This blog is labelled "98.5 percent Wade Keller." This is part of that 1.5 percent that's not. Here's a column from just over 15 years ago from PWTorch senior columnist Bruce Mitchell from PWTorch Newsletter #375/376 that covers Brian Pillman's "worked-shoot" that was wrapped around a devious plan to outwit his co-conspirator, Eric Bischoff. Reading this makes you realize the various layers that could be going on with C.M. Punk, although the circumstances are different and Vince McMahon is probably too sharp to let himself be double-crossed. But it's fun to think about.

I strongly recommend you read this column start to finish. It's probably a scenario that most of you aren't fully familiar with, and it's a great education on the types of "shoot-work" situations that have occurred before. This scenario included a hardcore favorite wrestler in Brian Pillman with a reputation for being anti-authority and insubordinate in real life speaking on a mic in a way that shocked fans for breaking from protocol, and then ended up going a step further than even the C.M. Punk angle has, which involved an actual termination of an existing contract that went so far as to be 100 percent legit with lawyers breaking any legal tie Pillman had to WCW, and that was just the beginning of the twists and turns.

When you read the last line of this column, and then you remember (or research) what Pillman's next career move actually was, you'll smile in amazement.

I will also be republishing my Cover Story from this same issue that will add a foundation to Mitchell's column, so look for that posted right above this column later...

(These articles, among thousands of others, are available for PWTorch VIP members all the time in our vast archives dating back to the late 1980s, so if you are eager to catch up on other fascinating stories from wrestling's history with the Torch's behind-the-scenes perspective and analysis, sign up for a VIP membership and dive into the archives. (Click here for the sign up page: www.pwtorch.com/govip)

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Bruce Mitchell Feature Column
ORIGINAL HEADLINE: "You know what's wrong with wrestling? There's no kayfabe."
PUBLISH DATE: ebruary 24, 1996
Pro Wrestling Torch Weekly newsletter #375/376

"Every thing you see actually happens."

-Big Time Wrestling main eventer Rocky Johnson with the '70s answer to the question, "work or shoot?"

The firing of Brian Pillman is a work.

You know, a fake, a con, a rib, not kosher...

But it's not just your ordinary, everyday wrestling lie either. The firing of Brian Pillman is the Chinese box of wrestling, a deception immersed in a question mark wrapped in an enigma.

It's an angle that has been organized with paranoid meticulousness and it's got wrestlers, announcers, production people, officials, and fans of all sorts talking. The "Respect" match at SuperBrawl and subsequent firing have been more of a topic of conversation than this week's shots in the WWF-WCW war, the latest Ultimate Fighting Championship political embroglio, the longawaited and desired Miss Liz turn, and a loss by Hulk Hogan to (of all people) Arn Anderson. All might dominate wrestling conversations on their own any other week.

Why the overwhelming interest?

Well, after all, Pillman really was terminated on Wednesday by WCW senior vice president Eric Bischoff. Pillman really did hire a lawyer, Rubin Katz, who defended Pete Rose during his wrongful termination. Pillman really did appear Saturday night at a place where they hate WCW with the same passion as Vince McMahon, ECW Arena. Pillman really was telling people he wanted to get himself on the live Monday Night Raw from, serendipitously, his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.

The events of SuperBrawl have quickly become wrestling's version of an Urban Legend, a story intertwined with almost indistinguishable threads of fact and compelling fiction. Threads such as these:

No one can find Pillman to give him the finish to the scheduled 12 minute strap match. No one can find the strap because Pillman stole it.

Everyone saw Pillman forcibly grab the mic from the startled referee and sneer the soon to be legendary words, in some circles at least, "I respect you, booker man." Everyone backstage saw Pillman and Bischoff swear at each other during a heated argument.

Someone told Chris Cruise he didn't have to interview Pillman because "he's so crazy he might hit you on the air." Someone heard a bewildered Hulk Hogan ask, "What's the deal with Pillman?" Someone saw an incensed Arn Anderson chase Pillman through the parking lot looking to beat his ass for "ruining the show." Someone saw Pillman in his wrestling gear burn rubber on his way outta there promptly smashing into another car.

