The Hollywood Blonds

Steve Austin and Brian Pillman teamed for the first time in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) on October 17, 1992, and battled to a draw with Shane Douglas and Brad Armstrong. Austin and Pillman also teamed against Scott Steiner and Marcus Alexander Bagwell, jobber tag team Chris Sullivan and Tommy Angel, Dustin Rhodes and Brad Armstrong (who was filling in for Barry Windham), Ricky Steamboat and Nikita Koloff, and Steamboat and Douglas. Austin and Pillman temporarily stopped teaming when in late 1992, the recently heel turned Brian Pillman started teaming with Barry Windham, but when Windham was groomed for a singles push and a run with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and after one last unsuccessful attempt at winning the WCW World Tag Team Championship from Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas at Starrcade 1992, Pillman and Windham stopped teaming. Windham declared his intention to pursue the WCW World Title, and told Pillman he should instead team with Austin.

At first, the two were just billed as "Stunning" Steve and "Flyin'" Brian, but the two came up with the idea of **The Hollywood Blonds**, complete with matching trunks and vests. The duo was immediately thrust into a feud with Shane Douglas and Ricky Steamboat over the WCW World Tag Team titles, which gave the duo a chance to show off their teamwork and their trademark "mock filming" pose that they invented. After a successful move, one of the Blonds would move his hands like he was turning the handle on an old film camera. After winning a match, Pillman or Austin would arrogantly state that "Your brush with greatness is over" to further annoy the fans.

On the March 27, 1993 episode of *Power Hour*, Austin and Pillman defeated Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas to win their only WCW World Tag Team Championship. Though Steamboat and Douglas had several rematches, they were unable to recapture the titles. On one night, Austin and Pillman faced an unknown masked team known as "Dos Hombres" (literally "two guys") who they assumed were a couple of luchadores from Mexico. The match started out rather inconspicuously, until the two masked men started showing moves more consistent with Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas than two luchadores. Dos Hombres won the match, earning them a shot at the titles at Slamboree. However, by the time Slamboree came about, Douglas had been fired by WCW and Steamboat was without a partner. Instead of canceling the already announced steel cage match, Tom Zenk was made to wear the mask of "Hombre Uno" and work the match without anyone realizing it wasn't Douglas under the red and green hood. The Blonds won at Slamboree, thus ending the "Dos Hombres" angle.

After the feud with Steamboat and Douglas ended, the Blonds were programmed with the recently reformed Four Horsemen, who at the time consisted of Ric Flair, Paul Roma, and Ole and Arn Anderson. Flair had recently been given a talk show segment called *A Flair for the Gold* to give Flair television time. Pillman and Austin appeared on the show and mocked Flair and Anderson's age. Several weeks later, the Blonds continued their antagonism of Flair and Anderson by mocking them through their own segment called "*A Flare for the Old*". Austin would stand in the background with a pillow under his shirt for a gut while slowly stroking his chin imitating Arn Anderson. Pillman dressed up in an old bathrobe, put on reading glasses and a grey wig and then cut into Flair for being too old and too scared of the Hollywood Blonds. The impersonation drew Ric Flair back in the ring at *Clash of the Champions XXIII*, where Flair and Anderson challenged the Blonds for the tag team titles. Despite winning the two out of three falls match, they did not win the titles since the Blonds were disqualified after Barry Windham interfered.

Windham's attack shifted Flair's focus away from the Hollywood Blonds, which in turn meant that Arn Anderson needed a new tag team partner. Not long after the *Clash*, Paul Roma was introduced as the fourth Horseman and would team with Anderson in the Horsemen/Blonds feud. On July 18, at Beach Blast, Roma and Anderson were beaten by the Blonds, who cheated to retain their titles. Not long after Beach Blast, Pillman injured his ankle and was unable to compete at a scheduled title match at *Clash of the Champions XXIV*. However, due to WCW taping policies, Arn Anderson and Paul Roma had already been taped as the World Tag Team Champions so the title change had to happen despite Pillman being injured. Austin teamed with "Lord" Steven Regal at the *Clash*, where they dropped the titles to Roma and Anderson.

As soon as the Blonds dropped the titles, the team was again temporarily split up. Austin and Pillman both claimed that it was for political reasons. Austin was given a singles push challenging Dustin Rhodes for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. After Pillman finally recovered, he and Austin had a few more matches together taking on teams such as Marcus Alexander Bagwell and 2 Cold Scorpio, Scorpio and Ron Simmons, Simmons and Ice Train, and jobber tag team Frankie Rowe and Jimmy Rogers. The Blonds also confronted The Nasty Boys and Missy Hyatt during an interview after The Nasty Boys had won the titles from Anderson and Roma. The Blonds' last match as a team took place on the October 30, 1993 episode of *Saturday Night*. After the Blonds had defeated a jobber tag team, Col. Rob Parker (who had just become Austin's new manager) came to ringside to congratulate Austin (and not Pillman) on winning the match. Pillman took exception to Parker snubbing him. Parker brought up Pillman's bad leg and said if he was a race horse, he would put him down. Pillman attacked Parker, which in turn led to Austin attacking and turning on Pillman, turning Pillman face and breaking up the Hollywood Blonds for the third and final time.

They would briefly reunite in the WWF in 1996, but not as the Blonds. Austin by then was using his new "Stone Cold" persona, and an injured Pillman was "The Loose Cannon" and acted primarily as his sidekick, until Austin turned on Pillman for showing his admiration for Austin's nemesis, Bret Hart.