- 1 day ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:01Previously on Dark Side of the Ring.
00:03Sure, you can watch the Hollywood Blondes.
00:06We could have been a great tag team that would have been left together.
00:08But if you can watch Flatiron Bryan and his total element being the loose cannon,
00:13you're seeing one of the true, really, really bright minds in the business of professional wrestling.
00:19What the are you doing? Easy!
00:21He was on track to becoming the biggest star in wrestling by convincing people
00:25that he was the only one that wouldn't do what he was told.
00:28I have been fired by Eric Bischoff!
00:35Bryan and I talked about it. I can't give you what you want.
00:39Raise the value in your stock so that when you come back,
00:43it'll give me the ability to pay you more because you've raised your own value.
00:47Bryan Pillman masterminded a cutting edge character the wrestling world had never seen.
00:53Playing the system at its own game, he single-handedly turned the industry on his head
00:59in order to manipulate his way to the top.
01:01If he played one side against the other in the middle of the burgeoning wrestling war,
01:06then he would come out much better, six figures per year better.
01:09But did he want it for himself? He didn't care about himself. He cared about those little kids.
01:13Lost inside his manic performance art, Bryan's real life spirals out of control.
01:19It was dependent on to provide for several different mothers and families,
01:23and I think that does weigh on a man.
01:25A tragic turn of events would not only alter the course of Bryan's career indefinitely,
01:31but also the lives of those closest to him.
01:35I really believe that if it was not for the Humvee wreck,
01:37that everything would have turned out different.
01:53Melanie called me, and she called to tell me that Bryan had an accident and it was bad.
02:04And he was airlifted to University Hospital and was in the emergency room.
02:12So again, I was the lucky one to go to the hospital.
02:16And I thought, oh Jesus, here we go again.
02:20When I got to the hospital, I walked right by the room.
02:24And then Linda's like, that's his room, Melanie.
02:26I'm like, that's not my husband.
02:29She's like, I know, it doesn't look like him, does it?
02:33Because his hair was red with all the blood.
02:36And they hit him in a neck brace.
02:38I mean, his head was swelled up like a beach ball.
02:42And I thought, oh my God.
02:46It was really bad.
02:47His eyes were red, like, I didn't see any color than red, like blood.
02:51His eyes were just, ugh.
02:54He had six different doctors for his face.
02:58There's one that just does the forehead, the lower mandible, the upper mandible, the nose, the eye sockets.
03:05Everything in his face was shattered.
03:08They had to put plates in his face.
03:10And they peeled his scalp back to make the incision and peeled his face down to put the plates in.
03:20Word travels quickly that Brian has been in a terrible car accident.
03:24And there's talk of him losing a foot.
03:28His ankle was shattered.
03:29In fact, the nurse told me that it was just like hanging off the table.
03:33She had to pick it up to put it back on the table.
03:38And then the doctor said, you know, that they would have to just fuse it into a walking position,
03:44that he wouldn't probably be able to run or even wrestle again.
03:56I show up and he goes,
03:58I said, don't talk, Brian, it's all right.
04:00Hey, I'm with you.
04:01I'm with you.
04:01I'm thinking, holy ****.
04:03I don't know.
04:05And he's got a titanium mask and he's got things holding his legs together.
04:12And once he kind of gained consciousness, like, what was his reaction to the accident?
04:18I remember him crying in the hospital, just saying, I guess I really messed up.
04:23I really messed up.
04:24Because he thought, you know, his career was over.
04:27And I said, just be grateful you were by yourself.
04:29There was no kids in the car.
04:32It'll be fine.
04:34But he was crying, saying, I really messed up.
04:42So to the best of your knowledge, what took place with the accident?
04:46What happened?
04:46What happened to Brian?
04:47Oh, he fell asleep at the wheel.
04:49He had been up.
04:50And he went and picked up some of his medication.
04:54And I guess it hit him too soon before he got back to the house.
04:57And, yeah, he just drove into a tree trunk off the side.
05:03And it threw the Humvee, totaled the Humvee.
05:08Was there also maybe, like, was there substance abuse issues with him at the time?
05:12No, just those muscle relaxers.
05:17Maybe a few pain pills.
05:20Well, we are turning the microphone over to you, sir.
05:22We don't need any police reports or doctor reports.
05:24Can you tell us, in your own words, what happened?
05:2670 miles per hour and I instantly became Evil Knieper.
05:31Shot up in the air, then proceeded to come straight down, nose first.
