All language subtitles for Biography WWE Legends S01 E02 (Biography.Wwe.Legends.S01e02.720P.Web.H264-Dirt.m4v) (ENGLISH)

I'm going to take my phone here.

Roddy!

Yeah, I'm doing great.

How are you?

I'm just getting ready to
do an interview about you.

A little warm down there, huh?

You what?

I...

Yeah, not anytime soon, though.

You're holding a place for me.

Right next to you
at the table, huh?

Great.

No, I'm just going
to talk about you.

It's all good things
not to worry about it.

But great.

Thanks, Roddy.

Roddy's in heaven.

Roddy's not in hell.

Coming to the WWE, I really wanted to make
sure that every single time that I walked

out there, everyone
remembered Roddy, Roddy Piper.

Roddy is the only name
I could have taken on.

I wanted to make sure that that next
generation of kids knew who he was and

respected his memory and what
he's contributed to the business.

When I ran into Piper, he's the one
that made everything else possible.

He was the key,
the cog in the wheel.

Without Piper, we could have
never launched into the stratosphere.

It's as simple as this.

When our Pete talks,
brother, people listen.

He was the ultimate bad guy.

How you doing, fatso?

He sold it.

He packed it.

He was good at what he did.

Just when they think they got
the answers, I change the question.

Even if you had never heard of Roddy Piper,
you could tell you didn't like this guy.

Nobody messes with Piper!

He was riveting.

I've seen a lot of men buried!

A really good-hearted guy,
a really tough son of a bitch.

He was not like
any other wrestler.

He was in his own world.

Real strong family man.

He kept his family
completely out of it.

And I think he took too
much of it on himself.

Everything he did from the moment he walked
out of the ring, rubbed people wrong.

You're gonna see something
you've never seen in your life before!

Whatever it was, he
went against the grain.

And he just lived in that glory.

You know, God takes
care of fools and babies.

Before I was a pro wrestler,
I got hit by a pickup truck.

I lived in an
Indian reservation.

I had tonsillitis, so they
took out my appendix.

I moved a lot.

I got hurt a lot
as a little kid.

My dad, Roddy Piper, he was born in
Canada, in a place called Saskatoon,

Saskatchewan, which is one of
the coldest places in the world.

He used to tell me, you know, the story of
running uphill both ways to school, right?

In the snow?

He actually did that.

His dad was a police officer
that worked for the railroad.

And this meant that
they traveled 24-7.

They would spend a week in
one town, a week in the next.

I think he was
about 10 years old.

He was on an Indian
reservation for about six months.

And he's the only
white kid on it.

Everybody else is Indian, and they
don't like white people at the time.

So he had to learn how to fight his
way through and get their respect.

So every few months, no matter where
he was going, he would have to start over,

build his reputation, and be the
tough guy so he wouldn't get hurt.

He would go out and
get in trouble and come

home and face all kinds
of physical punishment.

It was a hard
Victorian upbringing.

Very strict.

Being the youngest, he
always kind of felt like he was

an afterthought in his family
is what he would tell me.

Like he wasn't expected.

Not a lot of hugs.

Not a lot of
verbal I love you's.

My grandpa did beat my dad.

I don't know how often, but he was
physical enough with him that it was a

dark place that my dad never
really wanted to talk about with us.

You're 12.

11.

10 years old.

You move 10 times.

Then all of a sudden
you get into a fight.

You come back home and you get
into a fight because you got into a fight.

You know, it's...

I don't think that punishment, physical
punishment, is a way to raise a kid.

None of it goes out
of my house ever.

There was a lot of trauma in
his childhood and it followed him.

He seemed like the kind of
person that always had a demon

or something on his shoulder
and that he was fighting with.

And I think that that started at a very,
very young age, long before wrestling.

I got into my bagpipes a lot.

And it kind of pulled me
away from everybody.

I don't know how, but
that's where I started

when I was six years
old playing the bagpipes.

It was a place for me to go.

It was loud.

People knew, don't interrupt.

It actually became
a hideaway for me.

One day, I was in my house and
there was a knock at my back door.

And there was two friends of
mine with this new guy, Rod.

And so they said to me,
Cam, you're a pretty tough

guy and this new guy,
Rod, he's a pretty tough guy.

Why don't you have a fight?

I said, sure.

And we went at it.

Like in the movies, he
drilled me a good one and I

flew over top of my
motorcycle and he won the fight.

As I found out later,
Rod told me he was the

light heavyweight
boxing champ in Toronto.

And from that point on,
we became best friends.

He was a high school wrestler
and he was number two in the city.

That was his goal,
was to be a wrestler.

And he did graduate school.

He finally did leave home.

He would have liked a better
relationship with his father, you know?

That was eating him up.

As Rod became a
young adult, it just became

too much because Rod
wanted to get rough back.

The only other choice would be to
have an all-out brawl with your father.

He left home and
was out on his own.

It's just time to go.

So I took my bagpipes
and I just never went back.

He was really a nomad.

He went to youth hostels,
YMCAs, anywhere,

usually back then,
five bucks for the night.

And you could do it or
you'd get there and it'd

be full so you would be
on the street that night.

I had to make money,
so I played my bagpipes

and I'd get quarters or
whatever they give me.

You sleep during the day.

It's too dangerous
to sleep at nighttime.

At nighttime you get cold,
you get hungry, and so

you start to try to feed
some of these necessities.

I started stealing what I needed
and then got with a group of bad guys.

You know, all of a
sudden you're carrying a

switchblade and, you
know, and then the fights.

Now I was getting off on this
bully type of thing, which I hated.

He was beaten up.

He was made fun of.

Half of those beatings were because
somebody was trying to sexually abuse him.

And you fight back.

You know, I think he
did a little robbery here

and there and he was
terribly ashamed of it.

It was a brief part of his life.

He also would fight.

People would pay to see him fight on the
street, doing whatever it takes to survive.

I was living in a youth hostel.

This is Father O'Malley,
you know, he says, you know,

Roderick, have you ever
seen professional wrestling?

I said, no, sir.

He says, I can get you $25.

You know, that was
like three months' rent.

He was 15 years old
when he had his first

professional fight against
Larry the Axe Henning.

Larry Henning coming into the ring... You
know, Rod, he knew that he needed an angle.

I don't believe at that time he'd
come up with Rowdy Roddy Piper.

His name was Rod Toombs,
so he went by that name.

I don't know how many wrestlers
can play the bagpipes and has kilts.

So that's what he did
to distinguish himself

based on the talent
that he actually had.

The announcer, he just
knew my name was Roddy.

He had to announce
something and he says, ladies

and gentlemen, here
comes Roddy the Piper.

He was just naturally good at it and
then that evolved into his wrestling career

since it was a special skill
that he could use as a gimmick.

People would stand up and
say, you know, and yell at him.

That was his goal was to
get people pissed off at him.

So they're gonna look in
the program, who is this guy?

My nose is broke, you
know, and Larry only hit me

twice, but he did a good
job and I was drooping.

He says, kid, how'd you
like to go to Kansas City?

And that's how I got into pro
wrestling and I never stopped.

He knew that there was gonna be many
days that he didn't know where the next

paycheck was coming and
so he just threw himself at it.

That took him all across Canada.

And then into the States, and
just wherever he could get a job.

When wrestling came along,
that's why I just went home.

Because it had all the
elements without the police.

There were more than two dozen
wrestling territories in North America.

So that meant that
guys could make a living

uprooting, going from
territory to territory.

I'm so fortunate to have
wrestling and the way it evolved.

If it hadn't, I would have
been dead in North America.

I would not have bought it.

I've got a baby face
that looks 12 in a dress

playing bagpipes and
they just beat me up.

