When it comes to the Hot Rod, take your pick. Do you like when he said Mr. Ts lips looked like a catchers mitt and that he would whip him like a slave. Do you prefer when he smashed a coconut on Jimmy Superfly Snukas head? Or maybe the soul food reference to Tony Atlas? Or how about when he painted half his body black for his WrestleMania VI match against Bad News Brown? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc8ewByCsKM All of those have a racist element to them. Piper had a way of being a molten hot heat magnet in the 80s, but a lot of his methods wouldnt even come close to flying today. While these statements and actions were designed to piss off the crowd and fire up his opponent, Piper easily created a kilted villain who easily could be painted (metaphorically) as racist. Then again, Piper thrived on controversy, and using race in his feuds certainly generated controversy. So mission accomplished?
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
