Arn Anderson Recalls The Brian Pillman ‘I Respect You Booker Man’ Incident

On the latest episode of The ARN Show, Arn Anderson gave a first-hand account of the infamous “I Respect You” Strap Match between Brian Pillman and Kevin Sullivan at SuperBrawl VI, and how he ended up in the match himself. You can check out some highlights below:

Arn Anderson on the Brian Pillman Loose Cannon gimmick: “Well let me just say again: nobody knew whether Brian was working us, working the fans, working himself, or if this was a straight shoot, ‘We have a lunatic running around the company just creating chaos.’ You never really knew. But what I did know is we had a pay-per-view feature match that never happened. Pillman just ran out of the building. And I just remember somebody coming back through there, I forget who even was in charge, or who the boss was. They just said, ‘We got to have a match. We got to have a match. What are we going to do?’ I said, ‘I’ll take it.’ I felt responsible for Pillman. I was one of the proponents of making him a Horseman. I had no idea he was going to be this nutcase that we had on our hands.

“So in my polo shorts and walking boots, no way to even stretch out, no time to stretch out, took off my shirt, went to the ring and had a fight. Because the one thing in the back of my mind is, ‘If we don’t give them something pretty decent, we are screwing our fans who have paid pay-per-view prices for what we got going on here.’ So that’s how that ended up. And fighting in mountain climbing boots and polo shorts is not ideal. Flair came down, got involved. It turned out just to be a big, wild throw away. And at the end of it, you still don’t know. I went try to find Pillman and he had powdered. Got his bag and went right out the back door, got in his car and left.”

On how he and Sullivan handled the situation on the fly: “I didn’t even know Flair was coming out, I was just trying to patch a hole. In those days you had to think on your feet, and you’re trying to put a big band-aid on a big, gaping wound on a show that people were spending what, $49 for? You know, the fans and giving the fans something more than what they actually paid for at the end of live events and all that — pleasing the fans is what this business has always been about. And they know when you go the extra mile for them.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The ARN Show with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.