Brian Pillman Jr. recently spoke to TalkSport to talk all things pro-wrestling, including his relationship with Bret Hart, Stone Cold, and Chris Jericho, as well as how AEW reacted to his debut matches on Dark. Highlights are below.
On receiving guidance from Stone Cold:
I’m definitely very bless to have all the people.. I call them angels. He left a lot of angels out here for me in this business and, of course, Steve and those guys – some of the bigger name guys are busy – but Steve has offered me advice on several, several occasions. He was actually the first guy I called before I got into the business. I was like ‘Can I really do this? Can I get into the wrestling business?’ He just told me ‘You can do whatever you want to do. Your father would want you to do what’s passionate to you,’ and at the time, I didn’t really have the passion for the business so I wasn’t sure if I should do it.But after getting my feet wet, getting trained and experiencing what the magic is and what a pro wrestling show really is when the fans are really into it – it’s awesome. I’ve been in love with it ever since. When I call, he picks up the phone and that’s a blessing that I can’t explain.
On his relationship with Bret Hart:
I was lucky to get to meet the Hart family when I went up to Calgary. I trained with Lance Storm so I got to meet Bruce [Hart] and Bret [Hart], Bruce Jr and all of those. And I’ve met Bret on a couple of occasions. He keeps a little more to himself. I try not to bother him too much, he’s got a lot of people trying to pick his brain a lot so I kind of pick and choose my battles and stuff and I think Bret is the kind of guy I’ve always had plenty of positive experiences with, but he’s someone that I probably don’t have the best relationship with as far as communication goes. But he’s definitely someone that if I ever needed anything, he would be right there for me. Whenever I’ve seen him, he’s been nothing but family to me.
On his relationship with Chris Jericho:
Me and Chris have been close for a long time. That was also somebody that was pulling for me in the company [AEW] and he helped me get the opportunity at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view about one year ago. That was May 22, 2019. So it’s been about a year since I’ve been there, so it’s been a long time. they wanted to see how far I have come and what improvements did I make and I think they were all happy with that. I think Chris was very happy with that. I got to sit with him and chat with him at the shows too. Everybody in that locker room is very hungry, very determined. it doesn’t matter whether you’re on Dark or Dynamite, what matters is that there’s hundreds of thousands of people watching online and on TV and we’re going to go out there and put on our best work.
How AEW reacted to his matches on Dark:
That was the biggest thing for me. The Brian Cage match was never really supposed to happen, that was, more or less, I’d like to say a reward for doing so well in the first match. They realised I was a good guy to go out there, to sell and continue telling that story for Brian Cage and building him up for the monster that he is. I give a lot of credit to Shawn Spears for being such a genius in the ring and such a mastermind that a lot of people don’t give him the credit for. He made me look so good that the office in Cody [Rhodes] and Tony [Khan] were so impressed gave me the opportunity against Brian Cage. And I’d like to think I knocked that one out of the park too, so we’ll see what the future holds for me.