DaveyBoy’s Wrestling Menu #230 – Piper DVD Review (Disc-3 + Conclusion)
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 3:02 AM EST






THE WRESTLING MENU #230

Welcome one and all to the 230th edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.

Apologies for the lack of a fresh topic today folks. I’ve just been getting busier & busier of late, so it’s tricky enough to post anything at all. It looks like the streak may be coming to a close any week now. Then again, if I can get through next week, then hopefully Judgment Day will get me through another month at the very least.

Today sees the conclusion of my 3 part DVD Review on the ‘Roddy Piper: Born To Controversy’ DVD set. If you have not yet had time to read my review of the first 2 discs, they are still available by clicking on the following links:

- Disc-1: http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/2007/articles/1176870358.php
- Disc 2: http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/2007/articles/1178083023.php

On with the rowdy show…..


RODDY PIPER DVD REVIEW – DISC 3: Piper’s Pit

APPETIZERS – 1980’s Pits

ROBERT DEBORD (Championship Wrestling. January-24, 1984): Introductory segment of sorts where the head of the WWF magazine introduces Piper & his new Piper’s Pit segment. Just over 2 minutes in length.

ANDRE THE GIANT (Championship Wrestling. March-6, 1984): Very good 2 minute segment where Piper takes it up to an unaccommodating Andre both verbally & physically!

FRANK WILLIAMS (Championship Wrestling. March-27, 1984): One of Piper’s most important segments due to the fact that he made an interview with a relative unknown & uncharismatic wrestler very entertaining. Roddy closes this 2 minute segment with a beat-down.

THE HAITI KID (Tuesday Night Titans. March-7, 1986): The Haiti Kid was a black midget wrestler who was a friend of Mr.T leading up to the WrestleMania 2 boxing match. For that, Piper & ‘Cowboy’ Bob Orton cut his hair into a Mohawk! 3 minutes is shown all up.

JESSE VENTURA, HULK HOGAN & ANDRE THE GIANT (Wrestling Challenge. February-7, 1987): One of the most famous segments in professional wrestling history. Andre comes out with Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan and, after much pleading from Hogan not to, turns heel by ripping the champion’s t-shirt & chain. 4 captivating minutes worth.

JIMMY SNUKA (Tuesday Night Titans. June-26, 1984): Another famous segment where poor Superfly hardly gets a word in amongst Roddy’s mocking of him. A huge coconut shot to the head then takes place before Piper whips Snuka with a belt & retreats as Jimmy goes crazy! A memorable 4 minutes worth.

MR.T, HULK HOGAN & JIMMY SNUKA (March-17, 1985): This edition of the Pit actually takes place in the middle of the ring at Madison Square Garden during a house show. Roddy gets some heel heat first by rubbishing New York & introducing Paul ‘Mr Wonderful’ Orndorff, but Mr. T does finally come out (gold jewellery & all) & he doesn’t come alone as Hogan & Snuka accompany him to the ring. After some to’ing & fro’ing on the mic, Piper shows some corny artwork before giving T a chance to back out of the WrestleMania main-event. Obviously, he doesn’t. 6 minutes worth all up & an excellent segment.

SALVATORE BELLOMO & JUNKYARD DOG (PrimeTime Wrestling. January-22, 1985): Another in-ring Pit, this time from The Meadowlands in New Jersey. Piper interviews a couple of crowd members first, before Bellomo comes out instead of an injured JYD. Roddy, Orton & Orndorff belittle the Italian before things get physical & JYD eventually runs out to make the save. All up, we see 11 minutes of footage.

PAUL ORNDORFF (Tuesday Night Titans. March-22, 1985): Short 2 minute segment where Piper & Orndorff basically hype the WrestleMania main-event by telling Mr.T that he can’t train for a pro-wrestling career in just 3 weeks.

BRUNO SAMMARTINO (PrimeTime Wrestling. November-5, 1985): Another in-ring segment from MSG where a stubborn Bruno keeps firing back at Roddy’s verbal jabs at him being too old & well past his best. Being such huge Bruno fans, the NYC live audience is heavily into this & basically tempt the 2 to come to blows, which they eventually do. Another good segment that lasted just under 10 minutes.

JIMMY HART (WWF SuperStars. October-18, 1986): Roddy had turned face by this stage & the heel manager Hart comes to this segment with some (sarcastic) gifts from his heel stable, before Piper ties him to a chair & pours mouthwash into his gob. 4 minutes in length.

