All language subtitles for DSOTR - S03E01

He had this magnetic charisma
that you could feel across the gym.

You thought, "Hey, man,
this guy's a star."

And I'll do whatever it takes!

To look adversity in the face
and spit in its eye.

The wrestling world
could never have imagined

that an undersized football player

would revolutionize the business,
ushering in a whole new era.

Shut the hell up!

Brian knew what the deal was.

They're gonna screw anybody over.

And how he could make that play
for his own advantage.

In an industry that depends
on the illusion of reality,

no one did more to blur the lines
than Brian Pillman,

who shattered
wrestling's fourth wall.

He was going against the "script."
This has never been done.

What are you doing? Easy!

Pillman's over-the-top antics

exposed
the inner workings of the business,

leveraging trade secrets
to make the deal of a lifetime.

That Loose Cannon gimmick,
he just took it so far.

Don't go in there!

People thought, "It was too extreme."

You didn't know where Brian started
and his wrestling persona ended.

Get him out of here.

He had troublesome relationships
with women.

My mom had had enough and that
pushed her over the edge a little.

He's being driven crazy at home,
he's crazy at work.

And in between,
he's probably really going crazy.

On track to become
a wrestling superstar

at the price of his own sanity,

his rise to the top
was tragically cut short.

I'm watching the pre-show
for the pay-per-view.

We have some tragic news to report.

I just screamed.

He had a persona that he wanted
to perpetuate, even if it killed him.

Man, this is the gold chain

that Brian Pillman got for me
back in the day.

We were riding down the road
one day,

and he goes,
"Kid, we got to have gold chains.

That'll look great."

And years later,
I don't have a lot of things,

you know,
from my old wrestling days,

but this chain I'll always have.

It's very sentimental to me,

and it was a big part of the makeup

and the gimmick
of the Hollywood Blondes.

I'm Steve Austin,

a friend of Brian's
from our WCW days.

We were tag team partners.

Turned out to be good friends
and a good tag team.

The Hollywood Blonds!

Brian didn't phone nothing in.

He wanted to go out and perform.

He was never supposed
to be big or bad enough

or strong enough to do anything.

He blew everybody away
with his tenacity and will to win.

He was a good-looking guy,
great physique, high-flyer.

-Could do everything.
-Oh, man!

Brian was very athletic.

It seemed like he was willing
to try anything.

You could tell that he really wanted
to be a pro wrestling star.

I'm Jim Ross.

When I was in WCW in the mid-80s,

Brian was a guy
that we had very high hopes for

and really wanted to sign.

After we're done
pounding you into submission,

the only thing prescribed
for you afterwards

is a liquid diet of embalming fluid!

From when he got in the ring,
you could tell he was a performer.

He was an exhibitionist.

He had the personality for wrestling.

I've been involved
in wrestling for over 40 years

as a manager,
promoter, announcer, matchmaker,

and I was good friends
in the '80s and '90s with Brian.

He wasn't trying to be the move guy.

He wasn't just trying to be the guy
with the mullet and the abs.

He hit this business on all fronts
and fire on all cylinders,

trying to be the biggest star
that the business had ever seen.

My name is Brian Pillman Jr.

I am only son
of the late, great Brian Pillman,

known as the Loose Cannon.

Brian was a natural promo.

They stuck a mic in front of him,

he would just go off
in that raspy voice.

You're not running this, I am!
Because I'm Brian fucking Pillman!

Growing up, Brian had multiple polyps
on his vocal cords,

and it was closing up
his air passage.

They'd scrape them off and then,
after so long,

they'd grow back again.

And that's why his voice was so raspy

because his vocal cords
had been scraped so many times.

I'm Linda, Brian's older sister.

He had over 40 surgeries.
I don't know the exact number.

When my mother came in one day,

she could hear breathing
as she came in.

It was closing up his air passage.

And she called the doctor.

She had to hold the receiver up
so he could hear him breathing.

And that's when he decided
he needed emergency tracheotomy.

He had the ambulance bring them
to his house

because his house was closer
than the hospital.

