Hi Globe subscribers, after a brief break, here's this weeks headlines…

"Gentleman" Chris Adams, born in England, was shot to death on Sunday. Adams trained pro wrestling's biggest draw, Steve Austin, and was a big time draw himself down in Texas, for the Adkisson promotion, World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW). Adams was shot whilst visiting an old roommate. The two were said to have been drinking alcohol all day and a scuffle ensued which resulted in Adams being shot. The Globe team sends their best wishes to the family of Chris Adams.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Scott Hall and Kevin Nash had been in talks with WWFE, and that those talks went well, with management happy with what the pair had to say. Hall is currently working with New Japan, but is basically a free agent, while Nash is still contracted to AOL Time Warner until 1st January 2001. The Outsiders are currently scheduled to reunite prior to any WWF appearance, at New Japan's annual 4th January Tokyo Dome show.

The company ran two separate house shows for the first time ever last Saturday night. The "A" show took place in Winnipeg, while the "B" show took place in Bethlehem, PA. As the letters suggest, the "A" show had the more name talent booked.

The December PPV name has been changed to "Payback" from "Armageddon" due to the acts of 11th September.

British bookmakers William Hill are reportedly taking bets on the winner of next years Royal Rumble, which seems pointless given the planned nature of professional wrestling, and more so the Rumble match. Earlier this year, the same bookmakers started taking bets on whom would be the WWF Champion come 1st January 2002.

One reason given for Steve Austin's disappearance from TV is that management feels a big return utilising him will boost the ratings. Another says that the WWF writing team had nothing for Austin the night after Unforgiven.

Gangrel and Chaz have both been released from their contracts (yes, both have been on contracts and full pay, despite them not being used for months). On a similar note, K-Kwik has been told that his current deal won't be resigned after expiry date, and the same goes for Tori.

Rumours are that Shawn Michaels still has a certain degree of heat with Triple H. As you may recall, Michaels was scheduled to make a return earlier this year, but turned up at a Smackdown taping "out of shape". Michaels expected Triple H to smooth the situation over by using his prominent backstage stroke, which he failed to do.

WWF business is indeed on the downfall, as you are probably aware, and the group has had to cancel and rebook certain house show events due to failing ticket sales.

Billy Kidman is expected to return to in-ring action within the next week or two, while Rikishi is expected back in about a month. Also, Justin Credible and Raven may be programmed together as a tag team in the near future.

Smackdown's ratings continue to fall, and it's no longer UPN's top rated show.

There is NO heat whatsoever between Lance Storm and William Regal after their match at last weeks Smackdown taping. During the match Storm blasted Regal's nose very hard and caused Regal to bleed, after which he stiffed Storm somewhat. However, both are said to be fine with one another.

There's still no deal for a new television show, and I doubt there will be one before the end of the year. It's getting to a point now where the WWF fans have completely forgotten that WCW was meant to be a separate group. If WWFE wants to land a television deal for WCW, it needs to either sign some big name talent(s) or build up its current WCW roster. Unused talents are still being used in WWF affiliates, which doesn't bode well for them, as roster cuts are imminent.

Helen Hart has regained consciousness after being in a coma for the past week, but can around a few days ago. Although Hart has regained conciseness, she is still said to be in a critical condition.

Steve Corino has announced plans to retire in the very near future, apparently sometime in November. Don't expect Corino to stick to his word for two reasons, 1. He's currently in his mid twenties, 2. Professional wrestlers always break their retirement vows now days, unless they are injured (permanently).

After much speculation, the 20th October WrestleXpress card will indeed take place. Head man Ryan Aaron Hewson has handed over the reigns to The Wrestling Alliance, who will now run the show. However, all ex-WCW talent booked to appear are currently off the show, with the only top overseas names to appear being Steve Corino and the Sandman (Earthquake, Horace Hogan and Tiger Steele are also booked). The rest of the talent is made up from UK names.

