Brian Pillman

Brian William Pillman (May 22, 1962 – October 5, 1997) was an American professional wrestler and professional football player best known for his appearances in Stampede Wrestling in the 1980s and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the 1990s.

Pillman created a legacy as "The Loose Cannon", a wrestling gimmick that would see him do a series of worked shoots that would gain him a degree of infamy for his unpredictable character.

Pillman was born on May 22, 1962, to a Welsh mother named Mary; he had three sisters named Angie, Linda, and Susan, as well as a brother Phil.

His father died of a heart attack when Pillman was three months old in August 1962.

As a child, Pillman developed multiple throat polyps and underwent between 31 and 36 operations to tend to them, many before the age of three.

Due to his medical issues Pillman spent a large part of his early childhood in a hospital, only going home for Christmas.

Because of this Pillman's mother chose to send him to a public school so that he could spend more time with his friends, which led him to become the only Presbyterian in his otherwise Catholic family.

As a child Pillman played many sports, including basketball and hockey, but was rather fragile and was often made fun of by other children because of his raspy voice, which had been damaged by the many operations.

This, according to his mother, prompted him to learn how to box.

Pillman graduated from Norwood High School in Norwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati.

While attending Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Pillman played football for Redskins (now Miami RedHawks) as a defensive tackle where he set the record in the "tackles for loss" category.

Pillman struggled academically and needed help with school to continue to play; he was then tutored by Miami rugby player Bill Minnich.

A Division I Second-team All-American in his junior year and a Division I All-American in his senior year, he went undrafted in the 1984 NFL Draft.

Pillman also played for the Buffalo Bills in preseason action in 1985, but he was the last player cut before the start of that season.

His attempts to make the roster of the Bengals were covered in a series of articles in The Cincinnati Enquirer written by Peter King.

Pillman and John Harbaugh, current head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, were roommates and defensive teammates while at Miami.

Following the end of his football career, Pillman remained in Canada and began training as a wrestler under Stu Hart and his sons.

He joined his hometown Cincinnati Bengals as a free agent (where he won the Ed Block Courage Award for his team), and later the Canadian Football League for the Calgary Stampeders in 1986.

He debuted in November 1986 in Hart's Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling promotion.

Pillman quickly formed a tag team with Hart's son Bruce known as Bad Company (not to be confused with Badd Company).

In April 1987, Bad Company won the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship by defeating Ron Starr and the Cuban Assassin in the finals of a tournament.

Their reign lasted until October 1987, when the titles were held up following a controversial ending to a match between Bad Company and their opponents, Jerry Morrow and Makhan Singh.

Bad Company defeated Morrow and Singh in a rematch in November 1987 to regain the titles, eventually losing them to Morrow and the Cuban Assassin in July 1988.

While in Stampede Wrestling, Pillman had his girlfriend at the time, Trisa Hayes, portray his sister in order to get him over as a face by seating her at ringside and having heel wrestlers taunt her so that he could rescue her.

Pillman finished up with Stampede on August 13, 1988, teaming up with Bruce Hart and Jason the Terrible to defeat The Great Gama, Makhan Singh, and Johnny Smith in the main event.

He would head to the Continental Wrestling Association in Memphis to continue his career.

After finishing with Stampede Pillman worked briefly in 1989 for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as part of its "Battle Line Tokyo Dome" tour where he wrestled in singles matches against people such as Masa Saito, Tatsumi Fujinami, Black Cat and Naoki Sano as well as in tag team matches with Big Van Vader against Riki Choshu and Tatsumi Fujinami.

In June 1989, Pillman returned to the United States and began wrestling for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he was known as Flyin' Brian due to his athletic ability and variety of aerial maneuvers.

He was one of the first American wrestlers, along with "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton, to incorporate a variety of Mexican lucha libre moves into his arsenal.

He held the NWA United States Tag Team Championship with The Z-Man between February 1990 and May 1990.

Pillman later feuded with Barry Windham, who he harassed while dressed as the masked Yellow Dog after losing a Loser Leaves WCW (Pillman was eventually reinstated).

He also held the short-lived WCW Light Heavyweight Championship twice between October 1991 and February 1992, feuding with Brad Armstrong, Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Richard Morton, and Scotty Flamingo.

In March 1991, Pillman wrestled at the WCW/New Japan Supershow I in the Tokyo Dome, teaming with Tim Horner and Z-Man in a loss to Kuniaki Kobayashi, Shiro Koshinaka, and Takayuki Iizuka.

In August 1991, Pillman wrestled for NJPW as part of its "Summer Night Fever in Nagoya" and "Violent Storm in Kokugikan" tours, facing opponents including Jushin Thunder Liger and Kensuke Sasaki.

Pillman turned heel in September 1992, frustrated by Brad Armstrong's knee injury and vacating the WCW Light Heavyweight title, when he was scheduled to wrestle Armstrong for the title at Clash of the Champions XX.

In November 1992, he formed a team with Barry Windham, gunning for the NWA and WCW World Tag Team Championships held by Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas.

Windham and Pillman lost to Steamboat and Douglas at Starrcade on December 28.

He was also known for being extremely agile in the ring, although a car accident in April 1996 from which he received extensive ankle injuries limited his in-ring ability.

By the end of his career, he worked with his long-time friend and former tag-team partner Stone Cold Steve Austin in a storyline involving a firearm and with The Hart Foundation during the first instances of the developing Attitude Era.

In 1997, he died unexpectedly due to an undetected heart disease.