Post by sungod2020 on Oct 3, 2022 7:57:02 GMT -5
As we know, The Loose Cannon bursted onto the WWF scene to much hype in June 1996. Not yet ready to wrestle since it was shortly after a car accident he suffered, shattering his ankle, the former Hollywood Blonde was used on commentary as it was healing.
Perhaps his most memorable moment when working for the F was on the November 4, 1996 episode of Raw, where took part in the infamous "Pillman's got a gun" angle with his former teammate Stone Cold Steve Austin. When Pillman initially arrived to the WWF, he aligned himself immediately with his long-time friend and former teammate Austin, serving as his lackey while he recovered. However, Pillman began noticeably favoring Austin's nemesis, Bret Hart, before Austin had enough and brutally attacked him in the ring during an interview on an episode of Superstars on October 27, 1996, injuring his already injured ankle famously dubbed "The Pillmanizer." Austin and Pillman had been feuding for several weeks, and Austin finally decided to take matters into his own hands and visit Pillman, whom he had already injured, at his home in Walton, Kentucky.
WWF interviewer Kevin Kelly sat in Pillman's house with a camera crew and the Pillman family, while Pillman's friends surrounded the house to protect him. Austin was attacked by Pillman's friends as soon as he arrived, but he quickly subdued them. He then proceeded to break into Pillman's home and advance on his nemesis. However, Pillman responded by producing a Colt-45 pistol that he had displayed earlier and pointing it at a hesitant Austin, while Kelly and Pillman's wife Melanie screamed for help. The camera feed was then disrupted, with the scene fading to black.[32] The on-scene director contacted commentator Vince McMahon and reported that he had heard "a couple explosions". The transmission was restored shortly before the end of Raw, and viewers witnessed Pillman's friends dragging Austin from the house while Pillman aimed the gun at Austin and announced his intention to "kill that son of a bitch!" Pillman also slipped up by saying "get out of the f***ing way!" on live television, which prevented it from being edited out. The WWF and Pillman eventually apologized for the entire angle.
He was then taken off TV for awhile to let the controversy cool down and to continue healing his ankle before returning after Wrestlemania 13. Despite being an American(born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio), he aligned himself with the Anti-American stable The Hart Foundation, thanks to his training with Stu Hart and wrestling in Stampede early in his career. He also kinda sorta picked up where his feud with Austin left off, even having a one-on-one match on RAW that resulted in a DQ when his stablemates Owen Hart, British Bulldog, and Jim Neidhart interfered in the match to gang up on the Texas Rattlesnake.
Fortunately for the Bionic Redneck, help came in the hands of Goldust, Mankind, and Ken Shamrock to even out the numbers despite Austin clearly stating he didn't want help. After the Harts were cleared from the ring, Shamrock and Austin brawled until the Legion of Doom appeared and helped Goldust break up the fight; moments later, Goldust told Austin to stop the in-fighting and that if the Hart Foundation wanted a 5-on-5 match then he, the LOD, Shamrock, and Austin were the team to accept the challenge; Austin then said he would only do it because he knew WWF President Gorilla Monsoon wouldn't let him face the Harts by himself.
This lead to a 10 man tag at Canadian Stampede where Pillman and the rest of the Hart Foundation were MEGA faces since it was in their hometown(well at least the Hart brothers Bret and Owen) of Calgary where with the hometown advantage, won the match to the delight of the crowd. This was perhaps his most memorable match while working for the F.
He then went on to feud with Goldust claiming his(Goldust's) daughter Dakota was his illegitimate child since he's been with Marlena(AKA Terri Runnels) first. This resulted in a match at Summerslam where if Pillman lost, he would have to wear a dress on RAW every week until he won a match. He then challenged the grandson of a plumber to a rematch at Ground Zero where if he won, Marlena would be his personal assistance. Giving Goldust the receipt from their previous PPV encounter, The Ticking Timebomb won the match and Terri's services.
