A sad day, for any old time WWF rasslin’ fans, or fans of John Carpenter’s great film They Live.
http://www.tmz.com/2015/07/31/roddy-piper-dead-dies-wwe-wrestler-cancer/
Yeah, I just saw this on a friend’s page. He was the absolute best. A mad genius, I think.
And if you haven’t seen the amazing cinematic masterpiece, Hell Comes To Frogtown, do yourself a favor and find it because it is pretty much the best movie ever made.
Just a couple of days ago saw strange interview with Rowdy on Rich Eisen show discussing firing of Hulk Hogan, he was just all over the place. I couldn’t tell if he was deviating on purpose or not. RIP.
I haven’t paid attention to pro rasslin’ in years, since the actual televised content now seems to be like 85% buildup and pre-match trash talk (what they call “cutting promos” in the business, I believe.) We may as well go back to jousting tournaments, for the amount of time that an actual wrestling match is taking place compared to the extra-curricular shenanigans.
But anyway, “Hot Rod” was a singular character who helped define that brand of entertainment, and if nothing else he was terrific as “The Maniac” on “…Always Sunny” a couple seasons ago. His depiction of a minor league wrestler living out of a station wagon wasn’t, I think, too far from the reality that a lot of people in that industry deal with.
Piper’s pit is now closed [:(]
I recently got They Live on Blu-ray…one of my favorites…so sad.
I recently got They Live on Blu-ray…one of my favorites…so sad.
The ending of the movie when the aliens are “revealed” or exposed is classic! Another John Carpenter gem.
[reply]I recently got They Live on Blu-ray…one of my favorites…so sad.
The ending of the movie when the aliens are “revealed” or exposed is classic! Another John Carpenter gem.[/reply
The Aliens are revealed in the beginning of the movie. That’s what put Piper on his mission. And yeah the Blu ray is spectacular I got it last year or the year before for Christmas.
61 is goddamn ancient for a pro wrestler. We’ve lost a lot of greats this past few years. RIP.
I just bought the soundtrack to They Live last night with some of the last of my Amazon gift card and I plan on wearing my shirt today at the Art & Soul Festival (though I must prepare for the Patrick Swayze comments that usually come when I’m wearing the shirt). Very shocked to find out about the death of the Hot Rod. If anyone wants to relive some of his shenanigans of the 80’s, search for a YouTube channel called All Out Of Bubblegum.
[reply]I recently got They Live on Blu-ray…one of my favorites…so sad.
The ending of the movie when the aliens are “revealed” or exposed is classic! Another John Carpenter gem.[/reply]
Yeah, i love that bit, the girl realises she’s shagging an alien and he goes “what’s the matter honey?”, brilliant. Great film, i actually watched Robert Rodriguez interviewing Carpenter on Friday night, and he talked about They Live a bit, he seemed to really enjoy making that one with Roddy Piper and Keith David.
Gunnar, agreed on Hell Comes to Frogtown, such an entertaining film. If you’re looking for another amusing Piper movie, i can highly recommend Back in Action, with Billy Blanks. It’s the usual mis-matched tough guys taking on the villainous gangsters (to rescue Billy’s sister if i remember), and totally fucking demolishing them. There’s lots of laughs, mosy of them unintentional no doubt, but if you can enjoy a straight to video action film that requires no thought, this is the one. It’s got a scene where the heroes are shooting at the bad guys, and 5 or 6 villains try to take cover behind a lawn tractor, very weird. That bit had to be intentionally funny. It just had to be…
Good article here from Vern, a film critic who specialises in action films.
One of the comments from below the article (at the link above);
[i]True Story: Me and some friends went to a Roddy Piper book signing in Charlotte several years back. He seemed kinda glazed and slurry to be honest, but we didn’t care – we were set on getting pictures of him putting his “signature moves” on us. My roommate went up and asked to be put in the sleeper hold. As Roddy put him in the hold, I was fumbling with my camera, and I heard everyone in the audience go “oooohhh!” for some reason. I didn’t think twice and took a picture of Roddy doing an unusually convincing sleeper on him. When it was my turn, I asked if Roddy could do the “clap behind the head” move to me, which is basically something straight out of a Three Stooges movie. He said sure, and proceeded to do the move, hitting me on both sides of the head with his forearms with full force. My left ear immediately felt like it exploded, and i crumbled to the ground like I was shot. To make matters worse, my roommate was also fumbling with my camera and entirely missed the moment. I was pissed but he whispered that he was desperately trying to signal to me to NOT have Piper hit me, because when Piper put him in the sleeper hold, he didn’t play around and applied full force, literally snapped his neck. It apparently made a sickening noise straight out of a Seagal movie (I somehow missed this noise, but that explained the entire crowd going OOOOHHH!!) Piper, still glazed and sweating, looked tickled pink at both of us young idiots, and hugged us and told us he loved us.
