Drake Kizer

Enquirer contributor

For several consecutive Monday nights in August 1997, the family of professional wrestler Brian Pillman huddled around the TV screen at their home in Walton, Kentucky, and watched the disturbing events of World Wrestling Federation’s (WWF) flagship program – “Raw is War” – unfold before them.

As part of a racy storyline involving Dustin and Terri Runnels, a real-life couple who performed as Goldust and Marlena at the time, Pillman was forced to wear a gold dress for several weeks.

Brian Pillman Jr. said memories of his father, who rose to fame as “Flyin’ Brian” in the mid-90s before becoming a star as “The Loose Cannon” in the late ’90s, are “very few and far between.”

Pillman Jr. can recall his dad’s raspy voice, damaged by the 30-plus throat surgeries he underwent in his younger years. He can still see the bolts in his father’s ankle, which was fused in a fixed walking position after a crash that also put him in a weeklong coma in April 1996.

But he said he’ll never forget seeing his dad come down the aisle wearing women’s clothing.

“I do remember, of course, the matches when he wore a dress,” Pillman Jr. said. “You know, because it was such a dramatic moment for our family – to see him in a dress and screaming at the television. I can see myself now, banging on the screen and not believing it.”

While most would have been traumatized watching their father be embarrassed on one of the highest-rated programs on cable television, Pillman Jr. sees it a bit differently.

“Just one of the beautiful things about entertainment and the moments they create in people’s lives,” Pillman Jr. said.

That same unique mindset ultimately propelled Pillman Jr. to shun life in a cubicle so he could train as a pro wrestler. Although Pillman Jr. began consciously tracing his father’s footsteps in early 2017, the two men’s lives had been following similar paths for years already.

Humble beginnings

Brian Zachary Pillman was born on Sept. 9, 1993 – the only son of Brian William Pillman.

The elder Pillman didn’t want his son to be a true junior, but Pillman Jr. always embraced it.

When Pillman was just three months old, his father died of a heart attack at age 50. Pillman, who struggled with substance abuse, died of a heart attack at age 35 on Oct. 5, 1997.

In an instant, his children were left without their dad, just as Pillman was.

“Well, my 4-year-old doesn’t understand it – that’s little Brian. He doesn’t understand why daddy’s not coming home,” Pillman’s wife, Melanie, told “Raw is War” viewers the next night.

Growing up was rough for both men, albeit for completely different reasons. The elder Pillman battled throat cancer, spending most of his youth in the hospital undergoing operations that mangled his vocal cords. Pillman Jr. faced Melanie, a negligent addict who “squandered” funds meant for her kids. At 13, he left home. He later moved in with Pillman’s sister, his Aunt Linda.

“I didn't have a father, but my mother also wasn't there either,” Pillman Jr. said. “So, you can imagine the hardships going through school – not always having nice clothes, living in filth and things like that.”

Pillman Jr. found salvation in athletics like his dad had many years prior. Both undersized nose guards on the football field, father and son turned heads because of their hard-hitting tenacity. They gave offensive linemen fits because of their unyielding desire to penetrate the backfield.

Pillman Jr. said Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, his father’s college roommate and defensive teammate at Miami (Ohio) University, took notice and became a “really crucial” figure in his life.

“It’s amazing,” Harbaugh told The Cincinnati Enquirer in November 2010. “He has that same nose-guard stance as his dad, and he’s quick and ferocious. He’s built similarly. Their mannerisms are the same. It’s uncanny.”

Pillman Jr. also continued his athletic career in college, playing lacrosse at Mount St. Joseph University – then called the College of Mount St. Joseph – in Cincinnati before giving up sports to focus on finishing his education. He later earned a degree in business information systems from Northern Kentucky University.

“I took a route that most that become wrestlers don't,” Pillman Jr. said. “A lot of people just say, ‘Oh, I’m gonna be a wrestler,’ and they're not gonna do anything to better themselves outside of wrestling. I think I'm a more well-rounded person because of the adversity I've faced and also the education and the things I’ve undertaken.”