HARLEY RACE & BOBBY HEENAN (WWF SuperStars. November-8, 1986): The 3 men discuss who actually crowed Race a king, before Piper claims to give Harley his real throne; a toilet seat. 3 minutes in length.

HULK HOGAN & WWE EXECUTIVES (WWF SuperStars. November-15, 1986): A short 2 minute segment where nothing much is really stated! If anything, the 2, even both as faces, are still not perfectly on the same page. I suppose that makes sense considering their history.

HULK HOGAN (WWF SuperStars. March-14, 1987): The 2 are much more on the same page here as both men hype their upcoming WrestleMania 3 matches against Adrian Adonis & Andre The Giant. Just over 3 minutes in length.

HIMSELF (WWF SuperStars. March-28, 1987): The final Piper’s Pit before his so-called retirement, Roddy takes this opportunity to tell his life story & state how he wants his career to be remembered… all in the space of 3 minutes!

BROTHER LOVE & MORTON DOWNEY JR (WWF WrestleMania 5. April-2, 1989): Brother Love comes out first (to Piper’s bagpipes) & impersonates Roddy (to not much reaction), before Downey comes out to a decent pop & lights up a cigarette. Roddy eventually does grace us with his presence & runs down Brother Love to the point that he leaves the ring (even though we don’t see that). Piper then turns his attention to Downey who matches vocal jabs with Roddy, while blowing cigarette smoke in his face. After a few warnings, Piper blind-sides Downey with a fire extinguisher. Overlong segment at 18 minutes in length that had a couple of decent moments, but mostly fell flat & dragged. It did get some mainstream attention at the time though.


MAIN – 2000’s Pits

VINCE McMAHON & RIKISHI (WWE SmackDown. April-10, 2003): Vince begins in the ring running down Hulk Hogan, before introducing Roddy as “another one of his creations” & running down his current podgy condition. Piper retorts by listing all of Vince’s business failures, before agreeing on one thing with Vince; Hating Hulk Hogan. Vince leaves the ring soon after, only to be replaced by a coconut-carrying Rikishi who is looking for some belated revenge. But Sean O’Haire saves the day & beats down Rikishi to Piper’s orders. A coconut shot later & Roddy cements a heel turn. Good 15 minute segment that was entertaining, if not up to his classic Pits.

JIMMY SNUKA (WWE SmackDown. April-17, 2003): A week after the Rikishi incident, Piper shows footage of that as well as the original coconut shot on Superfly. He then introduces Sean O’Haire as his new protégé, before being interrupted by Snuka. Roddy tries to bury the hatchet, but gets nothing but chops as a response, before O’Haire & Rikishi come out & have their own battle. Not a bad 11 minutes worth, but nothing too special.

MR.AMERICA (WWE SmackDown. May-15, 2003): For those that have forgotten, Mr.America was Hulk Hogan under a mask. Piper challenges him to a ppv match as Hogan comes out to a large pop. Roddy reminds everyone that Hogan has never pinned him 1-2-3, before the insults, and then punches, fly back & forth. Piper & O’Haire get the better of Hogan, before the one-legged Zach Gown makes his debut & comes to the aid of the Hulkster. Effective segment that the crowd loved, despite the angle eventually not going over very well. 11 minutes worth of footage is shown all up.

EDDIE GUERRERO & TAJIRI (WWE SmackDown. June-12, 2003): Piper has a table filled with food in the ring to greet the new WWE Tag-Team Champions. O’Haire takes Tajiri’s belt & doesn’t want to give it back. So the faces forcibly take it back. A ho-hum 6 minutes worth.

’STONE COLD’ STEVE AUSTIN & CARLITO (WWE WrestleMania 21. April-3, 2005): Roddy builds up Stone Cold very well & Austin gets his usual great pop upon appearing. Piper & Austin then exchange greeting slaps to the face before Roddy gets a little annoyed at the “What” chants, while stating that he was a rebel before Wrestlemania had a number after the word! The 2 disagree about a few more things before being interrupted by Carlito, who claims that they are both washed up & should leave his ring. Piper proceeds to take his apple & spit it into Carlito’s face. The 2 then brawl before Stone Cold interjects & stuns Mr.Cool. The 2 legends then share a beer or 9, before Piper also (predictably) gets a stunner. Entertaining, if slightly overlong (at 14 minutes) segment where the byplay between Piper & Austin was effective & got the live crowd very involved.

