Brian Pillman Jr Calls ‘The Blondes’ His Prototype Tag Team Name In AEW, ‘Pretty Sure’ He’s Under Contract With MLW
Photo Credit: MLW
Brian Pillman Jr. says there’s a ton of potential for “The Blondes” in wrestling.
Pillman recently spoke with SockMonkey Mike about his alliance with Griff Garrison in All Elite Wrestling, referring to the pairing as an “established” tag team. Pillman said it’s still an unofficial name but he believes “The Blondes” may be the name they use together and says it has a lot of potential.
“I think it’s pretty much known that Griff and I are an established tag team right now you know. We’re coming in, we’ve got two wins under our belt. We’re two and four. While we don’t have an official name yet, I think sort of the prototype/pilot name is just “The Blondes”. Tony (Tony Khan) calls us The Blondes. “Get The Blondes out there and get them a win and stuff”. That’s what we are, we’re athletes, we’re focused on winning matches and we’re working focusing on working together as a team. I’ve never been so organic in the ring with somebody you know as a tag team. Maybe it’s due to us having similar experience levels, similar body styles and stuff. We work well together. We like to keep it very simple and physical, very strike-oriented offense but yeah I think I don’t expect to maybe see an exact copy of who The Hollywood Blondes were in their character but who’s to say that you know just happened by fate that Griff Garrison comes in. Similar look, we both got the hair.”
“It’s a perfect fit, we are the blondes but are we gonna be the Jacksonville Blondes, The Cincinnati Blondes, The North Carolina Blondes or do we take another kind of theme like how they did with Hollywood. It wasn’t necessarily that they were from Hollywood, it was just the theme you know like from movies and that sort of stuff. Maybe we’re the something blondes right, we can take that we could be freaking USS Blondes and we’re sailors and we’re sailing around the U.S and also we’re doing Jericho’s cruise and everything. Or we could be the varsity blondes where we’re throwing footballs to each other and we’re playing lacrosse and we’re you know collegiate athletes like how he’s the ivy league athlete so you never know where we could go with it you know.”
Pillman also spoke about his contract status with MLW, noting that he’s “pretty sure” he’s still under contract with the promotion. Pillman is scheduled to be part of MLW The Restart and said he’s thankful he’s able to work for as many companies as he has been under his deal.
“Yeah I think so. I’m pretty sure I’m still under contract with them. I’ve been working with whoever wants to work with me even though MLW, I’m assigned to them. It’s a pretty liberal deal where I can do a lot of things you know. I’m not super exclusive to them, some of the later ones are. Mine was a little older and they were more lenient on what I could do so I’m very happy and blessed for that. I’m also able to do AEW, MLW, and OVW television all at the same time.”
Related: MLW Announces Middleweight Title Match For The November 18 Restart
Pillman is under contract with MLW through next summer but he had been actively seeking his release. MLW says the situation hasn’t changed and Pillman remains under contract. Pillman is free to work where he pleases per the terms of his contract and MLW will return as soon as safely possible. It was also noted that the original statement the company issued to WrestleZone in July after his AEW debut (seen below) still reflects their position on the matter.
“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.”
Check out the full interview below: