Lexis King (Brian Pillman, Jr.) recently appeared as a guest on Booker T’s latest “Hall of Fame” podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, King was asked if he feels like he was born to be a professional wrestler:
“I think about that a lot. It’s almost like I felt like I never had a choice. I felt like it was always in my blood, you know, for the fact that the day he decided he was going to name me Brian Pillman, I was trapped. It was everywhere I’d go. Go to the grocery, ‘Oh, Brian Pillman. ‘It’s a household name in Cincinnati where I grew up, and so I couldn’t escape that legacy. I couldn’t escape all the reminders of him.”
“To be fair, you know, he didn’t exactly leave me a choice. He left me on this Earth without anything. I didn’t grow up with all the wealth and all the accolades that he gained throughout his life, so I had to scratch and claw and find my way through it. I couldn’t just go to school and just, you know, I did go to school, and I did do all those things, but I needed more. He made it so I needed to reclaim all that. I’ve never been content with just being average because I know what the Pillman name used to have, and instead of building on this wealth, you know, I didn’t inherit any of that. I didn’t inherit anything. So now I have to go back out there and reclaim it all. The best way to do that, with my genetics and my personality and what I inherited from him directly, is to be a pro wrestler. I was never going to succeed at anything else. There was just that bone in my body that, you know, just the person I am only works in this world.”
“I tried to be normal. I got my degree, I did the normal guy job, nine to five and I’ve just always been a creative, eccentric person. Like I said, had he had lived a long life and maybe provided for me, I could have invested or done my own thing, but he basically left the stage for me, you know what I mean? It’s like, you know, he gave me the spotlight and said, ‘Alright, now it’s your turn to go be great and go be somebody, but you gotta do it on your own.’ I’m almost more blessed in that sense that now I have something to chase. I have this drive to be better than he was. Had he been around, maybe I wouldn’t have had that. Maybe I would have resented the business because I didn’t need it. I don’t know. It’s hard to say. Every second generation wrestler goes through their own trials and tribulations with this business and how it affects them mentally and their development outside of this world, but I didn’t have a choice, you know? I didn’t have any insurance plan or any backup plan. It was like, here you go, kid. You got a name? That’s all he gave me. He gave me a name and a legacy.”
On where the ideas for the vignettes in NXT came from:
“All I can say is it was 100% real. I felt that way for a very long time. It was just a shot in the dark. It was just pure chance that the creative happened to be right on board with that. I came into WWE. I told them my story. I told them my real story and that I don’t have a gimmick. You know, this isn’t a character. This is real life. Wrestling has had a real impact on my life and I said, ‘This is what I need to do.’ I wanted this. I wanted to become my own man. The second coming is never better than the original. I was never going to be a better Brian Pillman. I knew that and I knew that I needed to more or less disparage his name and create my own. I don’t have any hatred towards my father, but it would have just been an uphill battle to try to be Brian Pillman II or Brian Pillman Jr.”
“You know, I’ve gone 30 years of my entire life with someone else’s name, his name, and to come here and to have this company give me the opportunity to create my own name, I mean, it was a dream come true and it all just fell together. They gave me a few things to say but I mean, there wasn’t even really a script involved. They said, ‘Tell us your story’, and I went on that camera and everything I said was true and 100% from the heart and that’s how I feel. I didn’t know him. Everybody loved him. I mean, I don’t hate him. He was a great man. I inherited a lot of positive traits from him, but I don’t owe him anything to use his name any further and now it’s time for me to make mine.”
“I’m never gonna outshine him what he did, especially the way that he passed. It’s like, you think about guys like Tupac, you know, these great artists that when they die at their peak, they’re immortalized at that peak. There’s no outdoing that. They’re revered and he was revered for what he did. I thought about starting out that way. I thought about starting my career as a new person. My first indie match, I was Alex King, like straight up, like almost the exact same. So to come in here and be given the creative, like, you pick your name. Like, they didn’t even go back and forth with me, they said, ‘We want you to be you.'”
“I said, ‘Look, this was my older sister’s first name. I actually knew her. She would pick me up, take me to Dairy Queen, and she was an indie wrestler too and a performer. She was a dancer. Then my little sister Skylar, who I went through the trouble and all the hard times. She eventually got adopted by her grandma. So you know, to come in with a real raw story that I don’t have to fake it. I don’t have to read from a script. This is who I am and no one else has that on me.”
“If you watched Dark Side of the Ring, this business has had a severe impact on my life and despite all that, I’m stronger than ever, and I got here because of this business, because of the great impact that it has had. So while it might have put me, you know, back a few steps in my childhood, here I am now thriving and traveling the world and I finally made it here to the biggest stage of them all, the WWE. I think I deserve a shot, 100%, on everything I’ve been through inside this career and outside of it. So it’s a fresh start for Lexis King.”
On what he feels when he hears his name announced as Lexis King:
“There’s a lot of emotion behind that last name. That was my stepfather’s last name. He came into the picture, I mean, pretty much as soon as my father passed. I mean, my mom needed to be with somebody to help keep the lights on. So I mean, she was already one foot out the door, I’m pretty sure, before he passed, you know what I mean, because everything that was going on in the business and things. So she was looking for some stability and she met a guy with the last name King. He came from a great family, but he wasn’t great to me. He was, you know, an abusive, you know, piece of work, you know, and he put me through some sh*t that it made me stronger, and in a way, it’s like, you know what? This man robbed my childhood. I’m going to rob his name. I’m going to take his name because that’s a frickin cool name and I’m going to make it mean something positive because as much as he was a piece of garbage to me, you know, I’m not doing this to bring him any glory or fame. I’m doing this for me. I’m gonna take that name and make it something because in a way, he had much more influence on my life than my own father did.”
“I was four years old and I lived under this man’s roof until I was about 13. I packed up my bags in a black trash bag and moved out on my own when I was 13. This man berated me, neglected me, abused me for about, you know, eight, nine years. So I am a King. I called him dad. I mean, there was a part of my life where I looked up to this stepfather as my father. He never officially adopted me and gave me his name, but I have every right to use that name because what I went through made me who I am today. So I’m more of a King than I am a Pillman if we’re quite honest.”
“As much negativity and stuff that that name carries in my life, it’s who I am, and if that means that when I step in the ring with you that I’m going to be a vile piece of sh*t and just beat the crap out of you, then that’s what it’s gonna be because all that’s been built up and that’s been given out to me. I’ve taken a beating. I’ve taken a whoopin. I’ve been thrown down a flight of stairs by a grown man, you know what I mean? Like, nothing can stop me on this journey to take what I want from NXT and it’s already started. So you guys have seen it. I made my debut, I made a statement, and this is who I am. I’m Lexis King. So people better get used to the name. People want to talk crap about the name, you know, but they’re gonna be chanting it before long so get used to it.”
You can check out the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