So when you're
just getting in, you're

breaking into pro
wrestling, what do you do?

They beat you up and you have to
continuously get up and keep coming back.

I got my first break in
Los Angeles and holy cow.

Really, really
brutal, brutal days.

Roddy came into the gym.

He says, what are you doing?

You going to sweep up the place or
sell hot doggies, chicken on a bun?

He says, no, I'm a wrestler.

And I says, you look like
you got polio in your stomach.

You're so small.

You'll never make it.

You got to learn how to wrestle.

So you could be
a sadistic bastard.

We're going to see things
that are different that's

never been seen before,
ever, ever on any film.

Don't protest.

Don't practice this without a
qualified instructor right there with you.

Judo Gene, if you don't know, look him
up, was the toughest man in the world.

Trained Bruce Lee, Chuck
Norris, Rowdy Ronda Rousey.

Gene LaBelle, I would consider the
most decorated stuntman of all time.

He was in the first ever
televised MMA event.

When I was doing Judo, he
would help me a lot and when I got

into MMA, he was in my
corner for like every single match.

Judo Gene saw that
these guys were bullying me

and Gene would tell
me what to do on the fly.

You gotta beat him with
the dark side of the moon.

Rowdy say, well, what's
the dark side of the moon?

Well, what the referee
doesn't see didn't happen.

Watch you don't
make the eyes out.

Throat's a great handle.

He'd call me late at night and my wife
said, hey, it must be Roddy calling again.

So he says, hey, let's
go roll for a couple hours.

We worked out hard.

No playing games.

He wanted to know
how to wrestle.

The LaBelle family
is their legendary.

They ran the Olympic auditorium and
because dad had earned their respect,

he was able then to wrestle
there in LA for the LaBelle family.

And that is really where dad got the
chance to spread his wings and really

become not just another fighter,
but the one they came to see.

One of my favorite
memories with him is when I

was like 15, he brought
me to LA to see Hollywood.

And I wanted to be
an actress and singer.

And so to me, Hollywood
was like, woo, Marilyn

Monroe handprints and
glamour and all of that.

And we get here, he
rents a car and he's like,

all right, kid, I'm going
to take you around town.

First thing he does is
he goes somewhere.

Somewhere into like
the Compton maybe area.

I was a little young to
understand what I was looking at.

And he was like, that's where
your father slept on the streets.

A woman got murdered
right outside my window.

But I didn't say anything
because I'm not a snitch.

It's just telling me
these horrific stories.

So then I come home
from that vacation.

My friends asked me,
they're like, how's Hollywood?

And I was like, they're like,
did you see this and that?

I was like, I think I
got the wrestler's tour.

And I was like,

I was born and grew
up in Los Angeles.

Some of my earliest memories
that I have are actually about

professional wrestling, being
a professional wrestling fan.

I can remember going down on the bus
running with my stepfather trying to catch

a bus to go down to
the Olympic auditorium.

In 1976, one of the
new faces in the territory

was a young lad by the
name of Roddy Piper.

He was 21 years old.

He was a young, fresh faced kid.

Fans give him a light applause.

They start wrestling and it
starts out as a clean match.

But little by little,
subtly, he starts doing

these things that
only a villain would do.

He was fighting and he
was giving people kicks

to the groin during
this wrestling match.

It was like watching a caterpillar
transform into a butterfly.

And you just saw this magic
happening before your eyes.

People were booing Roddy Piper.

They absolutely
hated who he was.

I am the intelligence.

I think the most controversial
thing I did was stir up controversy.

Because it draws money.

Conflict draws money.

The wheels are
always turning for him.

I said, what can I say?

What can I do next?

Because you had to
keep them interested.

You had to keep
them coming back.

There's no way, Piper!

Hey!

Piper!

Anything he did, he
wanted to be good at it.

I don't plan to go in
there and make it easy.

I don't plan to go in there and not have
some knocks on my own knocking bell.

And they used him to
do the interviews because

he would showboat and
help sell boletos, tickets.

You're a pink Guerrero!

Your father was and
you're a pink Guerrero!

The Guerrero family was one of the
first families in professional wrestling.

If you're of Latino descent,
you didn't really see

a lot of faces on television
that were like yours.

And usually if you did,
they played the roles

of a gardener or they
played the role of a maid.

So for us to see the Guerrero family
in hero roles was very important.

We worshiped them.

You get in that ring, Chavo Guerrero,
and it's going to be all over for you,

brother, because I don't give
a damn about nothing no more.

When Roddy Piper would insult the
Guerreros, we took it very personally.

You sitting at home with
your fat bellies and your

construction boats drinking
your beer, you know who I am!

Roddy really had
the whole package.

In the ring, he was a dirty wrestler, but
he had all this tremendous frenetic energy.

But also, he knew how to
get a reaction out of the fans.

And one of the ways he would do that
was to bring his bagpipes out to the ring.

One time, he told everybody
and silenced the entire stadium.

He'd play the Mexican national anthem
to apologize for attacking the Guerreros.

I said, you know,
I love you people.

I'd like to do
something special.

And all the wonderful Hispanic
people came in and I'm in the ring.

And please stand for the
Mexican national anthem.

Just like this, I said to myself,
I put those bagpipes up, man.

It's too late, right?

And Roddy starts
playing his notes.

And it's not the Mexican national
anthem, but he starts playing La Cucaracha.

He starts playing a
song about a cockroach.

La cucaracha, la
cucaracha, little funny little.

Holy cow, Chairs were
bolted down in the cement.

Here they come.

And the fans,

they're just shocked.

Chairs come up.

Things are being thrown.

Stages being overcome.

It was like watching a
car wreck, you know?

It's a horrible thing I've
seen the scene, but at

the same time you can't
take your eyes away from it.

I was there that night, and I
was going to whiz in my pants.

You can't write
that kind of stuff.

I said, this guy is a natural.

You had to move around,
especially as a bad guy.

You would run your course, and then you
needed to go on and find another place to

go and stake your claim for a while, and
then you would move on somewhere else.

I am extremely pleased to
take my wonderful trophy.

Once I left Los Angeles, and I went
to Portland, nobody knew who I was.

So you had to
start all over again.

32nd birthday gift.

31.

32.

Did you find the choke?

Yeah.

Okay, kick the engine over,
leaving the throttle closed.

It's probably just new.

It takes a lot of control.

It takes a lot of kicks.

I met Roddy in 1979.

I was working graveyard shift as a
waitress, just southwest side of Portland.

Roderick, you're lucky I had it
high enough that that didn't show.

He was the funniest
human being on the planet.

Is that it?

Oh, the guy, all the wrinkles
on my face are from him.

Him making me laugh.

I was young.

I was nine years old.

And so all the other waitresses would
say, you go wait on those wrestlers.

Prime rib was
always what he got.

He got two, ordered two prime ribs
and always two pieces of lemon pie.

He started asking me, hey,
can I have your phone number?

I'd like to ask you out.

I thought he was cute as heck.

I thought he was cute as heck.

But the crowd he
was with was so loud.

And so I'm like, nah,
you know, hey, hi, hi.

And so we kind of flirted, but after
about a month, his tag team partner,

Killer Brooks, got down there.

He's down on his knees.

And he says, please give
him your phone number.

I'm his tag team partner,
and I'm getting beat to

heck out there because
he's only thinking about you.

He wants to get to know you.

So I said, OK, I'll take
his phone number.

And then we hit it off.

Portland wrestling in the late
70s and early 80s was huge.

The buildings were
always packed.

From the moment I started
dating him, anywhere we would

go, people would come in
and say, hey, what's your name?

And people knew who he was.

Everyone pretty much
had the same reaction.

They were shocked.

But after they met him, they all understood
that he was a genuine guy and caring.

