Flyin' Brian: A Gushing Appreciation

Flyin' Brian: My Favorite Junior Heavyweight Ever.

If, by some minor fluke, you listened to this you may have discovered that I sincerely love 1992-era WCW. And above all else, there was one reason I enjoyed that era of WCW (shortly before Bill Watts came in and it all went to hell in a handbasket). It was Flyin' Brian. And believe me when i tell you, because this is the absolute truth, we are never going to see his like again. No matter how hard you may want it, no matter how good it may be for wrestling as a whole, the cold hard fact is that it will never happen.




Firstly, you have to get into this one fact right off. The main promotion in the United States has a homogenized style. And unless you're a main eventer and can play on the margins of that style, you're always going to be expected to play right within it. And also, that same main promotion is about as insular as any wrestling promotion has ever been. They won't even acknowledge other places exist, using catch-alls like "The Minor Leagues" or "Japan" so you can better believe our fictional Flyin' Brian would never have gotten the chance to compete against a star from Japan. And if, by some massive series of flukes, that star from Japan did come over the match they would have would have less to do about who the superior wrestler was, and more about a series of cheap racial jokes. And you'll notice I didn't include the Loose-Cannon era Pillman here for 2 reasons. 1: He's not my favorite wrestler. he never was at that point what I loved about him. And he never would be again. 2: If you think the WWE would let someone, ANYONE, do what Pillman did you're crazy. Punk came closest and they did everything short of disemboweling him to make sure that never happened again.

But let's not dwell on what couldn't have been, ok? Let's dwell on what was. Here, in no order, are his best matches.

First his WCW World Light Heavyweight Title defense against Brad Armstrong. Even when he was a face, he was a face because he was a tough-as-nails little SOB who meant business.



Next up, not just his defining match as the Flyin' Brian character but maybe a match that would define a lot of juniors working today.


Brian Pillman vs. Jushin Liger 2/29/92 by Hook_Line_and_Sinker

And honestly, this is maybe my favorite tag team match of the entire 1990's. Watch and enjoy.