05:37And luckily for me, I didn't have a seatbelt on because it shot me straight out and I pierced the
05:44convertible top of that vehicle with my head like a bullet.
05:48It was shot out 50 feet away from the vehicle and ended up doing two end over end flips.
05:54Oh, my lord.
05:59When he came home from the hospital, I do remember him being in the living room and I had a
06:05gift and I wanted to give it to him.
06:07And I was just terrified because I'm like, that's not my dad.
06:11I don't know who that is.
06:13You know, as a child and seeing my father like that, I think it just kind of freaked me out
06:17a little bit.
06:19I do have some small memories there of just seeing those bolts and how they're just screwed into his leg.
06:26And I'm thinking, what's going on here?
06:27You know, and it's like they look like they're greased up, but it's like not not grease, but it's like
06:32blood and like just it's all hardened.
06:35And this is all it was just a wild sight to see, you know, just some rusty bolts sticking out
06:40of your dad's leg.
06:43Yeah, I just I really remember him just being like so exhausted and run down.
06:50I was just too young to really understand like what was really going on with him and like how ragged
06:58his life had become.
07:07The loose cannon thing had gone so far at this point that a lot of the guys were convinced there
07:11was no wreck and it was Brian working again.
07:12And they're just trying to figure out what the angle is. How does he expect to get more money out
07:16of this or more attention out of this?
07:18Or, you know, it was it really a wreck or maybe he just ran his car off the road and
07:22wrecked it to get, you know, publicity.
07:25He had created so much not only mystery, but confusion about himself that even the guys that were his friends
07:31weren't exactly sure how to take him.
07:34Perhaps he would have done that for attention. And Kim, who would not work me, Kim is just like, no,
07:40no, no, it's it's real.
07:41And I told people it's real. And then, you know, I think most people didn't believe me either.
07:46He was, you know, there's there's the Andy Kaufman thing in him faking an auto accident.
07:50Perhaps he would have done that for attention.
07:51There was even at one point a rumor that some of the wrestlers put out that he was having plastic
07:56surgery to look just like Shawn Michaels
07:59so he could go into the World Wrestling Federation and be the evil Shawn Michaels and fight him for the
08:04title.
08:05Guys believed that because they thought Brian was nuts.
08:09While the wrestling rumor mill is speculating the authenticity of the accident, media outlets also question Brian's intentions.
08:17Brian, now you're not having plastic surgery and, you know, got to go into the WWF as Shawn Michaels twin
08:23or something.
08:24I don't know what goes on America online.
08:26Think about that state.
08:28It's preposterous, but just right now, I am owner of four steel, titanium plates bolted to my face to hold
08:37everything together.
08:38I look like Brian Devin Pillman with a swollen face and black eyes.
08:44I can look back and Brian was pretty honest with me most of the time.
08:47But the one where I know that he wasn't was right after the accident.
08:52And Brian, you know, said like, oh, yeah, the doctors told me, you know, it's like, it's going to take
08:55a while, but I will be 100%.
08:57The doctors have told me and I know that the doctors told him the exact opposite.
09:03The wreck happened during the negotiations. He kept it pretty quiet how badly he was hurt.
09:09And if the real story of that wreck had come out at that point, I don't think he would have
09:15got a contract from either company.
09:17He could never again do physically what he had been able to do before.
09:21And he didn't want anybody to know that.
09:24The object was to play Vince for money.
09:28And he did. Only he was near dead when he did.
09:33Vince signed him and he signed him for more money.
09:38Vince McMahon offers Brian a guaranteed three year contract.
09:43And although Eric Bischoff offers him more money, his deal is subject to be renegotiated every three months.
09:51Brian knew at that point, because of the extent of the injury, that if he had an out clause in
09:56a contract, that at some point fairly early it was going to get exercised.
10:01The events that have taken place in my life just in the past eight weeks have really changed my, the
10:10future of my life.
10:11And from going from a point not knowing if I was going to live or not, to standing here signing
10:21a contract with the World Wrestling Federation, it's a dream come true.
10:27What changed about Brian coming into our company at that time?
10:31Well, he's not going to be able to wrestle to any degree or even comparably to what he was.
10:38Although Brian is still in rehabilitation for his injuries, he officially joins the WWF in 1996 with the loose cannon
10:48persona already in full force.
10:59I just remember him coming in and I was like, okay, let's see what he can do here in the
11:04land of, you know, WWF.
11:08They'll let you go out there and push the envelope, but you know, how strong is he? Can he do
11:14it?
11:16And I would have, if I was going to bet on Brian, I was like, oh yeah, if he could
11:19just get healed up, he's going to go right to the top.
