Chris Jericho on Fond Memories He Has of “Rowdy” Roddy Piper

On the most recent edition of “Talk is Jericho,” Chris Jericho shared his memories of the legendary “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. As recently reported, Piper passed away during his sleep on July 30 due to cardiac arrest in his Hollywood home.

One memory Jericho discussed was the build to his match against the WWE legends at WrestleMania 25, and how he believes that was when Piper cut his last great promo:

“[W]hen we showed up at Spokane [Washington] that night [for RAW], I said, ‘I want the Roddy Piper from 1985 that did not get the respect he deserves for being one of the architects of WrestleMania and I want the Roddy Piper who sold out Madison Square Garden that night and who put this company on the map with those promos’ and he said, ‘I get what you’re saying – I get it’ and went out there and cut this impassioned, amazing promo against me, because my whole schtick was that the old guys should just retire and leave and it was like he said ‘as long as [the fans] want me to be here, I will be here, crawl down the aisle, do whatever I have to do to get down here and perform because we love performing, the thrill of it’, and I think it could be his last great promo, like, great promo. You watch the clips of some of the greatest stuff he ever did and I think that ranked right up there with it and I think it surprised a lot of people just how damn good it was and I think it surprised a lot of people who forgot how damn good Roddy Piper was as well, including me. I forgot how great Roddy Piper is and was until the moment he passed away.”

“But it was a real blast a few years later when we got to work in WrestleMania. I mean, like I said, the promos that built that up were tremendous. I don’t think Roddy was happy about the match and I don’t blame him. I think maybe his time in the ring was a minute and a half. I’m beating Roddy Piper in a minute and a half and this is a guy who never did jobs. Ever.” 

Jericho also went on to discuss how he was originally scheduled to feud with Piper back in their WCW days, but those plans were nixed shortly after:

“There was always, kind of, comparisons between Piper and Jericho, promo styles and being able to be a catalyst for getting results when you needed them or whatever. And actually even in 1997, when I went to talk to Eric [Bischoff] after my first year in WCW, he told me he was going to put Piper and I in a feud, a heel Chris Jericho versus a babyface Piper or maybe it was a heel Piper and a babyface Jericho. I don’t remember, but I think that would have been classic. But it never came into play, which is a drag because I think it would have been a real blast to do something like that.”

In addition to discussing Piper, Jericho sat down with The New Day to discuss their origin and much more!

You can listen to the full podcast here.

-with t/h to WrestlingInc.com

Editor’s Note:

It is always interesting to hear stories from wrestler interactions, as it opens the curtain to how things really are. I personally have always compared Jericho to Piper, as both of them were outstanding on the mic, and heel Jericho reminded me a lot of Piper. Piper clearly impacted a lot of people within the wrestling community, and will be missed.