And he put a tracheotomy in Brian

on his dining room table
in the middle of the night.

But it never stopped him
from doing anything.

He was always outside,
playing and running.

He wasn't allowed to talk
for three weeks after those surgeries

and he didn't talk.

As a result of that,

I think he overcompensated later on

by wanting to always talk,
wanting to be an entertainer.

It formed him as the guy
that was gonna overcome,

knock down the obstacles.

The son of a bitch was fearless.

I mean, he was...
He was a tough, tough nut.

Kim Wood.
I was the Paul Brown Strength Coach

for the Bengals.

And, Pillman
had a chance to try out with us.

My instruction was to kill him,
not literally, but damn close.

But he tried his ass off.

He said, "It's not about
the size of the dog in the fight.

It's about the fight in the dog."

He had a reputation,
being a street fighter.

I heard that he was at some bar
that had an upper floor,

like a balcony
or whatever you wanna call it.

And he was up there and some girl
threw a drink in his face.

And her boyfriend came after Brian.

The guy was hanging...

Brian had him hanging by his ankles
over the railing.

And Brian was banned from that bar.

After a brief stint in the NFL,

Brian heads to Calgary to play
in the football league.

Soon after,
Brian suffers an ankle injury,

cutting his career short,

which leaves him searching
for what to do next.

One thing I knew was,

he wasn't gonna be
a high-school teacher.

He wasn't gonna sell insurance.

There was a lot of things.

He could use his toughness
and his physicality to make money.

When I was with the Bengals,

Kim Wood talked to me about
getting into professional wrestling.

He thought I had
all the tools needed.

It turns out, Calgary happened to be

the premiere training ground
for wrestlers.

I said, "Hey, while you're up there,
go check out this this Hart bunch."

The Harts are the first family
of Canadian wrestling

with patriarch Stu Hart at the helm.

In addition to his children
that would go on to be icons,

the family discovered and trained
several other future superstars.

They take him into the Hart dungeon

and teach him how to wrestle
to break into the business.

How would you sort of describe
what the dungeon is

to someone who doesn't know it?

If you can't hear screaming
coming out of it,

something's not going right.

Stu, the old man, would put people
in submission holds

and not let them out of the thing
for, you know, three or four hours.

If you survive that,
you survive anything.

You get that great foundation
right off the bat from Stu.

It was an easy bridge to cross
from football to wrestling.

Brian gets his start
in Stampede Wrestling,

and although it's a small territory
in Canada,

its influence on the industry
is felt around the wrestling world.

There were
millions of wrestling fans,

but there was a small subset called
"smart fans"

that knew the inside inner workings
of wrestling.

The insiders all knew the name
Brian Pillman.

I'm Dave,
editor of the Wrestling Observer.

It's an insider publication.
It's covered wrestling since 1982.

For a long time, it was really
the only, what I would call,

true source
of pro-wrestling information.

The sheets were a thing.

You didn't wanna get caught with
them, it's like secret documents.

Then it got out and damn near
all the boys are reading it.

Brian had started wrestling
when he called me the first time.

He wanted to send me tapes,
so we traded tapes.

As far as student of the game,
top level,

more than almost anyone
I ever dealt with.

Meltzer was a good gauge for talent.

So that tipped me off that Meltzer
kept writing good things about Brian.

Brian wound up in WCW
by me getting a hold of him.

Best of luck on that endeavor.

Upon arriving in WCW...

Brian Pillman!

...top star and matchmaker
Ric Flair sees something in Brian

and looks to feature him
on television in a main-event spot.

That match was
one of the highest-rated

Saturday night programs
on TBS at that point

in the previous years.

And the crowd popped for him.

Crowd's chanting "Go, Brian, go!"

Ric was the guy that wanted
to go in the ring with Brian

and tear the house down.

Then he wanted to go to the bar
with Brian

and tear the house down there.

That's the way he lived.

He lived a cartoon a life,
a fantasy life

of limos and long black socks

and alligator shoes
and, you know, babes.

I think Brian liked aspects
of the lifestyle a lot.

He wanted to be like Ric Flair.

Brian Pillman was a lady's man.

