User blog:TLPG/RIP Roddy Piper

Roddy Piper was one in a million. As the old saying goes - they broke the mould when they made that guy.

All my experience of the Hot Rod was from WWF/WWE, starting at Wrestlemania I. I was a full blown mark at the time and naturally hated him, and I enjoyed his spat with Paul Orndorff on the first Piper's Pit I saw on Saturday Night's Main Event. But I also found myself laughing when he cut the hair of midget wrestler the Haiti Kid to look like Mr T in the lead up to Wrestlemania 2, and when he gave the Fabulous Moolah the dip of a lifetime while Cowboy Bob Orton gave running commentary.

After his face turn upon the commencement of his feud with Adrian Adonis he made fun of the heels and then announced his retirement prior to his Wrestlemania 3 Hair v Hair match against Adonis. It was of course there that Brutus Beefcake came to his aid to avenge an accidental hair cut by Adrian on Superstars of Wrestling - and Roddy got the win and allowed Brutus to do the honours, earning his new gimmick of The Barber.

I was delighted when Roddy returned two years later at Wrestlemania 5, embarassing Blubber Love easily and then going at it verbally with Morton Downey Junior. This bit I loved in particular; Equally though as a vehemant anti smoker I loved it when Roddy emptied to contents of the fire extinguisher into Downey's face (a spot they did show in the tribute video on Raw this past week). Later that year, Roddy returned to the ring to battle Rick Rude and he cracked me up again with "The Rod Awakening".
 * PIPER: What happened to the warts?
 * DOWNEY: I gave them to a homeless warthog!
 * PIPER: I didn't know your girlfriend was homeless!

WWF/E was lost to Australian TV not that long after that, but I did see Roddy on video battling Ric Flair, winning the IC title, defending against Bret Hart, playing the bagpipes at Wembley Stadium and so on.

It was well known that Roddy had been battling health issues since he had himself checked out after Cyber Sunday when he won the tag team titles with Flair.

RIP Hot Rod. You will be missed.