10 Wrestlers Who Quit WCW Over Angles

4. Brian Pillman - The Loose Cannon Leaves For ECW

Brian Pillman’s exit from WCW was masterful and likely will never replicated.

Towards the end of 1995, Brian Pillman breathed new life into his career by creating his edgy mentally unstable ‘Loose Cannon’ persona, which took off in a big way. Everything Pillman did had a wink to the audience, almost as if he was breaking the fourth wall. In his match with Eddie Guerrero at ‘Clash of the Champions XXXII’ Pillman impulsively grabbed commentator Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan by the collar which resulted in Heenan to yell on air "What the f*ck are you doing?" and at SuperBrawl VI in his strap match with (real life WCW booking committee member) Kevin Sullivan Pillman declared on the microphone after he lost "I respect you, booker man." Pillman was the mainstream originator of intertwining fact and fiction.

The angle was catching on. So much so Pillman amazingly convinced WCW President Eric Bischoff to let ‘The Loose Cannon’ loose of his contract to go and secretly develop the gimmick further in ECW, only to later come back to WCW with even more hype than before. This Loose Cannon angle majorly backfired on Eric though as Pillman went ahead and signed with the WWF in 1996 after a brief stint in ECW.