"This was not going to end well" - Arn Anderson on the storyline that WWE had to apologize for
Arn Anderson has given his take on the controversial WWE storyline which saw Brian Pillman pull out a gun on Stone Cold Steve Austin.
In 1995, Pillman joined forces with Anderson, Chris Benoit, and Ric Flair to become a member of The Four Horsemen in WCW. One year later, he joined WWE and feuded with his former tag team partner, Steve Austin. When Austin broke into Pillman’s home on WWE RAW, The Loose Cannon pointed a gun at his rival.
Speaking on his ARN podcast, Anderson recalled that he was working on WCW Nitro when the WWE RAW episode aired. He immediately knew that WWE would get into trouble for the segment, which involved cameras cutting out when Pillman had hold of the gun.
“When we heard about it, I don’t care who you are or what your experience level is or what your thought process is, how long you’ve been in this business, the kind of person you really are… all those things figured in, you had to know or I had to know, in my mind, this was not gonna end well.”
The WWE RAW segment also featured Pillman saying, “Get out of the f***ing way!” on live television.
Arn Anderson on WWE creating controversy
Arn Anderson went on to say that using a gun in a WWE storyline was never going to end well for the company.
“The repercussions from this were gonna have to be so far-fetched, it’s like… a gun in a [wrestling show]? A gun? Trust me, if you want to create controversy, that created controversy.”
Brian Pillman, Vince McMahon, and the USA Network later issued apologies for the segment going too far.
Please credit ARN and give a H/T to SK Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.