World Championship Wrestling (1989–1996)
Pillman returned to the United States in May 1989 and began appearing in vignettes hyping his in-ring debut for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) the following month, where he became known as Flyin' Brian due to his athletic ability and variety of aerial maneuvers. He unsuccessfully challenged Lex Luger for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship at the Halloween Havoc pay-per-view on October 28 and at Clash of the Champions IX on November 15.
During this time, Pillman began teaming with "Z-Man" Tom Zenk and feuded with the Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes), who they defeated on February 12, 1990, to capture the NWA United States Tag Team Championship. They successfully defended the titles against the Freebirds on February 25 at WrestleWar, but lost them at Capital Combat on May 19 to The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane). He defeated Buddy Landel on July 7 at The Great American Bash and at Clash of the Champions XIII on November 20. At WrestleWar on February 24, 1991, Pillman participated in a WarGames match, teaming with Sting and The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) in a loss to The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Barry Windham and Sid Vicious) and Larry Zbyszko. On March 21, Pillman wrestled at the WCW/New Japan Supershow I in the Tokyo Dome, where he, Zenk and Tim Horner lost to Kuniaki Kobayashi, Shiro Koshinaka and Takayuki Iizuka.
On June 12, at Clash of the Champions XV, Pillman teamed with El Gigante against Windham and Arn Anderson in a Loser Leaves WCW match, which they lost. Per the stipulation, he was forced to leave WCW. However, Pillman instead re-emerged as the masked Yellow Dog (one of Windham's past gimmicks), competing in a series of bounty matches with his mask on the line. At The Great American Bash on July 14, he defeated Johnny B. Badd by disqualification after Badd's manager Teddy Long tried to remove his mask. The Yellow Dog gimmick was short lived as Pillman was reinstated in August. Also that month, Pillman wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling as part of its "Summer Night Fever in Nagoya" and "Violent Storm in Kokugikan" tours, facing opponents including Jushin Thunder Liger and Kensuke Sasaki.
At Halloween Havoc on October 27, Pillman defeated Richard Morton in a tournament final to win the inaugural WCW Light Heavyweight Championship. He successfully defended the title against Badd on November 19 at Clash of the Champions XVII before losing it to Liger at a house show on December 25. Pillman regained the championship from Liger on February 29, 1992, at SuperBrawl II. At WrestleWar on May 17, he defeated his partner Tom Zenk to retain the title. He and Liger participated in a tournament for the NWA World Tag Team Championship, defeating Biff Wellington and Chris Benoit in the first round on June 16 at Clash of the Champions XIX. At Beach Blast on June 20, Pillman lost the Light Heavyweight Championship to Scotty Flamingo. Pillman and Liger then lost in the quarter-final of the tournament to Nikita Koloff and Ricky Steamboat at The Great American Bash on July 12.
In September, Pillman turned heel by slapping Brad Armstrong out of frustration for his knee injury and vacating the title when he was scheduled to defend it against Pillman at Clash of the Champions XX. He lost to Steamboat at Halloween Havoc on October 25 and defeated Armstrong at Clash of the Champions XXI on November 18. Pillman also started teaming with his former rival Windham, challenging for the NWA and WCW World Tag Team Championships against Steamboat and Shane Douglas at Starrcade on December 28 in a losing effort. Their team lasted until January 1993, as Windham had his sights on the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Pillman subsequently began teaming with "Stunning" Steve Austin as the Hollywood Blonds, defeating Erik Watts and Marcus Alexander Bagwell on February 21 at SuperBrawl III. On the March 27 episode of Power Hour, they won the NWA and WCW World Tag Team Championships from Steamboat and Douglas. At Slamboree '93: A Legends' Reunion on May 23, they successfully defended the titles against Dos Hombres (Steamboat and Zenk) in a steel cage match. Pillman and Austin then feuded with Ric Flair and Arn Anderson of The Four Horsemen, mocking their ages and parodying Flair's interview show, "A Flair for the Gold", with their own called "A Flair for the Old". They successfully defended the titles against Anderson and Paul Roma at Beach Blast on July 18 before losing them in a rematch at Clash of the Champions XXIV on August 18. Prior to the event, Pillman suffered a leg injury during a tag team match on an episode of Main Event, so he was replaced in the match by Lord Steven Regal.
