“Just when they think they got the answers, I change the
questions.”
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper was a bad man. You didn’t have to watch
him long to learn that; he’d tell you straight to your face. “Superfly” Jimmy
Snuka, Greg Valentine, Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, it didn’t matter to the Hot Rod who
you were, how good you thought you were, what you’d done in the ring, on TV,
whatever. If you crossed his path, if you fell into Piper’s Pit, he would tear
you a new one. Or he’d clunk you with a coconut; that worked, too.
Read more after the jump:
That sort of confidence comes with the knowledge that you
can back it up. Most professional wrestlers are athletes, but only a few have
ever been Golden Gloves boxing champions. Roddy was. He was also a black belt,
too, in case you wanted another credential. What made him a master in the ring,
though, was his psychology. Roddy Piper knew, better than nearly any man to
ever grace the squared circle, how to get inside someone’s head. Ask the
Sheepherders: how do you approach a man so crazy that he’s willing to smash a
glass beer bottle on his head just to prove that he can? Ask the Guerrero
family: how do you earn respect from a man so disrespectful he offers to play
your ancestral home’s national anthem on the bagpipes… and plays La Cucaracha?
Roddy Piper came up in an era where titles didn’t change
hands much. Looking at the reigns of the great champions of the ‘70s and ‘80s,
there wasn’t much opportunity to secure a great run of glory at the top, but
Piper would not be denied. In Jim Crockett Promotions, he was Mid-Atlantic
Heavyweight Champion twice, Television Champion twice, and US Heavyweight
Champion once. Across the various other arms of the NWA, he won eight
heavyweight championships, twelve tag team championships with ten partners, and
even the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship. When he finally joined the
WWF, he won their world tag team championship with yet another partner, the
legendary Ric Flair, and the Intercontinental Championship.
His legacy of gold, however, pales in comparison to his
legacy of recognition by his peers. He was inducted into the Cauliflower Alley
Club, was acknowledged by Pro Wrestling Illustrated as Most Hated Wrestler
twice, Most Inspirational, Most Popular, and the winner of Match of the Year in
1985. They ranked him as the 17th greatest singles wrestler of the
PWI years in 2003. Wrestling Observer voted him Best on Interviews three years
running, Best Heel in 1984 and 1985, and inducted him into their Hall of Fame
in 1996. He would join the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005, and the Professional
Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2007. He was even tabbed by Vince McMahon to main
event Wrestlemania 1, and the Nassau Coliseum card of Wrestlemania 2. On top of
all of these, in 2012, the WWE announced their list of the 50 greatest villains
in wrestling history. Given their ownership, they’d have been forgiven for
selecting Mr. McMahon as the greatest villain, the prime motive force for the
Attitude Era. Given the flash and dazzle of his 16 World Title reigns, they’d
have been entirely justified to select Ric Flair. Given his position as the
first true heel in history, the model for all others to look up to, they’d have
upset nobody by naming Gorgeous George… but no. They considered the entirety of
wrestling history, and they said that the greatest of all time… was Rowdy Roddy
Piper.
Roddy Piper was many things in his career. A sneaky,
underhanded heel, a supremely confident defender of the old school against the
influence of celebrity in wrestling, one of the first wrestlers to become a
movie star… but what he never was, could never be, was predictable. Roddy Piper
always kept us guessing, and always kept us watching.
In the end, he changed the question again. Now, the only one
left is “could there ever be another man quite like Roddy Piper?”
Editor's Note: This is my personal favorite Piper's Pit.... so I had to drop it in on the end of a great article from J.C.! Enjoy ~ Mike D
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