10 Ultimate Wrestling Guilty Pleasures
3. Brian Pillman Pulling A Gun On Stone Cold Steve Austin
The Attitude Era gifted WWE fans with many vulgar moments, ranging from Mae Young birthing a hand to Val Venis almost losing his piledriver, but perhaps none rivals Brian Pillman kayfabe pulling a gun on Stone Cold Steve Austin during the November 4, 1996 broadcast of Monday Night Raw.
On that fateful night an injured Pillman was being interviewed by Kevin Kelly and nursing an ankle injury at his Walton, Kentucky home when Austin trespassed onto "The Loose Cannon's" property and fought off a pack of goons. "The Texas Rattlesnake" then invaded Pillman's home, only to discover that Austin 3:16 was poised for a fateful showdown with Pillman: 9mm Glock. Viewers watched as "The Loose Cannon" aimed at Austin before the screen cut to black and returned moments later to chaotic footage of Pillman's friends trying to wrestle the gun away. Kelly's reassurances that nobody had been shot did little to make up for the preceding slew of bad choices. Yet it remains a landmark piece of Attitude Era history that almost everyone and their dog vividly remembers. And that's the bottom line.
WWE later apologized for the entire segment, and in the wake of the "Pillman's Got a Gun" angle, the Attitude Era would never quite push the boundaries of sports entertainment in the same way. And that's probably for the best. Jim Ross screaming "that killed him" was always meant as hyperbole, after all. Enjoy this one while it lasts because there'll never be anything like it again.
Often lost in the shuffle of Austin's home invasion and Kelly's interview with "The Loose Cannon" is Pillman claiming he has an "excellent prognosis for '97," the year that sadly took his life. Knowing Pillman's ultimate fate less than a year later makes this moment one of wrestling's most tragic guilty pleasures.