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08-06-2015, 05:34 PM
If the bad wrestler - known as the heel in the entertainment wrestling industry's parlance - is doing his job well, he should always be looking over his shoulder for the deranged fan or angry onlooker.
"If you are the heel, and if you are doing your job right, you are most hated," said "Rowdy" Roddy Piper in our unpublished June, 2015 interview. "You lived in fear. When you go into a Denny's to eat, you give them 20 bucks so they don't spit in your food. Everybody hates you. It's very humbling to know that the industry has caste me as the greatest heel in the history of the business."
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Piper had survived cancer, electrocution, stabbings, an airplane crash, and a number of car wrecks. He died on Thursday at age 61 of a heart attack.
As a teenage runaway, he roamed the streets of Canada and slept in the alleys. He never forgot street life. He was a frail boy, too skinny, too vulnerable. It was 1969 and he was an outcast in society and for 25 cents, he could spend the night in a youth hostel. Piper tended to shy away from talk of his personal life. He reluctantly hinted of an abusive relationship with his strict alcoholic father. He grew up with a deep understanding of isolation. And, perhaps not ironically, he remained isolated by circumstance.
"I was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and we moved when I was 4," said Piper. "I don't have a place to call home - even now. But I don't need no pity. I've got a large house, a barn, a riding arena, and six swimming pools. But it's not my home. It's not my home - that's the hardest thing to deal with. Not ever feeling like you have a home."
Born Roderick George Toombs on April 17, 1954, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, he was re-born fifteen years into the wrestling world to earn a meager living. A friend's uncle who promoted fights put Piper up as a fall guy for a $25 purse in Manitoba, Winnipeg, versus Larry 'The Axe' Henning. The announcer even misidentified the young man's name. "I was a punk kid and Henning had just lost the AWA title. I was 167 pounds and he was 320. He beat the dog out of me. He broke my nose and split my eye open. He beat me in 10 seconds, the shortest match in the history of the Winnipeg Arena. In real time, I think it happened in about seven seconds.
"There I was, he broke my nose, he split my eye open, and I was bleeding hard in the dressing room. I could barely see my penny loafers, and I was worried about the promoter cheating me out of $25 bucks. For years, nobody knew I existed. It was my like Last of the Mohicans. I don't know anyone alive who has been through those same territories."
When Piper spoke about his wrestling career - at least his early days - he described it as a cross between dreadful enslavement and indentured servitude. For a guy who had spent much of his career working with charm and frenzy, he had a downcast recollection.
"To go night and day, I have respect for anyone who has ever answered the bell, and I'm not qualified to judge them. I did three television shows in Poughkeepsie in one day, with Adrian Adonis and The Iron Sheik. They gave us no food. People aren't coming to wrestling today because they hate you. Today it is much easier. A lot of guys put their life on the line so today's guys could live well. But that is something my business doesn't like to recognize."
The indestructible reality of wrestling is that the participants are identified with their character.
"Up until I was about 46, I had a hard time finding out who is who, all those years of going 24-7, so many years of existing on a a rough schedule. You have 30 fights in 30 towns, and then 5 days at home. It is hard to keep your sanity, it is very difficult. Then with the time zones, you are changing three times a day, bouncing from Oregon to London to Germany. It's hard to know who is who. There is such an exhaustion factor, and you don't have time to adjust in your own home and with your own kids. It's like a soldier. You put him in a war zone and then he is with his beautiful children. But earlier, he was ducking bullets and getting slashed with knives."
Piper said that his wife and children were his sanctuary.
"My children and my wife - their beautiful essence, that was keeping the beast away."
As that beast, his deliberative actions - whether smashing a coconut or a guitar over someone's head - always had a much scarier resonance than your typical wrestling ploy. He moved to the forefront with his obnoxious persona - and stayed there.
"My job was to make you hate me," said Piper. "And I mean hate me. And I was good at it. I was highly trained on how to make you hate me. Going from my house to the airport - that was not a friendly time, nor was going to any public house. They would have to bring me in through the service elevator at the hotel. The public doesn't understand how much it takes to be a professional wrestler, to be stabbed three times, once an inch from the heart. To have to fight many times. There was once in Poughkeepsie, a couple of guys coming out of the tavern."
