The latest edition of “Something to Wrestle With”, hosted by Bruce Prichard, is now available t0 listen to above or at this link, and below are some highlights of Prichard talking about Brian Pillman:
On Whether WWE Was Interested in Pillman Prior to Signing Him in 96:
I do remember that Pillman was one of those guys that Jim Ross would always bring up. Jim Ross was a fan of Brian Pillman’s, going back to his WCW days even. Bret Hart was a big fan of Brian Pillman. Pillman trained at the Dungeon in Calgary, and Owen was a fan, so those Calgary guys knew Brian, and loved Brian, but he was one of those guys was a mainstay in WCW at the time and never really got serious to bring Brian in at any point. He was a WCW guy, but I don’t know anybody that knew him and didn’t speak highly of him.
On Pillman “Working” WCW to Release Him:
After everything happened through Paul Heyman, Pillman reached out to us. As I stated before, JR and Pillman were friends. Allen Polak was Brian’s Attorney and Agent and reached out to us and we started talking. He got a legit release from WCW. Brian effectively reached himself to a Shoot. He had Eric [Bischoff] agree to this deal to release him and show him that it was legit; to show everybody that they released him and he was a Free Agent. His release was legit and legally binding so we were able to negotiate with him; at the same time we made sure Paul Heyman was using him in ECW so he had a place to go, and a place to work in between. Paul helped us with Pillman, to get him in WWE in general. Paul was excited to use him, so the timing was great and it all worked out well for ECW. It also got us an IN with us as well. So, not knowing Brian, there was that unknown factor. At the time Brian was doing some crazy stuff at the time, so we weren’t sure what was reality and what was a work. Vince [McMahon] finally met with Brian and realized that he was a bright young man who has a hell of a head on his shoulders and knew what he was doing. He was creating his own hype, and had people in the business buying his s*it. The best thing, I’ve discussed this before about how you know a guy is getting over; if the guy’s in the back are talking about it daily then it’s working, and everybody was talking about Brian Pillman. He worked himself in a Shoot and got himself into a situation and was able to legally negotiate with the company. On one side he was telling WCW that it was great for them because everybody thinks I’m going to WWF. To us, he tells us that he doesn’t want to work in WCW anymore and wants to work with us, and then to Paul [Heyman] he says to him, hey Paul, you got me, I’m a gold-mine. Let’s use this to the hill; and right at the height at all that, when he is getting ready to do something he gets into an auto accident.
On Pillman Wanting to Work After His Accident:
I do remember the story of Pillman’s accident. When he had the accident, DDP, I believe, somebody went and visited him in the hospital and talked about the fact that we sent a huge basket in Brian’s room as a get-well deal and WCW sent nothing. I know that a deal was not done yet, but I don’t remember the time frame when that happened. I was in several meetings with Vince and Pillman. His foot was obliterated; he was saying he was going to be good to go; said that when he healed that he would be 100% and wouldn’t hamper him at all. He was an athlete, and had overcome the odds before, so there was no reason to doubt him, and his agent, we put conditions out there that things were contingent on him being able to go because we had been burned before with Del Wilkes (Patriot), who had a hurt shoulder, and we didn’t know about it until he was having his run, but that was somebody that came to mind. There were times that Vince wanted to make sure he would cover himself.
On Pillman’s Debut on Raw Being a Prelude to the Attitude Era:
That was one of those things; it was hit or miss with Vince McMahon a lot of the times. It was kind of like when Kevin Nash would flip off the Undertaker at one of the PPV’s, it was one of those hit or miss, what if we did this, kind of like a way to get the Loose Cannon deal. It was an effort, at least on my part, to try to get Vince to be a little more real if that makes any sense. Vince saw himself as the TV Commentator. He saw himself at the Play by Play guy and the majority of the audience saw him as the Play by Play guy and the host, and that’s what he had to be. It was frustrating because while he was doing that, in mainstream media, he was the owner of the company, but you had President Jack Tunney and Gorilla Monsoon, etc. It was confusing to me, and an effort to try to get a little more reality. With Raw being live and have a little more unpredictability.
