411’s WWE Greatest Moments Report: ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper

-Written: 5.3.26
-Source: A&E

-Plugs: Last week we had two episodes going over WrestleMania in the 2000s and 2010s.

-CM Punk and MJF approve of this episode!

-Michael Cole is our host and narrator!

10. Welcome to The Pit
-April 14, 1984

-The first Piper’s Pit with Frankie Williams as a guest! Piher from 2006 says nobody knew anything about Frankie. Hey, they got Ronda Rousey for this, though, I assume it’s old footage. Frankie talks too much and Piper beats his ass. Hogan says you have to be ready as Piper could cut you down quickly. Piper utters the famous “Just when they think they have the answers, I change the questions.”

9. Punch-Out
–WrestleMania 2

-Booker T says Piper was always good with his hands. Piper wondered what would happen if he just took Mr. T out. Aw, Kofi Kingston is here and says he loved that Piper could turn anything into Gold. They just skimmed by this one.

8. Tackling Tinseltown
–WrestleMania XII

-Goldust vs. Piper: Hollywood Back Lot Brawl! Dustin Rhodes says Piper whipped his all over the place. He tells the story of waiting for Piper to jump on the hood of the car. Piper: “I just didn’t move. I was supposed to.” This match makes me smile because they were stiffing the crap out of each other. Also, Cinematic Wrestling years before the pandemic. Kofi notes this was Piper’s last WrestleMania Match.

-Commercials!

7. Record Breaker
-Dec. 29, 1984

-This was awesome! We are at MSG and Capt. Lou is presenting Cyndi Lauper with a Gold Record. Piper interrupts and breaks the record over Lou’s head and then kicks Lauper and gives David Wolfe a slam. The crowd HATED Piper! Heyman notes that Piper once told him it was the biggest moment of his career as it was chaos.

6. Flowers and Farewells
–WrestleMania III

-Piper stepped away so The Pit was turned into The Flower Shop, hosted by Adrian Adonis. Piper came back to and got attacked. He then destroyed The Flower Shop and it leads to WrestleMania III. Not the best match, but the story and the crowd made it such a memorable moment. This was Piper’s first retirement and says the crowd reaction was the kindest thing to ever happen to him in his career.

-Commercials!

5. A Rowdy Hart
–WrestleMania VIII

-IC Title: Piper vs. Bret! It’s this match and the Dog Collar Match that are generally seen as the two best in Piper’s career. I love this show so much and for many this was match of the show (I prefer Flair/Savage, but both are awesome). Bret says Piper was a mentor to him. Heenan’s commentary was tremendous for this match. “What the hell, use the bell.” They told a fantastic story and Bret gets the famous win by countering the sleeper by kicking off the corner buckle. Bret says Piper was the first big name to put him over.

4. No Smoking
–WrestleMania V

-I was too young to know much about Morton Downey Jr. They talking heads note Morton had the top rated syndicated talk show at the time. Downey keeps blowing smoke in Piper’s face, so Piper uses a fire extinguisher. I would have put this way lower, but again, maybe it was bigger to older fans at the time.

3. Beware of The Dogs
-Starrcade

-Dog Collar: Piper vs. Valentine! I will review this show one day. Ric says Piper and Valentine wanted to steal the show and they did. It was a bloody war and Piper left with a ruptured ear drum. Obviously, MJF and Punk paid tribute to this match with their blood way many years later. Great stuff!

-Commercials!

2. Coco-Nuts
-June 9, 1984

-Jimmy Snuka shows up on The Pit and they have one of the most memorable moments in WWE history. Piper offers Snuka all kinds of tropical fruit and Snuka thinks Piper is making fun of him. Piper then smashes a coconut over Snuka’s head and it sets off a blood feud between the two. The Piper Set getting torn down in the chaos only added to the moment.

1. Settling The Score
-Feb. 18 ,1985

-Hogan vs. Piper on MTV! The War To Settle The Score! This was shown on MTV and set the stage for WrestleMania. Piper and Hogan both knew how big this was and what it would mean. Tommaso Ciampa is here as we keep finding people that don’t work for the company anymore. This was great as it was the ultimate good guy vs. the baddest bad guy and that usually works. As noted, it set the stage for WrestleMania and the rest is history.

-Fun list and as the talking heads noted, Piper was more about the moments than the matches, but they covered two of his best and the one in front of the largest crowd he ever worked. You could have just done a list of Piper’s Pit moments. I would have thrown his WCW debut when he showed up in 1996 or The Starrcade win over Hogan on here, but we got most of the high points. Thanks for reading!