The Urban Legend is really the Pillman Legend. A loose cannon who will do anything to anyone at any time because he really doesn't give a f.

The origins of that legend, that work, reveal this whole scenario for what it is: the nuttily brilliant attempt of a wrestler who is beginning to realize that being a great worker wasn't going to be enough, this time, to garner him another guaranteed money contract.

And it can all be traced back to one event - the Dec. 15 show honoring Stu Hart.

Virtually unnoticed in the tribute recognizing the 50 year career of one of the patriarchs of the business was the return of Brian Pillman to the Calgary territory where he started his career. More important may have been his reunion with his mentor and partner in the Bad Company tag team, Bruce Hart. This is a guy who has been in and around the business literally his entire life, who knew not only every hold and counter hold, but every swerve and counterswerve in the business.

And then there was Bad Company's opponents for the show, Dory and Terry Funk. They, too, have seen it all. They, too, know what it's like to work everyone from fans to friends to family, what it's like to have no loyalty to anyone but yourself. Who better to help Pillman formulate a strategy, more of a 24 hour a day con, designed to turn cold Brian into a hot enough commodity that WCW would have to resign him for fear of losing him to their archrivals, the WWF?

Call it the Brody strategy after the legendary brawler and clubhouse lawyer, Bruiser Brody, who knew how to cause so much turmoil in the dressing room and so much action on TV and in the ring that he ripped the focus of any promotion he worked in away from anyone else.

And then he walked out, taking his heat and his controversy to a new promotion for more money.

When Brody walked out on Giant Baba and the All Japan promotion to jump to New Japan Pro Wrestling, in the legendary example, he made headlines around that country. He was the star who compelled the Japanese fans to watch him both in and out of the ring. The compulsion he created in Japan and with similar tactics in other countries including the U.S. made him a rich man.

After the Calgary show, Brian Pillman was a changed man, an all day punk whether he was at WCW shows, at boxing matches, on his rightwing radio show, or at adult entertainment emporius where he simultaneously sneered at fans and hawked Four Horsemen tshirts.

Instead of concentrating on his work in the ring he began to work on his out of the ring persona. He eschewed his traditional ring wear for jeans and wild-ass tshirts. He taunted fans and even goaded Bobby Heenan into, for the first time in the modern era, breaking character, saying the dreaded fword on live television, and almost losing his own job.

He was particularly contemptuous of management and let everyone know it. He appeared late for several WCW tapings. Eric Bischoff complained about his behavior on the air.

And, oddly enough, the booker kept booking him. He was a featured heel. The fans really began to hate him.

Somewhere along the way, that booker, Kevin Sullivan, must have realized he could work this odd situation to his advantage. He knew that he could both create an ECW-style angle and recreate the WWF's most successful angle of the last year, one with startling similarities to the Pillman situation, the collapse of Shawn Michaels on Raw. Even Diesel's tweener rebel turn, ruined by head suit Vince McMahon's constant onair endorsements, has its parallels here.

So Sullivan, Pillman, and Bischoff began to plan out their work. They went to elaborate lengths to fool anybody and everybody they could find.

But any con has flaws if you know where to look and this was no exception.

Consider this. Since when does a wrestler out to leave or be fired get television time to get his own vision of his character over? Since when does a WCW announcer openly talk about behind the scenes personnel problems on the air? Why didn't WCW do with Pillman what they did with Vader and just send him home, or worse make him team with Renegade or the like, if this was a shoot and they wanted to punish him? Why does every argument between Pillman and management occur in front of an audience of WCW employees?

And what about the two "shoots," anyway? The truth of the matter is that Brian Pillman is one of the toughest guys in the WCW locker room with ten years on Kevin Sullivan. If he wanted to slip a choke on Sullivan, or just kick his ass, he certainly could.

Yet, during both incidents, Kevin Sullivan was the aggressor who never took a backward step. During Nitro he had to be pulled off of Pillman by Arn "No Kevin! Not the Eye" Anderson. And it was Sullivan who landed that stiff punch that all the wrestlers oohed and ahhed over while watching the monitors backstage.

Wrestling "wisdom" says the booker has to appear tough to stay over with the boys. Sullivan certainly did that.