He's a gorgeous guy on television,
he's a professional athlete.

So, yeah, a lot of the women
were attracted to Brian.

Rochelle was a woman that Brian met
at a club, downtown Cincinnati.

You know, they were happy,
and we all loved her.

She lived with him in Calgary
for a while

before he got the contract
in Atlanta,

and that's when Brittany was born
in Atlanta.

My name is Brittany.
I'm the daughter of Brian Pillman.

I was a daddy's girl.

You know, everyone sees him
as this wrestler, always on the road,

and wrestling was his life,
but outside of wrestling,

his children were his life.

My dad thought
I was his firstborn child.

But when I was a year old,

he found out that he had
another daughter.

I'm Danielle Pillman. I go by Dani.

And Brian Pillman is my father,
and I am the oldest of his kids.

My dad met my mom
in Cincinnati, like, some bar.

And, I mean, it was like
a very brief love affair.

But she did end up
becoming pregnant,

but my dad had Rochelle
as his girlfriend at the time.

So, yeah, that's kind of why

she didn't want to disclose that
to my father immediately,

but at a certain point, she felt like
I needed my dad.

The second
that I came into the picture,

he was there for me 100 percent
and wanted me to be in his life.

That's something
to be said about him.

He did care about his kids.

My dad living that lifestyle
and all these different women

and he had obviously cheated
on my mom many times.

I'm sure that was hard on her,
but she stayed with him, you know.

She had a lot of issues.
She suffered with major depression.

My mom and dad
were living in Atlanta

and my dad was at a show.

The groundskeeper
broke into the place

and attacked her with an ice pick.

And she was stabbed several times.

-Was he trying to rob her?
-Rob her, whatever, I don't know.

Stabbed her in the face,
stabbed her in the cheek.

So that'll mess you up.

Brian's looks and athletic ability
allow him a spot on the card

as a generic hero,

but he's not content to stay
in one place for long

nor do what he's told.

He was reasonably successful.

He wanted to be a main eventer,

and he wasn't a main eventer yet.
He was a good mid-level guy.

You know, Brian's first couple years
in WCW were tough.

I'm Eric Bischoff,
former president of WCW.

And, once upon a time,
Brian Pillman's boss.

Brian was relatively new on the scene
his first couple years in WCW.

We had to earn his respect.

What probably made
that even tougher

was the management transitions
that took place.

Constant changeover
in management

led to stop-and-start
pushes in Brian's career.

As soon as he started
to gain ground and earn respect,

new matchmakers would arrive,
pushing Brian back down.

But finally, they put Brian together
with Steve Austin.

He's ready to back you up
100 percent.

Stunning Steve Austin.

And I wasn't thrilled at all.

When people hear Steve,

they think he was
always the biggest star.

At the time, in 1993,
he was still finding his way

and hadn't got a main event yet.

And this is about when I eventually
started getting a run

as a US champion.

I was looking forward to that.

I walked in, and here's Brian
coming up behind me,

and I knew Brian.

He goes, "We need to come up
with a finish."

"What are you talking about?"

He goes, "We're a tag team now."
And I was really not, not happy.

I had nothing against Brian.

But it's like, I was...
I was a single wrestler.

I enjoyed working with another guy
in the ring,

having to depend on myself.

They didn't have no name planned
for us, no this, no that.

It was two guys and they were gonna
throw us together

as an interim tag team,
basically to get other people over

because they didn't have plans
for Brian and Steve Austin.

We were gonna try to make the most
of the situation.

Any time
that you start working together,

you become closer.

And, normally I'd be at the wheel,
Brian would be riding shotgun,

reading dictionaries

because he was already trying
to increase his vocabulary.

...and began the pilgrimage
out to Florida!

Cut through the bureaucratic red tape
and get that title shot!

As it goes, we're going down the road
and he goes,

"Hey. Every tag team
has to have a name.

So, what about
the Hollywood Blonds?

It's been done before,
but it's been awhile. Let's do that."

I was thinking to myself,
"I ain't come up with a better one."

So I was cool
with being the Hollywood Blonds.

