10. Brian Pillman Tricked Eric Bischoff Into Giving Him His Contract Release
In 1996 Brian Pillman set the wrestling world on fire with his unique, outside-the-box Loose Cannon persona, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality with his worked-shoot promos and erratic behaviour. The only people in Pillmans home promotion WCW who were aware that the whole thing was an elaborate ruse were booker Kevin Sullivan and company chief Eric Bischoff, who had authorised Pillman to run with the angle. What they did not realise was that they too were being worked by the master manipulator. Pillmans real motivation for the gimmick was to enable him to make such a name for himself that he would be the hottest commodity in wrestling and thus able to generate the sort of main event money that would allow him to be set for life. Pillman wanted to pit WCW and the WWF against one another in a bidding war for his services, but there was a problem: he was tied to a long-term WCW contract. Pillman had a plan for that too. He convinced Bischoff to fire him for shooting during a match with Kevin Sullivan and allow him to go and work for a few months in ECW. Bischoff agreed that if it helped the angle he was happy to go along with it. But the crafty Pillman wanted more. He wanted Bischoff to grant him a genuine release from his contract to stop word getting out that he was been sent to ECW with WCWs blessing, thus killing the conceit. Poor, gullible Bischoff agreed and Pillman was cut from his deal. A few months later he accepted a deal from the WWF, leaving the hapless Bischoff red-faced.
The author of the highly acclaimed 'Titan' book series, James Dixon has been involved in the wrestling business for 25 years as a fan, wrestler, promoter, agent, and writer. James spent several years wrestling on the British independent circuit, but now prefers to write about the bumps and bruises rather than take any of them. His past in-ring experience does however give a uniquely more "insider" perspective on things, though he readily admits to still being a "mark" at heart.
James is the Chief Editor and writer at historyofwrestling.co.uk and is responsible for the best-selling titles Titan Sinking, Titan Shattered, and Titan Screwed, as well as the Complete WWF Video Guide series, and the Raw Files series.