11:22I'm going to rape, pillage, and blunder this entire Federation!
11:34When Brian came home and he still had an IV, and he unhook himself from the IV, go do the
11:42show, and then come back and hook himself back up again.
11:45He had to do that because of work. So then it wasn't fun for him anymore. You know, I don't
11:52think he enjoyed it anymore.
11:54You know, that was what I consider the beginning of the end.
12:03As Brian Pillman continues to struggle with his crippling injuries, an upcoming surgery keeps him out of any in-ring
12:11action.
12:12To disguise this from fans, the WWF devises a shocking storyline involving his old tag team partner.
12:21I needed to do something to get some heat. We were in Cincinnati in his hometown, so it's always great
12:27to attack somebody in their hometown, especially him being in a compromised position.
12:31Steve and Brian were still friends, and they still wanted to see each other succeed, and Steve was still on
12:36his way up.
12:37So we decided to put them together because we thought that they would enjoy it, and at the same time,
12:42the people would enjoy it as well.
12:47I laid into him and started kicking the hell out of him. I broke that cane on his ankle. That
12:54brass duck head flew into the crowd.
12:58I stomped a mud hole in his ass and walked it dry. That was a stiff beating I gave him,
13:04because it had to be.
13:05My character was a vicious, cold-blooded guy who was ruthless and remorseless. So had I not given him the
13:13beating that I gave him, who would have cared? They cared about Brian, because I hurt his ass.
13:19He may have re-broken Pillman's ankle here!
13:22He gets Brian Pillman down, and he puts a metal folding chair around the bad ankle, and then stomps the
13:29seat of the chair.
13:30Oh my god!
13:32And Brian screams, oh my god, he's re-injured the ankle. Here's a way you can do that. I won't
13:39give away any secrets.
13:41But that was an excuse for Brian to have continued problems with the ankle publicly on television.
13:46It became, in the industry, known as Pillmanizing a body part.
13:52Brian took that ass-whooping like a damn man. He knew what I had to do, and he stole it
13:56like a million bucks.
13:59In the midst of a TV ratings war with WCW, Vince strives to produce edgier content to further capitalize on
14:08the feud between Pillman and Austin.
14:10Somehow they decided, and I was not consulted on this, but they decided that it would be a wonderful thing
14:19if they did a remote from Brian Pillman's house in Cincinnati.
14:24We are live! Austin is outside of Brian Pillman's home!
14:29Steve Austin came to find him and stage a home invasion on Monday Night Raw.
14:35Austin tried to get into the house of Brian Pillman!
14:39Were you excited to do something that felt so real and gritty at that time?
14:43I always wanted to do something that feels real and gritty, especially something that's gonna have the, you know, the
14:48volume turned up, the testosterone, the adrenaline turned up.
14:52I mean, hell man, if you're just casually, if you're not a wrestling fan, and you're kinda just flipping channels,
14:58and all of a sudden, you watch this, ten seconds of this scene, you're not gonna change a channel.
15:04Steve is a dead man walking, because when Austin 316 meets Pillman!
15:11Oh my God!
15:11Not a millimeter o'clock!
15:12Oh my God!
15:13How can I play him?
15:14Yes sir he is!
15:15He's out there!
15:16Straight to hell!
15:17He just...
15:17All of a sudden, man, I start bashing in that window with that liminal baseball bat.
15:22What the hell is that?
15:24Ah!
15:24Oh my God!
15:26And there's melon in there just shrieking.
15:29It's Austin!
15:29I remember events was like, alright, we're gonna have a song called, and y'all just wing it from there.
15:35Hey, don't go in there! Don't go in there!
15:41Nothing like that had ever been done before in wrestling was kinda groundbreaking, whether it was in a good way
15:45or a bad way.
15:46People weren't ready for it. They weren't ready for it.
15:49Um, the reaction was pretty negative to it. I mean, it was pretty darn negative.
15:52I didn't like it, I didn't like the idea of like, you know, using a gun, and it seemed going
15:57really extreme, but that's the direction wrestling went.
15:59Oh my God, he's back!
16:02That's Brian, you know, and I don't know whose idea it was, and how much input he had on the
16:06idea, he never really told me that.
16:08But he was absolutely really into it.
16:10And they had to apologize for it the next week, because the gun thing, you know, Vince had to actually
16:14go on television and apologize for that angle, because it got so much negativity.
16:18And on behalf of the World Wrestling Federation, for those of you who were offended, those viewers, we humbly apologize
16:23for the incident that took place last Monday night on Raw.
