[1992-09-02-WCW-Clash of the Champions XX] Brian Pillman and Brad Armstrong

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Brian Pillman turns heel for the first time ever in an anti-climatic way. Brad Armstrong had to forfeit his light heavyweight title due to injury and Pillman was supposed to get a shot tonight. Pillman yells at him a bit then slaps him in the face and walks off.

[shoe]

It's really hard to swallow this heel turn. Just not well thought out and lacked a legit reason. Plus Armstrong looks like a bitch taking Pillman's shit.

[BackToBionic]

I was pretty happy about this when I was a kid because I was at that age where I started to favour the heels, but still had a few of my old "favourites" that were babyfaces. Pillman was one of those guys so I thought he was really cool again.

 

It is pretty out of place in retrospect, though. BUT...sweet vest on Pillman.

[rainmakerrtv]

There were hints of this before hand, with Pillman slapping Johnny B. Badd in an interview and the look of disgust he gave Zenk after their Wrestle War match. I wasn't entirely surprised when this happened, it seemed to me that Pillman had just had enough of keeping up a smiling front.

[El-P]

You could see the seeds planted in the overbabyface interview on Saturday Night the week before. Finally something really fresh for Pillman, he was in a rut for way too long as a babyface.

[Kevin Ridge]

I like Pillman as a heel so the turn was welcome but yeah probably not the best way to make the complete turn. Armstrong came off weak in this segment.

[WingedEagle]

Armstrong can't defend his title due to injury, and Pillman is out to go heel because he wanted his title match. Its a pretty good heel promo followed by a nice slap, but not exactly an impactful turn.

[PeteF3]

Brad Armstrong is throwing a pity party for himself when an angry Pillman comes out to confront him. Pillman has a legitimate beef--you'd think he'd get the title by forfeit. Pillman cuts an effective promo, but for such a long build-up, I would have preferred Pillman to turn heel in the ring.

[PeteF3]

Brad Armstrong is throwing a pity party for himself when an angry Pillman comes out to confront him. Pillman has a legitimate beef--you'd think he'd get the title by forfeit. Pillman cuts an effective promo, but for such a long build-up, I would have preferred Pillman to turn heel in the ring.

[Jason Mann]

Brad Armstrong was good in his delivery here. Why didn't he talk more?

[BruiserBrody]

Maybe Bob should have been attacked since his son couldn't defend the title. IIRC he was interviewed at the Legend's party right before Brad's bit popped up.

[Robert S]

Pillman is such a great heel promo.

[garretta]

This didn't sound brilliant to me. It was more like Pillman couldn't get a shot at the belt, so he threw a hissy fit. This would have been more effective if Pillman had apologized later in the show or the following Saturday, then kicked the crutch out from under Brad and torn up his leg. This looked like a legit injury, though, so maybe he couldn't do that. Still, a turn by slapping a guy in the face? Maybe they should have held off until the turn could happen in the ring, as Pete suggested.

 

I loved the Rich-Piper clip as the show went to break. This was when Piper wasn't wrestling yet in Georgia; in fact, I think it was the Rich feud that got him into the ring. I remember that he was neutral on commentary with Gordon at first, then slowly started favoring the heels. He was a million miles better on commentary there than he ever was for Vince.

[dawho5]

Not the best heel turn. I'll vote for an in-ring turn as well because Pillman was such an effective heel that he deserved a better turn.