How Good Was Roddy Piper Actually?
7. Time’s Test
Well.
Roddy Piper said a lot of wild sh*t, not much of which was big or clever. There was no artistic merit to some of it, but the wrestlers of that era cared more about drawing heat and selling tickets than creating art.
A lot of Piper’s bigot schtick was well-written. That’s the only nice thing one can say about it. He didn’t become the hottest heel of the 1980s because his stuff was bad and witless. It was cheap and horrifically racist, but he knew his way around a turn of phrase. Can a performer portraying a fictional wrestling heel say the same things that a screenwriter types when creating a cinematic villain?
That’s up to you to decide, but the heel part is absolutely imperative here. Piper was just as ugly when, as a babyface, he threw a barrage of gay slurs at Adrian Adonis ahead of their match at WrestleMania 3. There’s no defending nor supporting that now. 1987 Roddy Piper under no circumstances can be a babyface in 2026. You can’t watch that in the same way now. Or, you shouldn’t.
His best work requires you to apply much in the way of context; his worst stuff is interminable and honestly depressing. Very few wrestling legends emerge from the industry with their dignity intact. That’s just how the spotlight and the need for it works - but Piper spent nearly half of his career as a shadow of his former self.
As for his ring work, in this era of banger fatigue and overplayed emphasis on athleticism, Piper’s best stuff feels refreshing these days.
5/10