16:28And I think that's the only angle Vince ever apologized for.
16:31The donuts here at ringside!
16:33While still recovering from the car wreck, Pillman is temporarily sidelined as a broadcast announcer.
16:39Yeah, I'm going to cut through all your duplicit rhetoric and cut right to the chase.
16:44Tell them like it is, and hey, if the censors don't like it, you're going to get fired. Not me.
16:50I'm Brian Pillman. I'll just go somewhere else and feed people up.
16:54He looked at being an announcer as a come down. It was less than. It's not being a man.
16:59When I said, look, you can make a great living, you can take care of your health, he didn't want
17:05to hear it.
17:06Only thing he wanted to hear was me to encourage him that you can come back and be what you
17:11were, or really, really close to it.
17:14And I had never told him that, because I was going to lie.
17:18You know, the competitor in him wanted just to get back in the ring and work.
17:21And he was working matches, but he was in a lot of pain.
17:24The former Cincinnati Bengals had two major surgeries on his leg.
17:28Even though he was able to sometimes have decent matches, just because he was smart enough to know how, and
17:33he would fall on his face,
17:34do things that were dangerous in a different way, but not hurt the body parts that were hurt, it was
17:38really sad to watch.
17:39You know, he wasn't the same at all.
17:41Brian needed to stay medicated more often than he should because of the pain he was in, because he was
17:46doing things that he shouldn't have been doing.
17:53He made it through because he said, oh, I'm okay. I'm good. I'm fine. He wasn't fine.
18:00Consistently performing well beyond what his body can handle, Brian's dependency on painkillers and the pressure to provide for his
18:08family is pushing him to the point of no return.
18:18While rushing through recovery, Brian Pillman hampers any progress on his injuries by choosing to still perform in the ring,
18:26which results in his pain becoming all-consuming.
18:30The only thing Brian ever told me was that if he had an ache or a pain, he took a
18:36pill. He said, if it didn't go away, he took another one. And then he took a pill until it
18:41went away.
18:44He was sick, physically sick, with infection in his ankle, because he was going to shows and not recouping it
18:53properly.
18:56I would talk to guys in WWF, and they would tell me how he couldn't get through the airport. You
19:02know what I mean? He couldn't walk through the airport, and he's out there taking bumps in a wrestling ring.
19:06It's like he cannot walk through the airport.
19:09And I'd see him kind of walking around with his suitcase, and he wasn't moving so well. But Brian was
19:15one of those guys, and like a man's man. You just figure, whatever it is, Brian's got it. He's Brian
19:21Pillman.
19:24You know, and I could have seen the writing on the wall, but because of the regard that I held
19:29him in, I thought he was going to be just fine.
19:31When you have wrestlers that are missing shows or obviously unable to perform when they get there, then you know
19:38you've got problems.
19:39It wasn't that obvious with Brian. And how were you able to tell where the loose cannon ended and the
19:46real person began?
19:48How was your guys' relationship?
19:50We had some problems. We were having problems because he kept wrecking rental cars. He was definitely, like, nodding out
19:56at the wheel. He was definitely having issues.
19:58He acted as though he wasn't going to be around much longer. He used to say things like, if anything
20:04happens to me, make sure you move back to Atlanta.
20:06And don't stay up here if you're not comfortable here. And make sure you find somebody so the kids have
20:11a father. I'm like, why would you even say something like that?
20:13And then the next day he wrecked a rental car.
20:17I had become a bit estranged from him because he was up. And one time he came to my house
20:25and he had a big welt.
20:27You could see the hole. It was like a, you know, the syringe. It was a horse needle syringe that
20:33went in there.
20:34And it was growth hormone or something. But he was up. He was like, he kept repeating himself.
20:39And I said, this is it, Brian. I'll give you to 10 and get the out of my house.
20:44My kids are upstairs sleeping. Don't ever come here in this state.
20:47Oh, yeah, but I got to do that. I said, no, I can't. I'm sorry. Your friend would get the
20:54away from me right now. And he did.
20:59Some of his friends had come to me when I was in charge of child relations and say that this
21:03was becoming a bigger issue. And I needed to intervene.
21:08And it was going to be tough because he was not going to appreciate that intervention.
21:15I called the agent, lead agent. I said, you know, I'm going to have a drug tester there tonight to
21:19test Pillman.
21:21And I said, make sure it gets done. He felt like I had, I had betrayed him. That's what he
21:28told me.
21:29I can't believe you, you of all people would betray me. And that you, you, you, you always, you always
21:37had my back.
