Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
As the Monday Night Wars were heating up between bitter rivals in WCW and the WWF…it was WCW who was getting the better of Vince McMahon’s once untouchable wrestling empire. World Championship Wrestling decided to go head to head with the World Wrestling Federation on Monday night’s by creating the Monday Nitro program. They also swooped in and signed away two of the WWF’s top talents in Kevin Nash (Diesel) and Scott Hall (Razor Ramon). With his back against the wall, Vince McMahon decided to fight fire with fire and in June of 1996…he did just that by signing then wrestling’s hottest commodity in Brian Pillman.
The WWF’s signing of Pillman, at the time, was quite the coup. You see, for a while, Pillman was able to recreate himself into this “loose cannon” type of character who was a bit mentally unstable. He did and said things that seemingly broke away from the script and the fans loved him for it. WCW head Eric Bischoff, in all of his wisdom, decided to play both the fans and his own roster and released Pillman. In reality, Pillman and Bischoff had a verbal agreement that he would resign with WCW as the rogue character.
Pillman agreed verbally to a new three year deal worth an estimated one million dollars. The problem was that Bischoff insisted on having a clause in his contract which allowed WCW to release Pillman after 90 days if he couldn’t perform up to WCW’s standards. Pillman was involved in a near fatal car accident that left him in a coma for a week and completely shattered one of his ankles. The injury made Bischoff a bit too cautious and added that clause to his new deal. The out clause became a deal breaker for Pillman, who didn’t bother to inform Bischoff that he turned down the deal and signed with the WWF instead.
It was a monumental deal for both Pillman and the WWF as the contract gave Pillman some financial stability and it was all guaranteed money. It was the very first completely guaranteed contract Vince McMahon ever authorized. It also gave McMahon one of wrestling’s biggest free agents and in the process…hurt WCW by taking him right from under Eric Bischoff’s nose. The contract was for three years of guaranteed money and also allowed Pillman to keep commitments with ECW, keep his own hotline and merchandise.
Vince McMahon originally wanted to debut Pillman as a surprise on either Raw or their upcoming King of the Ring pay per view…but word of his signing leaked back to Bischoff. Realizing that Eric Bischoff would spoil any surprise the WWF had planned for Pillman’s debut…McMahon decided to simply acknowledge his signing on television with a pre taped press conference instead. A week before they filmed the press conference at Titan Towers in Stamford, Connecticut….Pillman suffered a bad infection in his surgically repaired ankle, had a high grade fever and had to be hospitalized once again.
Fortunately for Pillman and the WWF, doctors were able to get his infection under control and was allowed to appear at the press conference as scheduled. Cameras rolled as Brian Pillman officially signed his guaranteed contract before speaking to the “press” that were in attendance. If you look closely, you’ll notice WWF ring announcer Howard Finkel in the press audience.
After signing his contract with then WWF President Gorilla Monsoon and WWF executives Carl DeMarco and JJ Dillon looking on…Pillman stood at the podium to give a speech. While the cameras were on, Pillman talked softly and was almost emotional about signing his WWF contract. He was humble and honord to be a part of the WWF family. It appeared that the WWF was going to make Brian Pillman into a huge babyface star.
When Pillman thought all the cameras were off, he immediately switched gears and turned into the unbalanced, unstable character wrestling fans had grown to love. He bad mouthed Dok Hendrix, Monsoon, Dillon and all the other WWF hierarchy in attendance using foul language (bleeped out of course). He said that he was a star and could do what he wanted, whenever he wanted. It then looked like he took a swing at the camerman with his crutch.
They then interviewed a WWF executive, who looked concerned that the family friendly WWF made a bad choice in signing Pillman and were going to look for ways to get out of the contract. Of course, it was all a part of the act…but it was really one of the first signs that the WWF was starting to go in an entirely new direction with their content.
david fullam
A totally healthy mix of Flying Brian and the Loose Cannon would have been amazing.