Brian Pillman Jr recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Kevin Kellam ahead of MLW Fightland tomorrow night in Chicago.
Pillman Jr will face off with Tommy Dreamer at tomorrow night’s show; you can read a few transcribed highlights and listen to the full interview below:
Brian comments on what he has to offer to today’s wrestling business:
It’s weird because I’ve always thought of myself as a star, growing up in high school and in football, college, stuff like that. I’ve always been a pretty popular guy with the people, so I think just being the best version of myself is what’s going to pay off in the long run. It took me about a year of digesting this business to really understand my father’s contributions and understand his influences, and what I can nod to and take from and what I need to stay away from. As we know, my father was recognized for his innovative high-flying, but in today’s world that’s extremely hard to overcome, that level of athleticism of the high-flyers today. That might be something that might prove to be dangerous only one year into the business, to try and compete with guys like Will Ospreay and Ricochet, or the like.
As far as the story of who I am and where I’m coming from, it’s 100% natural. It’s 100% the real, true story of a kid who lost everything, and is following in his father’s footsteps. It’s picking back up the pieces, and really I’m just falling in love with wrestling. My creativity has always been very natural, so I’ve never fallen short of ideas of how I can propel myself and how I can be creative and utilize other ideas from wrestlers, both past and present. It’s not limited to, but including my father’s work for inspiration, but also offering unique star power, unique charisma, unique talents to the business today that I, Brian Pillman Jr, have built for myself.
Is there anything he can look back on now as a wrestler as something he wished he knew back when his father’s career was happening?
It really just speaks to his ability to work people. Not just the fans, but being able to work the promoters, and work the boys in a way that, as we’re seeing Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks are proving that there isn’t just one acronym in this business anymore. My father was paid and booked by several different acronyms, several three letter companies, and for his 11-year career, most of his time was not spent in WWF. His time was spent all over the world, and we’re seeing that today.
The biggest thing that I could take from his influence today is that this business is very much an entrepreneurial business. This business is very cutthroat, and when it comes to who you’re signing with and who you’re working with, unfortunately, there’s not very many companies out there like MLW, companies that are willing to go the extra mile and pay for the top talent in the business. When I look at Major League Wrestling and what my father did in WCW, ECW and ultimately WWF, it’s no different than me being sought after. Japan wants a piece of me, WWE you know wants a piece of me, but right now I’m working for MLW because quite frankly, that’s where the business is at right now. That’s the hot promotion to be at right now; it’s not IMPACT, it’s not Lucha Underground, it’s Major League Wrestling.
On facing Tommy Dreamer:
Dreamer’s no stranger to violence; he’s a master of it. Unfortunately time’s not on his side. It really isn’t. I’m a young guy coming into this business, I’ve got more steam behind me than a friggin’ train, so he’s going to have to be ready for all of the offense that I’m going to thrown at him. My conditioning is better, I have more range in motion in my joints, I can jump higher and I can run faster, and to be quite frank, it’s going to be hard to keep the eyes off of me and what I’m going to do. People have seen Dreamer’s act, they know he’s going to pull out weapons, they know he’s going to pull something cheap, but you’re looking at Brian Pillman Jr, you’re looking at the brightest future star in this business. Tommy Dreamer should be thankful that I’m sacrificing my body in such a hardcore match. He’s on his way out, I’m on my way in, so he needs to make room.
Pillman comments on forming the New Hart Foundation in MLW:
We all have a similar story. We all come from a family that was left broken, a family that was left beaten down by this business. We’ve been fractured and shattered all over the [United States], you had Harry in Japan, and Teddy getting into trouble because we were lost. We didn’t know what to do, but now that we’ve found ourselves, we’ve found a common goal at Major League Wrestling, we know who needs to pay for the suffering that we’ve gone through in our lives, and we’re going to make them pay.
It’s truly organic and truly beautiful when three guys that are still young—I’m the young stallion coming into the group, and they’re going to lead the way for the most part—but at some point there’s going to be a turning point. At some point, Brian Pillman Jr will step up to the plate and become the leader of this faction. That’s exactly what my father set out to do; he set out to be a leader and he was outshined by Hart 1, Hart 2, Hart 3. The bottom line is, the New Hart Foundation, most of us aren’t Harts. We do it for the Hart family, we do it for the Hart legacy, but in 2018 it’s all about us, and we’re going to prove what we’re worth.
(Transcription credit to Bill Pritchard for Wrestlezone.com)