21:39You were always there for me. And now this. I said, Brian, I'm trying to save your life. That's all
21:47I'm trying to do.
21:50And Brian was called me up. I hate Jim Ross. Why is he signaling me out? Do you know how
21:54many guys in this company are doing drugs?
21:56And he goes, they're not going to find anything on me. Nothing but my prescription pain pills.
22:01They're not going to find any illegal drugs in me. And in fact, you know, the only thing that they
22:05found in him was prescription pain drugs and steroids,
22:08which, you know, in an extent, you know, I don't know that that really counts for what they were looking
22:13for.
22:15I had to lead Brian out of the path that he was on to no avail. I failed.
22:21I needed to convince him that he's so talented that he was going to be a star in other areas
22:29of pro wrestling.
22:30I failed.
22:33In October of 1997, at the Kiel Center in St. Louis, Missouri, Brian is scheduled to compete at WWF's pay
22:42-per-view event, Bad Blood.
22:44In those days, the call time for talent at the pay-per-views was one o'clock. And sometimes guys
22:49would be late, oversleep, miss their flight, traffic, whatever.
22:54But by five o'clock, everybody was accounted for except for Brian. And that was egregiously late to be for
23:02a pay-per-view.
23:03So Bruce Prichard asked me, I'm in talent relations. He said, call, try to find where he, you know, where
23:09he might be.
23:10Call the hotel where he stayed last night in Minneapolis, see what time he checked out.
23:15I get on the phone and boom, the guy answers. I said, I'm with the World Wrestling Federation. We're looking
23:21for one of our wrestlers.
23:22He stayed there last night. Brian Pillman, can you tell me what time he checked out?
23:26And the guy said, hold on a second. And he put me on hold. Okay. Is he checking his records?
23:33And he answered, he said, sir? I said, yeah. He said, Mr. Pillman's dead.
23:40And the first flash that I had, what is Brian doing now? I said, is this a rib?
23:49And the guy said, no, the police are here now. I said, okay. So I told one of the production
23:56assistants, I said, go get Bruce.
23:59And he said, oh, Bruce is busy. He's doing that. I said, Brian is dead. Go get Bruce.
24:05And Bruce came in and got on the phone and I just kind of walked off because I did not
24:09want to hear that news right now.
24:12Oh, 23 years later, I didn't want to hear that news.
24:20On October 5th, 1997, Brian Pillman was found dead in his hotel room in Bloomington, Minnesota. He was 35 years
24:30old.
24:31It's hard for me to still think about it today and think of that heart of that athlete, that performer
24:38stopping.
24:41It just doesn't seem believable.
24:44It almost didn't register with me because I'm like, eh, Brian ain't dead because he couldn't die.
24:51If you knew Brian, this force field of energy that he was, I thought could never be stopped.
24:57I honestly thought that.
25:00State police showed up on the door and said that he had to tell me that my husband was found
25:06deceased.
25:15As a kid already in this show business world, I was thinking like, is this work? Like, is he really
25:20dead? Like, no, he's surely coming back. Like, I didn't even know what to think. I didn't even, I didn't
25:24even cry when my dad died.
25:25And I just remember like, my family is all, we're all sitting on the bed, like hugging each other and
25:32crying and everybody's crying. I'm looking around. I'm like, where's the camera crew? You know, they gotta be around here
25:36somewhere. You know, I was like, all right, I'll, you know, I'll, I'll play the spot here. You know, we'll
25:40all just hug and pretend we're sad. But then like reality set in. I'm like, oh shit, he's really not
25:45coming home. Like, holy crap.
25:47As a kid, that's just kind of what I thought. I figured, you know what? He, he, he went to
25:51work that day and he decided to stay there.
25:55The next night on Monday Night Raw, the news of Brian's death is broadcast live.
26:01Yesterday afternoon, Brian Pillman was found dead in a hotel room in Bloomington, Minnesota.
26:14I remember when we told the bell 10 times, that was when I got emotional. I remember very emotional. And
26:21that's when I was like, he's gone. He's gone.
26:26And then I remember talking to, I think Jim Ross. I said, hand the phone to Owen. And then Owen
26:31says, I don't know. I don't know what happened.
26:33And then Vince got on the phone and he says, do you want to, you know, talk on camera? And
26:38then I just thought, well, you know what? With, with Brian, the show must go on.
26:43Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, in suburban Cincinnati, the wife of Brian Pillman, Melanie Pillman. Melanie, thank you so
26:49much for joining us tonight.