And to have to do something like when he
attacked a woman wrestler, he has to do it

over the top because
it's so hard for him to do.

This is why men wrestle
and why women don't.

This is why.

For Roddy, in real life, a
woman is on a pedestal.

It's very old fashioned.

You would never hit a woman.

You would never.

insult a woman.

And I decided early on, I was
going to love Roddy no matter what.

I did and I do and wouldn't
change it for the world.

In Portland, it was
a smaller territory.

closet.

In Atlanta, the
business was growing.

You had to move around, and you had to
be able to go from territory to territory.

That's the way that the
business worked at the time.

They called me
on the East Coast.

I was ready at any time to
get up and take a left-hand turn.

And I drove the old yellow
Canary right across the country.

WTBS in Atlanta, Georgia,
Ted Turner's Superstation.

Wrestling was a staple.

Here's Roddy Piper.

Very few people knew who
he was on a national basis.

He wasn't the biggest guy
in the world, but the one

thing that he did better
than anybody else was talk.

It's a pleasure for
you to have me here.

I'm sure you see, being
the expert that I am...

The promoter realized
Roddy knew how to tell a story,

not just his own story,
but other people's stories.

People want to
get familiar with me.

He was brought in as Rod
Piper, the color commentator.

Sport coat, no-kill.

And then the color commentator
began to skew his views.

You got a big, big, big mouth.

They let a bald-headed geek like
you... Maybe a little bit more nasty.

You just stay out
of my way, pig face.

Maybe a little bit more
against the fan favorites.

And you won't have
to worry about nothing.

Nothing, man.

Pig face.

And they created another
way to get this character over.

They say sticks and stones may break
my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Well, some of the words he said about
me and my family have hurt me deeply.

Sticks and stones
may break your bones.

You are right!

And I'm nuts enough to
throw sticks and stones!

Now you've got... I even
kicked that commentator's butt.

The commentator was a
wrestler and a tough guy.

He got too close to the
ropes and they go in!

Now he comes out with the kill.

A wild man, Roddy Piper!

Now he's Roddy Piper.

Roddy Piper, the only
way that he's really been

outstanding in this match
is his bad sportsmanship.

They're trying to literally
carry Piper out of the ring.

I told you, Piper pays back!

I told you, nobody
messes with Piper!

When he wrestles as a bad guy,
that was the most comfortable for him.

Come out here right now
and fight me like a man!

Come right now!

If you're a bad guy, fans aren't going to
come up and shake your hand as much.

He could be alone
more if he was a bad guy.

Maybe because he was alone in life early on
so often, that's where he was comfortable.

As a kid, he was around some of
the roughest people you can imagine.

And sometimes I wonder
if that's part of what

pieced together that bad
guy psychology that he had.

I am the legend killer.

So my dad did this thing.

There were these yellow
legal pads that he would write.

He would write
all kinds of ideas.

Just in case he had the
opportunity that a mic was

handed to him so that he
had something great to say.

You know you couldn't get a date with
a hundred dollar bill on your forehead.

I wouldn't fight you if my grandma
was threatened by the Huns.

Sometimes maybe I heard it in
the middle of a rock and roll song.

Just had a knack for putting
that kind of stuff together.

Of course I don't have to impress
somebody, they gotta impress me.

Because I'm Roddy
Piper and you're not.

And that's why he was so quick-witted
because he put in work nobody else did.

When everybody else was
partying and drinking, which he

did, he also was thinking
and writing these things down.

Like sometimes people say to me, you just
say what comes off the top of your head.

Oh f***ing horse s***.

You have no idea how
much work went into it.

I seen a lot of men
married wearing a $50

Stetson and carrying a
five buck gun you geek.

There was a guy named
Rick Flair on the East Coast.

The greatest wrestler
in the whole entire wide

world comes right out
of the mid-Atlantic area.

And Roddy Piper and I
are glad to be here brother.

Rick and I were so different, you
know, I wear a kilt, Rick doesn't.

He's blonde, I ain't.

That we got along real
well outside the ring.

And then everything
started to get out of control.

Piper and Flair have
formed a pact and where

there's trouble, we
won't be hard to find.

He's got a belt!

Yes!

Well I knew, yeah I heard his name
but I didn't know anything about him.

He came in the studio and I knew
right away I was going to like him.

He was full of himself
and man, I mean talent.

Rick Flair, Roddy Piper!

There goes Joey Piper!

That's what it's all about!

God, he was entertaining.

It was so good that it
made everybody mad.

You're going to find it's a whole lot
easier to jump on than it is to jump off.

I had moved over there
to the East Coast with

Roddy and we were
expecting our first child.

It was very rowdy times.

Roddy and Rick and other wrestlers,
they lived on a planet that was theirs.

They were a wild, wild
pair of men and lots of

drinking and hotels
getting damaged and such.

Next thing I remember,
I'm in my bed, my clothes

are on, the doors
knocked off the hinges.

I didn't know what happened.

I got the hell out of here.

You hear things, you know some
things, you don't know a lot of things.

Roddy was Roddy
and that's what it was.

We like our kamikazes on
ice and our women on fire.

You understand what I'm saying?

And everywhere we go, we do it
better, longer, harder than anybody else!

We were the Beatles, man.

It was suicidal
putting us together.

Ingesting or drinking.

Anything.

Roddy could beat
anybody to the draw.

It just got way out of hand.

This is where Ric Flair started
the, you know, 99 kamikazes.

And you know, here I'm like a
fool, you know, I'm pretty hardcore,

man, pretty hardcore.

I'm drinking mine and I'll be
the one I always get in trouble.

It was a time to make money,
but it was go, go, go, go, go.

And you get three days
off and then you come

back on the road for
another couple of weeks.

And I remember we were
driving in a snowstorm.

You know, we had beers
and everything in the car.

So we got out and we're
all taking a leak on the side

of the road and all of a
sudden Roddy ran to the car.

And I remember it's like we ran after him
because we knew that Roddy was in one of

those kind of states of mind
where he was going to take the car.

We pretty much tackled Roddy while
he was trying to drive off in the car.

He was a tough guy to handle.

He was a heavy party.

And I would scoop him
up and I'd make sure

he got to where he was
supposed to be going.

Got him to his rooms
and got him to the hotel.

And got him to the airports.

You go out there and
wrestle for 45 minutes.

And you come back, take a shower
and you're wide frigging awake.

And a lot of times I'd look at the
coke and I don't want to do this.

But you end up doing it.

It was I need this to
wake up to wrestle.

I need this to go to bed
because I work in an hour.

This is all I have.

It was also about
to numb the pain.

The physical pain.

The pain of being alone.

Always having
to be in transition.

You know, you're
never sitting still.

It's a vicious cycle that
would just go round and round.

It's easier to go have a drink.

It's easier to go take a
pill or go smoke a joint.

Back in those days, any
injury could cost you your job.

If you can't do it, they replace you a
few minutes later with somebody else.

You learn to be
your own doctors.

That's kind of the sad thing
is you're your own doctor.

Roddy was pretty out of control.

Laura knows what kind of drugs
and alcohol were being consumed.

Uh, come here, Mom.

This is physical.

Having Roddy travel so often and be
gone so much, and having a growing family,

it was very difficult.

When you live like we did, you know, 3,000
miles a week, you become desensitized.

Say Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

One thing that Roddy did, he kept
his family completely out of business.

Because he didn't want them
to see what he went through.

He wanted them to grow up and
be beautiful and healthy and happy.

And I think he took too
much of it on himself.

Sometimes when Rod would come home from
the road, he wouldn't come straight home.

He would check into a
hotel room and just get

rested because when he
got home, he couldn't rest.

I'd like to know where mine is.

Uh, to Barnacle Bell?

