Brian Pillman Jr Discusses The Financial Hit He Is Taking While Pro Wrestling Goes Dark
Like most wrestling promotions – outside of AEW and WWE – MLW decided to go dark following the coronavirus outbreak. The timing couldn't have been worse for Brian Pillman Jr who had recently returned after some injuries.
Pillman talked about MLW going dark when he joined The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast.
"It sucks because of the injuries and everything that's happened but I'm gonna have the greatest stories to tell one day. I'm gonna have a great career story to tell and how these events affected me and how I came up on top," said Pillman. "A lot of people have been telling me since I started and I always felt they were bulls****ing me when they said I was gonna be the next big Superstar. They told me that until I finally didn't even believe it anymore and thought they were just blowing smoke up my ass.
"Now that I really feel the success and feel my art connecting with people, I can't help but think that I could be the next big star. It's hard to go through all of this but knowing that at the end of the tunnel, there is this huge light waiting for me as long as I can get through it. That's an amazing feeling."
Unless signed to guaranteed contracts, if pro wrestlers aren't wrestling, then they aren't getting paid. Pillman discussed how the coronavirus has affected his income.
"Everybody is on the same page and everybody is cancelling. I've got some shows that are booked out further but I'm just not sure right now. I think March 30th and up until that is cancelled ? WrestleMania cancelled," Pillman said before being filled in on WWE's plans to hold a crowdless WrestleMania over two days.
"After that, my next match might not be until April 10th or 11th. My match on April 17th in Seattle is probably cancelled and MLW on April 18th in cancelled. I know that April 24th in Tennessee will probably run because he was trying to run this weekend [laughs]. I might not get back into wrestling until May."
Pillman then talked about how much he would normally make in a given weekend.
"I can make anywhere from $600 to $2,000 a weekend, so who knows? Who f***ing knows how much money I'm losing? You can either sell 20 shirts or sell 0 shirts. The end of the day it's a t-shirt business and anyone who tells you different is tripping," stated Pillman.
Before the outbreak, Pillman has a match with Bully Ray at Warrior Wrestling that turned stiff pretty quickly. Pillman talked about what led up to the problems between the two.
"That match had a lot of emotion and fuel behind it because of the things he said over the internet to me and that really got under my skin. I tried to cut a promo for Warrior Wrestling and keep it clean. It's a family show and it's a Catholic school where we run the show so it's sponsored by Catholic families. I tried a babyface promo and he wants to hop on there and play inside baseball and play smart. Then he brought my dad into the mix and that's when I really went off on him," recalled Pillman.
"He got a few right hands in that match that weren't pulled. I didn't pull my first couple of punches on him. Then he gave me that clothesline that just about broke me in half and from there on out, we said we're gonna be pros now. We traded a few blows back and forth and that's what the people needed."
Pillman added that he had no idea he would win the Warrior Title later that night and that the win is one of the greatest honors of his life outside the PWI Rookie of The Year award.
Brian Pillman Jr. can be seen every Saturday night on BeIN Sports as part of MLW Fusion. For more information and updates about future shows please visit www.MLW.com. Brian's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.