-Guess what...
-The Hollywood Blonds!

The vests, the trunks, everything
was Brian's idea, and we were cocky,

brash, arrogant guys that we
started rolling the camera footage.

Brian had that shit-eating grin
or that laugh,

when you're getting heat
on a babyface.

Brian and I developed this bond
and this chemistry.

I loved tag-team wrestling
once I figured it out.

I hate to say it
because it sounds corny,

but they were made for each other.
They complemented each other.

They worked hard to make each other
look good.

The Blonds gave Brian a chance
to open up as a heel, as a bad guy.

People are like,
"I loved the Blonds,"

but back then,
they were getting booed.

-You suck!
-You loved to hate them.

It was more natural for Brian
to be a heel.

He wasn't a guy that wanted
to shake hands and smile.

He wanted to be a smartass,
be obnoxious, show off.

You're all a bunch of losers!

He was getting better,
getting exposure.

Partying, having fun.

Brian's fast and loose lifestyle
doesn't mix well

with his turbulent situation
at home,

and he pursues yet another woman
who enters his complicated life.

I think Melanie
was working in Atlanta.

She was a "showgirl."

He saw her picture
in a Penthouse and says,

"I'm gonna marry that girl,"
and he met her.

My dad was sleeping with Melanie
behind my mother's back

because he was in Atlanta.

Melanie would call the house
and that's basically,

I think, how Rochelle found out
about it, you know.

She was hurt because, you know,
they had a nice home,

the family was happy.

But then he had this other life
in Atlanta.

And then Melanie became pregnant.

And that's how we have Brian Junior.

After another unexpected pregnancy
outside of their relationship,

Brian and Rochelle split up.

Shortly after, Brian proposes
to his new girlfriend, Melanie.

We went to Vegas and he put on
like a freaking St. Patrick's Day

white tux with
a big ol' ugly green bowtie.

And I had a white dress, mind you,
the stripper in a white dress. Yeah!

And I had a big ol' green corsage on,
and I loved it, every second of it.

I wouldn't trade it for the world.

My name is Melanie Pillman.
I'm the widow of Brian Pillman.

In private, like, he's just
more laid back and sensible-acting.

He's one of the most intelligent men
I've ever met.

So well-read and he just excelled
at so many things.

He was... he was my soul mate,
I mean,

I couldn't have picked a better guy
to love... love, than him.

His first years with her,
I thought he was very happy.

It'd be a big thing
with his Christmas card.

It would be him and the wife,

and all these little kids.

Because I had my two kids,
you know.

He would show up
with four little kids.

They all had different mothers.

They'd be climbing on him.

One had his legs around his neck,
and one is on his shoulder,

and he loved those kids.

He was counted on,
he was depended on to provide.

That responsibility pushes you
to keep going to work.

-You provide for your family.
-Stunning Steve and Flyin' Brian.

They made the decision
to give the Hollywood Blonds

a big main-event match

on a Clash of Champions,
and Ric Flair was gonna be involved.

The rating came in
and wasn't very good.

They couldn't blame Flair
because he was a star,

so they put
the heat on Brian and Steve.

"The Blonds didn't draw a rating."

And that kind of doomed them there

as being featured
in a more prominent capacity.

It felt like betrayal.

I wish someone would finally tell me
why the company broke us up

because we started getting over
as a viable tag team that could hold,

you know, world championship belts.
We did.

We make chicken shit
into chicken salad

and now you split us up

with no real clear direction
for either one of us.

So breaking us up broke my heart.

I don't know of any other talents
buried because of a bad rating.

TBS was drawing a lot of bad ratings.

But I think somebody thought,
"I don't want to use these guys."

They used that as an excuse.

How that was handled,
I look back on it today

and still shake my head
that we could have done better.

The period from 1990 to 1993,
it was very frustrating for Brian.

Also, there was
some knowledge early on

that his home life was not as happy
as it could be.

I felt like my dad allowed Melanie
to run the show.

Melanie treated my mom very poorly.

I feel like she was very jealous
of my mother.

Melanie didn't like
him talking to her.