He's almost had to do a transition
mentally when he came from the road to

home because he didn't want
to bring that character home.

He had such a hot
temper as Hot Rod.

And he had to because
he had to be on guard a lot.

It was very separate.

He didn't like to take
us to a lot of events.

We were very concerned
about safety because of

how much aggression
was being put towards him.

Rod.

Snuka goes after
Piper and Orton.

He'd been a villain in the
Deep South and fighting

fans and, you know,
getting assault charges.

I mean, I can think of a few situations
with Roddy with fans trying to run us off

the road and chasing
us in cities like Detroit.

People would throw thumbtacks
in the ring, hit with beer bottles.

In Asheville, North Carolina, I threw
a rattlesnake in the ring one night.

Guy ran down to the ringside with
a gunny sack, threw a rattlesnake.

It was a lot of crazy
fans back then, and being

a bad guy could be a
very dangerous living.

I'm gonna shove
it down your throat!

There's certainly times when
I'd see him say or do something

on TV where I'm like, oh,
my gosh, we're in for it now.

This is gonna get worse
before it gets better.

But I never asked
him to curtail or tone it

down because that
would hinder his creativity.

The people wanted to kill me.

I remember there was
a gentleman I could...

I wasn't really paying much attention, but
Roddy went taking it off down this hallway.

And the next thing I see,
I'm having some words.

And the police
got involved in it.

He did have a big knife,
you know, like a Bowie knife.

So, finally, their officer said, Mr. Piper,
we've got him, he's going to jail.

They said, well, I just wanted to
have a couple seconds with him.

The officer said, why?

And he said, because
he stabbed me.

And Roddy took his thumb
off of his chest and the blood

started squirting in the
officer's face at every heartbeat.

It was going.

And I went, oh.

Sergeant Slaughter took me to
the hospital and held the wound.

The doctor said, if that would have went
one more half inch or less, you'd be dead.

So, what was it like?

It was a living hell.

It wasn't just, you're a
bad guy on TV and that's it.

It followed you everywhere.

Dad was stabbed
three times in his life.

Three times they actually stabbed him
to the point where he had a leather jacket

that was Kevlar-lined and it was stab-proof
because he'd been stabbed so many times.

He was the next generation
to take it to the next level.

What a tremendous
match to have live.

Millions of fans everywhere can see Greg
Valentine and Roddy Piper go at each other.

Me and Piper started out a long,
long time a long, long journey.

We'd probably wrestled
each other for a year.

We just walloped each other.

I took Piper's head and
rammed it into the turnbuckle.

Every time I'd go out
there, I'd beat on his ear.

Wham!

So I ended up naming
it the Year of the Ear.

Let him go to that ear.

And I'd laugh.

Ha, ha, ha!

The Year of the Ear!

And then finally,
they want to blow it off.

End it.

What happened was Bruno Sammartino and
Larry Zbysko did $500,000 in Shea Stadium.

So it became a war of the
North against the South.

So the South said, all right, we're going
to put on the first pay-per-view ever.

So they come to me and they said,
I want you to make up the meanest,

nastiest, most brutal match
you can possibly think of.

And Piper came up
with this dog collar.

40 pounds of change.

I want you to check it out.

You're going to see something
you've never seen in your life before.

It was a great idea.

It was my birthday.

Oh, what is this?

This is beautiful.

They presented me
with this big cake.

I love cake.

Wait a minute.

What is this?

I look at it and I see
some steel in there.

And I reached down and
pulled out a dog collar.

What are you doing?

What are you trying to do to me?

He wants to have
a dog collar match.

Piper was the best.

The best performer.

Good at the mic.

Probably number one at the mic.

Some people said he
sounded like Daffy Duck.

I love Daffy Duck.

You're talking about
the biggest thing that's

ever going to happen
in the history of wrestling.

Ladies and gentlemen, our next event
of the evening is a very special match.

This is a competition.

A dog collar match.

It was the very first
pay-per-view ever for wrestling.

Two men linked together
like this in Mortal Kombat.

This is a strategy.

This is what Piper
talked to me about.

And then I see I'm
the first one to get mad.

Exactly as a hip as
we have talked about.

He could use it
to batter the guy.

Now he's going to
get me in the teeth.

Right there.

I had to go to the
dentist the next day.

And you can see the concern.

Look at the people
watching this match.

They really don't know what to expect
when two men are going at it like this.

Now I'm going for the ear.

Look at Valentine
pounding on it now.

It was a ridiculously
hard match.

It was one of the toughest
match probably ever been in.

Especially with Valentine.

Shane is a whip.

Valentine on his knees.

Heart blow to the
top of the head.

You know, I'm not just selling.

I'm hurt.

But it's all for you
wrestling fans.

Giving you our love
in a strange way.

This is the end
of it right there.

Valentine... He was
the greatest of all time.

A really good hearted guy.

But a really tough
son of a bitch.

Valentine.

You say... You say your strategy
wants to take away all my hair and...

You say what you forgot is
you've got one more year to go.

When you look for, you know,
the best man in the world...

You know, attributes of a bad
guy, you have to be fearless.

You have to have a gift of gab.

You can say anything
that you want, even

though you know it's
got to be controversial.

You have to be able to
communicate with the audience.

And you have to have a
certain attitude about you.

And Roddy had all
those attributes and more.

Vince McMahon has these
plans of expanding nationally.

What's the best way to
expand all over North America?

You get the best
wrestlers from the individual

territories, and you
bring them all to WWE.

And Vince McMahon wants it all.

I got a call from Roddy.

He said, Mr. McMahon called.

I said, yeah, are you coming up?

He goes, yeah, he
wants me to come up.

I said, come on up, you know.

Roddy was coming
to New York City.

Well, let me tell you
how to be Roddy Piper.

Heh.

Have a nice day.

Go yourself.

Give me the microphone.

Get out of my way.

Full-legged, big, fat.

You both stink.

It's as simple as this.

When RP talks,
brother, people listen.

In New York, New
York is big guys.

At least 250 pounders,
six foot whatever.

That's what I was.

You know, Piper, later on,
I guess he gained weight.

But when he first
came in, he was smaller.

So if Roddy's not the
greatest wrestler, he's

the greatest physical
specimen in the world.

Don't let him do that.

Do what Roddy does best.

Let him be a talk show host.

In a moment, ladies and gentlemen,
we're going to take you to Piper's pit.

Involving, of course,
the rather controversial

and certainly
opinionated Roddy Piper.

They put up a backdrop,
and it was basically

a wrestling talk
show to stir the pot.

You're a lousy wrestler.

It's as simple as that.

I might be a lousy
wrestler, but I'm still in there.

I got not afraid of nobody.

It was the Tonight
Show, where Roddy Piper,

the host, could end
up beating up the guest.

It was just the most
off-the-walls, unpredictable,

amazing idea that ever
happened in television.

In my opinion.

I'm biased, but whatever.

Is he supposed to scare me?

You had to be ready.

He was witty, smart.

He was like the
fastest gun in the West.

Hello, peasants.

Don't call my father stupid.

No, no.

Wait, wait, wait.

How you doing, fatso?

You could take some guys and make
them look like heroes and superstars,

or he could kind of
like, if he wants to,

he could chop you
down to size pretty quick.

I could slam you myself.

I don't care.

You're saying John
snuck up at 520.

The most famous one, of course,
is the interview with Jimmy Snuka.

There were a couple of coconuts.

And one of them, you know,
had been what we call gimmicked.

But that's not the
one Roddy chose.

Am I making fun of you?

No, sir.

No, sir.

Nothing was
scripted on Piper's pit.

It was all off at the top of
Dad's head or something

that he'd maybe written
down in a note before.

And that's where
the magic happened.

Just when they think they got the
answers, I change the questions.

