Remembering Brian Pillman

BostonBob

4 Ever The Greatest
Jan 26, 2004
13,618
6,570
Vancouver, BC
Just read where it was 18 years ago ( how the hell has it been that long !!!! ) on October 5 - 1997 that Brian Pillman was found dead in a Minnesota hotel room. Here's a story about the Pillman tragedy from SLAM!


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Real life tragedy overshadowed the fantasy world of professional wrestling Sunday when it was announced that young grappler, Brian "The Loose Cannon" Pillman, was found dead in a Minnesota hotel room hours before the WWF's Badd Blood pay-per-view took to the airwaves.

WWF President, Vince McMahon Jr., conveyed the news during Badd Blood's Free For All segment saying that Pillman's body was discovered at 5:00 p.m. Sunday night. The evening before, Pillman had wrestled at a WWF house show. During the pay-per-view, McMahon also stated that law enforcement officials investigating the case do not believe foul play was the cause of Pillman's death. Autopsy results will be available some time this week.

Pillman learned his trade at Stu Hart's world famous wrestling school in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Along with Bret "The Hit Man" Hart and The British Bulldog, Pillman began his career in Stu's Stampede Wrestling, a popular wrestling promotion based in Western Canada.

Known then as "Flying Brian", the blonde-haired heartthrob gained notoriety in World Championship Wrestling with his graceful, top rope acrobatics as a face then turned heel teaming up with "Stunning" (Stone Cold) Steve Austin as the successful tag team: The Hollywood Blondes. The highlight of Pillman's WCW stint was a position in Ric Flair's esteemed Four Horsemen gang.

A former Cincinnati Bengal in the NFL, he switched to the rival World Wrestling Federation this year but has been plagued by an ankle injury which virtually eliminated his once high-flying style. Pillman was scheduled to battle Dude Love and possibly Goldust tonight at the Badd Blood pay-per-view. Two matches were added in its place.
 

Paris in Flames

Registered User
Feb 4, 2009
15,903
7,935
Pillman's death hit me pretty hard since I was still pretty young. My friends and I kept saying how he was actually really still alive since wrestling was fake...etc...etc..since we're dumb.

Since then I've gone back and watched a lot of his stuff and while he obviously wasn't around too long...dude was one of my favourites. Him showing up in ECW was such a great segment. I mean..I'd link it but it's nothing close to HF friendly.
 

Sheppy

Registered User
Nov 23, 2011
55,689
57,329
The Arctic
I always loved watching Pillman, mind you I was only 7 years old when he passed away. Still hit me pretty hard, I loved watching him... basically everything he did was awesome/edgy.
 

TheMistyStranger

ミスト
May 21, 2005
31,057
6,703
Pillman's death hit me pretty hard since I was still pretty young. My friends and I kept saying how he was actually really still alive since wrestling was fake...etc...etc..since we're dumb.

Since then I've gone back and watched a lot of his stuff and while he obviously wasn't around too long...dude was one of my favourites. Him showing up in ECW was such a great segment. I mean..I'd link it but it's nothing close to HF friendly.

Where he stabs a fan? :laugh:
 

CaptainCrunch67

Registered User
Aug 23, 2005
6,472
1,063
I remember going to see him at the Stampede pavilion when he teamed up with Bruce Hart to form Bad Company.

I remember hating Bruce Hart because this old guy walking around wearing a leather jacket and a bandana was clearly trying to team up with the hottest new wrestler in the territory to extend his career.

But Pillman was different back then, he was the clean shaven complete face with a story about battling cancer as a kid and being too small for professional football, but fighting and scratching his way to being a Bengel.

When Stampede folded, I tried to follow all of the former Stampede Wrestlers, but Pillman was tougher because he ended up in WCW and we didn't see a lot of that in Calgary. But I managed to watch him and Steve Austin form the Hollywood blondes and become a great heel tag team.

Around the time of the attitude era where larger then life personas and characters were replaced by their exaggerated reflections of their real personalities, Pillman went deeper, from what I understand he fell in love with a book called I think the Big Con which was a book about a pofessional Gifter, and he decided to run a massive Con on the Wrestling industry as a whole, and he became the Loose Cannon. He managed to con entire locker rooms into thinking he'd gone crazy and unbalanced, he also conned Eric Bischoff into releasing him from WCW for real to extend a story line and Pillman finished the ultimate con by going to the rival organization. He basically created a storyline that encompassed three major organizations and never had a blow off match.

The sad part about Pillman though is that he also conned himself and his character combined with the hard partying life style of the wrestling business back then and a serious car accident lead him into a spiral of self destruction, and then in the ultimate con killed him.

I miss Pillman because he turned the industry on his ear and he treated it like a game.
 

Loosie

The Eternal Optimist
Jun 14, 2011
16,074
3,046
Kitchener, Ontario
I was only watching WWF back then so I only recall his WWF days, but his death still hit pretty hard because I was big into the Hart Foundation. I had been in University for a month and it was an interesting time, Princess Diane died just over a month prior to this too.

I still Remember JR's 'serious' voice and his whole "this is not part of the show" (Similar to what he had to do 19 months later when Owen died)

It made the minis match a little eerie as they admitted to have to 'throw something together' to fill the time that was assigned to Pillman/Goldust. And the also had the Hall of Fame bit (though it wasn't WWF I think it was either a Missouri or St. Louis thing)
 

Del Preston

Registered User
Mar 8, 2013
63,171
78,954


His ECW return was great too. Major language warning for this one.



"Let him piss! Let him piss!"
 

Reality Check

Registered User
May 28, 2008
16,696
2,459
His short run in ECW was tremendous.

But, sadly, he was already damaged goods compared to what he used to be in WCW. He really should have been moved into a manager/commentator type role.
 

GarbageGoal

Courage
Dec 1, 2005
22,353
2,377
RI
Never forgot the time he was running around ringside during a Clash of Champions in his final days in WCW and put his hands on Heenan's shoulders and Bobby screamed "Get your ****ing hands off me!!!!!".
 

bruins309

Krejci Fight Club
Sep 17, 2007
4,700
46
When I was 10-12 years old and watching WCW on TBS, Pillman was my guy....not Sting, not Luger. He was the high flyer who could also wrestle, and without having to act like a rooster or carry a parrot to the ring or some such nonsense. Loved the way Jim Ross would put him over in every match for his heart and courage on the football field. Was devastated when they had him do that stupid Yellow Dog thing in summer of '91.

In the event that I were a capable pro wrestler and I could appropriate any gimmick ever, I would choose the Loose Cannon. Such great stuff walking that proverbial line, and even going over it at times to really put it into overdrive.

Imagine a healthy Pillman in 1998-2001 WWF. For me, it is one of the greatest "what ifs" in wrestling history.
 

Fish on The Sand

Untouchable
Feb 28, 2002
60,203
1,904
Canada
When I was 10-12 years old and watching WCW on TBS, Pillman was my guy....not Sting, not Luger. He was the high flyer who could also wrestle, and without having to act like a rooster or carry a parrot to the ring or some such nonsense. Loved the way Jim Ross would put him over in every match for his heart and courage on the football field. Was devastated when they had him do that stupid Yellow Dog thing in summer of '91.

In the event that I were a capable pro wrestler and I could appropriate any gimmick ever, I would choose the Loose Cannon. Such great stuff walking that proverbial line, and even going over it at times to really put it into overdrive.

Imagine a healthy Pillman in 1998-2001 WWF. For me, it is one of the greatest "what ifs" in wrestling history.

This may only be because I had only recently started watching him in 1997 a few months before his death, but I never saw him as anything more than a mid card guy.
 

bruins309

Krejci Fight Club
Sep 17, 2007
4,700
46
This may only be because I had only recently started watching him in 1997 a few months before his death, but I never saw him as anything more than a mid card guy.

I think he was victimized by WCW politics as much as anyone. He got very hot in late 89/early 90 after a program with Luger, but then got shunted into an awkward tag team with Tom Zenk. Then he recovers, and in 1991 has a program with Windham, along with the GREAT performance in War Games. But that ends with him in Yellow Dog thing in the mask, a Dusty booking staple. I think Flair was a big champion of Pillman and with Flair on his way out in mid-1991 his guy was less of a priority. Then he does great work as a light heavyweight with Liger and others, but that definitely pigeonholes a guy as "too small" even though he was pretty much the same size as Randy Savage. So then he breaks out that in '93 with the Hollywood Blonds with Austin...and then they get split up amid a Pillman injury. When Hogan gets there in '94, he can forget about it.

There was a window there in 1991 to make him a top babyface alongside Sting and WCW just blew it. And at a time they were so desperate for babyfaces they were using El Gigante vs Flair at house shows.

Suppose he never has the car accident, and thus doesn't have a reliance on painkillers: He comes in to WWF and they clearly had big plans. He rushed back too soon. That character in an era where they threw out all the rules, with his in-ring work...he definitely would have been at the top of the card and put on great matches. He was a Jim Ross guy, like Austin and Foley.

I can definitely see why you'd feel that way. That car accident ruined everything. Just making my case.
 

Paris in Flames

Registered User
Feb 4, 2009
15,903
7,935
I think with no car accidents or health issues..Brian Pillman was fully capable of a HOF career.

That's how much I liked him.
 

Loosie

The Eternal Optimist
Jun 14, 2011
16,074
3,046
Kitchener, Ontario
I should also say that my screen name was inspired from him.

Back in high school we had a intranet message board for the schools in my home town, and of course there was a group of wrestling fans on it. We eventually created a fantasy wrestling federation. I mixed Pillman's two main characters into "The Loose Cannon Flyin' Brian Pillman"....eventually the name was shortened to "Loosie"
 

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