Pro wrestling was hardly attractive to Pillman Jr. in his younger years, mostly because it was a “constant reminder” of the industry that, according to his mother, put his dad in an early grave.

The “bitter” attitude Pillman Jr. harbored toward wrestling began to soften during his one-year tenure in corporate America, where he yearned for the “athleticism” of his sports career.

Pillman Jr. eventually found two new ways to challenge himself: yoga and weightlifting.

Weights clanged. Joints bent. Flexibility increased. Alone in the gym, contorting his body and exercising his muscles, a career in pro wrestling quickly became a viable path.

“You could see there was a snowball effect of finding myself and exploring new avenues that I didn't think were originally profitable or possible at the time,” Pillman Jr. said. “Come to find out, it's everything I needed to get started in the business. I think I eventually found my way, naturally, back to the wrestling business even though I didn't want to be a part of it growing up.”

Just a kid in Calgary

The elder Pillman enjoyed a three-year professional football career, playing in the NFL for the Cincinnati Bengals. His final stop was in the Canadian Football League, playing a season for the Calgary Stampeders.

But after injuries derailed his career, Pillman chose to remain in Calgary so he could learn pro wrestling from Stu Hart, the patriarch of the Hart family, at his world-famous “Dungeon.”

With that knowledge in mind, Pillman Jr. decided to retrace his father’s steps as closely as he could. He logged about 30 hours driving himself to Calgary and eventually arrived at the site of Storm Wrestling Academy, a highly respected school run by retired pro wrestler Lance Storm.

“I wanted to get the best training in the world,” Pillman Jr. said. “I wanted to be in a place where I would be taken care of and people would help me and not bullshit me.”

Pillman Jr. began the multi-month program in September 2017, and it was not long until Storm had instilled his strict “less is more” mindset. Pillman Jr. said while other youngsters are seeking to shoehorn lots of death-defying dives into their matches, he has taken a “different approach.”

Pillman stood out because his high-flying offense was unlike anything fans of his era had ever seen. Today, Pillman Jr. is setting himself apart by harkening back to a mat-based style that fans of modern wrestling aren’t as familiar with. Even in difference, father and son are eerily similar.

“When people come to see you wrestle, they come to see your moveset,” Pillman Jr. said. “They don’t come to see you do everything under the sun. I like to keep my stuff special, keep it solid, keep it snug and put on a good show. I think if I've got my five moves of doom, the fans are going to remember that and they're going to know who I am.”

Dawn of a new era

On Dec. 30, 2017, green lights flashed above the makeshift entrance way at Indianapolis Championship Wrestling’s “New Years Bash.” While Demi Lovato’s “Sorry Not Sorry” blared through the speakers, Pillman Jr. stood patiently, awaiting his official pro wrestling debut.

Just as Lovato sang, ‘Baby, I’m sorry (I’m not sorry),’ Pillman Jr. burst through the black curtain right on cue, mouthing the words of the song. He let out a “Woo!” as he hustled to ringside, eventually hopping over the top rope and onto the mat – his newfound home.

After an 11-minute match, Pillman Jr. picked up the win over fellow legacy, Johnathan Wolf, and had his hand raised in victory. The second-generation star pointed to the sky before dropping to his knees to sob, completely overcome with emotion.

When his training began, the 6-foot Pillman Jr. had a relatively average look. By the time he had his first match, Pillman Jr. had blossomed into a tanned and toned performer, donning Bengal-print trunks and a mullet just like his father. Today, the mullet remains. But Pillman Jr. has become a more “perfect mixture” of paying tribute to his dad and making his own name.

“Like his big crossbody off the top – I’ve got wide shoulders, I look really good doing it, so there’s no reason not to do it, right?” Pillman Jr. said. “But instead of taking a lot from one person, I take a little bit from a lot of people. What I’ve learned from him is how to captivate an audience without all the moves – really building a character and a presence in the business.”

