Brian Pillman Jr., son of the late WCW and WWE superstar “Flyin’ Brian Pillman is still under contract with MLW.
There was speculation that Pillman had been granted his release due to his upcoming appearance on AEW Dark. MLW clarified Pillman’s contract with a statement released to POST Wrestling, “Brian is not released and is fully aware of our schedule, which includes events October 3rd and December 5th pending the state of the pandemic. We put the health of our talent/staff and their family and our fans before bookings, which is why we are not running at the moment. We’ve been in contact with Brian to relay this. If he elects to perform elsewhere under the terms of his deal, he certainly has our full blessing to do so.”
Statement provided to @POSTwrestling from Jared St. Laurent regarding the status of Brian Pillman Jr. with MLW pic.twitter.com/qRyZJTTeiy
— John Pollock (@iamjohnpollock) July 7, 2020
Pillman was recently interviewed by WrestleTalk and explained his decision to pursue work with AEW, “Major League Wrestling was a wonderful opportunity. It provided me with TV experience with the styles of matches that I was having and the opponents were incredible. I had some of my best matches there, without a doubt,” he explained. “I really wanted to continue my career with MLW because things were getting really hot. We were getting pushed. As you all know, in wrestling, when things have a good momentum behind it … it’s really not about the money and stuff. It’s really about getting to express your art at the highest level and to work with the highest level guys, and that’s what I was doing. So I was very happy there.
“I think that just what happened with the COVID-19 pandemic is they got a little apprehensive about running shows and, meanwhile, you got Impact, and you got AEW, and you have WWE that are running shows with no fans. So it was just hard for me to sit still and to wait for them to bring me an opportunity, so I just went out and chased the opportunities that were available to me. And, per my contract, I was allowed to work for AEW. So it was kind of a no-brainer to start to chase an opportunity at AEW.”
You can check out the full interview with Pillman below. Credit Pro Wrestling Sheet for the transcription above.