Let's Talk About...Roddy Piper's WCW stint

[King Kamala 0]

So last night, we're doing the WrestleMania 6-10 roundtable and I mention that I think Piper painting himself half-black before his match at WrestleMania 6 was the moment that he jumped the shark. Not to say that he didn't have some great moments afterwards but he was never quite the same. Anyways, this led to Smues asking if Piper ever did anything good in his WCW stint?

 

 

And I thought for a moment and nothing came to mind. Nothing in a three and a half years or so long run where he was in the company on a semi-regular basis. I just remember watching his promos and wondering how a guy that cut one of the best promos in wrestling in the '80s could sound so lame. They just sort of reminded me of my uncle retelling already lame jokes from a Jay Leno monologue poorly....except under the guise of a wrestling promo. And the wrestling itself? Well the poor guy should not have been out there in the first place so needless to say he was a part of a few negative star matches.

 

Personally, I think that besides Warrior, Piper may have been the absolute worst of the big ticket WCW signings during the Monday Night Wars. Yes, worse than Bret, who while not up to his previous standards, still had a handful of good matches and give us the immortal line "Who are you to doubt El Dandy?". I love Piper but he really brought nothing to the table. So...let's talk about the crappiness, the trainwreck angles, the promo from Alcatrazz, let's hope some apologists for Piper's WCW run are out there.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

 

Annnnnd that's about it.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Piper's WCW run was puzzling to me because I never understood the whole "icon" thing or why he was considered special. I know now what he meant to the expansion, but I started watching WWF in the late 1980s after Piper had his run at the top. By the time I was actively watching and consuming the product Piper was nothing more than a commentator and part-time performer, so seeing him pushed a main eventer in 1996 was certainly shocking. For me, this would have been the equivalent of say, Jerry Lawler, coming out on Raw next week and starting a feud with John Cena over who the bigger star was. It just didn't make sense in the environment.

 

The other thing that bothered me about Piper was that the Starrcade main event was non-title. They spent more than a month pushing this match for their biggest event of the year and didn't bother to mention that the title couldn't change hands until after the match. Can you imagine?! What if Hart-Michaels had their 60-minute match at Mania XII and then after the bout the announcers casually mentioned it was non-title. Everyone would have shit. Just another one of those "dumb WCW" moments, I guess.

 

The majority of his stint was basically a feud with Hogan that I never really cared about. I know there was a brief run with the US title, but overall, it was a really unimaginative run.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

The other thing that bothered me about Piper was that the Starrcade main event was non-title. They spent more than a month pushing this match for their biggest event of the year and didn't bother to mention that the title couldn't change hands until after the match.

 

What made it even funnier was that Dusty Rhodes was screaming about how Piper had won the belt.

[cabbageboy 0]

Dusty perhaps had more sense than the actual bookers of that match, figuring that a main event of a PPV should be for the title.

 

Piper's WCW run started really well, with him coming in to challenge Hogan and the NWO beating him down a lot. The TV building to that Starrcade match was tremendous stuff actually, but Piper went awry a bit after that point. The whole SuperBrawl Alcatraz angle was goofy and his promos after that became more and more of the "crazy old guy" deal.

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

Loved him, since I was a fan of his since 85....

 

Although in 85 I hated him, but you know what I mean

 

 

-----

 

His run as WCW president, with Flair pushing David Flair lost my interest.

 

I loved his imfamous test run of talent while looking for Partners to fight the NWO

 

He was pretty much not needed after 98 though. He showed upat random at the end of Super Brawl 2000 and I have no recollection if that went anywhere.

 

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

 

THE GOOD

 

 

THE BAD

 

 

THE UGLY

[Big Green 0]

Did anything ever come of the "Raven is really a spoiled rich kid who idolized Piper" angle? I remember the angle but I can't remember if ANYTHING came of it.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

I loved his infamous test run of talent while looking for Partners to fight the NWO

 

I always thought that I was alone on that one.

 

Did anything ever come of the "Raven is really a spoiled rich kid who idolized Piper" angle? I remember the angle but I can't remember if ANYTHING came of it.

 

Unfortunately, no. One of the best ideas they had going at the time was scrapped in favor of... nothing.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

I remember the rumor being that the Piper/Raven angle was one of the big things planned for the WCW NBC show that never happened

[Taxman 0]

His WCW promos were awful because he wasn't on drugs anymore.

[The Buzz 0]

I enjoyed the stuff he did with Flair, even if the promos were mostly fluff. I enjoyed the first match with Hogan as well. The try-outs he did for partners to fight the nWo was quite the segment. Other than that, nothing really stands. The Backlot Brawl with Goldust is the only other thing he did in the mid to late 90s that was good.

[BUTT 0]

I did a search on Cawthon's site the other day. In three years Piper wrestled 27 matches in WCW. Twenty seven.

[Timmy8271 0]

When he first came in, I thought he was great. The match with Goldust at Mania made me a fan of his so when I saw him on WCW, I was pretty excited. I kinda liked the Hogan angle, especially the verbal smackdown Hogan gave him in front of his sun. I started losing interest when he turned heel.

 

And Piper jumped the shark long before Mania 6. His Portland run in 89 feuding with the Grappler by throwing popcorn at him started that.

[King Kamala 0]

Yeah, really it could have been when he came back to wrestling after his first failed attempt at a film career...though They Live and Hell Comes To Frogtown are pretty awesome.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

What was the deal with him going to Portland in '89? Why didn't he just go back to the WWF immediately?

[Beto Chavez 0]

The feud with Hogan was great at the beginning, but Piper definitely overstayed his welcome.

 

I don't understand they couldn't just have win him the title at Starrcade (unless Hogan politicked or Piper didn't want it) and drop it back to Hogan at the Superbrawl rematch.

[Timmy8271 0]

What was the deal with him going to Portland in '89? Why didn't he just go back to the WWF immediately?

 

He was very loyal to Don Owen. In fact whenever WWF went to Oregon, he never wrestled or appeared at the event out of loyalty for Don. I don't think he even wrestled in Oregon in 1989, just made appearances.

[bob_barron 0]

Is the Piper trains people segment on youtube?

 

I just missed it on 24-7

[strummer 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJwYGsSZ27k

[cabbageboy 0]

I'm baffled as to why anyone would have bought Piper and those guys vs. the NWO on a PPV. I will say this for Piper though. He and Hogan drew a ton of money in the 80s in their heel/face roles, but then drew another ton of money a decade later switching the roles.

 

I like some of Piper's work, but largely find him overrated. The guy had maybe two matches that were really excellent stuff (vs. Valentine at the first Starrcade and vs. Bret at WM 8). Too many of his matches are of the DQ or countout variety for my taste.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

The only redeeming thing about that segment is the pop Tenta gets.

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp://www.yo...ery=roddy+piper

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

[Art Sandusky 0]

I just want a Reality Check shirt. The other thing that popped into my head was that his WCW music was vastly inferior to his WWF music.

[tominator89 0]

When did Piper start listing the names of dead wrestlers in his promos?

[FroGG_NeaL 0]

That's when he came to TNA and said that Russo murdered Owen Hart.