He wasn't famous for
his technique or his type of

wrestling or how big his
arms were or anything like that.

He was just an incredible
talker and a guy that

was taking wrestling and
telling a different story.

You do not throw rocks at a
man who's got a machine gun.

To

you, the female entertainer
of the year, Miss Cyndi Lauper!

Wrestling began to work with
MTV, which was absolutely red hot.

You look wonderful, Cyndi.

Captain Lou Albano and
Cyndi Lauper were friends.

And Cyndi Lauper had put Lou Albano
in her Girls Wanna Have Fun video.

I said, Vince, I got this guy named
Dave Wolf that manages Cyndi Lauper.

They just did a
video with Albano.

But now they want to get
involved in the wrestling business.

Vince was like, hmm, hmm.

Dave thought it was going
to be good for Cyndi's career.

You know, I hear she's doing this
crossover in this very unusual world.

It's like, what
the hell is this?

Would you please
welcome Cyndi Lauper!

So now, there's all this
attention somewhere to WWE.

People who are fashionable,
people who are in the rock

and roll world, they're
going to start watching WWE.

So they have this ceremony
in Madison Square Garden.

Lou Albano was one
of the primary forces

responsible for the rock
and wrestling in the gym.

And what better way to honor a
man but to give him a gold record.

I'm so grateful to
receive this award.

Now that's going to
provoke some jealousy.

And who is the most
jealous performer of all?

It's Roddy Piper.

Beautiful, Cyndi.

Maybe they have some
kind of presentation to make.

I want to present you...

Roddy Piper.

Shocking.

Kicks the biggest
pop star in America.

A female pop star in the head.

David Wong trying to cut

into the canvas.

20 minutes before the match,
I was asked, do you think

you can kick Cyndi Lauper
or not her by her manager?

I mean, I hope you
never manage me.

But when they saw that, Saddam
Hussein got nothing on me.

Look out, the Hulksters!

Hitting the ring!

Cyndi wasn't a wrestler.

So she had to have
somebody to defend her honor.

He knew what he was doing.

He was stirring up the crowd.

He knew it and he loved it.

All heels do.

What a disgraceful display.

Cyndi, look at her.

Tears running down her face.

Hulksters hot.

Everybody's hot.

Boy, he wishes he could have
got his hands on Roddy Piper.

Every dog has its day.

You know what I'm talking about?

And that one's going to get his.

Okay.

She expects me to sit there
and do nothing about her.

So I kick her 12
yards across the field.

Just imagine this.

In about a four-month period, I
had kicked Cyndi Lauper in the head.

I don't know how many
guys on Piper's fit I had,

whatever I had done,
all in this very short time.

It was getting really heated up.

I couldn't go anyplace.

I was fighting.

I had a family.

I was fighting in
and out of Denny's.

It was crazy.

Roddy understood that
bringing him in, and the

musicians, brings it
to a whole other level.

So he was on board for that.

All right, let me just step
out this way at the end.

But he found it very
hard being an old-school

person, and he tried
best he could to cooperate.

It was never easy.

The last one is MTV Stinks.

Once we got hooked up with
MTV, it took us to mainstream.

MTV.

Music to vomit by.

Ladies and gentlemen,
the war to settle the score.

The hottest ticket in town.

The rock and wrestling connection helped
us change the look of the business to

where we got families
and kids at ringside.

This is broadcast on MTV.

This is big time.

Everybody wants
to be a part of it.

Well, there's something
going on here.

I got to see what it is.

I got to check it out.

Piper was the ultimate villain.

So you want to have the ultimate
villain all against the ultimate hero.

It was the biggest thing ever
was Hogan and Piper going at it.

We have got it, Piper!

When I ran into Piper, he's the one
that made everything else possible.

Oh!

Dropped a big elbow on him!

I had to have an opponent, and
nobody had the air, the arrogance,

the attitude to go toe-to-toe
with me and not back down.

Without Piper, we could have never,
never launched into the stratosphere.

Piper has two confederates.

Cowboy Bob Ordon, Jr. and
Paul Mr. Wonderful Orndorff.

Orndorff going up to the top.

Looked out!

They interfere in the match.

Cindy Lauper up on the apron.

Orndorff going around
the side rope now.

Who

is going to save the day?

Well, Mr. T.

The biggest TV star
in the United States.

Everybody in the
country knows Mr. T.

They're inviting
him inside the ring.

And so insert Mr. T.

It was Vince's way to
interject the entertainment.

It was nothing but excitement
and electricity, and it sure worked.

I don't know anything about
his background as a wrestler.

I used to be a bodyguard.

I used to be a bouncer
at a disco and all that stuff.

You know, now I knew how to
wrestle, you know, and I wasn't no fluff.

So I stepped in the ring, and
Piper snuck up behind me.

I didn't think it would
go down like this.

If I knew it would go down like
this, I would have did something else.

So that's why I was so...

I guess I could say pissed.

Oh, hell is broken loosely.

Roddy was the ultimate bad guy.

He sold it.

He packed it.

He was good at what he did.

Oh, we've got him.

We've got him at home.

Security holding everyone back.

What is going on?

And it just went
berserk, you know.

It was...

I laugh at it now
because it's so old.

I think about it, you know.

It was maddening.

The Keystone Cops, because
everybody was fighting.

What happened to our match?

We don't have a match anymore.

It's pandemonium.

Well, back then, we were still
really protecting the business.

Should we tell the cops
what we're doing or not?

And the standard modem was,
I don't tell anybody anything.

Let's just get their
natural reaction.

All of a sudden, some
policeman came in the ring army.

There's a cop with a gun,
and here the rest of them come.

Piper was fighting the
cops and everything.

It was just insanity.

Hulk Hogan was the biggest hero.

Roddy Piper was the
most detested villain.

And now we are ready to start
our road to the first WrestleMania.

Okay, Ariel, let's go.

Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo.

Come on, Ariel.

Thank you.

He's tired.

This is the proud papa.

Papa Piper.

My dad often would
say things like, I can't

imagine how hard it is
to be Roddy Piper's kid.

Here comes Roddy.

Ariel.

He felt guilty, like he was
some way a bad parent

because his career was in
some way affecting our lives.

He was smiling.

He was grinning.

When we were starting out as a
young family, he came to me and said,

I really do not want our children
to grow up in 100 different places.

I want them to have roots.

You sure are pretty.

Because he never
felt like he had a home.

We chose to live in the country
and have a lot of land around us.

It was a safe zone.

We lived on a 10-acre ranch in the
middle of nowhere, end of a gravel road.

And we really kept
to just that ranch.

Goodbye.

With any kind of
luck, she'll keep going.

We won't have to feed her.

We wanted to be isolated because we had
actual stalkers who would come and try and

break into our house
or be on our property.

We did not go to the malls.

We did not go to the movies.

I must have gotten 30
fights in one year just

because people wanted
to test their minds.

They were moxie against me.

This kind of thing is real life.

This is the kind of thing
that makes a family.

It's a great way of
nature just teaching a

family how to be a
family and stay together.

I had a meeting with a small
room full of our executives.

And I said, there
is a Super Bowl.

Here's the World Series.

There's this, there's that.

It was really common sense.

So why not have one of your own?

Call it WrestleMania.

We would not have had WrestleMania I had
it not been for Roddy because you have to

have, again, a strong antagonist
to get with the protagonist.

Check this out, dude!

Check that out!

You have to have good
stories and you have to have

bold characters and
larger-than-life individuals.

And Roddy was all of that.

So I knew I had Roddy.

I knew I had Hogan and Mr. T.

It was like that
was going to work.

How does it feel to be
portraying someone like myself?

Well, you ain't got a chance.

You ain't nothing, man.

