https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2veFm2NLKg Roddy Piper is undoubtedly one of the greatest talkers in the history of wrestling, so the idea of pairing him up with a younger wrestler isn't exactly a bad one. But pairing him with anyone means there is a danger that he's going to overshadow them. That's exactly what happened when Piper and Sean O'Haire joined forces to battle Hulkamania in 2003. O'Haire took part in the WCW Invasion, and was later repackaged as a conniving, devil's advocate character. The vignettes that preceded his debut were fantastic. It looked like the role was a potential star-maker. Instead of continuing along this path, WWE quickly changed course and inexplicably paired him with Piper. Gone were the fascinating promos, and instead we saw the much younger talent take a backseat to the legend. The two seemed to have nothing in common, and had no tangible reason for being together. Piper rekindled his decades long feud with Hogan, except it was much worse. Hogan was now wearing a mask, and went under the name of Mr. America. At that time in his career, O'Haire desperately needed to be on his own. He had the look, and a unique wrestling style, but he was cast as a background player. Piper himself even stated in an interview that he didn't think he should be with him. Well, he got his wish as he was later released from his contract. O'Haire was then demoted to the B-show Velocity, before being released himself.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com