9 Wrestlers Who Went To Insane Lengths Researching Their Gimmicks

To prepare for his role as a straight-shooting loudmouth in ECW (and later, WWE), Brian Pillman purposefully burned his bridges with Eric Bischoff and WCW, which was at the time the biggest gig in town. That's commitment.

He did this by insisting to the future Raw general manager that he was strictly heading up to Philadelphia in order to "develop his new character". Once Bischoff agreed, he went there and never came back, instead jumping to the WWF in mid-1996.

The consequence of this decision was that Pillman's new character instantly had a ton of buzz around it. Right from the get-go on Monday Night Raw he was regarded by fans as a total loose cannon, something that was exacerbated by the infamous gun incident involving real-life best bud Stone Cold Steve Austin.

As for Bischoff, he was probably left seething down in Atlanta, but that was also the perfect way for Pillman to practice drawing heat. How can you possibly get thousands of people to jeer you if you can't even piss off one?