Born to Controversy: The Roddy Piper Story
Disc Two
Released: November 14, 2006

And we continue…

THE FIGHTS:

• Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff (w/Bob Orton Jr.) vs. Hulk Hogan & Mr. T (w/Jimmy Snuka) – (WrestleMania I)
  
  

From my WrestleMania recap. Mr. T had jumped the rail at “The War to Settle the Score” to save Hulk from a Piper gang beatdown to bring him into the picture. Snuka got his head cracked from a coconut by Piper, so that’s a given that he would want revenge. Hogan had broken Orton’s arm recently, which explains the cast. The power of Hulkamania must’ve been SO strong, that it took his arm over a YEAR to heal. I mean, sure, he’ll put the cast back on from time to time if it starts to bother him. I believe he wore it once when he and his son fought the Undertaker in 2005. Twenty years later and it’s STILL not fully healed. The guest ring announcer for the main event is the former manager of the New York Yankees, Billy Martin. The guest referee is Pat Patterson. The guest time keeper is the eccentric Liberace. His Rockettes make an appearance, and I can’t imagine anyone in attendance is cheering for this to continue. Muhammad Ali is a guest referee as well, but he will serve as the special outside enforcer. The crowd completely forgets about Liberace and chants “Ali”. Orndorff and Piper’s introduction is pretty sweet with the bag pipes and all. I knew a guy who could play the bag pipes. He smelled REALLY bad. No “Eye of the Tiger”, just “Real American” dubbed in with crowd noise. Orndorff looks to start off with Hogan, but Piper wants in instead. Hogan’s ready to go, but he hears T calling from the apron that he wants in, so now it’s Piper vs. T. They go nose-to-nose and slap for slap. Piper kicks T in the gut and takes him to the mat. T escapes and Piper falls flat on his face. T hoists Piper up in a fireman’s carry and slams him to the mat and it breaks loose as we’ve got All SIX men in the ring. That brings Ali in the ring. He nails Piper which sends him out to the floor. The heels give the proverbial “Up yours!” sign to the crowd and attempt to leave. Patterson is at seven, but Hulk doesn’t want to win that way and breaks the count. Piper and Orndorff storm the ring and charge at Hulk and T, but they take a double noggin knocker. Hogan whips Piper into the far side corner and follows in with a clothesline. Hogan delivers another double noggin knocker to the heels. Hogan gives Piper an atomic drop and starts slamming Piper’s head into the mat.

T tags in for the double-clothesline spot. T slams Piper and catches Orndorff running in with a hip toss. T rams Piper’s head into Hulk’s knee and makes the tag. Hulk nails Piper with a Big Boot that sends him falling out to ringside. Hogan trash-talks Piper and then turns around into an Orndorff clothesline that sends him out with Piper. That allows Piper to give Hulk a chairshot across the back. Back in, the heels cheat like crazy while T tries to run in and save his partner. Orndorff tags in for the double atomic drop. Orndorff stomps on the champion and then delivers a suplex before tagging in Piper. Piper levels Hulk and gives him a knee lift for 1, 2, NO! Orndorff tags back in and comes off the top with an elbow for 1, 2, NO! Orndorff delivers a backbreaker to set up a flying elbow drop, but Hulk moves out of the way. Hot tag to T! He unloads on Orndorff in the corner, but Piper is there to nail him from behind. Orndorff drives T down and brings him over to his corner to tag in Piper. He comes in and hooks a front facelock, but T manages to break away and tag in the Hulkster! Orndorff comes in for a THIRD double noggin knocker. Orndorff is not legal, but he stays in anyways as Piper goes over onto the apron. Hulk hooks a headlock, but Orndorff counters with a back suplex. Orton comes in to interfere as Piper keeps the ref busy. Snuka isn’t going to have that, and knocks Orton back out to the floor. Patterson rids the ring of Snuka while Orton sneaks back up on the apron. He climbs up top while Orndorff has Hogan in a full-nelson. Piper goes to nail Hulk, but T blocks it. Orndorff turns Hogan around to face Orton. As he comes off the top, Hulk turns Orndorff to the side, which gets Orndorff nailed with the dreaded cast. Snuka runs back in and nails Orton while Hulk covers for the three-count. (13:34) Piper yells an exclamatory at Orndorff and decks Patterson before he and Orton leave without Orndorff. Once he comes to his senses, he realizes he’s all alone with the faces. He kind of likes it, but doesn’t want to admit it until Saturday Night’s Main Event in May. Hands down, the best match of the night because it was given enough time to make you feel like something was resolved. Plus, this match had heat like you just don’t see very often anymore. ***

• Roddy Piper vs. Paul Orndorff – (Saturday Night’s Main Event 10/5/85)
  

From my SNME #2 recap. This is just a brawl all the way. Seriously, Orndorff was the only one to do an actual wrestling move and it was a back suplex. No pin attempts or anything in this baby. Towards the end of the match, Orndorff gets his knees up once Piper tries for a running splash. Orndorff comes off the ropes and tries for a crossbody and they both end up going over the top and out to the floor! They brawl all the way to the locker room for the double-countout. (4:04) Piper finally gets away from Orndorff once he reaches his room and even then fights to get his door shut. There’s another fun, short match for you. *½

• Boxing Match: Roddy Piper (w/Bob Orton Jr.) vs. Mr. T (w/Joe Frazier) – (WrestleMania 2)
  

From my WrestleMania 2 recap. Piper attacked T after his boxing match with Orton on the March 1 edition of SNME to continue the feud and set up the blowoff match. The guest ring announcer is Joan Rivers. The joke is already there. The guest judges are New Jersey Nets Darryl Dawkins, jazz singer Cab Calloway and infamous Watergate Judge G. Gordon Liddy. The guest time keeper is that dork from the Burger King commercials, Herb. Piper talks SO much junk during the instructions. These are three minute rounds, by the way. Round one seemed pretty realistic. Piper got in his cheap shots on nearly every break and even gives the ref the universal “up yours” sign. They start pulling their punches in the second round. However, T goes down with a minute left in the second round. Piper won’t stay in a neutral corner long enough for the ref to count T out. He’s up at eight. The crowd turns on T and chants “Roddy!” for the last thirty seconds of the round. During the break, Orton throws a bucket of water on T and Frazier. Within the first minute of round three, T wallops Piper good in the corner and had this been real, the fight would’ve been over right there. Piper gets to his feet at the count of eight. Another shot from T puts Piper out on the floor, which also would’ve been a knockout blow in a real fight. By round four, Piper gets frustrated and throws his stool at T. A slugfest ends with the referee getting shoved down by Piper and T getting slammed to call for the disqualification. (13:25) I can’t rate this, but I will say that it was very fun to watch for a fake boxing match. It’s a shame the rest of the card in Long Island sucked.

• Roddy Piper vs. The Iron Sheik (w/Slick) – (Saturday Night’s Main Event 10/4/86)
  

From my SNME #7 recap. Pedro Morales was originally a substitute for Piper, but here comes Roddy to take his match with the Sheik after all. Piper avoids a charge and WHACKS Sheik with his crutch. Slick distracts Piper long enough for Sheik to stand back up and attack from behind. Sheik kicks away at the knee and lifts Piper up in a suplex, but Piper counters into a small package for 1-2-3. (0:45) Yep, Piper’s a face now. Ventura just protested a handful of tights. ¼*

• Roddy Piper vs. Bob Orton Jr. (w/Jimmy Hart & Don Muraco) – (Saturday Night’s Main Event 11/29/86)
  

From my SNME #8 recap. Earlier today, Jesse Ventura had lunch with Bob Orton Jr and Jimmy Hart! Wait a minute, why doesn’t Orton have a shirt on? No wonder we never saw a waiter come to their table! Orton totally denies all friendship with Piper saying that he was used by Piper to do his dirty work and got all the credit.

