricky Morton at Halloween Havoc in the finals of a tournament for the newly created Light Heavyweight title. He would feud with Morton, Terry Taylor and Scotty Flamingo (the future Raven). But his most notable feud was with masked Japanese sensation Jushin “Thunder” Liger. The two traded the title, with Pillman beating Liger in their absolute classic match at Superbrawl II in 1992, arguably the greatest opening match in PPV history.

Unfortunately, the arrival of Bill Watts as the new vice-president of WCW would lead to the downfall of Pillman’s push. A true believer in tough guy wrestling, Watts banned all moves from the top rope, killing the entire cruiserweight division and rendering the Light Heavyweight title meaningless. Pillman was also one of those penciled to lose to Watts’ vastly untrained son, Erik and had his contract cut drastically. This led to a famous argument between them where Watts threatened to make Pillman job every single match and Pillman fired back “Fine, I’ll be the world’s highest-paid jobber.” He would later turn heel but seemed lost in the shuffle of the company. Which turned out to be just the opportunity needed for both Pillman and another rising star.

Despite all his potential and promise, Steve Austin had been shuffled about in WCW. He’d seen some success as TV champion and part of the Dangerous Alliance but as the year came to a close, he was being pushed down as Watts didn’t like “pretty boy” wrestlers (ironic seeing how Austin would achieve success as just the sort of hard-ass hell-raiser Watts loved to push). Pillman had been teaming with Barry Windham but Windham was injured and suggested Austin as a replacement. WCW was too busy with other programs so Pillman and Austin basically had free reign to do whatever they wanted. What they wanted was to put themselves on the map big time as the Hollywood Blondes, a pair of cocky and arrogant jerks who’d do anything to succeed.

Pillman was truly the one behind much of the Blonde’s moves, from their name to the stars on their tights to cutting out small lights to put into their boots so they’d light up whenever they walked. Pillman also got them gold chains, Austin still wearing his today as a tribute to his friend. They were a perfect mix in the ring with their technical prowess, Pillman’s flying and Austin’s brawling. They were masters of double-teaming behind the ref’s back, stole their interview time on the shows, made camera-making motions when opponents were down and even had a great catchphrase: “Your brush with greatness is over!” Despite the fact they weren’t intended for a push, the matches they turned in were so show-stealing that WCW had no choice but to give them the tag titles. The two were soon turning in a classic series of matches against Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas and getting over majorly with the crowds. They’d get even hotter when they appeared on Ric Flair’s “A Flare for the Gold” segment and mocked the legendary wrestler on his age. They would mock him further with parodies like “A Flare for the Old” with Pillman doing a killer Flair impression with white wig and walker and Austin wearing a pillow to portray Arn Anderson. Things were going great for the Blondes but the good times wouldn’t last.

Among the many, many, many bad ideas WCW had, one of their biggest was that in 1993, they decided to film several episodes of their weekly syndicated shows at the Disney-MGM Studios where they would give away three months worth of tapings and events in advance. This meant that storylines and title changes were pretty much written in stone. Among them was that by Fall Brawl, Arn Anderson and Paul Roma would have beaten the Blondes for the tag titles, a move that wasn’t smart given how over the Blondes were. The title change was going to be at Beach Blast but after word of the switch leaked online, WCW tried to swerve fans by having the Blondes retain. They were going to drop the belts at an August Clash of the Champions but Pillman injured his leg and because Anderson and Roma had already been filmed with the belts for the TV shows, William Regal (who had no connection to the Blondes) was substituted to lose the belts.

Pilllman would come back soon (too soon, some might argue) and the Blondes still had heat. But instead of giving them a new push, WCW instead broke them up before they had truly reached the height of their potential. Pillman was turned face, ruining a lot of his drive because he was a great heel and he and Austin had a good if short feud. Pillman would bounce between face and heel, becoming more of a tweener as he feuded with Alex Wright, Marcus Bagwell and others. In September of 1995, he would aid Arn Anderson in a feud with Ric Flair which turned to be a setup for Flair to reunite the Four Horsemen with Anderson, Pillman and Chris Benoit. Pillman would also have the honor of having the first ever “Nitro” match against Jushin Liger. It was at roughly this time that Pillman first conceived what may well be the con job to beat all wrestling con jobs that’s led him to such fame.