Oh, why, you ain't at all.

Because I don't have a
chair with my name on it?

Roddy Piper really
did not like Mr. T.

Don't look at someone!

In those days, you know, you really
paid some dues to be in the main event.

When Mr. T walks in, not even
having a match anywhere, and it's like,

what right does he have to
be in my ring in the main event?

You want to get in there, brother,
and you want to try some fighting, huh?

We've never brought in somebody from the
outside and one of the biggest problems I

had was the barbaric
mindset of Piper and Orndorff.

You're looking at someone
that was... He's an actor.

He's not a wrestler.

We're just going
to break his legs.

I said, guys, please.

How can I say it
without sounding cocky?

They didn't understand that bringing
me in would broaden their thing.

Because basically, you know, Vince,
being the pioneer that he is, he said,

wow, we're going to
broaden, bring it to the world.

You come on down, T.

We'll put an X where
the T should be.

Roddy hated the
thought that, you know, he

was a part of a Mr. T
coming into his arena.

It's an insult.

It's a slap in the
face to the business.

I had these two guys that
had this old school mentality.

And plus, I got this guy
who's got a real edgy attitude.

You know, he's always
talking in third person.

Mr. T don't do that.

Mr. T don't put up with that.

Mr. T ain't no powder puff.

He had to understand, you know.

They didn't want to lose to Mr. T
because he's not a real wrestler.

There I am, the hardest
heel they've ever had.

And now they want
me to take a dive.

I said, I ain't doing it.

I was kind of like the babysitter,
the moderator, the peacekeeper.

And I was ready to have
a nervous breakdown.

The wrestling extravaganza
of all time, WrestleMania.

The people knew the wrestling
business was changing that night.

There was a fever pitch
in Madison Square Garden.

Piper's gonna get it.

Get what?

Get his butt kicked.

What do you do, you know, to
show the world what this product

is and what it will be, you
know, in a really big way?

Look at Rodji.

How does he fit in any of this?

He doesn't.

That's why I had him.

This is what sports
entertainment is all about.

It was everything we had.

We threw it in.

And let's roll the dice
and do it in a big way.

Everything I had
was on the line.

Here is what is arguably the turning
point of the WWE in just so many ways.

Rodji was very stubborn.

But you're about to make more money
than you ever had in your entire lifetime.

Rodji was smart enough to
know, yeah, I'm gonna do business.

And I'm gonna
make it look right.

You don't have to like it.

There's the exchange and slip.

Piper now goes to the line
quickly, takes him down to the cage.

At a certain point, Rodji Piper instructs
Mr. T, pick me up in a fireman's carry.

Oh, a nice fireman's carry.

Even though he didn't
want Mr. T to take advantage

of him, Rodji Piper
knows how to sell himself.

And he knows that's the photo
that will go all over the world.

What's he gonna do with it?

You need to make Mr. T the hero.

This is what this is all about.

Mr. T should have beaten one of
those guys right in the middle of the ring.

Preferably Piper.

But instead, they had to have Orton jump
off the top rope with a cast to hit Warned

Off on the head, just
so he could get a win.

Piper didn't want to do the
job, even in WrestleMania.

You're the bad guy.

You're supposed to get beat.

That's what bad guys do.

He was so protective about it.

He was so protective about
protecting Roddy Piper.

He didn't realize, if
you just listen to our

opinion, I think you might
find things a lot easier.

But Piper didn't like
me, you know, at all.

I mean, there was no
rapport at all with him and I.

It was strictly business.

We didn't talk unless we had to.

But later on in life,
when Piper and I got to be

real good friends, I said,
you screwed up, man.

You could have been
one of the richest guys

I've ever met, but you
wouldn't let me beat you.

So he goes, damn it.

I'm so pissed.

I wish we had talked.

I said, I tried to talk.

You wouldn't talk to me.

Hulk Hogan, Mr. T kind of taking
the center stage of that whole event.

He always felt they
couldn't have been the center

stage without him being
there, being the bad guy.

And he knew his worth.

He knew his worth.

It's things like that that made
Roddy the ultimate rebel.

For myself to stay on top, I needed
to get out of the business completely.

Do something in another form.

I spent a lot of time
with Roddy and had a lot

of big talks with Roddy
about that time period.

And I remember Roddy
basically telling me that

you got to have something
else after wrestling.

What are you going
to do after that?

It was like Hollywood.

Roddy had a quality that
I could use in a movie.

Well, first of all, he
didn't have a pretty body.

He had a pretty boy face
like a Hollywood actor.

And this role required him
to be a kind of a working man.

You, you're okay.

This one, real ugly.

The character of John
Nada is really based a lot

on Roddy and his past
and what he'd been through.

And he added a
lot of color to that.

He gave me a notebook.

Now in this notebook were written all these
phrases and ideas he had for interviews.

And right there, sitting there was,
I've come here to chew bubble gum.

And kick ass.

I'm all out of bubble gum.

Well, that's a great line.

I can use that.

I have come here to chew
bubble gum and kick ass.

And I'm all out of bubble gum.

That's all his idea.

That was all from his brain.

I've never felt safer in my life
than fighting with Roddy Piper.

I believe that fight scene.

Lasts literally about
seven minutes on screen.

We really, you know,
choreographed the out of it.

But there was one time
we were both so hyped up.

I was especially hyped up.

And that first punch, I
hit him right in the face.

And I was like, I was out of.

And he's like, come on, man.

Don't worry.

Come on.

Come on.

Step out of it.

Come on.

Don't worry.

Come on.

Let's start again.

And he was great.

Brother, life's a bitch.

Don't feel sorry for me.

My name's John Nada.

The year and a half we were in Los
Angeles, while he was filming those

movies, he brought the scripts
home and we'd go over them.

Here we go.

He was always leaving
to go to acting classes.

I mean, it was a
whole other lifestyle.

It was not like it was
today where it's a lot

more flexible for
wrestlers to also do acting.

Back then, it was,
you didn't do that.

It was not an easy road to be
really the first wrestler to go into film.

Vince was booking everything
without Piper's name.

It was real hard for us
to make that transition

because Piper was
so hot at the time.

If Roddy wanted to go off and
do film, what am I going to say?

No, don't want to take
advantage of that opportunity.

As long as I know
that he's coming back.

He loved acting and he
loved the work of it, but he felt

alienated and didn't really
have a lot in common with it.

He didn't want to do anything
with a lot of the people in Hollywood.

The only people that they can
understand me are other wrestlers.

I needed to come back to the
WWE and walk back in the front door.

Roddy!

Roddy!

When I came back into
wrestling from Hollywood,

bringing that credibility
back was huge.

Roddy's standpoint is,
well, you had to bring me

back because that was
the greatest star of all time.

That would be
Roddy's point of view.

But it doesn't matter
what you want.

Give the audience
what they want.

They want Roddy to come back?

Let's give them Roddy.

Standing ovation
here for Roddy Roddy!

And after a respite,
Roddy's ready to come back.

Great, he's fresh,
he's new all over again.

Different set of opponents.

Mr. Downey.

Yes, Mr. Piper.

Don't blow no more
smoke in my face.

Morton Downey Jr.
was a talk show host.

Now he's a big mouth.

And Roddy had this
impeccable timing.

So when Downey blows smoke in Roddy's
face, it's like, one, two, three, four.

Instead of immediately doing it,
watch, something's going to happen now.

And then it does.

He was so creative.

I think the fire is out, Jeff.

Very quick on his feet.

But at the same time,
he was very opinionated

and wanted someone
to listen to his opinion.

I listened to a lot of Roddy's
ideas, some of which were

really dead on and some of
which were, wow, that was out there.

They say you shouldn't blow
your own horn, don't they say that?

Why not?