Gene stops Piper for a second to get his response and Piper replies by mentioning several different moments where they were definitely friends like when he tried to get “Lovely Lucy” to go out with Bob for FOURTEEN MONTHS! How about that time Piper gave you a hat, Bob? Now Muraco gets brought into this and gets called the Fat Albert of professional wrestling. I see it, Rod! You are GENIUS.

Orton backs Piper into Hart and Muraco’s corner to try and get Muraco to trip up Piper, but Roddy is one step ahead. Muraco gets up on the apron, so ref Dave Hebner sends him to the back! Piper waves goodbye and turns around and gets in a slugfest with Orton. Piper wins and puts Orton down with a bulldog. Orton cowers away in the corner so Piper bites him! Piper whips into the far side corner and then does his Smackdown vs. Raw front grapple finisher with the poke to the eye. Piper gets a BIG knee lift for 1, 2, NO! Orton catches Piper low off a whip and uppercuts him in the jaw. Orton delivers a gutbuster for two as the crowd begins to chant “Roddy”. Orton misses an elbow out of the corner and runs into Jimmy Hart on the apron. Piper rolls him up for the three-count. (3:47) This was cut real short due to the previous matches being longer than usual, but this was still good for what it was. Piper would still have to contend with Adrian Adonis, which led to his first retirement match at WrestleMania 3. *

• Hair vs. Hair Match: Roddy Piper vs. Adrian Adonis (w/Jimmy Hart) – (WrestleMania III)
  

From my WrestleMania 3 recap. This is Roddy’s first retirement match so he can leave and go star in classic movies like “Hell Comes to Frogtown” and “They Live”. Piper whips Adonis with the belt from his kilt to start. He even wraps it around Jimmy Hart’s throat, but Adonis nails him from behind and uses the belt against him. Piper reverses a whip into the corner and sends Adonis out to the floor. Piper pulls both Adonis and Jimmy Hart into the ring. He whips Jimmy into Adonis and they both go out to the floor. Back in they go, and Jimmy ends up on the top turnbuckle. Piper grabs him and throws him on top of Adonis! Piper gets thrown into the ropes and Hart trips him up for Adonis to take control. Adonis hits some of his usual offense before heading out to the floor where Piper gets sent head first into the timekeeper’s table. Back in, Adrian pulls the ref aside while Jimmy Hart sprays Piper in the face with the spray can of perfume and then hooks on GOOD NIGHT, IRENE. Adonis has Piper out cold, but he releases the sleeper before the third drop of the arm. He and Jimmy celebrate, but this match isn’t over. Brutus Beefcake runs down and revives Piper with the ref’s back turned. Piper nails Jimmy Hart and slaps the SLEEPER on Adonis for the win. (6:54) Beefcake hands Piper the hedge clippers and assists in the balding process of Adrian Adonis. Immediately, Beefcake is turned face and earned the nickname Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake. Piper celebrates and receives an amazing ovation from the 93,000+ crowd. The match was fun and included some great booking and a great send off to a true legend of wrestling. *½

• WWF Champion Hulk Hogan (w/Captain Lou Albano & Cyndi Lauper) vs. Roddy Piper (w/Bob Orton Jr.) – (The War to Settle the Score, 2/18/85)
  

From my Top 25 Rivalries set recap. Back in December, Piper came out and smashed a gold record that was given to Captain Lou Albano by Cyndi Lauper – just to be a dick and ruin the whole thing. As Piper and Orton wreaked havoc, Hulk Hogan came out for the save to begin their feud. The January MSG show was headlined by Santana and Valentine, allowing two months for this feud to develop. Piper was already embroiled in a feud with Jimmy Snuka too at the time, essentially having beefs with the two top babyfaces in the company. Due to the popularity of Cyndi Lauper with the MTV crowd and Hulk Hogan’s rising nationwide popularity, the WWF landed a pair of live one-hour specials on MTV. The first special aired in July 1984 when Cyndi Lauper supported Wendi Richter in her efforts to capture the WWF women’s title from the Fabulous Moolah, in what became the most-watched program on MTV at that time. Ironically on this same show here in 1985, Lelani Kai defeated Wendi Richter to win the WWF women’s title. That of course did not air on MTV.

