Titan Shattered - Wrestling with Confidence and Paranoia - James Dixon by James Dixon

Author:James Dixon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: History of Wrestling
Published: 2015-07-19T23:00:00+00:00

THAT THE cartoonification of one-time respected industry veterans coincided with the rise in popularity of the vulgar, beer-drinking and cussing Steve Austin persona caused Vince’s entire organisation to become a baffling juxtaposition. “Vince just kind of backed into the edgier stuff slowly,” offers Cornette. “It’s not like Vince didn’t like The Goon, T.L. Hopper, etcetera, because he did, but it was always Bruce Prichard who would defend those gimmicks publicly, even when Vince wasn’t there. Bruce would be the one handling those guys, and it was easy for him because it was all funny shit that Vince wouldn’t get mad about. It was only later in the year when Vince saw the crazy things the top guys were doing getting over that he decided to fully go in that direction.” Hiring Steve Austin’s former Hollywood Blondes tag team partner Brian Pillman in June only further clouded the perception of Vince’s long-term intentions about where he wanted to take the WWF creatively.

Having suffered through the trauma of thirty-six operations to treat the throat cancer he had suffered from since the age of two, Brian Pillman sensed his career had an earlier expiration date than most. With five children to feed at home, he realised that time was running out for him to make enough money from wrestling so that his family would be comfortable for the rest of their lives. At merely five-foot-nine in stature, the former Cincinnati Bengals linebacker was determined to overcome similar odds to the ones he had been fighting his entire life.

Pillman had been wrestling in the middle of the card at WCW for six years, working primarily as a high-flying aerial specialist. He observed WCW’s main event scene and saw aged, reliable company hands Ric Flair, Lex Luger, and Arn Anderson mixing it up with New York imports Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, noting they were doing the same routines that had brought them to the dance decades prior. With his contract soon up for renewal, he devised a masterplan that he intended would increase his value exponentially and catapult him to the top of the company. He wanted to think outside of the restrictive box that had contained wrestling storylines for as long as anyone could remember. His plan was to pull off a “shoot angle”, something to shatter the norm and make him the hottest name in the business.

Brian was astute enough to see that the industry was changing. A keen student of the game, he felt he had witnessed the future when he glimpsed the likes of Rey Misterio Jr., and Eddie Guerrero wowing audiences with innovative aerial ability unlike anything he had seen before. Once acclaimed for his own high flying skills, Pillman’s body was beginning to suffer from the effects of the style and he knew he could no longer keep up with the new breed. As a high flying style was one of the few options available to him because of his small stature, Pillman recognised that he needed something

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