She didn't like me and my mother
talking to Rochelle.

She made it hard to like her
because she just caused trouble.

Rochelle took off and didn't tell
anybody where she was.

Rochelle is scheduled to see
Brittany but never shows.

No one is able to get a hold of her,

resulting in
a missing persons report.

Several days later,
when Rochelle finally surfaces,

Brian and Melanie
take decisive action.

Brian said, and I agreed with him,
and I shouldn't have,

"We should just file for custody."
And that changed everything.

Following the tag-team breakup
with Steve Austin,

Brian's career has stalled.

The cracks in his family life
start to break open,

consuming those around him.

The custody battle started

because Melanie
didn't want Rochelle around.

Basically, Brian had more money
and could keep the attorneys paid.

The attorneys work
when you pay them.

And Rochelle just didn't have
any more money.

I was delivering stuff to the lawyer.

I was bombarding her
with these stupid things

about returning past child support

that she blew in, you know,
just little minutiae

that was making me feel
like a better person,

but I wasn't the better person.

Nobody should take kids away.

I should have never done that.
I'd never do it again.

It just devastated Rochelle.

I was outside,
riding my bicycle one day.

This was at a time
when she wasn't allowed to see me,

and she came pulling up,
and I went running to her,

so happy to see her.

Rochelle was hugging her,
and they thought she was taking her.

Here comes my dad and it was
just like this huge argument,

him pulling her away from me.

Melanie filed kidnapping charges
against Rochelle.

My dad had got full custody of me,
and in my mom's mind, she was like,

"I'm gonna lose my daughter,"

so my mom called my dad's house
and she wanted to talk to my dad,

but he was out of town.

Melanie had answered and told her,

"Your own mother thinks I'd be
a better mother

than you'll ever be."

And my mom called my grandma.

She called her mother and told her
what she was gonna do.

And then she shot herself.

I got the call to go to the hospital
because she was being airlifted in.

I was the closest.

And I was the one at the hospital
that they told,

and then I had to tell everybody
that she was gone.

She died on the helicopter.

So I had to call her mother
and tell her mother.

Oh, it was very hard.

To tell somebody's mother
that their child was dead.

It just destroyed Brian
because he felt so responsible.

He was just so upset.
He cried, and he said,

"Do you think it was
all that pressure?

I think it was, Mel." I'd be like,
"Yeah, it probably was."

Brian wanted to pay
for her whole funeral and everything.

At the funeral, he held it together
until they closed the casket.

And he lost it.
He was hugging me and sobbing.

And, in fact, at one point,
I kind of looked at him

because I thought
he was gonna pass out.

He was devastated.

He was devastated.

I felt so guilty for that for years.

And I think I drove her.
Maybe not just me,

but I think incidents drove her
to shoot herself.

Rethinking it,
I wouldn't have done it the same way.

Nobody should have to fight
for their kid.

I don't know
what my problem was back then.

It was devastating,
and I know it was for Brittany.

I have a lot of anger built up
towards my dad in a sense

because I do wish
that he would have, you know,

allowed my mom to see me
because maybe she'd be here today.

I don't know.
She had a lot of issues,

but Melanie was the overall cause.

She's an evil person,
and she's always been that way.

Melanie should have never said
those words to my mom.

She's literally the devil,
and they say, you know,

you reap what you sow, and now,
she's living a life.

She should have been dead
years ago,

because of all the drugs,

but I feel like
she's gonna live to be 100

and miserable for all the pain
that she has caused me,

and my brother, and you know,
my Aunt Linda.

And I... And Brittany's the one that,
you know,

I don't know
how to make it up to her. I...

I don't really know
how to make it up to her.

The guilt of Rochelle's death
weighs heavily on Brian,

and he dives even deeper
into his career.

With his contract renewal
with the WCW looming,

Brian is determined to renegotiate
for even more money.

It was like, "I have five kids.
My body's falling apart.

I have to make big money now

because I got five kids!"

This was his shot.

He talks with Bischoff that was doing
the contracts there,

and Bischoff says to him,

"Expect about
what you're getting now."

