10 Most Criminally Underrated Wrestlers In History
2. Brian Pillman
Before punk rock, there was The Sonics. Before The Sopranos, there was Twin Peaks. And, before the Attitude Era, there was Brian Pillman.
Pillman is almost a victim of his own notoriety. He was the first mainstream act to blur the line between reality and the crumbling veneer of kayfabe in WCW in late 1995. At the top of the card, Hulk Hogan's heroic mettle was tested by a parodic parade of cartoon villains. Underneath the Dungeon of Doom was Pillman, rallying against the dated landscape by undermining it entirely. He was so irrational with his worked shoot tantrums and grungy anti-hero posturing that nobody was certain where the lie ended and the truth began.
The end of his revolutionary story was a sad and infamous one. Pillman sought his release from WCW with unwitting accomplice Eric Bischoff before revealing a shoot within a work, successfully anointing himself as the hottest free agent in wrestling. Before he could truly monetise his act, he succumbed to a career-shortening ankle injury and a life-ending dependency on substance abuse.
Pillman was the last great worker - but he was a hell of a wrestler in his own right.
Exhibit A: His match with Brad 'Badstreet' Armstrong - himself an honourable mention on this list - at Fall Brawl 1991 was a ridiculously fast-paced and smooth high-flying bout, one which confirms that Pillman was ahead of his time both inside and outside the ropes.