Piper said that the boisterous side of wrestling is similar to that of a rock star - booze, drugs, girls, health and sleep deprivation - and that a masochism in the psyche of wrestlers exists which allows them to degrade and destroy one another and themselves and get a charge from it. He said that it perpetuated a coarse gratification: manipulative promoters who test wrestlers to see if they will snap. Substance abuse, divorce, pain killer addiction and suicide often the results of exceeding the reasonable limitations of entertainment and sport.
His anger and frustration was still palpable. Though, he was attempting to turn those emotions into something constructive, such as improving the industry. He said he was troubled by the filth and degradation pervading the industry and he was vocal and bitter because he still loved wrestling.
Though he made plenty of appearances up to the end, staying far from the crowds was one of Piper's life strategies.
"I am the ultimate hermit," said Piper. "I have just about no contact with anyone, and that's just hard as having too much contact. There is nothing like it. It's very specific to my industry. In my case, I'm known around the bases as the greatest villain in the history of the business."
For years, he was physically pained and emotionally unavailable. But he had learned to become a dependable companion to his wife and five children. And, ultimately, he said, love replaced the duality of theatrics.
"People saw a monster of a person without a doubt," said Piper. "They saw someone who was as wild as they come, with no fear of death, who wasn't living for anything. Nine years later, and my wife says, 'we are having a baby.' It takes a man to be a father. I would've been dead a long time ago without my family. My kids turned the monster back and into a dad. All the accolades are nice. But I just want to be a good dad."
Morbid gossip followed his name around like a faithful puppy dog. Rumors of his death had swirled around for years.
"There is a eulogy on me," said Piper. "I'm in great health. It would take one hell of man to beat me at 61. I will die with a sword in my hand. Anything else would be a coward's way out."
Brian D'Ambrosio is the author of "Life in the Trenches," (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Trenches-Brian-DAmbrosio-ebook/dp/B00MYHM74Y) a collection of profiles of entertainment wrestlers, boxers, 1980s actors and contemporary musicians, including "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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"If you are the heel, and if you are doing your job right, you are most hated," said "Rowdy" Roddy Piper in our unpublished June, 2015 interview. "You lived in fear. When you go into a Denny's to eat, you give them 20 bucks so they don't spit in your food. Everybody hates you. It's very humbling to know that the industry has caste me as the greatest heel in the history of the business."
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-08-05-1438802889-6399263-rowdyroddypiper-thumb.jpg (http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-08-05-1438802889-6399263-rowdyroddypiper.jpg)
Piper had survived cancer, electrocution, stabbings, an airplane crash, and a number of car wrecks. He died on Thursday at age 61 of a heart attack.
As a teenage runaway, he roamed the streets of Canada and slept in the alleys. He never forgot street life. He was a frail boy, too skinny, too vulnerable. It was 1969 and he was an outcast in society and for 25 cents, he could spend the night in a youth hostel. Piper tended to shy away from talk of his personal life. He reluctantly hinted of an abusive relationship with his strict alcoholic father. He grew up with a deep understanding of isolation. And, perhaps not ironically, he remained isolated by circumstance.
"I was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and we moved when I was 4," said Piper. "I don't have a place to call home - even now. But I don't need no pity. I've got a large house, a barn, a riding arena, and six swimming pools. But it's not my home. It's not my home - that's the hardest thing to deal with. Not ever feeling like you have a home."
Born Roderick George Toombs on April 17, 1954, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, he was re-born fifteen years into the wrestling world to earn a meager living. A friend's uncle who promoted fights put Piper up as a fall guy for a $25 purse in Manitoba, Winnipeg, versus Larry 'The Axe' Henning. The announcer even misidentified the young man's name. "I was a punk kid and Henning had just lost the AWA title. I was 167 pounds and he was 320. He beat the dog out of me. He broke my nose and split my eye open. He beat me in 10 seconds, the shortest match in the history of the Winnipeg Arena. In real time, I think it happened in about seven seconds.
