Brian Pillman Jr On When His AEW Deal Ends, The Brawl at All Out, More

In an interview with Wrestling Inc, Brian Pillman Jr spoke about when his AEW contract comes to an end, his spot on the roster and more. Here are highlights:

On when his deal with AEW is up: “A few more years or so.”

On a recent tweet expressing frustration with his spot: “That’s just the nature of the beast. We all want stuff to happen right away. But they did sign me and Griff to some lucrative longer deals, so it’s not like there isn’t food on the table, but there comes a certain aspect where you start to get hungry for more and you want to get back in the spotlight, and I think that’s…

I didn’t get into wrestling just to take a paycheck and to sit at home. I got into wrestling, for the most part, to tell my story and to finish telling my father’s story, and to bring him pride, and to keep his last name in the picture. And if I’m not in the picture right now, then that means I’m not doing him as proud as I could. I could be doing it a lot better for the Pillman name right now, as far as keeping the name relevant.

It’s pretty much every day that I’m not on TV as a day that I’m taking radical change towards that. You know what I mean? I’m trying to change myself physically, mentally, and in the ring, and everything. It just makes me work harder when they don’t use me. And I think it’s just the nature of the beast, right? You got a lot of guys that work there, a lot of talented people.

The reason I’ve gotten to the level I’m on is because I’ve gotten to work with a lot of these older guys and they’ve taught me and s***. It’s a very good system. There’s a lot of good communication now with rotating guys on and off, so no complaints at all. It’s just that, I’ve got a lot of motivation. I got a big chip in my shoulder.

And just frankly, I’m just not going to let guys to overlook the fact of the experience that I have, the amount of matches I have, the people I’ve been in there with. It’s a list I hold in high regard. And a lot of my work, I’m just starting to take more pride in because no one else will for you. You know what I mean? No one else is going to give you that push. You got to kind of push yourself sometimes.”

On dropping the ‘Varsity’ name: “Yeah. I mean, I know who I am and I’m going to start being me, whether or not that lines up with the creative of the company. I hope it does. But in the current moment, while we’re not in any specific angle or storyline, we’re just going to be me. We’re going to be the Blonds and we’re going to go for more of a creative vision of how I see myself and as a star, and not just some jock, some rowdy f***ing varsity jock.”

On the backstage vibe in AEW: “I was just recently there for the Cincinnati show, and I think things are great. I mean, that’s just coming from me. I’ve always been big supporters of the Young Bucks and stuff, and I [hadn’t] exactly had a problem with Punk either, so it kind of caught me off guard when a bunch of guys that I look up to and respect, decided they wanted to get in a little tussle.”

On the brawl at All Out: “But it is what it is. That’s sort of just how egos collide. And I guess, I would go as far as to say that it probably wouldn’t happen with any other performer other than Punk. I think he’s just a unique kind of guy that…Yeah, he’s kind of… Yeah. Yeah. He’s kind of got that loose cannon in him. He’s got that dog in him. But no. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s not 1997 anymore. Punk’s got a old school mentality. I think at the WWE, and maybe, perhaps, during those years coming up there, that would’ve been a solution. That would’ve been acceptable. Sticking up for whatever you believe in. I mean, who knows what was going through his head? Whatever. But that’s just not the culture at AEW. That’s not how we work. That’s not how the company was founded. And to be frank, I came to AEW because of Cody and the Young Bucks and Kenny. I mean, it’s a hundred percent why I went there. I really liked those guys. I believed in those guys. Sorry, Chris Jericho, too. Jericho, Kenny, Russell, Kingdom, Cody doing his thing, the Bucks, everything, the Revolution. It all started because of these guys. These guys literally created the company. Call them presidents, call them founders, call them whatever the hell you want, call them the tag champs. I don’t know. But they are the reason that AEW exists, right? Why are you going to bite the hand that feeds you? You know what I mean? Why are you going to shoot yourself in the foot? If Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson were like, “Look, we’re going to go out there and it’s just going to be a f***ing circus, guys. We’re just going to do a bunch of f***ing s***. We’re all going to dress up like clowns, and everybody’s making half a million dollars.” Guess what? I’m going out there dressed like a clown. I don’t give a f***. These guys built the business. They built the brand and the style of wrestling.”