Earned, not given

Pillman didn’t make it to WWF – now WWE – until a decade into his career, and if the largest promotion in the world hires Pillman Jr. anytime soon, it won’t be because he called in a favor. But even though he’s trying to wait his turn, the Pillman name has accelerated his progression.

“I earned the respect of the fans, and the promoters were booking me right off the bat,” Pillman Jr. said. “But earning the respect of the boys is what I'm gonna have to work hard for. I was basically thrust into a bunch of high-level locker rooms within my first year of wrestling, where it was almost like I was expected to be there. The boys see me as kinda getting by too easy.”

Pillman Jr. has refused to take it easy, working multiple indie shows “anywhere that’s willing to bring (him) in” every weekend because he said the “acronym” he works under is irrelevant.

At his bookings, Pillman Jr. is the consummate pro. He quizzes industry veterans backstage and then puts on high-level matches in the squared circle. Even after suffering a knee injury in March 2018 that kept him out of action for several months, Pillman Jr. managed to make an impact.

Despite his inability to wrestle, Pillman Jr. kept making appearances. He spent six weeks on crutches – eventually trading them for a large knee brace – but Pillman Jr. still did meet-and-greets, provided occasional commentary, worked as a manager and cut in-ring promos for fans.

A solid foundation

Life on the road has taught Pillman Jr. about his late father. The stories former friends share teach him a lot about who his dad was, and since the apple usually doesn’t fall from the tree, Pillman Jr. said they also teach him life lessons he can use as he becomes a man himself.

But while treading on the heels of a man he never knew, Pillman Jr. feels pangs of self-doubt.

“He definitely, from what I've heard, was a great person,” Pillman Jr. said. “It's a shame I can't form my own opinion on Brian Pillman. I can only go based off of the myths and the legends that I've heard and stuff like that, so it's kinda interesting to be following in that kinda shadow of one that you're never too certain of if you should even be following.”

Any existential crisis Pillman Jr. may have had ended for good in 2018, when he signed with Major League Wrestling (MLW) and got paired up with Teddy Hart and Davey Boy Smith Jr.

Along with Hart and Smith Jr. – the nephew of Bret Hart and the son of The British Bulldog, respectively – Pillman Jr. forms the latest iteration of the Hart Foundation, a faction his father once belonged to. Like his dad, Pillman Jr. is the only non-Hart family member of the group.

“I always tell people wrestling’s family and that's because they brought me in right underneath their wing,” Pillman Jr. said. “We've been so blessed and fortunate to be on Major League Wrestling, the company that sort of brought this all together. It was kinda their idea from the get-go and it's benefited me, it's benefited Teddy and it’s benefited Davey Boy in more ways than one. We all kinda work off of each other and we’re blessed because of each other.”

An instrumental version of “3 Kings” by Rick Ross featuring Dr. Dre and Jay-Z serves as the score to the trio’s entrances. As Pillman Jr. swaggers down to the ring alongside his brothers, he wears yellow tights featuring a modified version of the Heartless emblem from the “Kingdom Hearts” video games. Inside the heart, Pillman Jr. wears the names Owen, Brian, Davey and Anvil to honor fallen Hart family members – a clan whose ranks he joined on his own merits.

Pillman Jr. said he’s proud of the work he’s put in so far, which yielded him the 2018 Rookie of the Year award in MLW. But his eyes remain fixed on carving out his own path and removing himself from his beloved father’s shadow.

Pillman made a lasting impression by doing things his own way, but if anyone can capture what made him a star, it will be his only begotten son, whose nickname is “The Promised Prince.”

“I’m just finishing what he started,” Pillman Jr. said. “He had a lot left to do, a lot of plans. I definitely want to make him proud and I think I've already kinda done that. But I want to earn the respect of the business and my coworkers and go down in history as someone who successfully fulfilled their legacy and someone who separated themselves and kept themselves different.”