SHAWN MICHAELS (WWE Raw. July-11, 2005): Taking place the week after HBK turned semi-heel on Hulk Hogan, Piper demands an answer as to why Michaels blind-sided the Hulkster. HBK goes through his own credentials before challenging Hogan to a ppv bout, but Piper isn’t happy with that (non-)answer. Following some debate as to whether HBK is a coward, he closes the segment with Sweet Chin Music. Not as entertaining as some of the better Pits, but right up there in it’s effectiveness, thanks to a stoic HBK performance. 10 minutes in length.

MICK FOLEY, RANDY ORTON & BOB ORTON (WWE Raw. October-3, 2005): From the WWE HomeComing episode of Raw, guest Foley introduces Piper here & the 2 discuss a potential full-time comeback for Mick, before getting interrupted by Randy & Bob Orton. Randy argues that Piper stole all the spotlight away from his dad back in the 1980’s, before the 2 come to blows. An RKO to both Piper & Foley ends the segment at the 8 minute mark. Very good Pit that had a bit of everything & didn’t drag on at all. Randy Orton’s mic work was especially impressive here.

THE GREAT KHALI (WWE SmackDown. June-2, 2006): Khali comes out with Daivari as Piper cracks a few jokes about the Indian’s size. Roddy then climbs the ropes to speak to Khali eye to eye, but following a slap of Daivari, gets beat down by Khali. An ok 7 minutes worth, but it’s pretty standard fare.


DESSERT – Easter Egg & Conclusion

EASTER EGG

On Disc-1, go to Page-1 of the ‘Chapters’ menu, highlight ‘StarrCade 83’ & press ‘left’ twice to see Roddy talk for a minute about the effect of the sheep’s wool that was contained within the dog collar during his famous match against Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine.

CONCLUSION

Ok, where do I start? The documentary, I suppose. The documentary portion of this 3 disc set is undoubtedly entertaining & not far behind the entertainment value of some of the better documentaries that the WWE have put out. Piper is simply an entertaining man… It’s as simple as that. For those viewers that don’t know much about Piper and have not had the pleasure of reading his very good book, it may also come off as very informative. But for those that have followed Piper for a while, nothing new is really added, while some things have to be taken with a grain of salt as Roddy is notoriously old-school in protecting the business to a large extent. But overall, this is an above average documentary.

While the matches are a little up & down, they get the job done very well at the end of the day. Remembering that Roddy was no Kurt Angle in the ring, there are enough very good matches included here (vs Valentine, vs Rude, vs Hart) that combine well with some entertaining & intense bouts. Basically, it’s a good cross-section of what Piper was all about in the ring. Furthermore, the matches that have been chosen nicely show Roddy at different stages of his career, which I believe is always important in these DVD offerings.

The final disc full of Piper’s Pit segments is a genuine pleasure to watch. It probably gets a bit much at almost 3 hours in length, but if you view it in at least 2 sittings, then it’s full of great entertainment, not to mention memories for those of us that can recall some of the events. So many famous & memorable happenings are included here & when that is combined with the entertainment value, then it’s difficult to pick holes in it at all.

Overall, this 3 disc set on ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper is thoroughly recommended to any professional wrestling fan. It may not be up there with the very best of the WWE’s releases, but it is not far behind due to the great cross-section of information, matches & entertainment spanning a career that is nearing 30 years.


That’s another DVD review served up for you. If anyone would like to contribute any feedback or ask any questions, you are more than welcome to. My e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com. But if you are an LOP Forums member, it would be much appreciated if you could leave feedback on my thread at http://www.lopforums.com/showthread.php?t=217&page=6

I’m certain that most will be glad that there is no DVD review planned for next week. In fact, what the hell do I have planned for next Wednesday? Ummm, I’m not sure, but I have had a steady stream of feedback concerning this, that & the other in the world of professional wrestling over the past couple of weeks, so I may just collate the most topical & timely and spout forth my opinion whichever way I see fit. As per usual, my column will be posted at the same Wednesday time on the same LOP channel. Until then, this is DaveyBoy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.


DaveyBoy’s Wrestling Menu. 2002-2007

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