Kris & David are guestless this week but we have a tremendous show talking about the week that was October 6-12, 1997. We discuss the death of Brian Pillman and how badly it was handled by the WWF, the beginning of DeGeneration X, Jim Cornette = angry man, all kinds of Japan goodness such as the debut of PRIDE, Paul Heyman correcting Wade Keller, and the sheer madness of an Eric Bischoff chat on Prodigy!!!!!!!!

 

http://placetobenation.com/between-the-sheets-12-october-6-12-1997/

Would you ever consider having Karl Stern on as a guest? I mentioned it to him on Twitter a few days ago as I think he'd be a great guest on the show and he said he'd be glad to do if asked.

I think his HOF ballot has him in a pretty negative light around here at the moment.

I would definitely have Karl on either on this show or on Exile....just gotta find the right topic.

I hope another situation like Brian Pillman dying the night before a pay-per-view never happens again, but I'm a lot more cynical about whether WWE would handle things much differently, even in today's corporate environment, other than having the good sense not to interview the spouse a day later on Monday Night Raw. The show must go on mentality still runs deep.

I just don't see it.......someone dies the day before the show maybe but not finding out until right before the PPV......

From what I understand Pillman's death really had long lasting effects on his family. I was told by a wrestling journalist a few years ago that he was getting constant links sent to him about legal troubles Melanie & some of his children had in Cincinnati. He didn't feel it was right to report since the kids weren't in wrestling (and rightfully so). I think I remember one of his sons being rumored as getting into the business at one point but all this sidetracked that.

Good stuff as always here. Little disappointed at the lack of animal run ins.

Lexi Pillman dabbled in wrestling a little bit, I think she was the stepdaughter from Pillman's previous marriage. Sadly, she passed away a few years ago in a car accident.

 

And I forget if it was Kevin Kelly or Less Thatcher, but one of them went into detail about the Pillman family on a podcast. They lost the house and had a falling out with the Pillman Memorial organizers, sorry I don't remember all the details.

 

Real shitty all around.

And it's really amazing how much happened in the WWF this week. It's understandable since it was the day before the period you guys covered, but you didn't even really get into the huge Kane debut. What a crazy time.

About half way through and the WCW reboot talk has me intrigued as I know little about this. Was this supposed to happen in 01? Were any of the soon to be big indy guys involved like Punk or Danielson? I know the Corino thing and I believe Christopher Daniels was due to be a decent player in WCW before it folded

I remembered one thing from the reboot talk. D'Lo Brown was expected to jump ship for the reboot.

 

I think Bryan Danielson was under contract to WWE at the time.

Daniels, Modest, & Morgan were going to be involved

I really hated when Pillman passed away. I remember as a 17 year old watching him leading up to this thinking that he's legit crazy. Little did I know that he was actually bipolar. Had Pillman not had that car accident how different things could have been. His gimmick IMO was one of the best of all time and he was a great worker. Pair those two without the accident and man what a run he could have had. I remember watching the PPV that night with my dad.

 

We watched all of the PPV's back then through a trick we accidentally discovered. We had ordered a WCW PPV in 1995 and as soon as the PPV was over I unhooked the box. It didn't get any other channels that the regular TV got and it was just a hassle using it. The next time I went to order a PPV and I plugged up the box the PPV channel was still on. Well I didn't order the PPV and right as it started my box got zapped and scrambled. So I done a little science experiment and ordered a $2 movie the next day. After it was over I unhooked the box again and plugged it up about 10 minutes after the next wrestling PPV started. Back then the local cable office had to have workers in for special boxing/wrestling PPV's and they would "zap" any illegal streams right as they went out the door when the PPV's were going to start. If you gave it a couple of minute window you could watch any PPV for free. That box worked until 1999 without a hitch.

 

Anyway, I say that to say that I was really confused for a few minutes because they had already made the initial announcement before I plugged in. Then I remember a comment saying something about the Pillman tragedy and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It took a little bit to sink in. Of all the wrestling deaths that one bothered me more than any of the others for some reason.

 

In today's day and age I agree with the assessment that if they found out something like this happened just prior to a WWE Network PPV they would cancel the show. Hopefully we never have to test that theory.

 

Great show as always.

Wasn't Disco Inferno gonna be one of the big Gringo Rudos for Konnan's 1999 WCW Lucha show?

Glad to hear others appreciated Satoru Asako.

 

Great show as always. I can't imagine how all the WCW backstage drama would have played out in the social media world.

Oh god the stuff covered in this show would have Wrestling Twitter going insane

adding Social Media to the Raw vs Nitro era would have been amazing.

 

So, the "Stone Cold turns fully face" thing that Kris pondered.. that sounds like a question of "when did Austin stop being a heel vs the Harts outside of the US", which means he didn't fully turn face until the screwjob ended any sort of USA vs Canada feud and Austin could be a face in every WWF market.

Epic show lads. One thing that I thought of with the Flair in WWF in 1997/98 talk - it would have severely impinged WWF's ability to portray themselves as the hip, young things, and all the talk of wrestlers with their best years ahead of them, instead of behind them would have sounded ridiculous with Flair in a high profile position.

Would have worked fine as long as Flair was a heel opposing the hip young babyfaces. Vince was the top heel during that period after all.

Am I wrong in thinking Reddit is probably the best modern equivilent to what the Usnet newsgroups were?

 

Seems that way, right down to back slashes to seperate discussion topics.