they made a documenary on his life
Pillman signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation on June 10, 1996, with the signing announced in a press conference. He was the first wrestler to sign a guaranteed contract with the WWF, thus Pillman's arrival in WWF indicates the period in which Vince McMahon began to protect the company from abruptly losing talent to WCW, with Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall all previously doing so. Pillman acted as a commentator while recovering from his broken ankle, transitioning to a wrestling role after attacking a "fan" during an episode of WWF Shotgun Saturday Night.
Following WrestleMania 13, Pillman aligned himself with Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, and Jim Neidhart as part of the anti-American Hart Foundation, all of with whom he was familiar from his Stampede Wrestling roots. He began feuding with his former partner, Steve Austin. In the course of the feud, Austin was given on-screen credit for damaging Pillman's ankle after placing it in between the seat and backrest of a folded chair and then jumping on the chair. (This particular style of attack has since been dubbed "the Pillmanizer," in honor of this incident.)
On the November 4, 1996 episode of Monday Night Raw, Pillman took part in the infamous "Pillman's got a gun" angle with Steve Austin. Austin and Pillman had been feuding for several weeks, and Austin had finally decided to take matters into his own hands and visit Pillman, whom he had already injured, at home. Meanwhile, WWF interviewer Kevin Kelly sat in Pillman's house with a camera crew and the Pillman family, while Pillman's friends surrounded the house to protect him. Austin was attacked by Pillman's friends as soon as he arrived but soon subdued them. He then proceeded to break into Pillman's home and advance on his nemesis. Pillman responded by producing the same 9 mm Glock that he had displayed earlier and pointing it at a hesitant Austin, while Kelly and Pillman's wife Melanie screamed for help. The camera feed was then disrupted, with the scene fading to black. The on-scene director contacted commentator Vince McMahon and reported that he had heard "a couple explosions." The transmission was restored shortly before the end of Raw, and viewers witnessed Pillman's friends dragging Austin from the house while Pillman aimed the gun at him and announced his intention to "kill that son of a *****!" Pillman also slipped up by making the mistake of saying "****" on live television, which meant that it could not be edited out. The WWF (and Pillman personally) eventually apologized profusely for the entire angle, with Pillman claiming that the profanity "just slipped out".
Pillman wrestled sporadically throughout 1997, aligning himself with the Hart Foundation and feuding with Goldust.