When he left WCW in early 1996, Brian Pillman was on the verge of breaking through as a singles competitor. His Loose Cannon persona was working at making him one of the most-talked about performers of the day. But Pillman would be involved in a horrific car crash in April 1996 that shattered his ankle, ending his high-flying in-ring style and leaving his ankle fused in a walking position. Pillman would wrestle in pain for the remainder of his career. Just a couple months later, Pillman signed with WWF. About a year later, he passed away from a heart condition. Had Pillman not shattered his ankle, he would have been able to enter the WWF as an in-ring performer (he spent several months as a commentator while he healed) and might have had a more successful career. Its tough to predict how exactly things would have played out, but a major injury like Pillmans drastically altered his career trajectory.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