Pillman backed down, just like his character the cowardly punk would.

And what about Pillman's only supposed ally, his old Calgary friend, Chris Benoit? Benoit allied himself with Pillman both on and off the air, even walking out of the Ft. Lauderdale Arena with him. Why would Benoit jeopardize his brand new six-figure contract and more importantly his regular spot in the hottest promotion in the world, New Japan, just to stay with Pillman?

And as they always do, the WCW hotline screwed up. Hotline shill Mark Madden went on the air with the news of Pillman's plans to sue WCW. Because Madden is somewhat of a loose cannon himself, WCW requires him to tape his segments a day early so they can review the content. WCW, for obvious reasons, has never allowed hotline correspondents to comment on ongoing lawsuits from plaintiffs like Missy Hyatt, Jake Roberts, and Paul Heyman. Why would they let Madden discuss Pillman's lawsuit unless they wanted the news out themselves?

Speaking of Paul Heyman, he is neither part of the work nor being worked himself. Read the details of Pillman's appearance at ECW Arena elsewhere in this issue. Heyman is being very careful not to expose ECW to possible damage from WCW. He could possibly use the subtle cooperation with WCW to win minor concessions like a promise of noninterference with his planned series of Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guererra matches. Properly done, an appearance or two by Pillman is more of a boon to ECW than noncooperation with WCW, this time, would be.

So why would WCW go to so much trouble to get someone to sue them? Obviously everyone involved enjoys fooling fans, wrestlers, and journalists. But unless they're all sociopaths, there would have to be more to the angle than that to justify the amount of company resources spent on it.

There is, in fact, more to the plan. After kicking up hell everywhere he can, Brian Pillman will "win" his lawsuit and "force" WCW to take him back. Pillman will then be a trouble-making pariah on the air. Everyone, heels and faces alike, including the Four Horsemen, will shun him. Pillman will then spend his time stirring up the storyline in creative ways.

Properly completed this could be one of the great angles of the modern era, because Brian Pillman has become a heel similar to the late Art Barr who fans hate because they can't take their eyes off of him. He would have a modern look to a promotion that, despite the influx of new talent and some soap opera intrigue, still is choked with old men and older ideas.

There is another positive to working everyone in sight. WCW announcers and production people reacted in very realistic ways to the angle, instead of ridiculing it, as they do even the most serious angles-like when Bobby Heenan laughed as Ric Flair tried to poke Hulk Hogan's eye out with a high heel.

Casual fans may not know what a "booker-man" is, but they know something very odd happened in the last couple of weeks at WCW and that Pillman was fired. This makes it much more probable that they'll buy the angle. And of course this thing is tailor-made for the ECW-style "New Marks."

The serious problems lie in the very execution of the angle. By making this angle realistic, WCW is sending the fans the direct message that the rest of their stories are phony, ill-concealed drivel-which, of course, they are.

The worst effect, though, is the ripping away of trust that any management team must maintain with their employees.

Despite what some wrestling people-who believe that everything from UFC to the NFL to the New Hampshire primary is a con-might tell you, everything in life is not a work. When WCW has to convince its employees that contract negotiations are on the level or they will be treated fairly in other ways, it may find that its efforts fall on deaf ears. It's hard enough to maintain the trust a company must have to thrive because the nature of the wrestling business without further muddying the waters.

And the extremes that WCW went to in order to get this angle over beg an intriguing question...

Would Eric Bischoff have had someone turn off the lights on the Lakeland, Fla. Nitro so he could accuse his hated rivals at Titan Sports of industrial sabotage on the air?

The most ironic part of all may be this. WCW really did fire Brian Pillman without cause. They are paying him as they must while he works elsewhere. Pillman's contract expires in April. He hasn't signed a new one.

Pillman, like any good con man, neither trusts nor respects his partners in the work. He has no loyalty to WCW. WCW would be extremely foolish to let a wrestler who used them to revive his career get away before reaping the benefits. Brian Pillman himself has great negotiating leverage. For the right deal, he could turn the con on Sullivan and Bischoff and take his brand spanking new badass character over to the WWF and help Vince McMahon stick it to the boys at TBS.

Then Brian Pillman would truly be the new Bruiser Brody.

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