It all began at the 1995 NATPE convention where TV producers tried to sell their stuff to syndicated stations. Pillman attended and managed to get a photo of himself with Vince McMahon, smiling and shaking hands, which he would use to freak out WCW heads with the idea he was going to bolt to the WWF. What happened after that…well, it depends on who you believe. Eric Bischoff will claim (as on the DVD) that Brian came to him with the idea of acting out of sorts to enhance his character. If he was unpredictable behind the scenes, Pillman argued, than that would make his character in the ring all the more notable. But as Bischoff puts it “I don’t know if he was working me or we were working everyone else.” However, there’s another school of thought that agrees with Teddy Long’s assertion on the DVD, which is that Bischoff knew nothing about it and just tells everyone he was in on it rather than admit Brian conned him too. Ken Wood, a former Bengal assistant coach and trainer, seems to be the only other person rather than Brian who knew but even that could be up in the air.

Putting aside who knew what, let’s get to what the fans saw. It all started rolling with Pillman acting up backstage in late 1995, getting into arguments with booker Kevin Sullivan (whether Sullivan knew or not is another debatable point) and other wrestlers and even coming out of the stands during others’ matches. At Superbrawl VI in 1996, he and Sullivan were to face off in a strap match where the loser had to say he respected the other. After a few minutes of shoving and pushing, Pillman broke away to grab the mic and declared “I respect you…bookerman.” He threw it down and stormed away as Sullivan just stared in shock that Pillman was breaking the kayfabe wrestling had in place for decades by using such an inside term in front of an entire audience. The confusion continued as Arn Anderson came out to improvise a match with Sullivan but Pillman’s actions were the talk of the Internet. He added to the heat a month later at a Clash card when, during a match with Eddie Guerrero, he wandered to the outside and grabbed Bobby Heenan at the commentary table. Feeling his bad neck being grabbed, the usually professional Heenan actually said “What the fuck are you doing” on live TV. Heenan wandered about flustered before coming back to apologize for his gaffe.

That the whole thing was one massive work didn’t occur to the majority of wrestlers. Sure, doing this to fans was normal but it made no sense for a wrestler to pull this on his own co-workers. Indeed, several wrestlers (like Mick Foley) were quite hurt when they later learned it was a work as there was genuine concern Pillman had truly lost his mind. Everyone knew Pillman had addictions to painkillers and steroids as well as alcohol. There was also his woman troubles too. His first wife, Rochelle, had gotten badly into drugs and drinking, even leaving her child while she partied in Florida. After the divorce, she stalked Pillman for a bit, leading to arguments and when Pillman refused to return one of her messages, Rochelle killed herself which haunted Brian. He later remarried Melanie and had another child but there were constant rumors of him cheating openly on the road even as he tried to be a good husband and father (keep in mind, these were rumors and possible Brian’s sometime boasting about conquests could have been part of his act). Given all that, the idea that Pilllman had actually snapped was a real possibility in the minds of other wrestlers, which made them nervous about working with him in the ring. Pillman just used that to enhance his plans.

The big step called for getting his release from WCW. Again, if you believe Bischoff, Brian persuaded him that this was all part of the plan to make everyone think WCW management had had enough and fired him. Bischoff gave him the release under the belief that Pillman would go around to ECW and maybe WWF acting out before coming back to WCW as a hotter agent than ever. Of course, it wasn’t until far too late that Bischoff realized he’d been had and Pillman had no intention of ever coming back to WCW. Pillman would appear at ECW, showing up unannounced to a huge ovation. He would then turn on the fans by blasting them as idiots and threatening to “whip out my Johnson and piss in this hell hole” and had to be restrained from doing it. Joey Styles would tell viewers that Pillman would come to an ECW worker’s home and take a dump right in his guest room and Pillman would talk about starting his own 900 number which had a profanity-laced tirade and act up in other people’s matches.

By this point, many fans had come to the conclusion that this whole thing was a work after Kevin Sullivan mentioned it in a promo and rumors of the cooperation between Bischoff and Pillman leaked. Indeed, several ECW fans carried signs with the words “Don’t work me Pillman!” It seemed Pillman was perfect for ECW as he helped blur the lines between what was real and what was fake, something the promotion did well. But before he could do a single match, Pillman got the call he was waiting for from WWF. With his fame at an all-time high and the Loose Cannon gimmick making him the hottest commodity in wrestling, Pillman seemed set for a major payday and the big stage he’d waited his whole life for, enough money to retire on in just a few years.

And then came April 15h, 1996.

Driving home alone (his sobriety at the time is still in question), Pillman apparently fell asleep at the wheel. He would chillingly tell friends later that he had seen Rochelle’s face in the rear-view mirror just before nodding off. His Hummer hit a tree trunk, flipping over four times and sending Pillman flying through the front windshield where he too landed four times on the ground before stopping. He was in a coma for a week as the doctors had to replace half his ankle and leg with metal plates. His high flying style was immediately ended and his mobility was severely cut back. Indeed, most thought he would never wrestle again or at least needed a year to recover first. But Pillman hadn’t gone through this entire gimmick just to stop now.

