Brian Zachary Pillman (born September 9, 1993), better known by the

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projectin ...

Brian Pillman Jr., is an American

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

currently signed to

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is considered the second largest wrestling promotion in the United States behind WWE. AEW is owned by Shahid Khan and his son Tony, ...

(AEW). He is also known for his time in

Major League Wrestling Major League Wrestling (MLW), is an American professional wrestling promotion based in New Rochelle, New York. The promotion was founded in 2002 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by former WWE writer Court Bauer. The promotion markets its product a ...

(MLW). Pillman is a second-generation wrestler, as he is the son of professional wrestler

Brian Pillman Brian William Pillman (May 22, 1962 – October 5, 1997) was an American professional wrestler and professional football player best known for his appearances in Stampede Wrestling in the 1980s and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extrem ...

Early life

Pillman is the son of professional wrestler Brian Pillman Sr. and model Melanie Pillman. The younger Pillman had four sisters, Danielle and Brittany Pillman, Alexis Reed and Skylar King, as well as one brother, Jesse Morgan. His sister Alexis became a professional wrestling valet under the ring name Lexi Pillman but died in 2009. Pillman attended

Dixie Heights High School Dixie Heights High School is a 6-A high school located at 3010 Dixie Highway in Edgewood, Kentucky, United States, but has a mailing address of Fort Mitchell. History The school was built by the Works Progress Administration. It opened for cla ...

Edgewood, Kentucky Edgewood is a home rule–class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,575 at the 2010 census, down from 9,400 in 2000. It was named for an early homestead in Walker Estates.

, where he played football. He graduated in 2011 and furthered his education by attending college. Pillman earned a degree at

Northern Kentucky University Northern Kentucky University is a public university in Highland Heights, Kentucky. It is primarily an undergraduate institution with over 14,000 students; over 12,000 are undergraduate students and nearly 2,000 are graduate students. Northern K ...

Information Systems An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems are composed by four components: task, people ...

Professional wrestling career

Independent circuit (2017–2021)

In February 2017, Pillman announced he would be following his father's footsteps becoming a professional wrestler. He was trained by

Lance Storm Lance Timothy Evers (; born April 3, 1969), known professionally by his ring name Lance Storm, is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE), Extreme Championship Wrestling (E ...

at his school, the Storm Wrestling Academy, in

Calgary, Alberta Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. Pillman's first match was on December 18, 2017, when he used the

"Alex King", a tribute to his sisters Alexis Reed and Skylar King. Pillman made his professional debut for

Combat Zone Wrestling Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) is an American independent wrestling promotion. In 1998, John Zandig and five of his students, Ric Blade, T.C.K, Lobo (wrestler), Lobo, Nick Gage and Justice Pain, along with trainer Jon Dahmer, began to run professio ...

on January 28, 2018, at Dojo Wars 162 against Mike Del for the

CZW Medal of Valor Championship The CZW Medal of Valor Championship was a championship contested at the Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) training dojo. Being a professional wrestling championship, it was not won via direct competition; it was instead won via a predetermined ending t ...

. Pillman was defeated in the match by submission. Pillman would have one more match in CZW, in a tag team match, teaming with

Teddy Hart Edward Ellsworth Annis (born February 2, 1980) is a Canadian-American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Teddy Hart. He currently wrestles on the independent circuit. He wrestled on a National scale for Major League Wrestling ...

and faced Anthony Bennet and Jimmy Lloyd at Super Show V on January 26. On January 18, 2020, Pillman was a surprise 16th entrant in a 16-man Battle Royale at IWC Reloaded 6.0. He did not win the match, but he appeared in the Main Event, helping IWC Champion Jack Pollock win the match. After the match, Pillman revealed he has signed a contract with IWC, and that part of his contract was a shot at the IWC Championship at the promotion's February event. On February 15, Pillman defeated

Sam Adonis Samuel Elias Polinsky (born August 9, 1989) is an American professional wrestler and promoter, best known under the ring name Sam Adonis and Sam Elias. Polinsky formerly worked in Mexico's ''Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre'' (CMLL) as a heel pro-T ...

, Aramis,

Lance Archer Lance Hoyt (born February 28, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Lance Archer. He also makes sporadic appearance for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He is also known for ...

Black Taurus Black Taurus (born March 11, 1987) is a Mexican '' luchador enmascarado'', or masked professional wrestler, He is currently under contract with Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, in addition to making appearances for Impact Wrestling. He is primarily kn ...