New Japan: The big story in New Japan during the last week or so has been the trial and tribulations of Naoya Ogawa and Antonio Inoki. Now Ogawa is Inoki's pet-project, despite the fact that Ogawa has no talent and flat out refuses to job to anyone, but he does have an Olympic Silver Medal in Judo and this, in Inoki's scrambled mind, means he is valuable. Knowing that he's worthless, New Japan officials have been trying desperately to keep him out of their promotion before he can do anymore damage (he basically destroyed Shin'ya Hashimoto's career). Inoki was lobbying to have NJPW run a Naoya Ogawa vs. Kazuyuki Fujita title match at the upcoming Tokyo Dome show. Fortunately NJPW booker Masa Chono managed to avoid this and instead put the returning Kensuke Sasaki in Ogawa's spot instead. This pissed off Inoki big time and he's declared that if the Dome show tanks attendance wise then it's their own fault for not booking Ogawa on the show. Furthermore, Inoki has promised to show up the Dome show and campaign to get Ogawa booked on future New Japan shows. More news on this situation in the next Globe.

All Japan: All Japan suffered a big blow this week when freelancer Masahito Kakihara jumped ship to New Japan in order to compete in their Jr. Heavyweight division. All Japan were preparing to offer all of its major freelancers contracts but Kakihara jumped ship before they could offer him a regular deal. All Japan have announced a loaded line up for their upcoming Budokan Hall show on 10/27, it looks like this;

Keiji Mutoh vs. Masa Chono (with Mutoh going over),

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gen'ichiro Tenryu,

Masa Fuchi vs. Kouki Kitahara,

Taiyo Kea vs. Arashi,

Plus two more AJPW vs. WAR matches.

NOAH: Not much happening NOAH land this week. The only major news is that Terry Gordy Jr. is set to make his debut for the promotion on the next tour. Gordy Jr. has been working out in the NOAH dojo for the last month or so.

Indies: Michinoku Pro has announced the teams for its upcoming Tag League tournament, and the teams look like this:

The Great Sasuke & Masao Orihara,

Tiger Mask IV & Hideki Nishida,

Gran Hamada & Mr. X,

Dick Togo & Gedoh (Likely winners),

Chad Collyer & James Mason,

Kendo & Tsubo Genjin,

El Pantera & Macho Pimp.

Toryumon ran the biggest show in its history on 30th September at the Ota Ward City Gym in Tokyo. The show drew a monster paid crowd of over 5'000. The main results saw Ryo Saito defeat Susumu Mochizuki, and Magnum Tokyo lost a five way cage match against Masaaki Mochizuki, Dragon Kid, CIMA and Darkness Dragon. Magnum was forced to shave his hair as a result.

From www.puroresupower.com: "Kiyoshi Tamura made a big announcement yesterday that he would be reviving the UWF and that this would be the "true fourth generation" of the UWF, with the '84 UWF, '88 UWF, and '90 UWF-International as the three previous "true" revivals. Tamura announced that the first show would happen on 12/5 at the 16,000-seat Osaka Castle Hall. Yoji Anjoh is not expected to have any involvement with the group as a booker, worker, or any sort of management role. This will be Tamura's group for good. Expect a flock of ex-RINGS workers, ex-Pancrase workers, and wrestlers to work for the promotion. Tamura will be the boss, so it will basically be like RINGS from a few years ago. The real reason Tamura is reviving the UWF is because he's starting to get short on cash from not getting booked by anyone and not making a steady income in Japan means you're going to be starving for some time. Tamura has asked Shin'ya Hashimoto for some initial promotional help with the group."

EMLL: EMLL ran a massive Torneo Cibernetico at the 5th October TV taping at the Arena Mexico with the winner getting a shot at Negro Casas' Leyenda De La Plate Trophy. The Toneo basically starts out as a battle royal; the teams split into a massive set of singles matches in a team format with the order of elimination in the Battle Royal determining the order of the singles matches (don't worry, it confuses me too). Following the battle royal, the teams split into the following:

Ricky Marvin/Black Tiger/El Hijo Del Santo/Blue Demon Jr./Safari/El Averno/Dr. Wagner Jr./Atlantis vs. Felino/Black Warrior/Virus/Juventud Guerrera/Antifaz Del Norte/Mascara Magica/Fuerza Guerrera/El Mephisto.

Black Warrior eventually ended up winning the match by eliminating El Hijo Del Santo and Black Tiger (Silver King) to bag a match with Negro Casas. The match itself was said to be awesome, so try catching it on Galavision in a couple of weeks if you can.