The Hollywood Blonds separated in October after Austin turned on Pillman to join Col. Robert Parker's Stud Stable, turning Pillman face and starting a feud between the two. At Clash of the Champions XXV on November 10, he lost to Austin after interference from Parker. On January 27, 1994, at Clash of the Champions XXVI, he defeated Parker in a match where the loser had to wear a chicken suit. At SuperBrawl IV on February 20, Pillman, Dustin Rhodes and Sting defeated Austin, Paul Orndorff and Rick Rude in a Thundercage match. He challenged Regal for the WCW World Television Championship on April 17 at Spring Stampede, but the match ended in a 15-minute time limit draw.
After several months of inactivity, Pillman made his return to WCW programming in January 1995, originally to be renamed California Brian (which was quickly scrapped) as a face who had moved to California to pursue acting work on Baywatch, with Pillman slowly progressing into a tweener. He lost to Alex Wright at The Great American Bash on June 18. On September 4, Pillman wrestled the first match on the inaugural episode of Monday Nitro, defeating Jushin Thunder Liger. After costing Flair a match to Arn Anderson at Fall Brawl on September 17, Flair recruited the help of Sting to team up against Pillman and Anderson at Halloween Havoc on October 29. Pillman and Anderson attacked Flair before the match, forcing Sting to come out alone. When Sting needed a tag the most, Flair came out at the last minute with a bandage on his head, tagged Sting and immediately turned and attacked him, removing the fake bandage from his head to show it was all a plan between Pillman, Anderson and Flair. These actions signaled the reunion of The Four Horsemen; this incarnation consisted of Flair, Anderson, Pillman and Chris Benoit.
In the middle of 1995, Pillman again returned to New Japan Pro-Wrestling to compete in the Best of the Super Juniors. He wrestled against the likes of Dean Malenko, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Black Cat, Koji Kanemoto, Shinjiro Otani, Gran Hamada, Black Tiger, Wild Pegasus, Wright and El Samurai in singles matches and in tag team matches together with Wright, Norio Honaga, Hamada or Malenko against Akira Nogami, Koji Kanemoto, Takayuki Iizuka, El Samurai, Malenko and Honaga.
At the end of 1995, Pillman developed his "Loose Cannon" gimmick, cultivating a reputation for unpredictable behavior and blurring fact and fiction with his worked shoots. He changed his once Hollywood Blond and Flyin' Brian clean athletic look for an edgy, out of control image. Even his allies in the Horsemen, especially Anderson, were wary of his behavior and tried in vain to keep him in check. In a match with Eddie Guerrero on January 23, 1996, at Clash of the Champions XXXII, which Pillman won, he grabbed commentator Bobby Heenan by the collar, causing Heenan, who had a history of neck problems, to blurt out "What the fuck are you doing?" live on the air. On February 11, Pillman outed Kevin Sullivan as booker at SuperBrawl VI in an I Respect You Strap match, where the loser announces that they respect the other wrestler, much like an "I Quit" match. Pillman lost to Sullivan in under a minute after grabbing the microphone and telling Sullivan "I respect you, booker man." The words "booker man" were cut from the commercial tape.
The day after SuperBrawl VI, Pillman was fired by WCW President Eric Bischoff. In Bischoff's autobiography, he said that Pillman was fired so that he could go and develop the "loose cannon" gimmick in ECW then return to WCW with more legitimate heat. Bischoff claims it was a plan he and Pillman came up with together, but Pillman wound up not returning. Pillman's final televised WCW match was actually on the February 19 episode of WCW Prime, taped long before SuperBrawl VI, where he teamed with fellow Four Horsemen member Chris Benoit to defeat The Barrio Brothers (Fidel Sierra and Ricky Santana).
