TSC Evaluation #38: Brian Pillman

[The Intergalactic Koala]

Light 8 from me.

Pillman was one of those wrestlers that would have been something special if it wasn't for life woes. Dude was a good high flyer and had memorable moments in WCW, especially as a Hollywood Blonde. I always loved his transition to being insane during his late WCW run all the way to his WWF/E run. It was like a villain was being created due to the politics of professional wrestling, it's quite poetic. If he was still living and not have been on the shelf half of the time, he would have made the Attitude Era a little bit edgier. I look at Pillman as the closest thing to a wrestling version of The Joker. Sadly, we never got to see that true potential .

 

[Here Comes the Pain]

I give him a 7.

He had a solid career , but I feel like people tend to overrate him.

He never had main event potential.

 

[mrken12]

I give him a 7.

He had a solid career , but I feel like people tend to overrate him.

He never had main event potential.

He could have been a main event heel. Especially if he got the chance to do a feud with Stone Cold.

 

[stro]

I give him a 6. The Loose Cannon angle has been so overhyped over the years. If you actually watch the WCW programming during that period, it's a super short angle (on screen, at least) that really wasn't given any attention at all, and then he was gone. Literally like 2 months. The ECW version is actually what people seem to think the WCW version was, but he was hurt and immediately went to the WWF and was a shell of his former self as a character and performer. As an in ring talent, he was very athletic, but I've seen him from his earliest days in Stampede to his last match in the WWF, and he never really seemed to have a great grasp on psychology or in ring storytelling. He was a good bumper, and he got the the character aspect down a lot better eventually, but even that while "groundbreaking" for it's time was pretty obnoxious as it was basically "this guy is breaking kayfabe, he's so crazy" in 3 different promotions in the course of a year. Which I guess is to be commended that he could get that character and aspect over in the big 3 in the same year, but when your character is "this guy is breaking character", you kind of kill the rest of the show.

In his WCW days, he really suffered from the same thing a lot of guys suffered from: Way too long of matches. The early era of his WCW run would have him in damn near 20 minute matches with THE GOON and Lex Luger. And towards the end, a 20 some minute match against Johnny B. Badd.

COULD he have been some transcendent dude? Maybe. If he had stayed clean and uninjured, I'm sure he could have had a much, much bigger role in the Attitude Era than he did. But I kind of feel like since his death, he's been treated as "what could have been" actually was.

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

I'm gonna rate him a bit higher than others because I was a mark for dude.

-Mic work/promos
His strongest category especially post injury. His ability to talk was what really got the Loose Cannon character over, and worked everybody from the fans to the other wrestlers to even the promoters of the era. Even as a white meat baby face he wasn't a bad promo. With Pillman, nobody knew where the character stopped and Brian Pillman the guy started. 10

-Personality/gimmicks
Flyin Brian was again a good white meat baby face. He was a fantastic heel along with Stunning Steve in the Hollywood Blondes and both guys really committed to that gimmick. The Loose Cannon was revolutionary and I can't help but think of the untapped potential he had with it. He was just starting to scratch the surface of what he could be. 10

-Ring work (along with some of your favorite matches/feuds)
I enjoyed his match with Liger at SuperBrawl. He had a very good match with Luger for the US Title. Many different multiman tag matches to list, his tag match with Liger against Nikita Koloff and Steamboat, WarGames with Sid and the powerbomb, the ten man tag at Canadian Stampede. Even a good RAW match with Austin in 97.
8


-Overall rating (which doesn't have to be an average of the above scores)
His legacy will always be full of what ifs. What if he never got hurt maybe being the biggest what if, the accident is what really cut short the great matches he could have, not so much the death as weird as that might sound. He could still take part in a great match, sure...(Canadian Stampede) but not be the whole reason it was great. If the injury never happens it's possible his career and life takes a whole different trajectory. As is, the guy had a bunch of different angles and moments that hold up all these years later (Flair for the Old, Pillman's got a Gun, etc.) His legacy is largely question marks of what could be, but I highly enjoyed the work he did so I gotta say 9.

100% accurate...my exact pov and scores