While a NYC bagpipe band leads Piper and Orton to the ring playing ‘Scotland the Brave’, Piper wears a Hulkamania t-shirt and carries an electric Gibson guitar with him. He breaks the guitar on the mat to show what he thinks of rock ‘n roll. Earlier in the night, Orton legitimately injured his arm in a match with Jimmy Snuka, resulting in the cast gimmick for the next year. Bob Costas is your special guest ring announcer. Check out the HBO interview Vince McMahon did with Bob Costas in 2001 for some real entertainment. Mr. T is in the front row to support his buddy. Huge brawl to start. There’s punches everywhere. Piper puts Hogan in trouble with a sleeper that Gorilla and Okerlund are convinced is a choke. Of course, Hogan doesn’t go to sleep and runs Piper’s face into the corner. Bob Orton tries to help out, but Hogan smashes his injured arm on the ringpost connector. As Hogan mounts his comeback, Paul Orndorff comes down to replace Orton. Ref gets bumped, allowing Orndorff to land a flying knee drop on Hogan. (5:20) While they put the boots to Hogan, Cyndi Lauper hops up on the apron yelling at Piper and Orndorff. As they slowly walk towards her, Mr. T jumps the rail and to get at them. He’s just totally out of his element though as the smarter men prevail. Of course, that is until Hulk Hogan recovers and helps Mr. T clean house. T doesn’t realize that once the heels are out of the ring, you don’t go after them. Hulk tells T to get back in the ring with him. With Orton returning, they decide that three against two works is certainly better odds, so they try to charge Hulk and Mr. T. By this point, security and policemen have swarmed the ring to separate the two sides. Once the dust settles and the MSG house mic drops from the ceiling, Hogan grabs one of the mics challenging Piper and Orndorff for a fight. They don’t come back out though. This certainly wasn’t the war that settled the score. False advertising, if you ask me. *½

• Cage Match: Roddy Piper vs. Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan) – (Madison Square Garden, 12/28/89)
  

You get the chance to hear Rude’s famous pre-match speech. Rude attacks as Piper gets in the cage. Piper reverses a whip, which sends Rude back first into the cage. Piper takes off his belt and lays into Rude. The ref makes him give it up, so Piper switches to biting Rude. VINTAGE PIPER! Rude tries to escape the cage, so Roddy bites him on the behind. Piper goes up, but Rude crotches him. Rude knees him in the nuts and goes for the door. Piper grabs Rude’s leg and gets in a tug-of-war with Heenan. Roddy pulls Rude’s tights down and pulls Rude back in by the leg. They slug it out, and Rude gets the Rude Awakening. Rude goes for the door, but Piper leapfrogs him. Rude pulls him back in. They both climb over the top and down to the floor, but they both hit at the same time so the match continues since there MUST be a winner. Back in, Rude knocks Piper down and hits a fist drop from the top of the cage. It only gets two. PULL YOUR PANTS UP, RICK. Rude gives him a piledriver and goes up again. He’s about to come down on Piper, but Roddy shakes the cage and causes Rude to crotch himself. Piper ties him up in the cage and tries to walk out when Bobby Heenan slams the door in his face. Heenan slips Rude some brass knuckles. That plan backfires, as Piper nails Rude first, grabs the brass knuckles, and BLASTS Rude with them. That will do as Piper walks out of the cage for the win. (12:58) Way too much of Rude’s butt, but still an entertaining match. **¾

• Roddy Piper vs. Bad News Brown – (WrestleMania VI)
  