He was happy that I got him back
to 225,

but I think he wanted four.

I couldn't justify it
when he wanted it.

He came to me and says, "What do
I do?" What I told him was this...

It's a question of value.

And when everybody's using
everybody else,

what can you do that other people
can't do?

What can you do that gains notoriety?

This thing runs on attention.

It runs on very superficial things.

Create attention. How can we do
that in the position you're in?

With his pulse
on the wrestling landscape,

Brian knew that he had
to find a way to up the ante

in order to shock
even the most hardcore fans.

Brian knew if he could make people
legitimately believe

that he was a loose cannon,
that he was nuts,

he was capable of doing anything,

that he could be
one of the hottest guys.

It was a pure money deal.

What do we really want?

Bischoff to offer you
a hell of a lot more money,

and we want Vince McMahon to see
that you are of value and offer more.

And then you flip a coin.

If he could play one side
against the other

in the middle of the war,

he would come out much better,
six figures per year better.

It's what he set about to do.

Brian Pillman's plan was simple.
More attention means more money.

As the WWF and WCW
are engaged in a ratings battle,

Brian exploits this to his advantage

by playing them off each other
while driving up his own value.

Brian came up
with the Loose Cannon idea

and started slowly integrating it
into his television appearances.

Bobby Heenan
was the color commentator.

Bobby had had a broken neck.

He was protective of his neck
and Brian goes around behind Bobby,

grabbing him by the shoulders
on live television.

-Bobby says...
-What the F are you doing?

Then Brian knew he got it.
He got gold out of it, right.

Everybody will be talking
about the F-bomb

that got dropped
on Turner Broadcast.

Bobby thought Brian was nuts.

I think the Brain has left.

People were confused
whether it was real or not.

One guy he was involved with
was Kevin Sullivan, the booker,

the matchmaker.

Oh, my goodness!
They got a fight going on!

They're beating each other,

and when Brian Pillman
was ready to quit,

-he was like...
-I respect you, booker man.

"I respect you, booker man."

The fact that he was acknowledging
on national television

that Kevin Sullivan was a head writer
of a wrestling show

was something that had
never been done before.

Those that knew, knew.
And those that didn't know

need to find out
what a booker man meant.

It was a big thing because those guys
are sensitive

about exposing the business.

When you're acting out a story line,
it's work.

And a lot of the boys backstage
weren't really sure this was real

or if this was a work.

The locker rooms had never been
invaded that way before.

He knew if the other wrestlers
believed it was real,

then they would tell
the newsletter editors,

"Wow, that guy's nuts,"
and the word would travel.

I thought, "This is going down bad.
Brian's getting fired."

I'm out of contact with him.
He's lost his mind.

He's not talking to me.

The "smart fans"

were starting to figure out that
wrestling is manipulated,

choreographed, pre-determined.

That guy's nuts and he's real,
and he won't do what they tell him.

That sells tickets. You had no idea
what was supposed to happen.

He was convincing people
that he was insane.

Not only were the fans
ready to be fooled,

but all the wrestlers were,

the management people were.

There was people
that you could play like a violin.

-Brian, I'd like to know... No.
-Nervous?

-I'm not nervous.
-You should be.

I don't think anybody
at any given moment

knew if or not they were
really being worked by Brian.

He ended up working Bischoff.

I said, "Get him to give you
some release." From his contract.

"From your contract."

Brian says to Eric Bischoff,

"If you fire me, and then I bust out
on TV the week afterwards,

people will know this has gone
out of control."

"The people in the office,

if they see that I'm under contract,
they'll tell Dave.

Everyone will know that it's a work.
You have to really fire me.

Give me
this legitimate termination letter.

I can show it to everybody.

'Look at what the guy did!
Can you believe he fired me?'"

He did! He gave him a release.

So he was then free to negotiate
with Vince McMahon and the WWF

against Eric Bischoff
so he could get a better deal,

all because Bischoff thought
he was working with Brian

to create this "illusion"
and Brian was working Bischoff

to create his own illusion.

Dude, I mean, how do you do that?

How... I don't know anybody else
would ever did that.