26:51I did say to Vince, please don't ask me about drugs or anything like that, because I do not exactly
26:58know why he died yet.
26:59Brian, because of his injuries, has had to take a great deal of prescribed medicine.
27:06And that first thing he does is start talking about pain pills. And then I'm like, that's Vince, all right.
27:12I made like a really funny face. And I remember that's the only clear part of that interview. I can
27:16remember thinking, wish his mother was standing here so I could smack him.
27:21Because he swore, he swore he wouldn't say anything like leading down that direction until the, until the death certificate
27:28came out.
27:29I think all athletes to a degree experience a reliance on pain medicine. And, you know, I knew it was
27:37just a matter of time before it happened to someone.
27:41And, um, fortunately, it was my husband. And, um, I just want everyone to know that, um, I hope it's
27:50a wake up call to some of you because, um, it could be your husband next or it could be
27:55you.
27:56And, you know, you don't want to leave behind a bunch of orphans like my husband did.
28:03I absolutely despised the grieving widow interview. I, I didn't like it on a wrestling program. I was uncomfortable with
28:12it.
28:12I didn't know why she had to go out there and, and have to answer these questions that were obviously
28:18meant to elicit tears and et cetera for television, say for good television.
28:26I thought he should have sent her a check for a hundred thousand dollars and kept her ass off TV
28:30is what I thought.
28:31Have you had any opportunity to think about what you now as a single parent will do to support your
28:38five children?
28:41Vince, I don't even, uh, really know what day it is, you know, so, um, I don't, um, know what
28:47I'm going to do.
28:48Yeah, and everybody's like, oh, that was so horrible what you did to her. I barely remember it.
28:53I didn't really, I didn't, I didn't really, um, think about not doing it, but nobody pressured me into it.
29:01I hated it. I didn't want to relive and relive and regurgitate and regurgitate this matter to pop a rating.
29:12And to me, that's what it was all about.
29:22And what was the official cause of death?
29:25Um, heart disease. And see, my father died of a massive heart attack at 55.
29:34What were your memories of his funeral?
29:38We got there early before people came in because it was supposed to be family and friends.
29:44And when we walked in, there was a camera crew there.
29:47And I walked up to him and I said, who are you?
29:50And I said, you're not supposed to be here.
29:52They said, well, Melanie said we can't.
29:54And I said, well, I'm Brian's sister and I'm telling you, no, you can't.
29:57And they left.
29:59Did many wrestlers show up?
30:01Um, no.
30:05Just Vince and Jim Ross were there.
30:10They had an open casket.
30:11And I knew then it was going to be really tough.
30:15There's the last time I saw him.
30:17That's the last time I would see Brian lying in a casket.
30:22And that was just gut-wrenching.
30:24Absolutely gut-wrenching.
30:27I just stared.
30:28And I had memories floating back when I was looking at the courts.
30:32I'm thinking, this shouldn't be a part of my pro wrestling career.
30:36This should not be a part of my journey in this crazy business.
30:40And we shouldn't be burying a guy that's this young.
30:44And there's a young family around him.
30:48At the very end, everyone's gone except for, you know, a couple family members.
30:54And the little girls, they're kind of running around.
30:56And they're not, like, crying or anything.
30:57They're just little kids.
30:58And they go, we've got to say goodbye to Daddy.
31:00And they all run to the casket.
31:02Goodbye, Daddy.
31:03Goodbye, Daddy.
31:04It's like, oh.
31:08And I think, for me, I was just in complete shock.
31:10I just, you know, I couldn't, I couldn't put it all together.
31:14I just couldn't believe it because it's like, I lost my mom and now my dad, you know.
31:18And I was just, I was just a lost little girl.
31:23What do you remember from that day?
31:26Going through the motions and pretending I was still alive and I had a soul.
31:32I just felt like I just didn't know what to do.
31:36Right now, like, it's the same day almost.
31:41What do you mean?
31:42I mean, I can bring myself back to that same pain in my heart.
31:47If I let go too long, which I'm just gonna stop now, that's okay for a second.
31:56He had such an impact, such an influence on so many people's lives.
31:59It had to have hurt everybody to see him go.
32:03It had to have hurt everybody to lose him.
32:05But the person that hurt the most was Melanie, was my mother.
32:08She dealt with losing what was ultimately the love of her life.
32:14After Brian is laid to rest, his children are jolted into their new reality.
32:19I never really had a problem with Melanie until my father passed.
32:25And then, you know, like, her true character revealed itself.
32:32I spiraled out of control.
32:34I wasn't the best mother in the world.
