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With the recent Matt Hardy-Edge-Lita angle making huge waves online and in the business, a number of references and allusions have been made between Hardy and the late Brian Pillman. Pillman, who passed away in October 1997 is to this day, closely linked to work-shoot angles because he was the first person to do one nationally, at the right time, with the right timing. Pillman, a former Cincinnati Bengal, had been a mid-card performer for WCW with the same start/stop pushes that most of the undercard talent (including Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and William Regal) received during the timespan of 1989-1995. One month he was pushed as part of a hot tag team with Steve Austin or the Lightheavyweight champion, the next he was looking at the lights to the latest musclebound cartoon character WCW had imported. There was no rhyme or reason, just politics and an ever-changing landscape of who was in charge this week.
During a feud with Kevin Sullivan in the Nitro era of late 1995/early 1996, Pillman broke through the politics and reinvented himself. Taking on the nickname "The Loose Cannon", Pillman began acting erratic on camera and off to get over the idea that he had seemingly lost his mind. Pillman, at this point a member of the Four Horsemen and then-WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff would get into confrontations on camera with Bischoff threatening to fire Pillman. In the ring, Pillman and Sullivan would work extremely rough and stiff, fooling others that they were "shooting" on the other.
To get over his character, Pillman went as far as grabbing Bobby Heenan during a live Clash of the Champions special on TBS during a match with Eddy Guerrero, causing the shocked Heenan to mutter the "F" word on live television and run for cover to protect his long ailing neck. Pillman's acting ability was so great that he was able to convincingly portray an absolute psycho at all times, whether he was in the arena, the airport, or the hotel. He never dropped character, not even while appearing on local Cincinnati radio shows.
At the WCW Superbrawl PPV in February 1996, Pillman was booked to face Kevin Sullivan in a Respect Strap match. After several minutes of action that didn't seem like they were working together in the least, Pillman grabbed the ring mic and said the infamous line, "I respect you, bookerman." Pillman then walked out of the building. Sullivan at the time was Bischoff's booker for the company and Pillman had seemingly broken total and complete kayfabe. It was announced Pillman had been fired by WCW the next night on Nitro. The Sullivan match concluded with a convoluted ending where Arn Anderson briefly substituted for Pillman and Ric Flair arrived to "make peace" between the parties. At the time, Disco Inferno was the only person on the WCW roster who believed the entire scenario was a work, with Diamond Dallas Page telling him, "If it is, shut up."
As it turned out, Bischoff and Sullivan were in on the whole thing, and had worked the wrestlers as well as the fans. Pillman persuaded them to fax him an actual release from WCW to cement the angle was legitimate to smart fans.
Pillman made several appearances in ECW, the rebel promotion that "hated" WCW to fuel the fires. All of Pillman's appearances were absolutely classic. He gave the promo of his life at ECW's Cyberslam '96, before attempting to pull out his penis and urinate in the ring. The idea was Pillman would eventually face off with Shane Douglas, although the match never came to fruition. He later showed up in the front row at an ECW event and when Douglas went to hit him, Pillman pulled a child in his way to stop Douglas. His appearances cemented the fact that his firing was legitimate, although not all ECW fans believed the storyline, as there were signs proclaiming otherwise at shows, such as "Hey Eric, Can We Borrow Loch Ness, Too?"
At the same time, Pillman made several appearances in the crowd in WCW, mostly holding signs for a 900 line he owned before being tossed out of the building as Eric Bischoff went off on commentary.
Pillman actually intended to take the character even farther then he actually had. He had talked of hoping onto the field at the Super Bowl and handcuffing himself to the end zone in order to get huge publicity for himself. He had also intended at one point to sit ringside at a WWF house show in Madison Square Garden under a lucha mask, then unmask and hop the rail when Shawn Michaels was wrestling, with the idea that he'd create a huge buzz for himself. A family situation prevented Pillman from pulling the WWF stunt.
Meanwhile, with an actual release in his hands, Pillman turned around and worked everyone into making him one of the hottest performers of that timespan. Even though they had been working with him, he turned around and duped Bischoff and Sullivan in the end. Pillman began negotiating with the WWF, making himself the first true free agent during the Monday Night Wars and garnering one of the first guaranteed WWF contracts ever.
Sadly, he never got the chance to see how far he could make the ginmmick run. Just prior to signing his WWF deal, Pillman was in a car accident that eventually put his life into a downward spiral, ending with his sad death in October 1997. He did eventuall return to the ring and got over to a certain extent thanks to his great acting ability and being made part of the Hart Foundation. His ankle never properly healed, and he was in constant pain for the rest of his life. He was found dead in his hotel room just prior to that year's Badd Blood PPV with the death being attributed to a heart defect, although there was little doubt his own issues may have helped augment the issue.
The timeframe for Pillman's success at reinventing himself was an important reason as to why Pillman's actions have taken on something of a cult following with wrestling fans. With WCW's Nitro show gaining steam in the ratings and the advent of the Internet as a tool in marketing and promoting the wrestling business, Pillman was in the right place at the right time. He would use a message board devoted to him on AOL to attack WCW, Bischoff, fans, and even those running the area forum. When a throat injury (which some thought was convenient timing as he would have been pinned by Hulk Hogan in the match) kept him off a WCW Uncensored PPV, Pillman went online and blasted WCW for false advertising him. Pillman would also arrive in scheduled wrestling chats and promptly find himself ejected for cursing out AOL staff. In the end, Pillman was banned from the AOL service a number of times for breaking their Terms of Service.
Pillman was simply the right person for the angle, doing it at the right time. Had things turned out differently for him personally, he may have been one of the major players of boom period of the late 90s, right alongside Steve Austin, who credits Pillman to this day for helping him become a better interview. In fact, many of the things that Austin did to get his Stone Cold persona over were derivative of many of the things Pillman did in WCW.
As with everything else in the entertainment world, once a hot idea breaks ground there are a number of rehashes and that was the case with work/shoot angles in wrestling. While there had been worked/shoot moments before in the business, such as Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA title in 1994 in Extreme Championship Wrestling, Pillman's actions set the wrestling world on fire. There were countless "This isn't supposed to happen" moments from that point on in the business, most notably in the Vince Russo era of WCW, although none drew money and most turned off fans because there wasn't a performer fans cared about at the center of it and the timing was wrong...until now.
There are a number of similarities between Pillman and the current Hardy angle. Hardy was released and used the Internet to raise his level of awareness among wrestling fans. He showed up "unannounced" and "shot on the mic." He namedropped Ring of Honor, while Pillman popped up in Extreme Championship Wrestling. Both storylines play on different levels and invoke the emotion of "this is real" in both hardcore and casual fans.
The main difference today is that smarter fans are already jaded to "worked shoots" at this point and will revolt against continuing to be worked now that it's been revealed as a storyline. It will be up to Hardy to stay one step ahead of the curve the way Pillman used to. The other prime difference is that, unlike Pillman, Hardy is healthy and is returning raring to go, without injuries and issues to hold him back. He has the chance that Brian Pillman never did, because of his own issues and injuries, to run with the angle and make himself a bigger star then he ever was before.
Whether the Hardy situation sets the business on fire or is wiped out with bad booking from this point on, it was a great moment to watch unveil and shows that, when done right, the spirit of Brian Pillman's shooting works can still be invoked to create interest in fresh ways. Whether it can draw money, however, remains to be seen. Pillman never had that opportunity. Hardy will be the test case as to whether it truly can. Time will tell.
Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.
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