“Rowdy” Roddy Piper Discusses Wrestling Today, His Character, Interviewing

WWE Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper was recently interviewed by the Hillsboro Tribune in an extensive piece. Below are a few of the highlights from the entire read, which can be found here.

Piper was asked to give his thoughts on the wrestling business today and how it has changed since he was in it:

“The entertainment of the sport is so big right now. It’s the biggest traveling show in the world. The respect for the sport has grown considerably, too. It’s not a dirty business anymore. When I got into it, it was a very dirty business. Very black cloud; very disrespected business. It was very rough for a long time. I’m proud to see what it has become. I’m not mad at anybody. Well, I’m mad at a lot of people, but mostly because of mistakes I’ve made.”

Piper discussed how his bagpipe-kilted brawler character would come about:

“It didn’t start out as a character. I’ll tell you what happened. I was 15 years old, wrestling (as an) amateur and also boxing Golden Gloves. I was also playing bagpipes in a band — four bagpipers, a bass drummer and two snares — that was playing the Winnipeg Arena one night. Somebody didn’t show up to wrestle (veteran pro) Larry Hennig. I was going to get $25 to wrestle him and lose my amateur status. I had never even seen a match before. I went to play my bagpipe. I was wearing the kilt from the band. The announcer didn’t know who I was. He just knew my first name was Roddy. So he said, ‘Here comes Roddy the Piper.'”

The interviewer also noted he was one of the most skilled talkers in the industry’s history. He responded:

“Everything wasn’t natural. I changed my pattern of speech, improved my grammar. I went from ‘I ain’t got none’ to ‘I don’t have any.’ Live with Mad Dog Vachon for a few years — that in itself would kill most people. He’d do interviews and (tell other wrestlers), ‘I’m going to rip your eyes out,’ but then that would never happen. I started to realize whatever you said in the interview, you had to do in the ring. Otherwise you lost credibility and (fans) wouldn’t pay to come back and see you again. I never said anything that I didn’t at least try to do, or couldn’t back up. (As an interviewer) With ‘Piper’s Pit,’ that revolutionized the entire business. All of a sudden we had doctors and lawyers watching. Am I sticking with the question?”

More from the interview can be found here.

Editor’s Note

Really good interview here. He’s one of the most extravagant characters around, and there’s no doubt he’s made an impact. Worth the read.

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