AAA: On 5th October, AAA ran a show in Phoenix, Arizona headlined by Latin Lover, Perro Aguayo Jr. and La Parka Jr. defeating Cibernetico, Hector Garza and Electro Shock. Look for AAA to run regular shows in the States since they actually tend to draw better crowds there than Mexico. The main event of the AAA TV taping last night was scheduled to be El Zorro/Heavy Metal/Latin Lover/Perro Aguayo Jr. vs. Hector Garza/Cibernetico/Electro Shock/Abismo Negro.

Although he excelled, Pillman was deemed too small to compete in the NFL as he was passed over in the 1984 draft. Not being put off, Pillman built himself up (through the use of steroids) and managed to join the Cincinnati Bengals training camp and eventually forced his way into the team. After spending a year with the Bengals, Pillman moved up to Canada to play for the Calgary Stampeders. Unfortunately, he suffered a serious ankle injury during his time in Calgary and was forced to consider his option (Pillman first dabbled in painkillers at this point). Luck would have it that the Stampeders strength coach was a big fan of wrestling, and he suggested that Pillman use his athletic background to try to forge a career in pro wrestling. Pillman took him up on his advice and decided to enroll in Stu Hart's Dungeon classes in the summer of 1986.

It became quite obvious that Pillman was a natural and became one of the quickest graduates in the Dungeon's history. Making his pro debut on 25th November 1986 on the Calgary Stampede circuit, Pillman soon formed a tag team with Bruce Hart. Wrestling as Bad Company, they quickly dominated the tag division and raised the Tag Titles on two occasions. However, Pillman was cut out for bigger and better things than the grind of the grueling Stampede circuit, and was contacted by WCW officials in the spring of 1989 and immediately agreed to head to Turner land. Pillman's subsequent seven-year stay in WCW would turn out to be just as unpredictable as Pillman himself.

Immediately christened with the gimmick of "Flyin'" Brian Pillman, he soon got over and raced up the card. He was clashing with United States champion Lex Luger and eventually World Champion Ric Flair on a semi regular basis. Sensing his momentum, WCW officials then teamed Pillman up with Tom Zenk and the two immediately struck gold by raising the returning United States Tag Team Titles by downing The Freebirds (Hayes and Garvin) in a tournament final in February of 1990. They dropped the titles to the Midnight Express three months later and the team soon split. Pillman would then enter the first of many career ruts as he spent the rest of the year without any direction. That would all change come the spring of 1991.

By joining forces with Sting and The Steiner Brothers in their fight against the Four Horseman, Pillman immediately shot up to the top of the card and ended up main eventing Wrestling War '91. Alongside Sting and The Steiners he faced Ric Flair, Sid Vicious, Barry Windham and Larry Zbyszko (sub for Arn Anderson) in the War Games main event. Entering the performance of his life, Pillman was the star of the match until Sid Vicious crushed him with two stiff power-bombs that could have paralyzed Pillman. The two would go on to have heat with each other for the rest of the year until a certain incident in a bar changed all that, more on this a bit later.

The rut wouldn't last too long as out of sheer desperation and lack of ideas; WCW management threw Pillman together with fellow floundering heel "Stunning" Steve Austin. The pair clicked together and were renamed The Hollywood Blondes, and would go on to create one of the greatest, but unfortunately short lived partnerships in wrestling history. Their gimmick was simple, they were jerks and damn proud it, the fans immediately hated them with a passion. Around the same time that Pillman married his wife Melanie, the Blondes raised the WCW World Tag Team Titles by downing Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas. The pair moved up the ladder and were then booked into a feud with Ric Flair and Arn Anderson. The build up to the match contained the now famous "Flair for the Old" routine that saw The Blondes make fun of Slic Ric and the Enforcer. The pair clashed frequently with Flair and Arn on the road and on TV, they seemed to be heading to the top of the promotion, however disaster struck when Pillman suffered another ankle injury and head booker Dusty Rhodes inexcusably split the team up.