32:36I always loved my kids.
32:39Up until this day, Melanie receives royalties from my father's legacy,
32:44which I have seen zero sense.
32:48Oh, yeah, they said I was a gold digger too,
32:51and I spent all the money I ever got on crazy stuff.
32:56Some of it was spent on crazy stuff, but not the way they said it.
33:02We stayed at my dad's house for a while, and then things got really bad,
33:06and we moved.
33:07And, you know, running water would be turned off all the time,
33:10electric would be turned off.
33:12It's crazy how you go from having a silver platter growing up
33:16to not even knowing when your next meal is going to be.
33:19It took a downward spiral.
33:22I mean, there's no other way to put it.
33:23It got worse and worse and worse and worse.
33:28Depressed a lot, sleeping a lot, drinking too much.
33:32Brian found me on, passed out one time, and I almost died of alcohol poisoning.
33:37He was like 12, and found me on the floor with a bottle of vodka by my head.
33:42No kids should have to see something like that.
33:46Craziness.
33:47When my mother remarried and my stepfather came into the picture,
33:51there was a lot of drug abuse on the side of them,
33:54and there was a lot of neglect.
33:56My stepfather was very physically abusive with my sister and myself.
34:01I would be grounded to my room.
34:03Oh, you're grounded for the next six months.
34:04You know, I better not see you out of your room.
34:07He had dogs more or less trained to abuse me as well,
34:11and if I was grounded, like, these dogs would make sure I was kept in my room.
34:15Like, they would bark at me, and they would bite me,
34:17and they would physically, like, keep me in my room
34:19because of how I was verbally and physically abused by my stepdad.
34:23Like, these dogs would adopt that mentality of, like, attacking me.
34:34And then I was just, I was just so abused that my social,
34:38developing socially was very hard for me.
34:42And that's how, you know, like, nobody took me out to throw a baseball with me, you know?
34:51Like, nobody took me out to throw a football, you know?
34:57So, I went to school. I didn't know how to play sports, you know?
35:01I wasn't very athletic, you know?
35:04So, I couldn't catch a football, couldn't throw a baseball.
35:07But I was big into games and video games and stuff,
35:11and I had a GameCube, but eventually he caught on to that.
35:16My stepdad would catch on to that shit, he'd unplug it, you know?
35:18He'd throw it against the wall.
35:23It's like everything I ever latched on to or loved was taken away, you know?
35:27So, um, it was hard. It was a hard time.
35:33While Brian Jr. and Brittany grow up with Melanie, Danielle lives with her mother.
35:38As the siblings drift apart, their Aunt Linda takes action.
35:44At least once or twice a month, I would get them together.
35:48And so they didn't lose contact with each other.
35:54She is literally everything.
35:56She's, I swear, I think that she is a true angel.
36:00I don't have a mom, but she's the closest thing I have to as a mom.
36:04I can call her at any time. I mean, she took me in, you know?
36:08She bought this house so we could have a home and a family.
36:12And I just, I don't know what I would do without her.
36:15I really don't.
36:21They'd all come to my house.
36:25There's a spider in the bathtub upstairs.
36:28I don't kill anything, you know?
36:31I always take them outside when I find them.
36:34Brian has a deadly fear of spiders.
36:40And there's one in, I saw it this morning.
36:42I thought, oh, I'll get that later.
36:44I didn't think he'd go to the bathroom.
36:50I love Linda to death, and she's helped the kids a lot.
36:54And I just want, I just want them to forgive me.
36:57But do I know if they will or not?
36:59I don't know.
37:02Brian Pillman lives on in the hearts and minds of his family.
37:06But his legacy would return to the ring in a way no one would anticipate.
37:17Brian Pillman's legacy in wrestling lives on in that he created a character that people still remember to this day
37:23because it was in large part himself.
37:28He's a guy that overcame a lot of odds and totally kicked ass in an industry of guys that were
37:34much larger than him.
37:36I would have loved to see what the next 10 years would have played out for him had he never
37:41had that damn car wreck.
37:45He knew the hand that he was dealt after the accident.
37:51There wasn't a damn thing he could do about it, which killed him.
37:56Figuratively, and I think eventually, literally.
38:02Brian's death started a domino effect that forced people to recognize the steroid issue,
38:08but put extra focus on the real cause of people dying too young, which is pills.
38:17The only hurdle he couldn't get across was the last one, and it was his own body that had betrayed
38:25him.
38:27The biggest legacy, though, unfortunately, is what would have been, where he would have gone,
38:34what heights he would have achieved, how much bigger and better he would have gotten.
