Brian Pillman Jr. signs full-time AEW contract

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It appears Brian Pillman Jr. will be All Elite on a full-time basis, according to reports.

Pillman Jr. has been or was expected to sign a full-time deal with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) for some time. This was likely apparent as Pillman had been working more dates with the promotion in recent months. Recently, he has been a regular feature on AEW Dark, which airs on YouTube every Tuesday night.

According to Andrew Ravens at WrestlingNews.co, Pillman Jr. has also been working dates for Major League Wrestling (MLW) and Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).

However, Pillman’s last appearance in MLW was broadcast in November. It was a losing bout against MLW Middleweight Champion Myron Reed.

Pillman’s last OVW appearance was on December 5, during the promotion’s first PPV event “Christmas Chaos”. He would win the OVW Heavyweight Championship off Tony Gunn in a steel cage match.

OVW to vacate championship

OVW officials, following the announcement, would vacate the OVW Heavyweight Championship.

A press release from the promotion Saturday would confirm this news.

“While we at OVW are sad to see him go,” the release states. “We are also very happy for Brian Pillman Jr. on his continued success with AEW and wish him nothing but the best.”

Promotion owner Al Snow would have some positive words about Pillman.

“We’ve been really proud to have Brian as our OVW Heavyweight Champion, even if it wasn’t as lengthy of a reign as expected,” Snow says.

“His talent really made everyone on the roster elevate their game,” Snow adds. “For that, I am very grateful.”

“I really think Brian is going to continue to shine in AEW and make all of us, and, more importantly, his father proud,” Snow concludes.

The vacant title will be awarded to the winner of the January 9 Nightmare Rumble. The winner of the rumble will also face Jessie Godderz for the OVW National Championship later that night. So, the rumble winner could possibly become a double champion in one night.

Pillman’s championship reign ends at 29 days.

Pillman would like a release from MLW contract

Although Pillman’s contract with MLW isn’t up until July, per Fightful Wrestling’s contract tracker, he would like to leave the promotion.

As of press time, no response was received from MLW management on the matter.

An interview from this past August referenced by Liam Crowley at Wrestling Inc. would express that he was “actively trying to get released” from his MLW contract. He would further express that his “biggest goal and dream is to be signed with AEW.”

More information from that interview is available below.

This announcement means his AEW tag team Varsity Blondes with Griff Garrison will live to see another day. However, details are not official as to how long his contract with AEW will be. We will follow up on further developments surrounding this huge full-time signing.

---

For more sports and entertainment news, follow Jake Leonard on Twitter @JakeLeonardWPMD and Heartland Newsfeed @HLNF_Bulletin on Twitter.

Additionally, you can follow Heartland Newsfeed on Facebook and Reddit among other platforms. You can now follow our news updates on Telegram, Flote, and MeWe.

Support independent journalism. Become a patron on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. There are other donor options as well.