In the last few weeks of WWE programming, CM Punk has managed to achieve something that most people who try usually fail at: he has managed to blur the line between what is scripted and what is reality in a wrestling program. Of all the angles in wrestling, it is arguably the most difficult to achieve. Yet despite its difficulty, it is something that may try to pull off, usually failing. Vince Russo has spent the majority of his post WWE career attempting to make people think what they see on TV is “real,” and he has failed almost every time. From the birth of wrestling to today, countless performers have tried to make the audience forget what they are watching is a scripted event. CM punk is one of the few to make an audience watch a wrestling show and wonder if anything they just saw was unscripted. However, nobody has ever had the degree of success in this particular gimmick as Brian Pillman.
Pillman began his career in Canada, a product of the legendary Stu Hart Dungeon. After learning to be a professional wrestler from the Hart family, Pillman began wrestling professionally in Stampede Championship Wrestling. In Stampede, Pillman quickly formed a successful tag team with Bruce Hart known as Bad Company. Bad Company was a very popular team, and held the Stampede Tag team championship for over a year, with a quick break in their reign when the titles were held up.
Pillman’s charisma and athleticism quickly caught the attention of the National Wrestling Alliance. Pillman began wrestling for the NWA/WCW, where he was known as Flyin’ Brian due to his high flying, aerial move set. Pillman formed a tea with The Z-Man and the two won the WCW United States tag team championship. After the team with Z-Man broke up, Pillman had a feud with Barry Windham and the Four Horsemen, culminating in one of the featured match-ups in the first ever SuperBrawl, where Pillman faced barry Windham in a taped fist match.
Soon afterwards, WCW decided to try to capitalize on their athletic roster by creating the WCW light Heavyweight Championship. The Light heavyweight division was built around Pillman, the inaugural champion. The division was largely mismanaged, especially when WCW decided to make moves off the top turnbuckle illegal. However, there was one bright spot in the short history of the belt, as Pillman kicked off the second SuperBrawl in a classic match against the legendary Jushin “Thunder’ Liger. the match was so well received that when WCW started their new show, Nitro, to go head to head with WWE Monday night Raw, Pillman and Liger were booked in a rematch to start the show, showing off the athletic roster of WCW to the millions of viewers tuning in.
With the collapse of the Light Heavyweight division, Pillman turned heel and focused on tag team wrestling. he first formed a team with his old rival, barry Windham, but when the team split so Windham could focus on attempting to win the World title, Pillman found a new partner in “Stunning” Steve Austin. The team, known as The Hollywood Blondes, was the hottest thing in wrestling for a time. Pillman and Austin meshed extremely well as a team, and their great promos were coupled with terrific in ring performances, especially their feud with Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas. In classic WCW fashion, the team was split up at the height of their popularity.
Pillman seemed to flounder after the team split, not winning any titles, and even being sent to ECW for a short time in a talent exchange. Upon returning to WCW, Pillman was involved in an angle which culminated in the reformation of the Four Horsemen. This incarnation of the long running stable was comprised of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit and Brian Pillman. It was during this time that Pillman developed his “Loose Cannon” persona, becoming more erratic and unpredictable. he also changed his old clean cut look, instead favoring leather vests, sunglasses, t-shirts featuring wild skulls. Pillman would make comments that fans weren’t sure were part of the plan. he even grabbed a hold of commentator Bobby Heenan during a match, causing Heenan, who was unaware it was even Pillman behind him, to curse on live TV. however, the most memorable incident occurred during the SuperBrawl VI PPV when Pillman, after losing an “I Respect You” strap match, referred to Kevin Sullivan as “Booker Man.” Kevin Sullivan was WCW’s booker at the time, a fact that was never referred to on the air.
With Pillman the talk of the wrestling world, nobody knew what the Loose Cannon was going to do next. Pillman, in conjunction with WCW President Eric Bischoff, came up with an idea they felt would change the face of wrestling forever and be talked about like no angle before it. Bischoff, in retaliation for Pillman’s unpredictable and unprofessional behavior, fired Pillman. The plan was for Pillman to go to ECW and develop the Loose Cannon character even more. Pillman would use ECW as his platform to do shoot style interviews directed towards WCW and Eric Bischoff, verbally trashing the company at every turn. After the stint in ECW was finished, Pillman would return to WCW, where he would be portrayed as having legitimate heat with the company for his comments while in ECW. Pillman would continue his behavior and fans wouldn’t know what to expect, or even what was real.
That was the original plan, but Pillman, more of a Loose Cannon in real life than Bischoff realized, had other ideas. After obtaining his legitimate release from WCW for the purpose of advancing the story line, Pillman swerved Bischoff and WCW, signing instead with their biggest rival, the WWE. WCW had fallen victim to their own idea, and fan interest in Pillman was at an all time high, as nobody knew what to expect from the controversial wrestler.
Pillman spent his ECW stint building towards a feud with Shane Douglas, but the match was not to be. before he could have the match, Pillman fell asleep behind the wheel of his car, getting into a severe accident that shattered his ankle and even put him in a coma for a week. Pillman eventually woke from his coma, and his ankle was fused into a fixed position, but he never made a full recovery. In the ring, he was never the same again. However, even with his diminished physical skills, Brian was still the hottest, most talked about talent in wrestling, and he became the first person to ever sign a guaranteed contract with the WWE.
Pillman joined WWE and acted as a commentator while his ankle healed. Upon being cleared to wrestle, Pillman joined the anti-American Hart Foundation stable and feuded once again with his old partner, Steve Austin. This feud lead to one of the most infamous incidents in WWE history, as during a segment where Pillman was attacked in his home by Austin, Brian pulled a gun on Austin, threatening to kill him and swearing on live TV as he fired the gun at Austin while the feed was lost. The angle drew the ire of pretty much everyone, an Pillman and the WWE apologized for the incident.
After this highly controversial angle, Pillman was placed in a feud with Goldust, which never really took off. However, before Pillman could fully explore his potential in the WWE, he died of a previously undiagnosed heart condition, which had been made worse by drug and alcohol abuse over the years.
When it came to shoot style comments and angles that left fans wondering what was real and what wasn’t, nobody was more successful than Brian Pillman. Pillman had the charisma, the mic skills, and the personality to pull it off. He also had great in-ring ability, which meant that the interest generated by the Loose Cannon style promos would draw in viewers, who would then be treated to great wrestling action. Not only did Pillman have all the tools necessary to pull off the Loose cannon gimmick perfectly, he also did so at the absolute perfect time in history. Pillman’s Loose cannon persona began at the time when the internet was becoming a common household commodity. With the huge leap in popularity of the internet in the mid 90s, many pro wrestling websites began to spring up. Back stage, “smart,” wrestling news was no longer the sole property of the infamous underground dirtsheets of the 1980s. Now anyone with an internet connection could read about the behind the scenes workings and rumors in the world of professional wrestling. During this rise in wrestlings popularity and presence on the internet, the hottest talent in the industry was Brian Pillman.
Many wrestlers and bookers have tried to replicate the success of the Loose cannon gimmick, with mostly failed results. Any time a wrestler does a worked shoot on TV these days, any time an angle tries to make the fans thinkw hat they are seeing might be real, chances are it was inspired by Brian Pillman, wrestlings greatest Loose Cannon.