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Brian Pillman

Background:
Brian Pillman started off his career with Stampede, training at the Hart dungeon before moving onto the NWA briefly and them moving to Jim Crockett Promotions in 1991 where he'd remain until he was released in 1994 (where he was a 3 time JCP Light Heavyweight Championship).

Pillman would immediately revamp himself into a darker and edgier personality, He would be most noted for his feud and partnership with 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin as well as feuds with Raven, The Sandman, Sabu and Tommy Dreamer. Just as apt at playing the sympathetic fan favourite as he was playing the devlish heel, Pillman was known as inspiring wrestlers a generation of wrestlers and heels.

Pillman would suffer a health scare in 1996 where he found out he had a heart disease that could potentially retire him. He would take a hiatus of 1 year and return to a mass ovation 1 year later. He would wrestle for another 4 years before his retirement in 2001, where he'd briefly become a manager until 2005 and even commentate until 2007. He currently is one half of one of the most popular wrestling podcasts with Stone Cold. He also has a son (Brian Pillman Jr) and a daughter (Sexy 'Lexi' Pillman) who entered the business (Brian Jr as a wrestler, Lexi as a manager).

Accolades:
Extreme Championship Wrestling:
ECW World Championship - 4 Times
ECW Television Championship - 5 Times
ECW Tag Team Championship - 8 Times (5 Times with Stone Cold Steve Austin, 2 Times with Owen Hart, 1 Time with Bret Hart)

Jim Crockett Promotions:
JCP Light Heavyweight Championship - 3 Times
JCP Tag Team Championship - 2 Times (with Stone Cold Steve Austin)

Owen Hart

Background:
Another one of the technical wizards and high flyers of ECW (alongside the likes of Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, RVD, Rey Mysterio Jr, Chavo Guerrero Jr and to a lesser extent, Lance Storm, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn) that had left either the WWF or Jim Crockett during the mid 90's for greener pastures, Hart would leave the WWF in 1996 as he would walk out of the company after an argument with Vince McMahon.

He would find his way to ECW where he'd wrestle and become one of the biggest heels in the company between 1996-1998, even joining the Network for a time being, before turning face in 1999 and winning one of two world titles in mid 1999. His most famous feud however would be with his brother Bret in the late 90's and early 2000's, with Owen retiring Bret in 2001 in the main event of November to Remember in a title vs career matchup (with Owen retaining and retiring his brother). Owen would wrestle for 2 more years before retiring in 2003 where he would help brother Bret Hart run Stampede Wrestling and the Hart Dungeon (which he does so till this day). He has occasionally appeared as a manager for family members and students of the hart dungeon such as Natalya Neidhart, Tyson Dux, Davey Boy Smith Jr and Brian Pillman Jr.

Along with being considered one of the best wrestlers in ECW history, he is considered possibly one of the best tag team wrestlers in general in ECW.

Accolades:

Extreme Championship Wrestling:
ECW World Championship - 3 Times
ECW Television Championship - 4 Times
ECW Tag Team Championship - 10 Times (6 Times with Bret Hart, 2 Times with Brian Pillman, 1 Time with Chris Benoit, 1 Time with Lance Storm)

New Japan Pro Wrestling:
IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion - 2 Times
Best of the Super Juniors - 1996

Hulk Hogan:

Background:
Starting off in the AWA in the early 80's after being released by the WWF by Vince McMahon Sr for taking a leave of absence to film the Rocky III. He would wrestle for the promotion for around 2 years from 1981 to 1983 before being snapped by Continental Wrestling Alliance between 1983 and 1985 where he would go onto have a program with Jerry 'The King' Lawler where it would be Lawler who would wrestle as the heel against the all american, wholesome Hulkster. From there, Crockett would pick him up in 1985 and with their recent acquisition of Georgia Championship Wrestling, would make Hogan the face of their company throughout the late 80's and early 90's, becoming arguably the biggest name in U.S wrestling at the time alongside Randy Savage of the WWF and Ric Flair and Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat of the NWA. Hogan would be one of the reasons that Jim Crockett (which by this stage was booked by Bill Watts), felt comfortable enough to leave the NWA and go it alone, a decision that paid off well as they would become the third major promotion to survive the late 80's and make to the 90's alongside the WWF and NWA. He would constantly be at the top of the card, even going over to Japan to wrestle for New Japan briefly as well as wrestling briefly for All Japan as well in the early 90's (even appearing in a Champions Carnival). He is one of the only few men to ever win both the IWGP and Triple Crown Heavyweight Championships. A name that was as American as apple pie, Hogan would eventually try to break into the movie scene in the mid 90s but would ultimately fail, rejoining Crockett in 1996, this time forming the villanous NWO alongside fromer WWF wrestlers Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, where he'd continue to wrestle for before leaving Crockett in 2000 after Crockett was forced to downsize significantly (as the company was hemmoraging money (with the famous fallout between Eric Bischoff and members of the NWO, with Bischoff all but firing all members on the spot), with their new tv slot significantly worse on a worse channel). Hogan would return to the WWF between 2000 and 2002, even winning the WWF Championship (which proved a highly controversial decision), he has since appeared sporadically on WWF TV along with having a brief run in TNA Wrestling.

Hogan is a controversial figure, with many saying he was the one to have really drove Crockett in the mid-late 80's and early-mid 90's to be one of the biggest promotions in the world and praised him for his ability to reinvent himself as a heel in the mid-late 90's upon his return to wrestling, however many also criticising his ego and it leading to Crockett having to downside in the early 2000's (with the promotion only really able to recover somewhat in the late 2000's). Whoever you ask however, he is one of the most influential wrestlers of all time.

Accolades:

Jim Crockett Promotions:
JCP World Heavyweight Championship - 8 Times
JCP National Heavyweight Championship - 2 Times
JCP Tag Team Championship - 4 Times (2 with Kevin Nash, 1 with Scott Hall, 1 with Lex Luger)

World Wrestling Federation:
WWF Championship - 1 Time

New Japan:
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship - 1 Time
G1 Climax (1987)

All Japan:
Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship - 1 Time
Champions Carnival - (1992)


So I guess today the promotional layout of the U.S is as follows:

WWF, NWA and ECW are the major three promotions (NWA is still a predominantly sports oritentated product, WWF is sports entertainment like otl and ECW is kind of like mid 2000's ROH mixed with original ECW, as that was where it was heading apparently). Just below them and the other major national promotion is Jim Crockett Promotions. WWF is basically the same people OTL running it (Vince, HHH and the McMahons), NWA is run by guys like Dutch Mantell, Bruce Pritchard and Jim Cornette with Crockett still being run by Bischoff (who has somewhat evolved, he can book young wrestlers now, just that he still favours big men) with of course, ECW being run by Paul Heyman (of course), Gabe Sapolsky, Tommy Dreamer and Raven.