It’s been 20 years since Brian Pillman’s death so on today’s show Jericho welcomes Dave Meltzer from Wrestling Observer to discuss Pillman’s career.
Meltzer says he knew Pillman for many years, dating back to when Pillman began training and wrestling in Calgary for the Hart family’s ‘Stampede Wrestling’. Even during that time Meltzer knew that Pillman was going places, and Meltzer adds that up until Pillman’s death they still spoke fairly regularly.
Meltzer informs that Pillman quickly climbed the ranks and soon made his way to WCW where he would begin tagging with Steve Austin as the Hollywood Blondes. Austin wasn’t overly excited about that pairing at first because he was a fairly successful singles competitor, and he looked at this as a demotion. Eventually they developed fantastic chemistry and became a great team.
After some time WCW officials broke them up and Austin was the recipient of another singles run while Pillman was forgotten about. Pillman then hurt his back and became somewhat depressed. He knew at that time that he had to change his style because his injured back couldn’t keep up with the in ring work he was accustomed to.
