10 WWE Stars Who Were Fired For Unprofessional Conduct 7

7. Brian Pillman Fools The World

In 1996, while building up the ‘Loose Cannon’ persona which would, following his untimely death, remain his ultimate legacy as a professional wrestler, Brian Pillman pulled off one of the greatest real life swerves the industry had, or has, ever seen.
Pillman, a smart operator with a big mouth, who understood ring psychology and commitment to character better than almost anyone at the time, came to a secret agreement with WCW top man Eric Bischoff. He would manufacture a genuine reason to be fired; Bischoff would then fire him (for real), and Pillman would take his new, revolutionary persona to ECW and the minor leagues to gain notoriety as an edgy, daredevil rebel, before returning to WCW as a ready-made main event star.
It’s not dissimilar to the Second Summer Of Punk storyline that began in June 2011 with Punk’s ‘pipebomb’ promo and ended with a major new star for WWE. Bischoff must have smelled money all over the worked-shoot angle. Pillman was, like Punk, a star who hadn’t quite found his moment yet. Bischoff and Pillman together conspired to create that moment.
Pillman would apparently go into business for himself in a match with Kevin Sullivan, the head booker for WCW at the time, in February 1996’s Superbrawl pay-per-view. Booked in an ‘I Respect You’ strap match, the loser of which would say that he respected the other, Pillman launched himself at Sullivan in an unscripted brawl before the strap could even be tied on, only to pull away a minute or so later, grab the mic and utter the fateful words, “I respect you, booker man” – thereby revealing to the live audience and to everyone at home that wrestler Sullivan was the company’s shot caller.
Elated, Bischoff promptly fired Pillman as agreed. Pillman went to ECW, again as agreed, and Bischoff waited for the phone to ring. It never did. The hotshot free agent doublecrossed Bischoff during the resulting bidding war, and signed with WWE.