Michael Elgin Aaron Frobel (born December 13, 1986) is a Canadian professional wrestler and promoter, better known by his ring name Michael Elgin. He most recently worked for Pro Wrestling Noah, where he was a one-time GHC Tag Team Champion with Masa Kitamiya ...

Andrew Everett Andrew Everett Wenkel (born July 9, 1992) better known by the ring name Andrew Everett, is an American professional wrestler best known for his time in Impact Wrestling, where he was a former Impact World Tag Team Champion. He's also wrestling ...

, and

Alex Zayne Alex Zayne is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with WWE where he wrestled on the NXT and WWE 205 Live brands under the ring name Ari Sterling. He has also appeared on Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, NJPW Str ...

in a War of Attrition match to win the vacant Warrior Wrestling Championship. The title was left vacant due to injury to former champion

Brian Cage Brian Christopher Button

. On September 12, 2020, in Washington, Pennsylvania, he won the Super Indy Championship for International Wrestling Cartel (IWC).

Major League Wrestling (2018–2021)

In late 2018, Pillman signed a contract with

(MLW). When he first came in, he was mentored by his father's

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Natio ...

rival Kevin Sullivan. He then turned on Sullivan and joined forces with

and

Davey Boy Smith Jr. Harry Francis Smith (born August 2, 1985) is a Canadian professional wrestler, best known under the ring name Davey Boy Smith Jr. and his real name Harry Smith. He currently performs for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where he was one ...

, creating the New Era Hart Foundation. This took place in a backstage segment where Pillman attacked Sullivan with a cane, causing Sullivan to bleed. On July 9, 2021, it was reported that Pillman was no longer working with MLW as his contract had expired.

All Elite Wrestling

Early appearances (2019)

In May 2019, Pillman was a participant in a battle royal at

's inaugural pay-per-view event,

Double or Nothing Double or nothing (UK often double or quits) is a gamble to decide whether a loss or debt should be doubled. The result of a "double or nothing" bet is either the subject doubled to twice the amount as the original ''or'' the doubling of a debt. It ...

. In July 2020, with MLW shut down due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, Pillman began to appear in

(AEW), wrestling on both their flagship show '' Dynamite'', and their online show ''

Dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low l ...

''. Pillman remained contracted to MLW, but was allowed to work for AEW as well. He made his in ring return on the July 7th episode of ''Dark'' in a losing effort against

Shawn Spears Ronnie William Arneill (born February 19, 1981) is a Canadian professional wrestler and professional wrestling trainer currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Shawn Spears, where he is a current member of The Pinnacle ...

. After this, Pillman was used as mostly as an enhancement talent losing to the likes of

Brian Cage Brian Christopher Button

and

Eddie Kingston Edward Moore (born December 12, 1981), better known by his ring name Eddie Kingston, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Kingston started his wrestling career in 2002, and has wrestled for numerous ...

The Varsity Blonds (2020–present)

In late July, Pillman began teaming with fellow AEW newcomer

Griff Garrison Garrett Griffith is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to the professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Griff Garrison. Griffith is one-half of the tag team the Varsity Blonds ...

, still competing mostly on ''Dark''. Pillman and Garrison made their main show debut in an eight-man tag match, teaming with

Joey Janela Joseph Janela (born July 3, 1989) is an American professional wrestler. Janela is most known for his work with promotions such as All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) ...

and

Sonny Kiss Sonny Kiss (born December 11, 1993) is an American professional wrestler, dancer, and professional wrestling manager currently signed to All Elite Wrestling. Kiss wrestles in the men's division but identifies as genderfluid and prefers she/her p ...

in a losing effort against The Butcher and The Blade and The Lucha Brothers. The team failed to pick up a win on either shows until the September 25th episode of ''Dark'', when they defeated

Cezar Bononi Cezar Bononi (born June 15, 1986) is a Brazilian professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling. He is also known for his time in WWE NXT from October 2015 to April 2020. Early life Prior to his wrestling career Bononi played Amer ...

and David Ali, marking their first victory as a team. During their losing streak, they lost to the likes of Private Party, FTR, The Inner Circle, The Butcher and The Blade, and The Hybrid 2. After picking up their first win, the team went on a second month long losing streak which ended after they defeated

Sean Maluta Sean Maluta (born September 30, 1988) is an American professional wrestler currently competing on the independent circuit. He made a number of appearances with WWE and took part in the first Cruiserweight Classic. Professional wrestling career M ...

and Alex Chamberlain on the November 3rd episode of ''Dark''. By early December, Pillman and Garrison had adopted the team name The Varsity Blonds, a tribute to Pillman's father. In their first match with their new name, The Varsity Blonds defeated

The Dark Order The Dark Order is a professional wrestling stable, currently performing in All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The stable consists of Evil Uno, John Silver, Alex Reynolds, and Brodie Lee Jr. The group debuted on the inaugural Double or Nothing pay-pe ...