Pillman's stock fell dramatically in the following months as he floated around mid-card as his personal life went off the rails (he was now struggling with alcohol and painkiller addictions and in one incident was caught drink driving while cruising through the crack-house district of Cincinnati). Pillman continued to wallow in the depths of the WCW mid-card for close to 18 months. The arrival of Hulk Hogan and his band of cronies in the summer of 1994 meant that he slipped even further down the card. His first ray of light came at the advent of Monday Night Nitro and WCW's new attitude towards a progressive mid card, leading Pillman to face old foe Jushin Liger in the very first match of the opening edition of Nitro on Labor Day 1995. Pillman kept his momentum going by assisting in Arn Anderson's attack on Ric Flair at Fall Brawl. However, it all turned out be a gigantic ruse as Flair turned heel on his partner Sting at the following PPV and shockingly joined forces with Anderson, Pillman and Benoit to form the new Four Horseman. Pillman was finally making an impact for the first time since 1993, but he would go on to shift things into an even higher gear a month later.

Although he was a member of the Horseman, Pillman was obviously the fourth wheel of the group. With his contract running out in 5 months and his position seemingly stable as a background player, Pillman decided he needed to take drastic action if he was going to be able to land himself the big fat contract he always dreamed of. This lead to Pillman creating his masterpiece, namely the fascinating "Loose Cannon" gimmick. Basing the character on the wilder side of his personality, Pillman created a character that continually lived on the edge and defied authority. With the backing of WCW boss Eric Bischoff and booker Kevin Sullivan, Pillman set the gimmick in motion at Starrcade '95 by spitting into the camera following Flair's World Title win. Things escalated in the following weeks as Pillman caused unwanted friction between the Horseman and Sullivan's Dungeon of Doom much to the dismay of Arn Anderson. Pillman took the gimmick one step further at Clash of the Champions XXXII by making an unplanned stop off at the commentary position where he manhandled Bobby Heenan. Unaware of what was happening, Heenan blurted out, "What the fuck are you doing?", and furiously walked off the set. Problems between Pillman and Sullivan continued to escalate and eventually came to a head at Superbrawl VI as the two clashed in a strap match... however this was no ordinary match. Two minutes into the match, Pillman having received numerous stiff strap shots, backed off and uttered the legendary line, "I respect you... booker man". Pillman was supposedly fired by WCW due to his blatant break of Kayfabe.

By now, Pillman was the talk of the industry. Fans wondered whether he was really mad, or whether this was a carefully planned gimmick. Truth be known, it was a bit of both. Pillman had full blessing of Bischoff and Sullivan to take the gimmick as far as he wanted, Sullivan even helped come up with some of the angles. But this was Pillman's baby, and the Loose Cannon character slowly morphed into his real life. His drink and drugs problems continued to escalate, he regularly called up radio shows and abused the hosts, he held "Pillman Appreciation" days at local strip clubs and generally lived his gimmick 24/7. Yet Pillman was still prepared to push the envelope even further. He showed up at ECW's Cyberslam at the ECW Arena on 17th February 1996, and in the course of an incredible debut, Pillman claimed he was fired from WCW, and threatened to whip out his "Johnson" and piss all over the ring. He eventually got into a fight with a member of the crowd until security ejected him from the building. Pillman, it seemed, was too extreme for ECW. Things got even stranger as Pillman resurfaced back in WCW, appearing in the front row of Nitro shows, eventually attacking Randy Savage one week. However, just as Pillman was preparing to take his character to even bigger heights, disaster struck as Pillman was involved in a horrific car accident on 15th April in Kentucky.

Pillman had fallen asleep at the wheel of his Humvee and had crashed into the base of a tree; this caused his car to skid across the road and crash into another tree. His Humvee violently tipped over, and with Pillman not wearing his seat belt, he smashed through the windscreen and was thrown some 35 feet out of the car. Pillman was lucky to survive, however he did suffer a terrible catalogue of injuries, which included his left ankle almost being crushed to pieces, a dislocated jaw, multiple facial cuts sand and a broken nose. In a bitter twist of fate, Pillman's WCW contract had expired a few days earlier. This effectively meant that Pillman was jobless and temporarily in a wheelchair, so this was the end of the Loose Cannon... right? By all means no, as a result of his crazy antics, Pillman had suddenly became the subject of an intense bidding war between the WWF and WCW. There was also ECW, and Pillman knew he could use ECW as neutral territory to push his gimmick, so Brian Pillman, in a wheelchair with plates holding his ankle together, returned to the ECW Arena on 1st June. Immediately starting off where he left off earlier in the year, Pillman launched into another rant and made reference to hardcore rap group NWA. This for some reason pissed New Jack off, who tried to attack the wheelchair bound Pillman until Paul Heyman stepped in and calmed New Jack down. As a result of this, Pillman would never appear in ECW again.

