I remember that. He was the one who “brought” Muraco in, under a mask, and described Muraco as “smuggling coconuts in his shoulders”. A few weeks or months later, they were feuding. Never knew about the knifing but that was an occupational hazard for the best heels back in the day. I haven’t seen that kind of hell heat since Bubba Ray in ECW.
For some reason, he just seemed a cut or two above all other pro-wrestlers in terms of presence and humor.
The match that sticks out in my memory is the dog collar match against Greg Valentine. An all time classic.
Sadly, I haven’t really seen much of his PNW stuff. I’ve heard good things about it, just never got around to watching it. I’ll have to see what I can find on You Tube…
It’s awful when people die, but of course we all do sooner or later. If there’s anything that consoles me about a death, it’s when it’s natural as opposed to murder (Bruiser Brody) or drugs (Eddie Gilbert). Still, 61 is too young to die.
Well, this is certainly a Reality v/ (my terrible attempt to make a checkmark)
Too sad :(. I remember watching him as a kid in the 70’s late at night when he was on regional NW wrestling. Fond memories of me and my little brother huddled around the TV getting to stay up late.
figure-4-leg-lock salute!
Well this is crappy news. Last thing I saw him in was Celebrity Wife Swap. He seemed like he was enjoying his life and that his family loved him.
Yeah, he didn’t have a really sad ending like a lot of big 80s wrestling stars. His last few flings in WCW (he didn’t wrestle much, but appeared on Nitro and wrestled Hogan in a PPV) apparently gave him enough money that he lived pretty well doing occasional appearances at signings and such to supplement and wasn’t destitute like a lot of guys are/were. He lived on a mountain in Oregon with his wife and had a bunch of kids, seemed to be really well adjusted.
But, he was pretty infamous for being into all the drugs out there, including mountains of coke and a lot of steroids, in his prime. Some of that activity can damage the heart in a way that is going to cut life expectancy even if you’ve cleaned up and live straight since then.
This… this is what I remember him as: Roddy Piper shoots on a news reporter ~ HARD!! - YouTube
( I dated a guy who looked like him in the face… and married a his friend who had Roddy’s body… they are still friends 20+ years later…I’m that good… and that much of a friend… or something.)
(follow youtube videos to see various old videos)
Another video (just cos… I know youtube can show A this and B this):
It’s Roddy and Andre … “You don’t throw rocks at a man who has a machine gun.”
You can have hours and hours of 2 to 60 minutes of time/fun following these old shows which… were much more fun than most of the 20 years of wrassling from 1970- 90… with a few flashes of fun the next 30 years (damn… I feel old).
Ha! That was brilliant!
“It takes guts to walk down Hollywood and Vine looking like this!”
Joan Rivers… is she still alive?