Was Brian Pillman Ahead Of His Time?

[Undercurrent]

Brian Pillman is arguably one of the most influential wrestlers within the past 20 years. Early in his career he brought much of the lucha libre style of wrestling to America and popularized it in a time where wrestling was still stuck in the cartoon phase. Later he developed his Loose Cannon character which blurred the line between what was real and what was scripted. This character was one which we had never seen before. His promo abilities were unique and equally as eerie. I would place them right at the top with Jake Roberts' in regards to the best and most effective of all time. You literally believed that Brian was truly this brilliant psychopath who had a hidden agenda which only he knew of. In many ways he was the professional wrestling version of The Joker. The joke was always on us and Brian was the one laughing.

My question.

Do you feel Brian Pillman was ahead of his time?

My obvious answer is yes. This is clearly evident in the recent edition of Raw where they filmed Triple H breaking into Orton's home. The first thing that came to mind was Austin/Pillman. In fact an individual such as Edge has the majority of his character based roughly upon Pillman's Loose Cannon, though not nearly as effective. Brian has always been one of my all time favourite wrestlers and it's truly a shame he has been so overlooked given the influence he not only had on the Attitude Era, but the wrestling business in general.

 

[thewholedamnshow]

I agree completely he was a solid talent, he knew what the fuck was up. I also agree with the hhh/orton angle was similar to the pillman/austin angle. i think those kinda personal angles spark the attention of many. i think if pillman and owen hart were around today they would be multi time world champs. we missed out on their untimely deaths. (yes im drunk and cant spell lol)

 

[GSM]

Yeah Pillman was definately ahead of time, he used the internet as a platform for his loose cannon gimmick and I even read somewhere that he was banned by AOL several times because he insulted people online in Wrestling forums XDD well that´s what I heard but what I´ve seen was innovation at it´s best the way he made this very complex gimmick work was just awesome and in my opinion hasn´t been done since.

 

[butsecks]

"i respect you BOOKER MAN" ...Brian f'n pillman was ahead of his time without a doubt...this guy was attitude before the attitude era, nwo era began...i firmly believe if he would have never gotten in that car wreck, he would have done much bigger things in wwe....he fooled everyone by walking out on wcw and surprising everyone in ecw then wwf. his promos were amazing...my personal favorite is his king of the ring promo. and the great thing about him was that when the cameras stopped rolling he was still the loose cannon.

 

[truk24]

Yes, Pillman was ahead of his time. If you take a look at The Brian Kendrick you see a ton of Brian Pillman. It is 2009, and Pillman has been dead for some time now. That tells you he was ahead of his time. Everything about TBK says Pillman, and I think Kendrick may be better one day. It is ashame he died.

 

[dcrkool83]

I agree with you all about Brian Pillman. WWE needs a character like that now. Well come to think of it Randy Orton's current gimmick is kinda like Pillmans a little bit with the whole punting people in the head and the pyscho thing. Triple H when he did the Cerebal Assassin thing reminds me a lot of Pillman.