Yeah, stroke of genius.

It was a termination,

but it was a legitimate termination
with a wink and a nod.

I said, "Brian, go to WWF.
I can't give you what you want.

Get yourself over there
so that when you come back,

it'll give me the ability to pay
you more.

You've raised your value."

In his world, it's his stunt.

He is flattered that he's the guy
pulling the great stunt,

even though he was the power
to begin with!

For anyone to suggest
that the Loose Cannon character

was designed to manipulate me
into giving Brian Pillman more money,

when, in fact, Brian Pillman and I
discussed how to make this work

even better so that at some point,
I could give him the money,

it kind of flies in the face
of the rumors and the innuendo.

That's the greatest thing you can do.

If you can fuck somebody over
and have them think that it's great,

that's, you know, that's the trick
of breaking up with a woman,

you know, make her think
that it's her idea.

As a free agent, Brian takes charge
of his appearances and publicity.

His insider knowledge,
mastery of manipulation,

and disregard for exposing
the industry solidifies his position

as the ultimate ring master.

In the wrestling war layout
at the time,

the fans knew one thing, if you are
really working for one promotion,

you can't appear for any others.

Tonight will be one
of the most extreme hours of...

Wait a minute.

With trying to prove it was real,

WCW hated ECW, so Brian must be
on the outs with WCW.

Renegade promotion ECW
is gaining traction

for pushing the boundaries

and is the perfect stage
for the unpredictable antics.

He could curse,
he could say off-color things.

Eric Bischoff is each and every one

of these motherfucking smart marks
rolled up

in a giant piece of shit!

I thought Brian was losing his mind,
as opposed to being brilliant.

I loved it. I was entertained by it.

Damn near whipped it out
and was gonna piss in the ring,

that's a pretty strong statement.

And I was like,
"This motherfucker's out there."

In a good way.

Get him the hell out of here.

This was working on both levels.

The fans who weren't inside,
they just thought that he was crazy

and he was doing wild things,

but the fans who did know
the inside terminology

were like,
"They can't allow him to do that."

When he'd have
a television appearance,

it'd be arranged so it didn't look
like he was supposed to be there

or he was doing something
he wasn't supposed to do.

He protested the matches
that he'd been given.

He wrestled a pencil because pencil
in inside knowledge

was a name for the booker.

I always end up fighting
with the pencil.

He's showing up
and doing these funny vignettes.

He's cooking, and flames
are going out of the frying pan.

And they hired a woman with a baby,
and the guy comes to punch Pillman,

and he grabs the baby and holds
the baby in front of him.

You scum! You piece of...

I never once called Brian and said,
"Hey, dude, are you working?

Are you shooting?" You know,
because I didn't want to know.

But I thought what he was doing
was brilliant.

Some people think my dad was crazy
and other people are like,

"Your dad was not crazy.

That was just a gimmick."

A lot of people say
he fell into that.

They couldn't decipher it was...
Is this Brian Pillman now?

Or, like, is he still in character?

Is this just how he is?

It's all just
their perception of reality.

It was just like this blur between,
like, what is actually going on?

You don't even know anymore,
but that was the magic of it.

There was a lot of Andy Kaufman
in Brian.

The Loose Cannon became Brian,
that was who he was.

Brian was a renegade.

Brian was a bit of an outlaw.

Again, remember, when you're not
the biggest dog of the litter,

and you got that gravelly voice
you've had 30 throat operations

when you're a small child,
you get an attitude.

The greatest wrestlers
I've ever worked with

are essentially natural, organic
extensions of their own personality.

And the Loose Cannon was just that.

The message that Brian at ECW sent
to the other companies is

he was a free agent
and he'd go to the highest bidder.

Vince is watching.
It's the hottest thing.

The only one to know
what was going on was Dave.

"We have to tell Meltzer."

I value his friendship more than
I value any of this shit.

I called up Kim,
and I go, "Oh, god, Brian's...

Brian's in trouble."
He just goes, like,

"Brian's doing this.

He's come up with a character,
and he's you gotta work everybody."

"What do I do with Dave?"