He signed with WWF in June, the first wrestler to be given a guaranteed contract as Vince McMahon was trying to keep talent from going over to WCW. He would show up at the King of the Ring, doing a promo where he promised to “rape, pillage and plunder this federation!” He would spend time rehabbing his leg while doing commentary on “Shotgun Saturday Night.” In late 1996, he would be teamed with Steve Austin, who suddenly turned on him to enhance Austin as a heartless monster, Austin putting Pillman’s leg in a chair and stomping on it, the injury looking so real it’s become a byword for such brutal attacks. This would lead to one of the most infamous moments in WWF history as on the first two-hour RAW in October, Austin would go over to Pillman’s house, where a camera crew was, and Pillman would pull out a gun. The scuffle would have police officers, Pillman yelling “fuck” on live TV and the screen going blank as a gunshot rang. The WWF was in big trouble with USA over the angle but it also led to major ratings and really the start of the “Attitude” era.

In April of 1997, Pillman would jump back to in-ring action, becoming a member of the Hart Foundation and feuding with Austin then moving to a feud with Goldust with him going after Marlena (Dustin Rhodes’ real-life wife who Pillman had dated years before). Pillman was battling constant agony and drug abuse but refused all help, determined to keep going at his attempt to suceed. He did fail a drug test but managed to stay on the roster and convinced everyone he’d be able to handle things. Seeing as how he’d been so successful conning everyone before, it may not be a surprise Pillman was able to convince them now he was okay despite his constant drug use. At SummerSlam, Goldust beat Pillman in a match with the stipulation Pillman would have to wear a dress for the next month which made him wilder than ever. A month later, Pillman beat Goldust and “won” Marlena. The plan was for them to have a rematch at October’s “Badd Blood” where Marlena would turn on Goldust and be with Pillman.

But the morning of the show, after failing to arrive at the arena, Pillman was found dead in his hotel room at the age of 35. While drugs were suspected, the autopsy would eventually reveal an undiscovered heart condition was the key cause, although the long-time abuse of steroids, drugs and alcohol no doubt helped it along. The PPV opened with McMahon solemnly announcing the news and the next night’s RAW had the entire roster standing together as the bell was run ten times. In a move he has since said to regret, Vince had a live interview with Pillman’s widow, Melanie which backfired, making him seem heartless as he asked her about her husband’s drug problems. The promotion did manage to move on afterward even though Pillman’s death did cast a shadow on the company for a time. Only seven months later, Melanie would give birth to Skylar, the child Brian didn’t even know she was carrying.

In the years since his death, the legend of Brian Pillman has grown. Various tribute shows have been held in his honor along with several funds. There was anger among friends and family to the WWF as they felt they rode him too hard in his last months. But the involvement of Melanie and others in the DVD shows that has faded and have thus been able to introduce Pillman to a new generation. So new fans can admire him for his amazing skill and how he helped bring a high flying light-heavyweight style of wrestling to mainstream US promotions. They can also admire how expertly he manipulated the backstage game to his advantage and managed to con a business filled with men used to such cons. More than that, they can see how Pillman was a man who did his best to persevere but was kept from achieving his true star potential by either injury, backstage politics or pure bad luck.

One must wonder how Pillman would fare today had he lived. He might still be with WWF, acting up and trying to get back to his old style. Perhaps he might have gone back to ECW in its last years and used his wild attitude to good effect there. Even TNA might be a good fit for him where he wouldn’t have to work as hard but still do great promos. But that, sadly, is just speculation as his life was cut far too short. Instead, all we have are the memories of a great worker and a great performer who, in those days when kayfabe was still sacred and the IWC in its infancy, managed to play both workers and fans alike into buying totally into his act, the dream of every performer.

To so many, Brian Pillman is a cautionary tale of the dark side of the wrestling business, someone who broke that most cardinal of rules for a con man, which is he bought into his own con. But I think it’s important to remember that this was a man who truly loved this industry, loved it so much he couldn’t stay away, even at the cost of his own health. But I think it’s important to remember that this was a man who truly loved this industry, loved it so much he couldn’t stay away, even at the cost of his own health. Yes, we wish he’d taken different paths and made different choices and didn’t die so young. But Brian Pillman died doing something he loved and it’s hard to totally fault that. One way or another, Brian Pillman’s life is one worth remembering not just now but for a long, long time to come.

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The Shimmy wraps up the HHH report card.

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Don’t forget Ring of Honor, Ask 411, 3 R’s, Navigation Log, Triple Threat and the rest.

Next week will be my look back at Hell in the Cell. For now, the spotlight is off.