The vast majority of professional wrestling storylines happen inside of a ring, or in the arena that the show airs from. From time-to-time, we go inside the homes of wrestlers, but it's usually just so they can update us on their injury via satellite. It's very rare that we see a home invasion. As the WWF was getting badly beaten by WCW, they began to think outside the box. One night they went a bit too far outside of it. In 1996, Brian Pillman and Steve Austin were involved in an extremely personal feud. Austin broke his former tag partner's ankle, and then later threatened to show up at his house while he was recovering. The WWF had a camera crew there ready for the showdown. Kevin Kelly was on assignment to give us updates, and interviewed The Loose Cannon who suddenly pulled out a gun, claiming the was going to blast Austin's "Sorry ass straight to hell." This sure was a long cry from Doink vs. Crush just a couple years earlier. Austin eventually arrived, and was greeted by two of Pillman's friends who were quickly disposed of. Inside of the home, a frantic Kelly tried to give us the play-by-play, while a terrified Melanie Pillman watched on, and her husband Brian remained silent and holding his gun. Austin broke in, and as we saw a close-up of PIllman's deranged face, the feed was cut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmsdz29_dv8 Of course, no one was killed, but the WWF kept us hanging for a few minutes until the feed was restored. That level of implied violence was one of the strangest moments to watch in the company's history.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
