When you have a giant, ungodly scar from a hip replacement due to competing in thousands of matches, leaving you barely able to take bumps, and it's pointed out as part of a storyline, it might be time to call it a career. This was the tale of Roddy Piper back in 1996. He had his last WWE match in 2011! While he was never quite full-time the last 20 years of his career, he put in far more matches than was necessary. Piper was never exactly a great worker, but he was noticeably, painfully, slower by the time he arrived in WCW. While fans may complain of WWE's main event scene today, go watch Hogan vs. Piper at Starrcade to see how far we've come with our top stars in terms of in-ring action. When He Should Have Hung Up The Tights: Back in 1997 would have been a good time to stop. The matches against Hogan did some solid buyrates for the company, so you can't blame Eric Bischoff for bringing in Hot Rod. After that, he could have been used to put over some younger talent like a Chris Jericho, or a Goldberg and then call it quits. He could have remained on as an ambassador, an authority figure or a manager in the business, but watching him in the ring post-1995 was more boring than rowdy.
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