He goes, "Don't talk to Dave
because if you tell him,

then he's gonna have to say it
because that's his role.

I don't want you lying to him."

So, literally, he didn't talk to me
for a couple months there.

He wanted to fool me
with the character.

And he did for a while.

Who are the real marks?
Who are the ultimate marks?

Bischoff, and we got Vince.

Vince McMahon was,
then as he is now,

the undisputed leader, ruler,
manipulator,

organizer, and owner
of World Wrestling Entertainment.

-What did you think of Vince?
-Vince?

-Personally.
-What do you...

What do you do with a whore?
Fuck them.

That's what I thought of Vince.

As Brian becomes the talk
of the wrestling world,

it's time for the final step
of his master plan,

track down and secure the attention
of wrestling's biggest power player.

In perhaps his boldest stunt yet,

Brian plots to get the attention
of Vince McMahon

at an insider industry tradeshow
in Las Vegas,

the last place anyone would expect
to see the Loose Cannon.

Okay, so I'm in Vegas.

I was in there and I was leaving,

and Brian's coming
in full gimmick at this point.

And then I see him, "Hey, Dave."
Whatever.

He goes, "Can I get your credential?"

I go, "Here's my credential."

And he went in and makes a beeline
for Jim Ross and Vince McMahon.

He had an idea to be
the most outrageous, outlandish,

over-the-top character
that Vince McMahon had ever met.

He's gonna get
Vince McMahon's attention.

Doing his whole Brian Pillman,

"Hey, Vince, let's take a picture!"

"Vince McMahon! Motherfucker!
God almighty!"

"I got a chance to meet you!"

Somebody takes a picture.

And Vince is like, "Who is this guy?"
He made an impression.

You didn't know whether he was
a maniac or a guy having fun.

McMahon thought, "We can't hire
this guy. He's crazy."

I said, "Crazy like a fox."

"What do you mean?"

"He told me what he was gonna do."
"He did?" "Yeah, he's creative.

He's bold. He's like you, Vince.

He'll take a chance."

Brian's balls at that point
would probably fit in a wheelbarrow.

You work Vince McMahon,
you know, especially back in the day,

pretty good rib.
And got his attention, too.

It was pretty freaking genius
what he was doing.

But he wanted to stay in WCW.
WWF didn't offer guaranteed money.

And Vince was always pushing
the bigger guys.

Brian always felt that WCW
was his company

and the company he'd do the best in.

People go, "He manipulated
his contract."

No, he did the manipulation
of his contract

to negotiate with WWF
to raise his money with WCW.

Brian's bold plan is a success

as he's in negotiations
for contracts

with both and WCW and WWF.

All he has to do
is choose the right path.

It didn't matter
where he would up, it was just...

No, it's money!

That's the bottom fucking line!
It's money!

And these people are in fantasy land.
And it's money.

The only problem is
like the Hebrew saying,

"Man plans and God laughs."

We're talking about,
"I got to save money,"

and then he buys
an $80,000 Humvee.

I couldn't fathom the idea of,
"I've got five kids,

I've got to make money now"

and then buying a Humvee.

God. He would drive that wherever,
Brian wanted to drive that.

He didn't want to sit at the light,

he drove down a gully and up
the other side in that Hummer.

He didn't, you know, follow
the rules.

I was actually in Miami, modeling,

but I called to check on the kids,

and the neighbor across the street,
I called her and she said,

"My God, I just passed the Hummer

and little Brian's car seat's
out in the middle of the yard

and Brian's being flown
to the hospital."

I remember he flipped and rolled it.
It was severe.

The wreck happened
during the negotiations.

-They're getting damaged goods.
-It was truly,

you can get on the tiger's back,
but how do you get off?

-Fate figured that out.
-There'd been a lot of deaths,

but not of a guy who was actually
on the way to the show.

It's like if Brian could just see
the future,

Brian would have just,
"Fuck, oh my God. No drugs."

It'd have scared him straight.

It's crazy how you go
from having a silver platter

to not knowing when your next meal
is going to be.

Evelyn Towne
Iyuno-SDI Group