My roommate’s neck was so misaligned, he could barely walk and almost vomited as we left the Barnes and Noble. He had problems sleeping for two weeks and neck problems for several months. I still have hearing problems to this day in the left ear, and it always fills up with water everytime I go swimming. But damn right it was worth it. If you’re going to have an injury, what better way to get it than via one of the greatest wrestlers of all time?[/i]
sadly it looks like Superfly Snooka might be next…just read he has stomach cancer…bad year for wrestlers…
The Live and Frogtown are both essential classsics…if you haven’t seen them do yourself a favor and do it now!!!
sadly it looks like Superfly Snooka might be next…just read he has stomach cancer…bad year for wrestlers…
Including the Hulkster himself, whose career is effectively dead after disclosure of some racist rant or another.
Although I’m still waiting for that to be revealed as the basis for another silly WWE plot line. This is, after all, the same company that literally tried to convince viewers that CEO Vince McMahon had died in a car accident in order to use it as an “angle” in a wrestling feud…
[reply]sadly it looks like Superfly Snooka might be next…just read he has stomach cancer…bad year for wrestlers…
Including the Hulkster himself, whose career is effectively dead after disclosure of some racist rant or another.
Although I’m still waiting for that to be revealed as the basis for another silly WWE plot line. This is, after all, the same company that literally tried to convince viewers that CEO Vince McMahon had died in a car accident in order to use it as an “angle” in a wrestling feud…[/reply]
Yeah,there is a funny irony in that there is some video on youtube of McMahon crowbarring the word “nigga” into one of his dumb skits…everything is stupid…
Yeah,there is a funny irony in that there is some video on youtube of McMahon crowbarring the word “nigga” into one of his dumb skits…everything is stupid…
Yes and it’s also ironic that the pro rasslin’ leagues have a pretty long rap sheet when it comes to creating characters based on full-on racial or ‘lifestyle preference’ stereotypes. You had stuff like “Goldust” the creepy obsessive homosexual, “Tatanka” the ‘Native American’ who wasn’t, any number of black gangbanger tag teams…
HAHAHAHHAA!!! Jay, that story of the two clowns getting mangled by Piper is amazing. It’s hilarious . . . but also tragically sad at the same time. I could sadly see myself stupidly getting victimized by my own stupidity in a similar manner.
So . . . note to self . . . do not ask a wrestler, fighter, etc. to “put me in a headlock!” or some other possibly life-threatening move.
Instead, if I choose to try for something other than standing next to the guy holding a thumbs up or flashing the horns, I will be sure to say, “Could you please, if it is not any inconvenience, EVER SO GENTLY, PRETEND to put me in a headlock in such a manner that it will not cause permanent bodily harm or searing pain?”
HAHAHAHHAA!!! Jay, that story of the two clowns getting mangled by Piper is amazing. It’s hilarious . . . but also tragically sad at the same time. I could sadly see myself stupidly getting victimized by my own stupidity in a similar manner.
So . . . note to self . . . do not ask a wrestler, fighter, etc. to “put me in a headlock!” or some other possibly life-threatening move.
Instead, if I choose to try for something other than standing next to the guy holding a thumbs up or flashing the horns, I will be sure to say, “Could you please, if it is not any inconvenience, EVER SO GENTLY, PRETEND to put me in a headlock in such a manner that it will not cause permanent bodily harm or searing pain?”
If i ever meet Al again i’m going to ask him to shoot me up with heroin to see what happens [:)] Yeah, such a funny story, even though they were maimed in the act, Piper sounds like he was a real gent.
Piper was before my time but he’d do some promos here and there in the early 2000s. Seemed like a cool dude.
Also been getting back into wrestling cause Sting’s back!!