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Follow @TheDocLOP Never have words been more powerful… Like a guard standing just six feet tall in an NBA full of stars considerably larger, Roddy Piper was a man amongst giants in physical stature while one of the top WWE superstars in the mid-to-late 1980s. Yet, if size were measured by the power of the spoken word, then he would have stood taller than even Andre. Nobody could talk quite like “Rowdy” Roddy could. When it comes to interviews, there may never have been anyone better. Though he does often get passed over in the “best ever” conversation, that may be because Roddy was not the type to build his promos around catchphrases that made promos more ostentatious (and more memorable). He did not need to; he could just talk. Some people just have that natural ability to converse about anything for hours on end. That was what separated Piper from the others. There has not been a more naturally gifted gabber in wrestling history. He was like a politician in that he could draw in your attention and make it difficult for you to take it away. “Piper’s Pit” was Roddy’s avenue to utilize his way with words and to create many a feud, all the while using it to get himself over as one of the cornerstones of the original wrestling boom that saw the WWE go mainstream and change the industry. One of the most quick-witted personalities to ever grace the wrestling business, Piper was a master ad-libber. He needed no bullet points nor much direction nor a list of little sayings. You could give him a jobber that no one had ever heard of and he could take that ball and run with it for twenty minutes, sucking you in and making you care about it. There was an exercise that we would do in public speaking courses where we had to stand up in front of everyone and talk about a random topic pulled out of a hat to get us used to thinking on our feet. With Piper’s ability to create magic with his words on the fly, I am sure he could have taught the class. I had a daydream about him doing just that, once upon a time. He was my teacher, I dominated the rest of the class with my own gift of gab, and he told the WWE about me. They gave me my own talk show segment on Raw. Surely, you have had the “I became a wrestler” daydream, at some point? What Piper did with the “Pit” was revolutionary, prompting such future stars as CM Punk to champion Roddy as the WWE’s undisputed, all-time maestro of the microphone. With consistency and variety, “Piper’s Pit” made for some of the most enduring segments ever seen on WWE TV, perhaps none more famous than the one featuring Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. In a moment that many modern fans may remember being recreated in the build-up to Jericho vs. The Legends (Piper and Snuka among them) for the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania, Piper hauled off and whacked Snuka right across the temple with a coconut. My personal favorite was when he had The Haiti Kid on the show and used the African American midget wrestler to mock Mr. T into next Sunday. The tone of voice he used back in those days was the icing on the cake. I am unsure how to put it into words, but he was definitely channeling his inner mad man. “Sports Entertainment” was merely a concept before Piper emerged in the WWE to run up against Hulk Hogan. The All-American hero needed a villain with distinct qualities unique to any other heel. The original WrestleMania that gave birth to sports entertainment was founded on the connection between celebrities and wrestlers, but it was still up to the wrestlers to be the stars of the show. Piper and Hogan were the chosen ones to make it work. Cyndi Lauper, a pop music singer in the 80s, helped light the proverbial match for wrestling to have its Super Bowl thanks to a chance meeting with WWE manager, Captain Lou Albano. WWE’s subsequent relationship with MTV started “Rock ‘N Wrestling.” There would be no selling out Madison Square Garden for WrestleMania, however, by having wrestlers appear in music videos. Piper’s quiet understanding that verbal confrontation has the ability to make physical battle so much more profitable put him in a position to ensure that the connection between MTV and WWE yielded professional wrestling a new identity in the world of entertainment. Wrestling has and may always be criticized for being fake, but back then the wrestlers and promoters antagonized the detractors by not letting on to the scripted nature of the events. So, when Piper attacked Albano and then kicked Cyndi Lauper, it called into question a lot of what the media thought about the WWE and created a controversy that took precedent over the validity of the match results. People were confused, outraged, and entertained. If WrestleMania was created to be wrestling’s Super Bowl, then The War to Settle the Score was its conference championship game. The special aired on MTV and featured Piper challenging Hogan for the WWE Championship. Hogan was clearly the face of the budding super company. His star was shining brighter than any wrestler’s had previously. Vince McMahon hitched his wagon to him and rode him to new heights in the business, but he needed Piper. Hulk came to Lauper’s aide when Piper attacked. Piper and Hogan were great foils to one another, each charismatic and blessed with magnetic personas that attracted millions. Their match on the MTV special was a snapshot of everything that Vince’s WWE intended to be. It was more spectacle than anything, lasting just a few minutes and featuring mostly fisticuffs. While dramatic, it was a stark contrast to what was being presented by the more traditional professional wrestling-focused NWA. The wrestling was not providing the excitement, but rather the personalities of the wrestlers combined with all the pomp and circumstance of the celebrities like Lauper and Mr. T, who sat at ringside cheering on his co-star (Hogan) in 1982’s Rocky III. People have argued for years over who was the guy that actually drew the most attention to the original WrestleMania. The majority have claimed it to be Hogan. The hero normally does get the lion’s share of the credit, though, does he not? Praising the villain is not the way we do things. Yet, to the bad guy may very well be where the credit deserves to go. It was not just Hogan that fans were paying to see, but rather Hogan beating up Piper. It was not just Mr. T’s celebrity status that drew fans to Madison Square Garden for the record gate. Fans had flocked to MSG for the MTV special, which drew a 9.1 cable rating, six weeks prior. They wanted to see Mr. T help Hogan give Piper his comeuppance. You could say that heroes are only as strong as their villains and there is no questioning that Piper was THE villain in the WWE when the Rock ‘N Wrestling Connection set the wrestling world ablaze with WrestleMania in 1985. WrestleMania was the crowning achievement of Piper’s career. He may never have been given the accolades that should accompany such an important piece of wrestling history, but here is the thing – it is not just that WrestleMania would not have been a success without Piper; it is that it may not have even happened in the first place if it were not for Piper. You cannot have just any old main-event as your main draw for a show of that magnitude. Vince McMahon risked his own fortune on the success of that one night, betting the farm that it would redefine the national perception of the WWE and transition his company from pro wrestling to “sports entertainment.” He would not have made that gamble if he did not have something more than Cyndi Lauper to put butts in the seats. If you were to have replaced Piper with any of the other heels from that era, you would not have gotten the same response. That is not a knock on those guys because some of them were written about in this book, but it is a testament to Piper’s ability to connect with people in a way that they could not. Wrestling is, inherently, about putting together athletic exhibitions where something is at stake that people are invested in. People did not care about the WWE title, yet (at least not on the scale that the WWE needed them to in order to create a Super Bowl for wrestling). So, they went to good vs. evil. Piper was General Zod attacking rock n’ roll’s Lois Lane. Hogan and Mr. T were the Justice League set up to stop him. He was a special kind of bad guy, was Piper, and everyone reaped the benefits of his dastardly actions. Piper’s run as the top heel in the WWE was memorable and profitable. It helped build the WWE into the superpower that it still is today and was instrumental in getting WrestleMania off the ground. Interestingly, Piper had also been a key player in the promotion of the NWA’s Starrcade ’83 a year and a half prior, making him the only superstar heavily promoted as a headliner on both of the original biggest events in pro wrestling. My fondest Piper memory was the WrestleMania VIII match with Bret, but it will not be wrestling matches that forge his legacy. Instead, it will be his words. The use of digital media and WWE Network will allow aspiring wrestlers to study Roddy Piper and his promo ability. They will be better for it.
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