He was then set to take on Dude Love at the IYH:Bad Blood PPV, but sadly passed away on the day of the event in Bloomington, Minnesota on October 5th, 1997. His last match was against Goldust at a house show in St. Paul the night before, where he lost. His cause of death was due to heart failure.
Lets say the Ticking Time Bomb didn't explode when he did, where do you see his WWF career going? Blurring the lines between shoot and work, he would've been a perfect fit for the Attitude Era when it was in full swing. Despite not making it to that point, you can say his character was a contributor to it as they were slowly pulling away from the New Generation(they were like 3/4 of the way there when he passed).
His first order of business would be to finish his feud with The Bizarre One, which I believe was going to lead to Terri turning on her husband and join Pillman willingly. If you remember the storyline, Terri did say she would take the chance of putting her services on the line before the Ground Zero PPV, which is rather odd, though if you want to be a optimistic mark not seeing the turn coming, you can say that she was confident her husband would beat him. Still odd since she previously rebuffed his advances.
Instead, it was the other way around and Goldust turned on(betrayed, not aroused mind you) Terri to join up with a returning Luna Vachon resulting in very uncomfortable segments heavily implying BDSM.
But after his feud with Goldust wraps up, where does he go from there? Maybe not directly afterwards, but I can see him being Vince McMahon's first charge against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and his WWF championship the same way Dude Love was. They can even have a proper feud this time.
I do remember making a thread about this before and someone said that he would leave in protest after the Montreal Screwjob(just like The British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart, and Crush did), though I can't see him going to WCW since he left the company on bad terms. Even tricking Eric Bischoff in releasing him from his contract to make his on screen departure appear legitimate. Would he return to ECW then? Did he have a life outside wrestling to do something else if returning to WCW or ECW weren't options.
If he decided to stay the course and let whatever future feuds and storylines play out, I don't know how much longer he would last anyway since he had ankle issues that impacted his in-ring performances, so maybe he would retire sometime in 98. Mind you, he rarely ever had matches in the WWF and was out for extended periods of time during his run, so I don't think a long and meaningful career with them would be possible.
Your thoughts on this?
Perhaps his most memorable moment when working for the F was on the November 4, 1996 episode of Raw, where took part in the infamous "Pillman's got a gun" angle with his former teammate Stone Cold Steve Austin. When Pillman initially arrived to the WWF, he aligned himself immediately with his long-time friend and former teammate Austin, serving as his lackey while he recovered. However, Pillman began noticeably favoring Austin's nemesis, Bret Hart, before Austin had enough and brutally attacked him in the ring during an interview on an episode of Superstars on October 27, 1996, injuring his already injured ankle famously dubbed "The Pillmanizer." Austin and Pillman had been feuding for several weeks, and Austin finally decided to take matters into his own hands and visit Pillman, whom he had already injured, at his home in Walton, Kentucky.
WWF interviewer Kevin Kelly sat in Pillman's house with a camera crew and the Pillman family, while Pillman's friends surrounded the house to protect him. Austin was attacked by Pillman's friends as soon as he arrived, but he quickly subdued them. He then proceeded to break into Pillman's home and advance on his nemesis. However, Pillman responded by producing a Colt-45 pistol that he had displayed earlier and pointing it at a hesitant Austin, while Kelly and Pillman's wife Melanie screamed for help. The camera feed was then disrupted, with the scene fading to black.[32] The on-scene director contacted commentator Vince McMahon and reported that he had heard "a couple explosions". The transmission was restored shortly before the end of Raw, and viewers witnessed Pillman's friends dragging Austin from the house while Pillman aimed the gun at Austin and announced his intention to "kill that son of a bitch!" Pillman also slipped up by saying "get out of the f***ing way!" on live television, which prevented it from being edited out. The WWF and Pillman eventually apologized for the entire angle.