You are the most arrogant
individual I think we've ever had.

I think Roddy once described our
relationship as a love-hate relationship.

We never fought.

There were a couple of
times when it was very close.

That was the way it
was back in those days.

A lot of times you
settled things in a fist fight.

You just did.

Vince and I were
two peas in a pod.

I love the.

I do.

He's an.

Sometimes.

So am I.

Roddy Piper was an
attraction all to himself.

The fans could no
longer boo him anymore.

You came to see
Roddy Piper's intensity.

You came to hear his big mouth.

And you came to
watch that frenzied,

kinetic spirit he brought
between the ropes.

Whether he won or
whether he was humiliated,

he was a draw and
he remained a draw.

Roddy Piper was maturing in
that it wasn't all about Roddy.

And Roddy was proving that,
hey, I can make people too.

I wouldn't lay my
shoulders down for anybody.

But when I do, I make somebody.

And it means something.

This is gonna be something.

This was a special match.

This is the biggest moment in
my life for sure up to this point.

Roddy really launched me.

My whole career
just started climbing.

And it was Roddy was the
one that gave me that first boost.

This is the first time these
two men are meeting for

the World Wrestling
Federation Intercontinental title.

I think the last time, I think I did
watch this maybe when Roddy died.

I always make a point of like, let me
go back and find some good memories.

I always felt Roddy took
a special interest in me.

Roddy was born in Saskatoon.

And my dad grew up in Saskatoon.

And there was a possibility that their
name, like they were the same family.

Or maybe there was
some blood between us.

When I first met him, we
joked that we might be cousins.

Like it was like, hey, cuz.

And I didn't mind.

I never minded
Roddy being a cousin.

I know this guy since he's
been knee high to a grasshopper.

I remember when they were
changing your body pants.

I think it was a message to the other
wrestlers, some of the other superstars,

that weren't in the habit of
reaching down to help the next guys.

Roddy was like, here,
I'll show you how it's done.

Eye to eye, nose to nose.

But I was relieved to find out
that this guy's really pitching for me.

He's actually opening
the doors for me.

That match was Roddy's match.

Roddy, Roddy.

Oh, bulldog.

Like Roddy put
that match together.

Busted wide open.

Roddy was so tuned into
what would work with the fans.

He's got the bell.

Piper's gonna ring his bell.

They don't want to
ring me with the bell.

It's like, no, no, don't do it.

He's having second thoughts.

His conscience
gets the better of him.

He changes his mind
here and decides not to.

Oh, look at that.

So by being a nice
guy, I've tossed him.

Idiot.

It's great.

Over the years, Roddy told me many times,
like, that it was his most favorite match.

And, you know,
you never forget that.

There's an old saying
that's, uh, you need a

license to hunt, you
need a license to fish.

Any jerk can have a kid.

It takes a man to be a dad.

Oh, man.

When I look at my
childhood, my dad was gone

almost every day for at
least up until I was five.

The first at least 12 years of my life,
he was gone for long periods of time.

I think at one point I didn't
see him for over a year.

We both made the same
choice that the wrestling

business took precedent
over anything, even family.

So that's a tough choice to
look in the mirror and live with.

You were gone at least
300 days a year, every year.

Roddy was, like me, was
a real strong family man.

You know, you commiserate together,
and you're missing your kids' birthday

parties, and you miss
Halloween, and you miss

all these little special
days all the time.

You see pictures.

The heartbreak at home
of being gone all the time.

You know, it's just this
very tough part of your life.

When Roddy would come home
and have to be dad, he was always fun.

He would spoil them rotten.

He would pull
them out of school.

It didn't matter
what was going on.

Christmas, so he was always
home and always lots of presents.

A lot of cuddle time.

He was trying very hard to
create what he didn't have.

He would come home
and he would be so

exhausted, you know,
while trying to see us.

And then he would want to have
fun or just do something as a family.

And then immediately, like
as soon as we were having

fun, you could see him
getting antsy about work.

You could see it start to tick like
a clock going faster and faster.

And I think he missed it.

You know, he missed
us when he was gone.

And he missed the
action when he was home.

He was like a runaway as a kid
growing up and spent a lot of time

on the road in his own mindset,
like Roddy against the world.

He was not like
any other wrestler.

He was in his own world.

I think that world also
meant going away.

I'm going to get 30 minutes
with my dad this month.

I just want to hug him, cuddle with him,
kiss him and do whatever I can in that

time because I literally get
him on his transfer layover flight.

He wasn't an NFL
player that had a season.

He went 365.

There you go.

They never liked seeing him go.

Everyone, including myself.

If you could wish for anything in the
whole world, what would you wish for?

For my family to be
together all the time.

That dad didn't go away.

But it's got to work, so
it just doesn't happen.

You know, it's hard not to get sad
when he was going out the door.

But, um, sorry.

It's hard to live with a man
that has constant injuries.

Of course, they varied from
bruises to broken bones.

He never let on how
bad he was hurting.

I would beg him to sit still
and recover from an injury.

Yes, yes, I would.

But you cannot make Rod
do anything he doesn't want to.

Dad was injured 90% of the time.

So when I say I had to
lace his boots up since I was

8 years old, it's because
it physically hurt him.

He is sorely outnumbered here.

I remember the first time that I
really felt like, wow, he is mortal.

Hogan gets a whipping on him.

And truly hating Hogan.

They can't hurt him!

The hardest thing as a kid for
me was knowing your dad's injuries.

And he had just had
a hip replacement.

Show him that scar.

There you can see it.

He had a scar from
a hip replacement.

Hulk Hogan took a
chair and hit my dad.

Oh, no!

No!

He's not supposed
to be wrestling.

We were told he might
not even walk again.

I just remember breaking down in tears
because for the first time it became real.

So at that point, my parents
stopped letting us watch all together.

When we had the inside and
the outside, it was really rough.

I mean, he was just in constant
pain and yet could work through it.

As he got older, he had a
shoulder injury and his arm would

just hang like a couple
inches lower than the other arm.

And he was probably
like that for a year or two.

And it turned out his, like, they pulled
out something like five or six shattered

bones that were just like
floating around his shoulder.

It was kind of fascinating for me to see
him behind the scenes having a hard time

getting out of bed,
having a hard time walking.

And two hours later, he's in the ring
and you'd never know anything was wrong

because he loved it and
he loved putting on a show.

It really was just two
completely different lives.

During the time of 2003 when Dad
talked to HBO, it was a dark time for Dad,

in front of camera and at home.

Everybody's dead.

They're all dying early.

And...

nobody cares about it.

What the hell is he doing?

And what the hell is he saying?

It's like, really?

They take them and they
screw them up so much.

And they being the rash of promoters
that I've gone through in the 33 years.

A lot of times you
lash out, you know, and

that's what Roddy was
doing was lashing out.

A lot of his friends had
started passing away.

And it makes you worry.

And it makes you concerned.

And so that's when he
started being vocal about it.

I know he blamed the company for
just about everything in the interviews.

But at that time he
had lost so much.

He wasn't wrestling.

He was hurt.

Just trying to stand
up for his buddies.

But later on, towards the
end, Dad had talked to me

and, you know, he said,
it's the business we get into.

We know what it is.

You know, we don't get in there thinking
we're going to live to 78 years old.

What would you have me do at 49?

When, like, my pension plan,
I can't take out until I'm 65.

I'm not going to make 65.

It's just face facts, guys.

When someone says, you know, really
rotten things about your company, you know,

you're not going to welcome
them with open arms.

You know, you're going to
say, time for us to say goodbye.

He wasn't expecting
the consequences.

He lost a contract.

It was pretty bad for our family
as far as, like, our well-being goes.

I think he felt very lost.

Very depressed.

A little bit reckless
with his behavior.

