My friend Will is moving to Los Angeles on Sunday. This afternoon I was having dinner with a group of friends when a got a text message, “Can you do the Hot Rod passing write-up?”
What? Hot Rod? He can’t mean Roddy Piper can he? He was just in the news like… two days ago. I saw Jonathan post a picture of his brother on a set with him. I listened to his podcast a few days ago. Hot Rod can’t possibly be dead. Not now. The wounds of losing Dusty Rhodes haven’t even healed yet.
I got back into wrestling two years ago. Prior to that I hadn’t watched it for almost two decades. While most kids my age have memories of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and D-Generation X… I have different memories. Having skipped the “Attitude Era” I grew up loving people like Hulk Hogan, Irvin R. Shyster and of course Roddy Piper.
Hogan was obviously my favorite. I was a child of the late 80’s/early 90’s… obviously I was a Hulkamaniac. But I also loved “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. It wasn’t until years later I found out he was the Bad Guy. I just knew he was a funny bad-ass who rocked a kilt and beat up people with coconuts.
Piper’s 40+ career contained countless accomplishments including 34 championship reigns, cult films, podcasting and countless WrestleMania appearances (including the main event in the first ever Wrestlemania). Piper broke new ground with his unscripted interview segment “Pipers Pit” which is still spawning imitators in the WWE even today.
Today the wrestling world lost a legend… a controversial, out-spoken man who was always changing the questions just when we thought we knew all the answers.
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper
4/17/1954 – 7/30/2015