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Roddy Piper Says Bret Hart Needed Him To Put Him Over at WrestleMania 8

November 21, 2017 | Posted by Larry Csonka
Roddy Piper WWE Image Credit: WWE/Peacock

– A clip from the Roddy Piper: In His Own Words has been released, featuring Roddy Piper discussing his relationship and WrestleMania match with Bret Hart. Here are the highlights, courtesy of wrestlinginc.com…

On His Relationship With Brett Hart: “Bret Hart is my cousin, I’m told. Didn’t know that until I was, I don’t know, 28, 25. His father Stu Hart lived 500 miles from where I was born, and his father knew names that nobody could possibly know,” Piper said. “I really did not want to wrestle Bret, but I went 17 and a half years, I never took a dive for anybody, nobody pinned me… When it came to Bret, Bret needed a launch. He was right there, ready to go and not only that, he put in the time. He was obviously second-generation, but he had put in the time that it takes for someone to be very proud of him and know that he could carry the banner high and not be taken down. But he’s gonna have to earn it.”

On His WrestleMania 8 Match With Bret Hart: “It was interesting, the match from the aspect of when we came into wherever it was, half the fans were cheering for him, half the fans were cheering for me. They were cheering for me much ladder than they were cheering for him, but Bret would tell you opposite,” Piper said. “During the match, as the match went on, for me it was a lot of fun psychology-wise, because we’re all just masters of psychology. The ones that make it are masters of crowd-psychology. It was really fun and really interesting, and then trying to keep a hold on Bret at the same time was a multi-tasking chore. I don’t know that anybody’s ever heard this from a crowd, it was shouting to me with such love, ‘No! Please don’t do it!’ The tone that came brought a reality to the situation that I, myself, have never had in any other wrestling match,” he said. “They were sincere, one, they wanted to like me and two, they really liked Bret. And the match was a hard-fought, very technical match. No illegal tactics, very hard-hitting, so it was like, ‘Don’t ruin a beautiful match like this!’ I might be reading a little bit too much into it, but that’s the tone I got from it. It really grabbed me… When I threw it away, the place went nuts. I’ve never seen or heard of a match that that’s happened before.”

On Being Right About Bret Hart: “I was right about him, when I was thinking about him. He not only propelled himself to the next level, but to every accolade the WWE had… I don’t think there was one [championship] he missed, so I’m very proud of him.”