Obviously, with the HBO
interview, that's a good example.

And, you know, I've talked
about him having demons.

And I think that this was
sort of like the height of

his demons coming out
was this period of his life.

Yeah, nothing's
permanent in this business.

And as Piper's been fired,
I've been fired a couple times.

You know, but things change.

And, you know,
the president or O.J.

or somebody will do something that
takes precedent over something that we did.

So I think Vince
understands that he's doing it.

He's dealing with a bunch
of high, intense personalities.

But Vince has
been pretty forgiving.

Whoo!

Ladies and
gentlemen, I give you...

I give you the most gifted entertainer
in the history of professional wrestling.

My man, the Hot Rod.

I think it was huge for him, you know,
because his whole life was wrestling.

Even though wrestling is an exhibition,
for us, the Hall of Fame is real.

I want to tell you this.

I love you...

I love you so much, man.

I love you so much,
but I guarantee you this.

My name is Rowdy Roddy Piper,
and you ain't seen nothing yet.

You can find sympathy in the
dictionary between and suicide.

Roddy was definitely depressed
off and on during his life.

You know, you're either up
100% or you're kind of down.

And it was always hard for
him to find the middle spot.

One of the demons
was that time in his life as

a teenager when he was
surviving on the street.

He never let that go.

I was so young.

I had to fight for
everything I had.

I had to fight for
everything I had.

Oh, man.

He told me some stuff about his
childhood and living on the street.

He was in a bad spot
and used and abused and

just a lot of bad stuff
that I had no idea.

Nobody feels sorry for me, man.

You know, he had phoned
me from the road and he'd been

in his hotel room for three
days with the lights off.

He was depressed.

There was things on his mind
that went back to his childhood.

His mind went to spots
that weren't good for him.

He still had that crumbling part inside
his soul that he could never mend.

He was so depressed at times,
I'm sure that he did think of suicide.

He wouldn't follow through with it
because, as he would be the first to say,

he's not a coward and
that's a coward's way out.

But he was so sad at times inside himself
that I know that he did think of suicide.

And I think that occasionally.

And that's heartbreaking.

As he started to wind down
wrestling, he really started

to have fun going into
acting as well as comedy.

And I looked over.

And my hotel door
was just f****** gone.

In a weird way, I think it was a
therapeutic thing that he realized that

just because he couldn't wrestle anymore
didn't mean that he couldn't perform.

Over here is Hogan.

He's naked.

He's putting suntan lotion on.

He enjoyed telling
these stories.

He enjoyed
connecting with his fans.

And that was something that
he was very passionate about.

May all your dreams come true.

God bless you.

How cool is that?

Roddy!

Roddy Piper!

January of 2009, his manager reached out
and said, would you have any interest in

helping Roddy cultivate
a stand-up comedy act?

And I was like, absolutely.

But here's the thing, when
you watch pro wrestling

with brothers, that
wasn't even a TV show.

That was an instruction guide
on how to hurt each other.

That's all it was.

I grew up in the middle of three
boys in suburban Philadelphia

in really the golden age of
modern professional wrestling.

I remember being a
kid when he showed up.

He was the worst.

I remember being a chubby
11-year-old kid buying

a T-shirt that said, I
hate Rowdy Roddy Piper.

Like he could get you
to yell at a television set.

And meeting Roddy was like
meeting somebody out of a comic book.

That began a really cool relationship
where I would just listen to stories and

try to help him craft that
into some sort of cohesive act.

As a comedian, I have an
unbelievable amount of respect

for somebody that can
connect with audiences online.

He was on such a deep level.

That was his mutant ability.

Like that power walking guy.

I got to go through Roddy's life
with him on a comedic journey.

But hearing his life
experience was just so amazing.

I don't have a fancy ending
for it just to humiliate anyone.

Roddy's darkness is one of the things
that drew him to stand-up comedy.

You can turn pain into joy.

And making people
laugh meant a lot to him.

He is the WWE Hall of Famer and one
of the all-time greats, Rowdy Roddy Piper.

When he would get off the road, he
would be tired or hurt and he'd recover.

But there was never a
time that he did an interview

where he got on camera
and he couldn't turn it on.

What was the question?

This time it was different.

He had this interviewer.

Yeah, yeah.

And he gets on and he's like,
can't put his thoughts together.

But what I don't
think is on our honor.

Let me try to do this.

It's one of those things that
as a family member, when

you know someone close and
you're like, they're being odd.

I went into a Mexican restaurant
with my youngest daughter who's in...

It was heartbreaking because
that was not the man I knew.

There was obvious a
problem he was having.

I just think
that it's a little...

It was like the moment the
world knew something was wrong.

And a few days later,
Roddy was home.

He was very tired that night.

We were going to go see
his doctor the next day.

We decided to do that.

And we went to bed and
he passed away in his sleep.

His heart failed.

As far as the specifics as to what was
causing it, it probably wasn't the heart.

It was a combination
of his entire life.

I am so grateful
that he was home.

Because even at that age, so many days
of the year, he was gone away from home.

And he could have been alone.

Sorry.

And I'm just very grateful that he
was home with me when he passed.

You know, the news came
that he passed away, you know.

And I felt like I got
shot in the chest.

With a cannon, you know.

And it kind of like knocked
me off track for a couple of days.

And then all of a sudden,
I get this voice message.

It was really weird because
either my phone was messed up.

Sometimes you'll get
a text message at that

night when it was sent
to you in the morning.

I saw the light.

I'm walking with Jesus
today, my brother.

Walking with Jesus.

Loving you and praying for you.

It really spooked me out.

Like, hmm, alien
thing, you know.

Like, close encounters.

It's crazy to get a voice message
from somebody after they passed away.

And especially for him to say, I'm loving
you and walking with Jesus, my brother.

Just loving you and
walking with Jesus.

I was like, wow.

Totally screwed me up.

It's surreal being
here without him.

It is.

It is.

It's different experience.

That's for sure.

Bye.

Oh, welcome back.

Good to see you again.

How are you?

So good to see you.

Oh my God.

When I first started doing MMA, I
was trying to think of a fight name.

And of course, the first
thing that everybody thought

of was like, what do
you think is a fight name?

Well, Rowdy.

Rowdy Warner Rousey.

Like, I know, but like Rowdy
Roddy Piper already has that.

I didn't want to steal it.

Until I happened to see the original
Rowdy one and got his blessing.

And yeah, he was
very sweet about it.

He was like, yeah,
sure kid, no problem.

Better do the name Proud
or something like that.

I don't know.

And then Kitty, my mom.

Hi.

Thank you so
much for everything.

Thank you for trusting me.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I mean, Rowdy would dig that you
have such continued success, you know?

And he would...
couldn't be prouder, I'm

sure, of your representation
of the Rowdyness.

No one can do it better.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you so, so much.

He was a loner and a wolf.

And he was often misunderstood.

I was so wild.

Scary wild.

But he was always
100% in your face.

You do not throw rocks at a
man who's got a machine gun.

This is what you get.

I am who I am.

What you got here is all man.

He didn't change for anybody.

We are the most popular
wrestlers in the entire world.

I haven't found anyone
that has what Rowdy had.

Love life lived it to its max.

He came in spitting fire
and cropping thunder.

I am the legend killer.

He started with so little
and ended with so much

and had every hardship
thrown at him along the way.

That's my dad's legacy.

I hope it is one that
gives people strength.

I still hear new stories
about him all the time.

And I realize how lucky
I am to have a father

that has impacted so
many people in the world.

Best part of my job?

When you come with your daddy
and your mommy and you're all excited.

He can put a smile
on a little boy's face.

That's incredible.

That's the greatest reward a
guy could ever have in his life.

Thank you.

I love you too.