He was then taken off TV for awhile to let the controversy cool down and to continue healing his ankle before returning after Wrestlemania 13. Despite being an American(born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio), he aligned himself with the Anti-American stable The Hart Foundation, thanks to his training with Stu Hart and wrestling in Stampede early in his career. He also kinda sorta picked up where his feud with Austin left off, even having a one-on-one match on RAW that resulted in a DQ when his stablemates Owen Hart, British Bulldog, and Jim Neidhart interfered in the match to gang up on the Texas Rattlesnake.
Fortunately for the Bionic Redneck, help came in the hands of Goldust, Mankind, and Ken Shamrock to even out the numbers despite Austin clearly stating he didn't want help. After the Harts were cleared from the ring, Shamrock and Austin brawled until the Legion of Doom appeared and helped Goldust break up the fight; moments later, Goldust told Austin to stop the in-fighting and that if the Hart Foundation wanted a 5-on-5 match then he, the LOD, Shamrock, and Austin were the team to accept the challenge; Austin then said he would only do it because he knew WWF President Gorilla Monsoon wouldn't let him face the Harts by himself.
This lead to a 10 man tag at Canadian Stampede where Pillman and the rest of the Hart Foundation were MEGA faces since it was in their hometown(well at least the Hart brothers Bret and Owen) of Calgary where with the hometown advantage, won the match to the delight of the crowd. This was perhaps his most memorable match while working for the F.
He then went on to feud with Goldust claiming his(Goldust's) daughter Dakota was his illegitimate child since he's been with Marlena(AKA Terri Runnels) first. This resulted in a match at Summerslam where if Pillman lost, he would have to wear a dress on RAW every week until he won a match. He then challenged the grandson of a plumber to a rematch at Ground Zero where if he won, Marlena would be his personal assistance. Giving Goldust the receipt from their previous PPV encounter, The Ticking Timebomb won the match and Terri's services.
He was then set to take on Dude Love at the IYH:Bad Blood PPV, but sadly passed away on the day of the event in Bloomington, Minnesota on October 5th, 1997. His last match was against Goldust at a house show in St. Paul the night before, where he lost. His cause of death was due to heart failure.
Lets say the Ticking Time Bomb didn't explode when he did, where do you see his WWF career going? Blurring the lines between shoot and work, he would've been a perfect fit for the Attitude Era when it was in full swing. Despite not making it to that point, you can say his character was a contributor to it as they were slowly pulling away from the New Generation(they were like 3/4 of the way there when he passed).
His first order of business would be to finish his feud with The Bizarre One, which I believe was going to lead to Terri turning on her husband and join Pillman willingly. If you remember the storyline, Terri did say she would take the chance of putting her services on the line before the Ground Zero PPV, which is rather odd, though if you want to be a optimistic mark not seeing the turn coming, you can say that she was confident her husband would beat him. Still odd since she previously rebuffed his advances.
Instead, it was the other way around and Goldust turned on(betrayed, not aroused mind you) Terri to join up with a returning Luna Vachon resulting in very uncomfortable segments heavily implying BDSM.
But after his feud with Goldust wraps up, where does he go from there? Maybe not directly afterwards, but I can see him being Vince McMahon's first charge against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and his WWF championship the same way Dude Love was. They can even have a proper feud this time.
I do remember making a thread about this before and someone said that he would leave in protest after the Montreal Screwjob(just like The British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart, and Crush did), though I can't see him going to WCW since he left the company on bad terms. Even tricking Eric Bischoff in releasing him from his contract to make his on screen departure appear legitimate. Would he return to ECW then? Did he have a life outside wrestling to do something else if returning to WCW or ECW weren't options.
If he decided to stay the course and let whatever future feuds and storylines play out, I don't know how much longer he would last anyway since he had ankle issues that impacted his in-ring performances, so maybe he would retire sometime in 98. Mind you, he rarely ever had matches in the WWF and was out for extended periods of time during his run, so I don't think a long and meaningful career with them would be possible.
Your thoughts on this?
