6. Brian Pillman (1962-1997)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6FLJEkqmBY Brian Pillman was a football player turned professional wrestler. He learned his trade at Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling. He then vacillated between the ECW and WCW for a number of years before landing on his feet in the WWE. An agile wrestler and always exciting to watch in the ring, Pillman cultivated his trademark 'Loose Cannon' persona as a renegade who would do all sorts of unpredictable things. This led to the notorious 'Pillman's got a gun' angle. Embroiled in a feud with Steve Austin, things got nasty between them pretty quick and Austin staged a home invasion. Brian whipped out a 9mm pistol and the live feed began to crack up. It was restored and fans watching could see Austin being hauled off and Pillman aiming a gun at him yelling words along the line 'I'm going to shoot that son of a bitch!". He also dropped the F Bomb live on air which considerably displeased McMahon, and the WWE had to grovel quite a bit and apologise for the incident. On the 5th of October 1997, Pillman was scheduled to wrestle Dude Love. At a WWE Pay per view event. He was nowhere to be seen, and the police broke into his hotel room where he was found dead. The cause of death, like Eddie Guerrero and Randy Savage, was heart disease bringing on acute heart failure. Vince gravely announced Brian Pillman's death on the show and rather distastefully interviewed Pillman's grieving widow Melanie the next night. With Pillman's death at age 35, wrestling lost a dynamic and edgy character who was full of surprises and was also technically adept.
Clare Simpson
Contributor
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
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Clare