Brian Pillman was one of the most unique acts in WWE when he sadlydied after a heart attack caused by previously undetected heart disease. Following his passing, WWE had a controversial interview segment betweenVince McMahon and Pillman's widow,Melanie, that was aired on television, which many felt was awfully distasteful at the time. However, according to JohnBradshaw Layfield, there was method to McMahon's madness at the time.
"I don't see how you can possibly say no to this," JBL said during an episode of "Something To Wrestle" after it was brought up that Melanie had requested to do the interview about her husband. "You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. If you don't put her on there, and years later you find out the widow wanted to come on, why didn't you have her on? Because she wasn't a draw? People are gonna bash Vince for that."
"There's no right answer to this. Vince is a standup guy, and he was willing to sa,y 'Okay, I did it, I made the decision. If you want to shoot arrows at somebody, shoot them at me.' And a lot of people did," JBL added, noting that if he were actually in McMahon's position at that time, he would've also done the same thing that the then-WWE Chairman did. "Are you gonna tell the family themselves, 'We don't want you to do a eulogy on television'? Then you're gonna look like the biggest jerk in the world!"
John Bradshaw Layfield also claimed that he was actually with Pillman the night before he passed away. "Brian and I were pretty good friends I'd say good friends and I'd always joked with him about something, a little personal joke, and he always kinda laughed and snickered at it," he recalled, noting that the night before, he joked with Pillman again but the late wrestler snapped at him for the first time. "At the time I thought: that's strange, that's not like Brian? Brian was a really nice guy."
Additionally, JBL told a story about a night between him and Pillman when the two were drinking where he found out that his friend was in a lot of pain all the time. "I said 'Are you in pain?' he goes, 'Every step I take, every step I take hurts.' He was in a tremendous amount of pain," he recalled. "Later he didn't make the show in Saint Louis, and I remember thinking right away back to the fact that it was different that he snapped at me and thinking 'I don't think Brian's with us anymore.'"
JBL further claimed that he was saddened by the news of Pillman's passing but not surprised, as he knew the late wrestler was a professional and wouldn't no-show an event.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Something To Wrestle" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
