October 9, 2006 Observer Newsletter: Brian Pillman, Kurt Angle

There are a lot of weird coincidences this week that bring back the memory of Brian Pillman.

Pillman, a major 90s star, passed away in a Bloomington, MN, hotel room on October 5, 1997, the day of a PPV show in St. Louis, at the age of 35, from a heart attack. He had wrestled the night before in St. Paul.

As you'll note by the date, this week is the 9^th anniversary of the date. Coincidentally, the WWE this past week released a DVD called "The Loose Cannon," on his life, showing many of his highlight matches, although with the Eric Bischoff book and Mr. McMahon DVD, the company is not promoting it. And most eerie is, the more you think about it, the more you realize that in so many ways, the wrestler who currently has most of the same attributes, Kurt Angle, is the most talked about wrestler in the business today.

The WWE's DVD is one of the better ones the company has put out. Besides wife Melanie, sisters Angie and Linda, mentor and father-figure Kim Wood (the long-time strength coach of the Cincinnati Bengals) a few childhood friends, the DVD contains some very frank comments from Steve Austin, who has always called Pillman his best friend ever in wrestling, Jim Ross, Eric Bischoff, Paul Heyman, Road Warrior Animal and Chris Benoit (who started his career with Pillman in Stampede Wrestling). 

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