38:39He saw the end goal. Like, he was so close to, like, really just, like, completely making it, you know,
38:44like, in wrestling.
38:45Would he have been, along with The Rock and Steve Austin and a few other guys, the biggest star in
38:50wrestling five years later?
38:52Probably. One of them.
39:04Right now, what are your biggest goals?
39:07Just rebuilding my relationship with my kids.
39:11Having my, you know, kids not be mad at me by the time I die. We'll see if that happens.
39:21You know, my dad's not here, so if I got one parent left that I can go,
39:25oh, well, you know, that's my mom, that's just the way she is, you know, like, sure, I could live
39:29the rest of my life hating her,
39:31but where does that get me?
39:34Ever since I've rekindled my relationship with her, I've been happier in my personal life.
39:38I've been better in my relationships with women.
39:41I've been more understanding of people's plights and people's vices.
39:44I've been just a much more mature adult in general since I've buried the hatchet with my mother, so to
39:49speak.
39:50And in many ways, I'm very happy that I have a parent left on this earth to speak to and
39:55talk to, you know.
39:56I called Mel a time or two and, man, we just lost contact and, man, I reached out to, you
40:04know, Brian Jr. a couple years ago.
40:06I had one of Brian's own weightlifting belts.
40:08Out of nowhere, a sign from the wrestling gods comes in the form of a cell phone call from Stone
40:13Cold Sea Boston
40:14to tell me that he has a Cardillo weightlifting belt that belonged to my father and that he wants to
40:21mail it to me and give it to me.
40:22And I'm like, you know what? That's a sign. That's a sign.
40:26Following in his father's footsteps, Brian Pillman Jr. decides to become a professional wrestler.
40:34When he first said he was going to wrestle, like, it struck terror in my heart.
40:38I was like, oh, my God, he'll have fractured relationships.
40:41His kids won't get the attention. He's going to travel all the time. He's not going to be able.
40:45And then I saw him perform. And I saw the look on his face when he knew that he was
40:52creating a homage to his dad.
40:59And I realized this is it. This is what's supposed to happen.
41:04He just woke up one day and he was going to be a wrestler. And I literally laughed.
41:08I'm like, you a wrestler? All you do is sit in your room and play video games.
41:12There's no way that you're going to be a wrestler. And it was just crazy.
41:15Like, he was determined and he quit his job that he had just graduated college.
41:20And he was he was going to do it. And I was very hesitant at first just because of everything
41:25my dad went through.
41:26And I didn't want my brother to fall into that same lifestyle. So I was scared.
41:31I think he'd be proud of him. His son wants to carry on the Pillman name.
41:36He wants to make his father proud of him. He wants to accomplish something on his own, but yet pay
41:42tribute to his dad.
41:44I think Brian would be into that. I just think he might be worried that that Brian Jr. is in
41:50it all by himself.
41:50He's got some people looking out for him, but I think Brian Sr. would a whole lot rather be there
41:55and keep an eye on him.
41:57Great kid. Looks a lot like his dad. And I talked to him about these things.
42:02There's a lot of great traits, Brian, that your dad had that I hope to God you can acquire.
42:09And then there are some, not so much.
42:15You have to learn where you draw the line. Use his passion. Use his intellect. Use his athletic ability. Use
42:23his love of the game.
42:25But then don't get too far off the beaten path. Don't be a loose cannon, Brian Jr. Don't be a
42:32loose cannon.
42:35You know, a lot of people, oh, you know, do you think your dad would want to wrestle?
42:39And it's like, well, he kind of put his stamp of approval on me to be a wrestler when he
42:43named me Brian Pillman.
42:44You know, there's really no going back at this point. So, no, it's just tragic to know that we never
42:50got to have that ultimate father-son relationship.
42:54But in a way, it inspires me to be a good father one day, you know?
43:02So, I think that's my goal in all of this, through wrestling and everything, is to be a father.
43:09You know, that photo is very symbolic to me, you know?
43:19He's kind of holding me up, and I always look at it for inspiration, you know?
43:25So, I would hope that one day I would, you know, have a son like that, you know?
43:30To kind of hold up as the future, you know?
43:35It's like he's kind of giving me his blessing there in the photo, so.
43:41He contributed a whole lot to the wrestling business.
43:43He pushed the envelope, the loose cannon gimmick is one of the best ones ever created,
43:50and Brian was one of the best friends that I had in business.
43:53And I hope that he thought the same about me.
43:56Love, Brian.
Comments