Jim Cornette Explains Why Brian Pillman Never Won WCW Title

Brian Pillman's run in WCW never resulted in him winning the WCW World Heavyweight title and Jim Cornette has an answer for why he never got a run with the title.

On his podcast, Cornette said Pillman was someone Ric Flair loved working with and wanted to drop the WCW title to the budding superstar. Cornette and the rest of the booking committee had thought of a major angle that would pay off with him eventually getting the title.

Cornette said the angle involved Pillman getting hit in the throat, leaving him with practically no voice for weeks, which would have the angle reveal Pillman's medical issues with his throat stemming from childhood. Other wrestlers involved in the angle would be Pillman's tag team partner Tom Zenk and The Midnight Express.

"Over the period of time that we would work the program, [Pillman and Zenk] would get their revenge and finally they would trap us in some type of match [against The Midnight Express] where if they won, they would get five minutes with me or Brian did to get even. We would bombard Zenk before the match, take him out of the equation, but Brian would refuse to give up his chance to get revenge and beat both men and they jerk me in and beat me too on a big show such as a pay-per-view or a [Clash of the Champions]," Cornette said.

The angle was set and ready to begin, but former Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling Jim Herd didn't want to involve The Midnight Express in any angle and thought the throat angle would make Pillman look weak. 

"But when we did all of the stuff and taped the interviews and came back and that was right after Ric quit his booker and I had quit the booking committee over this. I don't think Herd wanted The Midnight Express involved in anything, we know that much. [Jim] Barnett's reason for advising Herd to ix-nay the whole throat angle and just have regular matches and not show the promos was because it would make Brian look weak and we should save that for when he's working top guys. Barnett knew Herd wanted to hear that so they never did the angle which would have made him into a huge babyface beating the Midnight Express single-handedly and never had the long program with Flair where he would have the belt," Cornette said.

Pillman never did win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship during his tenure with the company but did win the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship and the WCW Tag Team Championship. Pillman wrestled for WCW from 1989-96. Cornette's comments can be seen in the video above.