By now, the bidding war between the WWF and WCW had approached its pinnacle. Pillman finally signed a three-year deal with the WWF worth a minimum of $250K a year on 7th June 1996. Pillman soon made his debut as an announcer and interviewer on WWF TV, but his ankle was still giving him chronic pain, so much so that he started to take massive amounts of painkillers just to make it through the day. Pillman suffered another blow when doctors told him that they would have to break his ankle again in order to reset it, and his absence from WWF TV was explained by an attack from Steve Austin who allegedly "broke" his ankle. This led to what I consider to be the highlight of Pillman's career as Steve Austin vowed to break into Pillman's house and kick his ass on the 4th November episode of Raw. Austin proved to be a man of his word as he set out on his journey to Pillman's house. Meanwhile, Pillman was shown shockingly branding a gun threatening to blow a hole in Austin's ass if he entered his house. Austin proceeded to destroy two of Pillman's buddies in front of his house and then tried to break into the house via the back door. The camera then furiously returned to Pillman as he cocked the gun, and the feed cut to black. A few seconds later the feed returned with Pillman screaming "I'm going to shoot the son of a bitch, he's fucking with the wrong guy!" The show faded out with Brian's wife crying on the couch. The angle caused an absolute uproar with the USA Network as they demanded that the WWF never mention or show the angle again. While the segment was shocking and disturbing, it was Pillman at his very best.

Pillman disappeared for several months in order to correct his ankle problems, making his grand return in May the following year. Pillman immediately attacked Steve Austin and signed a pact with The Hart Foundation. He soon made his in-ring comeback and was one of the stars of the legendary 10-man tag match at the Calgary Stampede PPV. However, the real Pillman was quickly exposed during single matches, obviously still struggling with his ankle. The once agile and athletic Pillman was now a shadow of his former self. Although the body wasn't what it once was, Pillman's mind was as sharp as ever, and he soon moved on to one of his best but unfortunately last feuds as he faced off against Goldust for the services of Terri Runnells (Ironically enough, Brian used to date Terri before she married Dustin). As a result of losing a match against Goldust at Summerslam, Pillman was forced to wrestle in drag for a number of weeks until he downed Goldust in a solid match at the Ground Zero PPV, and in the process bagged the services of Terri for 30 days. Back in his element, Pillman combined with Vince Russo to produce some of the finest vignettes ever detailing Pillman's adventures with the reluctant Terri. Highlights of the so called XXXfiles were shown on TV every week, and Pillman spurted out several sexually orientated lines such as, "Marlena I'm calling and you're gonna come" and "Marlena's going to have to swallow... everything I give to her". It was all set to climax at the Badd Blood PPV on 5th October as Pillman was set to rumble with Dude Love and then Goldust in the blow off to their feud. Unfortunately, Pillman never made it to the show. He was found dead in his hotel room on the morning of the show after suffering a heart attack in his sleep during the early hours of Sunday morning.

In the weeks leading up to his demise, Pillman was apparently in incredibly rough shape. Barely able to walk a few steps at a time on his bad ankle and drugged up to the eyeballs on painkillers and steroids, Pillman was seen passing out in airports and restaurants in the week leading to his death. The cause of death was officially deemed a heart attack stemming from a serious heart disease he had carried all his life. Strong traces of painkillers and sleeping pills were found in his system, which probably explains why he failed to wake up during the heart attack. Pillman left behind his wife Melanie and five children (through 3 different women), the biggest blow being that Melanie was never able to tell Pillman that she was pregnant with his sixth child, who was born in May 1998.

Pillman was used to proving people wrong, after all he spent his entire life winning many battles that lesser people would have given up on. People said that he was too small to play football... he proved them wrong. People told him that he would never be a big star in wrestling, but he fought back and forged himself a varied and successful career. He was told he would never wrestle again on his bad ankle, but he came back and proved everybody wrong. However, Brian Pillman eventually lost his biggest battle, the battle between himself and his personal demons.

RIP Brian Pillman, it's been boring since you left.