From my WrestleMania 6 recap. A condensed version of this feud is that these two eliminated each other at the Rumble and now they want to beat each other up all the time. Piper plays a bunch of mind games to start. Big pull-apart brawl ensues until Piper catches Bad News with a crossbody for two. Bad News tries to come back with turnbuckle smashes, but Piper must land on the black side of his face because he NO-SELLS all of them. Bad News punches him down anyway and grabs a nerve hold. Piper elbows out, but they both NO-SELL headbutts. Bad News wins another slugfest and chokes Piper into a pin for two. Elbow drop gets another near-fall. In classic Piper-fashion, he comes back with an eyepoke. He punches Bad News into the corner, but then Bad News goes to the eyes. He takes off the turnbuckle pad, but Piper reverses the whip and runs Bad News into the exposed corner. Piper whips out a loaded Michael Jackson glove and pounds away. They end up on the floor where Bad News misses a punch into the ringpost and then ducks a chairshot. Both men forget about the count though and we get a double-countout as the two fight to the back. (6:37) Somewhat intense, with a touch of silly. Bad News would be gone by SummerSlam with no real clear-cut winner in this feud, mainly because Roddy Piper would head over to the commentary booth until a certain champion would bring him out of retirement. *½

• WWF Intercontinental Champion Roddy Piper vs. Bret Hart – (WrestleMania VIII)
  

From my WrestleMania 8 recap. Bret wants his belt back and Piper has it. It’s nothing personal-he just wants his belt back, and he’d go through his mom if that’s what it takes to get it back around his waist. Lots of staring at each other to start. They trade armdrags to one-up each other, which seems customary in big-time WWF matches. Piper tries to outwrestle Bret, but Bret is just too good to lose that battle. Especially to a brawler like Piper. Bret supposedly hurts his shoulder on the way down off a dropkick, so Piper kindly backs off, but it’s just a trick for Bret to sneak in a small package for 1-2-NO! Piper is obviously pissed and slaps the CRAP out of Bret. They go to the floor for a sick bump. Piper’s the first guy back in and actually holds the ropes down for Bret to come back in the ring. But then Piper points out Bret’s boot is untied, and cheapshots him. Running bulldog by Piper busts Bret open. When Piper turns Bret over for a cover, you can see the blood stain, which is a cool visual. Cover gets two. Piper controls with open shots until Bret fires back and comes off the ropes with a diving forearm that puts Piper out on the floor. Back in, we get a double-KO spot. Piper heads up top, but Bret stops that and slams Piper down by his hair on the mat. Inverted atomic drop and a suplex gets two. Russian legsweep gets two. Bret follows that up with a backbreaker and then goes for the SHARPSHOOTER, but Piper blocks Bret’s foot with his hands. Bret gives him a vertical elbow drop instead and then comes off the middle-rope for another elbow, but Piper gets his boot up. They trade blows on their knees and then they fight up until Piper shoves Bret off into the referee. Piper takes Bret to the floor and slams his bloody face into the steel steps. He rolls the beaten down Bret back in the ring and then grabs the ring bell. He gets back in and has second thoughts about bashing the bell over his head. Piper’s ethics kick in and he decides not to do it and grabs the SLEEPER HOLD instead. Bret then walks over to the corner and kicks off the ropes to fall on top of Piper WHILE STILL IN THE HOLD to get the 1-2-3. (13:52) Just a fantastic story told in that ring. Not only one of Piper’s finest matches, but also one of Bret’s best as well, which is really saying something. Piper looked like he was going to turn on Bret at the end, but he thought better of it and awards Bret with the IC belt. ****

• WWF Intercontinental Champion The Mountie (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Roddy Piper – (Royal Rumble 1992)
  

From my RR 1992 recap. Bret dropped the IC belt to Mountie two days earlier at Springfield Massachusetts when he decided to compete against doctor’s orders with a 104 temperature. Apparently, that’s kayfabe code for contractual issues, because that’s the real reason Bret lost. During the post-match celebration, Mountie beat up Bret with the belt and Roddy Piper came to his rescue. When Piper got beat with the belt as well, Piper challenged Mountie for a title shot at the Royal Rumble, so here we are. Piper pretty much squashes Mountie and after some heel miscommunication, Piper slaps on the SLEEPER and uncles Mountie right in the middle of the ring. (5:20) Piper’s first title win in nine years. Afterwards, Piper gets the cattle prod and shocks Mountie’s rear end. ¾*

• Hollywood Back Lot Brawl: Roddy Piper vs. Goldust – (WrestleMania XII)
  

