The quickfire promo king of the 1980s, in his heyday Hot Rod was a heat magnet of apocalyptic proportions. A favourite of the WWF crowd due to his aggressive, charismatic aura and lightning wit, Piper was probably even more adept at playing the bad guy. If youre looking for sheer, unbridled audacity, then look no further: Piper would stop at nothing to get an angle over. No trick was too dirty, no blow too low. He invented the unscripted interview with the groundbreaking Pipers Pit, a regular segment that would almost always end with Piper assaulting his guest. One such interview saw Piper hit Superfly Jimmy Snuka in the head with a coconut and inadvertently inspire one Phillip Jack Brooks to become a professional wrestler, while another ringside interview earlier in his career saw him smash a bottle across his own face in front of fans to intimidate his opponents with a self-inflicted crimson mask. Just when you thought you had the answers, Piper changed the questions. He main-evented the first Wrestlemania with Hulk Hogan, Mr. T and Paul Orndorff, accruing nuclear levels of heat in the process, and would be disqualified for bodyslamming Mr. T in a boxing match at Wrestlemania 2. Unpredictable, a master of mayhem and taking everything just a step too far in the pursuit of unhinged brilliance, Rowdy Roddy Piper was probably the greatest professional wrestling character never to be given a run with the WWF/E World title.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
