[1996-11-04-WWF-Raw] Steve Austin-Brian Pillman confrontation

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

So we all know about this.

 

Kevin Kelly interviews Brian Pillman (with wife Melanie) at his house in Cincinnati. Vince interrupts to let them know that he has heard Austin is circling the neighborhood. Pillman does a great promo until he pulls out a gun.

 

After commercial, Austin is beating up Pillman's friends, who are big guys, then tries to break into Pillman's house.

 

Back in the house, Pillman has his gun cocked as Austin starts breaking a window and Melanie screams. Pillman holds up his gun and we lose signal.

 

Lawler: "This is stupid." Amen.

 

Kevin Kelly confirms that no one has been shot, then Austin shows back up as Pillman threatens to kill him.

 

Well-executed or not, this was uncomfortable and went way too far. Yet another example of the WWF being aware that they needed to be more edgy, but not having the slightest clue about how to do it. Austin and Pillman were perfectly capable of building a hot program on their own. Was a gun really needed to build something with them?

 

Between this and the fake Diesel and Razor, a real low period.

[El-P]

WWF getting desperate, not understanding what WCW was doing at the time and why they were hot. Plus Pillman wasn't able to work yet, so it led absolutely nowhere.

Did Russo write this ? Was he already in the "booking commity" at the time ?

[Strummer]

it was Jake Roberts idea during his short stint on the booking committee

[Tim Evans]

I loved this when I first saw it and I still like it. Too bad it didn't lead to anything but I think it was worth it. Still not as bad as the Liz/Golberg rape thing in 99 or Sandman getting crucified on a cross. And Lawler calling this stupid while at the same time creating Macho Warrior Rick Hogan is funny.

[Resident Evil]

Yeah, I'm one of the ones who loved this angle. I thought it was very compelling and entertaining.

[Zenjo]

The promotion has done so many tasteless angles but I think this deserves a spot in the top 10.

 

I'm trying to figure out Austin's motivation for doing this anyway? Pillman hadn't done anything to him in the first place and he 'breaks' the guys ankle. That apparently wasn't enough so he decides to fly to Cincinatti, drive to his house and break in just to beat him up. Jake Roberts probably wrote this as a sick joke to see if they'd actually go through with it.

[El-P]

Poor Melanie, one year later, she would be again on WWF TV in yet another (and way worse) "most disgusting promotionnal tactic" moment.

[PeteF3]

I thought Austin announcing he was going to hunt down Pillman in his home was an absolutely awesome and compelling set-up, and Pillman's initial promo is quite strong. And then it just goes off the rails. The commercial break right as Pillman cocks the gun when he hears that Austin is outside, and ESPECIALLY the break to static right as Austin enters just feels so phony and desperate that it would ruin things even if the gun itself was a good idea. Then we have to listen to Vince and Lawler in Owen Mode for most of the rest of the night, stumbling around another WWF linguistic quirk talking about "explosions" instead of gunshots. Austin's fight with the goons outside was really cool, at least. Well, except for the STAGE LIGHTS in the driveway that get into the shot in a bizarre production failure.

 

Lawler really does sound visibly disgusted with this--I've never, EVER heard this tone of voice from him before, and this is a guy who's actually used guns in angles in Memphis! This had the makings of a killer (HA!) segment, but the damn gun had to ruin things.

[Exposer]

This is tremendous. It's over the top & probably a bit much but I was compelled the entire way through. JR & Vince having an argument on commentary during this is awesome too. Austin's brawl with Pillman's buddies is the highlight. He just beats the piss out of these guys. This is some of the most tense stuff in WWF history. It kind of makes sense that Pillman would have a gun to protect his family from a raging madman who's threatening to cripple him. Maybe it shouldn't be for TV, but I get it. It's also consistent with his "Loose Cannon" persona. The cliffhanger on if a shot was fired or not is kind of lame though. The ending felt a bit disappointing because of the long wait after the feed went out & nothing really happened. I agree it would have been better with Pillman wielding a bat or something leading to a huge pull apart brawl. I understand why Pillman would have a gun, but it wasn't necessary at all. I still think this was effective & an awesome angle to do once.

[soup23]

My wife watched this with me last night and commented that I could never insult the acting on Days of Our Lives again. This is the kind of trainwreck tv that I succumb to from time to time watching blocks of Cops but I can't say I found it incredibly compelling as a wrestling angle and I too took notice of Lawler's announcing tone throughout being short and calling people an idiot over and over. One of the more memorable WWF segments of all time but that doesn't necessarily make it one of the best.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Never seen this before but have heard about since almost Day One of being a fan. Melanie Pillman was quite distracting to me in this. ;) I thought Brian and Austin were good in this. Austin is such a great psycho. You really believe that he is completely unhinged and dangerous as fuck. The Gun thing was stupid. It was funny Vince calling this promotional stunt when he was the one orchestrating it. Great shoot comment that was supposed to be a shoot comment moment.