From my WrestleMania 12 recap. This match took place in several segments throughout the show and ended before the main event started. Roddy Piper relinquishes his position as the acting WWF president to beat up Goldust. Razor Ramon was supposed to get a shot at the IC title here, but got suspended and sent to rehab for smoking weed. I believe this part of the brawl was taped the day before. Piper awaits Goldust as he’s wielding a “rubber” baseball bat. Goldust drives up to meet him in his gold Cadillac. It’s like Goldust is a classic comic book villain or something. Piper grabs a hose and sprays Goldust’s car down. Before Goldust can get out of the car, Piper is already beating his windows with the baseball bat. Goldust makes it out of the car by getting out on the other side only to get beaten up a bunch by Piper. They take out a catering table and then Piper throws Goldust into the side of a dumpster. Either its ketchup from the catering table, or it looks like Goldust is bleeding. Piper proceeds to beat up Goldust on his Cadillac before finally Goldust low-blows Piper and throws him into the dumpster. That gives Goldust enough time to get a breather and leave the scene in his car. Once Piper gets back to his feet, he jumps in his Ford Bronco and drives after him. For you ’90s kids out there, you probably already know what they’re going to do with that Ford Bronco.

Roddy Piper and Goldust have made it to the arena. The fight continues out to the ring where Goldust starts to kick at Piper’s bad hip. Goldust starts beating on Roddy’s “bagpipes” and begins to molest him in the ring while he’s punching him. Piper manages to crotch Goldust up top and applies the testicular claw on him. He continues to embarrass Goldust as he rips off his ring attire to leave Goldust standing in his lingerie. One last knee drop to the balls and Marlena helps Goldust to the locker room while Piper celebrates in the ring feeling as though he has just defeated homosexuality.

• Roddy Piper vs. Hollywood Hogan (w/Ted DiBiase) – (WCW Starrcade 1996)
  

From my Starrcade 1996 recap. HUGE ‘Roddy’ chant to start. Piper came back at Halloween Havoc to scold Hollywood Hogan for his actions. Hogan then called Piper’s kilt a skirt and everything snowballed from there to where we have the REMATCH OF THE CENTURY! Piper punches Hogan around to start until he falls to the floor to regroup. That happens a few times. Hogan fights out of a headlock, but Piper beats him back outside. This time Piper follows him out and whips Hollywood around ringside. Back in, Piper uses the belt some more. DiBiase tries to trip up Piper, which just gets him all distracted. Out comes Hogan to nail Piper. After some ringside brawling, Hogan brings Piper back inside and starts kicking at Piper’s fake hip. Piper escapes an ab stretch and pokes Hogan in the eyes. Suplex by Piper gets two. Boy this is revolutionary stuff, I tell ya! Piper misses a knee drop, but moves away from the LEGDROP. Here comes the Giant out to CHOKESLAM Piper. Giant has to just hold him up in the air for a bit while Hogan tries to keep a fan from getting into the ring. Idiot. Security takes him out. Piper bites the Giant on the nose and shoves him over the top to the floor. That leaves Hogan all alone for a SLEEPER HOLD. Down goes Hogan. His arm drops once, twice, three times! It’s over. Piper wins. (15:38) It takes the crowd a second to realize that somebody could actually win with a sleeper hold. Nevertheless, they are glad he did. Piper wins, but there’s no title in sight. As the fireworks go off and Piper puts his foot on top of Hogan, Hall and Nash hit the ring. Piper sticks and moves all over the Outsiders and then ducks out before they gain a second wind. The effort was there, but these two were ten years gone from having a good match with each other. ½*

Final Thoughts: The essentials are here like the first WrestleMania main event, the War to Settle the Score, Piper/Adonis, and Piper/Bret. There’s not much to complain about there since those really are his most famous encounters. I’m a little confused as to why the chronological order is out of whack. For example, WrestleMania I appears way before the War to Settle the Score and Piper/Bret appears before Piper/Mountie. It makes no sense if you are watching these matches in succession. Anyways, slight thumbs up as they gave you exactly what you expected to see here. Disc 3 is next!