(

Colt Cabana Scott Colton (born May 6, 1980), better known by the ring name Colt Cabana, is an American professional wrestler, color commentator, and podcaster. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a wrestler and as a coach, and he performs the sam ...

and

Alex Reynolds Alex Reynolds and John Silver, formerly known as the Beaver Boys, are an American professional wrestling tag team currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as members of The Dark Order. They are also known for their appearances in Combat Zone ...

) in a tag team match on the December 8, 2020 episodes of ''Dark''. On May 11, 2021

Julia Hart Julia Hart (born April 7, 1982) is an American filmmaker and actress. She is known for writing and directing the comedy drama '' Miss Stevens'' (2016), the superhero drama '' Fast Color'' (2018), the musical romance '' Stargirl'' (2020), and t ...

started aligning herself with The Varsity Blonds and made appearances with them for several months. On July 12, 2021, Pillman signed a full time deal with All Elite Wrestling making him an official member of the roster.

Personal life

Pillman had a strained relationship with his mother Melanie due to her battles with

drug addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use oft ...

following his father's death when Pillman was four years old. Pillman, who was primarily raised by his aunt Linda Pillman (his dad's sister) growing up, shared in a

shoot In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the sp ...

interview that he felt his mother was feigning her grieving during her infamous interview with

Vince McMahon Vincent Kennedy McMahon (; born August 24, 1945) is an American media proprietor and retired professional wrestling promoter, executive, and performer. From 1982 to 2022, he served as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of WWE, the ...

on ''

WWF Raw is War ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network in the United States. The show fe ...

'' one day after his dad's death, as their marriage was already going through the divorce process at the time and simply wanted a pay day for drugs. Unlike most wrestling fans and the media, Pillman didn't fault the WWF for the somewhat tactless interview with his mother, as he credited the promotion for trying to help out him and his sisters as much as possible financially. Pillman's relationship with his mother started improving after his wrestling career started; this included her making regular appearances during Pillman's live

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

streams and sharing stories about his father. Melanie was found dead from an apparent

drug overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

on June 1, 2022, at the age of 56, as confirmed by Pillman.

Championships and accomplishments

Cauliflower Alley Club The Cauliflower Alley Club is a non-profit fraternal organization, which includes a newsletter and website, comprising both retired and active professional wrestlers and boxers in North America. Established in 1965 by Mike Mazurki and Art Abra ...

**Rising Star Award (2020) * International Wrestling Cartel ** IWC Super Indy Championship (1 time) *KFW Wrestling **KFW Championship (1 time) *

MLW World Tag Team Championship The MLW World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship which is owned by the Major League Wrestling (MLW) promotion. The championship is generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which particip ...

( 1 time) – with

and

**Rookie of the Year (2018) *

Ohio Valley Wrestling Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) is an American professional wrestling promotion and former developmental promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky. The company is currently run by Al Snow and Matt Jones and Louisville mayor elect, Craig Greenberg. ...

OVW Heavyweight Championship The OVW Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling heavyweight championship owned by the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) promotion. The original championship was designed and created in 1997 by Reggie Parks. The title was introduced on A ...

( 1 time) *''

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publi ...

'' ** Rookie of the Year (2019) ** Ranked No. 135 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the ''

PWI 500 ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publis ...

'' in 2021 *Supreme Wrestling **Supreme Mid America Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *Warrior Wrestling ** Warrior Wrestling Championship (1 time) *World Class Wrestling Outlaws **WCWO Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

References

External links

* * * *
MLW Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pillman, Brian 1993 births All Elite Wrestling personnel American male professional wrestlers Brian Pillman Dixie Heights High School alumni Living people Northern Kentucky University alumni People from Kenton County, Kentucky Professional wrestlers from Kentucky Sportspeople from Kentucky The Hart Foundation members Twitch (service) streamers 21st-century professional wrestlers 20th-century American people 21st-century American people MLW World Tag Team Champions OVW Heavyweight Champions