"There I was, he broke my nose, he split my eye open, and I was bleeding hard in the dressing room. I could barely see my penny loafers, and I was worried about the promoter cheating me out of $25 bucks. For years, nobody knew I existed. It was my like Last of the Mohicans. I don't know anyone alive who has been through those same territories."
When Piper spoke about his wrestling career - at least his early days - he described it as a cross between dreadful enslavement and indentured servitude. For a guy who had spent much of his career working with charm and frenzy, he had a downcast recollection.
"To go night and day, I have respect for anyone who has ever answered the bell, and I'm not qualified to judge them. I did three television shows in Poughkeepsie in one day, with Adrian Adonis and The Iron Sheik. They gave us no food. People aren't coming to wrestling today because they hate you. Today it is much easier. A lot of guys put their life on the line so today's guys could live well. But that is something my business doesn't like to recognize."
The indestructible reality of wrestling is that the participants are identified with their character.
"Up until I was about 46, I had a hard time finding out who is who, all those years of going 24-7, so many years of existing on a a rough schedule. You have 30 fights in 30 towns, and then 5 days at home. It is hard to keep your sanity, it is very difficult. Then with the time zones, you are changing three times a day, bouncing from Oregon to London to Germany. It's hard to know who is who. There is such an exhaustion factor, and you don't have time to adjust in your own home and with your own kids. It's like a soldier. You put him in a war zone and then he is with his beautiful children. But earlier, he was ducking bullets and getting slashed with knives."
Piper said that his wife and children were his sanctuary.
"My children and my wife - their beautiful essence, that was keeping the beast away."
As that beast, his deliberative actions - whether smashing a coconut or a guitar over someone's head - always had a much scarier resonance than your typical wrestling ploy. He moved to the forefront with his obnoxious persona - and stayed there.
"My job was to make you hate me," said Piper. "And I mean hate me. And I was good at it. I was highly trained on how to make you hate me. Going from my house to the airport - that was not a friendly time, nor was going to any public house. They would have to bring me in through the service elevator at the hotel. The public doesn't understand how much it takes to be a professional wrestler, to be stabbed three times, once an inch from the heart. To have to fight many times. There was once in Poughkeepsie, a couple of guys coming out of the tavern."
Piper said that the boisterous side of wrestling is similar to that of a rock star - booze, drugs, girls, health and sleep deprivation - and that a masochism in the psyche of wrestlers exists which allows them to degrade and destroy one another and themselves and get a charge from it. He said that it perpetuated a coarse gratification: manipulative promoters who test wrestlers to see if they will snap. Substance abuse, divorce, pain killer addiction and suicide often the results of exceeding the reasonable limitations of entertainment and sport.
His anger and frustration was still palpable. Though, he was attempting to turn those emotions into something constructive, such as improving the industry. He said he was troubled by the filth and degradation pervading the industry and he was vocal and bitter because he still loved wrestling.
Though he made plenty of appearances up to the end, staying far from the crowds was one of Piper's life strategies.
"I am the ultimate hermit," said Piper. "I have just about no contact with anyone, and that's just hard as having too much contact. There is nothing like it. It's very specific to my industry. In my case, I'm known around the bases as the greatest villain in the history of the business."
For years, he was physically pained and emotionally unavailable. But he had learned to become a dependable companion to his wife and five children. And, ultimately, he said, love replaced the duality of theatrics.
"People saw a monster of a person without a doubt," said Piper. "They saw someone who was as wild as they come, with no fear of death, who wasn't living for anything. Nine years later, and my wife says, 'we are having a baby.' It takes a man to be a father. I would've been dead a long time ago without my family. My kids turned the monster back and into a dad. All the accolades are nice. But I just want to be a good dad."
Morbid gossip followed his name around like a faithful puppy dog. Rumors of his death had swirled around for years.
"There is a eulogy on me," said Piper. "I'm in great health. It would take one hell of man to beat me at 61. I will die with a sword in my hand. Anything else would be a coward's way out."
Brian D'Ambrosio is the author of "Life in the Trenches," (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Trenches-Brian-DAmbrosio-ebook/dp/B00MYHM74Y) a collection of profiles of entertainment wrestlers, boxers, 1980s actors and contemporary musicians, including "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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