WrestlingPower Posted September 4, 2012 Report Share Posted September 4, 2012 So I've been reading Piper's book lately & wanted to check on some of the things I've run across in there that I've never heard before. I assume if these are totally false then he must be Hogan-level in being a fiction writer but I'm assuming maybe there are just exaggerations. 1) Claims he broke his neck in a plane crash while working in Mid-Atlantic in the early 80s. His story talks about how Sgt. Slaughter was thrown across the plane & that Piper hit his head on the roof & broke his neck. Claims he needed 4 people to help him walk off the plane but wrestled that night. He doesn't give a year this occurred nor mention how much time he missed after or anything. There are details about where they were flying from & to that could be cross referenced I guess to get a time frame. 2) This one is repeated on wikipedia. Claims he was blackballed from wrestling in the US after he & Tommy Rich were late to a show & missed it completely. This is confusing at best in its placement in the book. It's in the Mid-Atlantic chapter (there is no Georgia chapter) but Tommy Rich didn't really work Mid-Atlantic and I think they were going to or from Chattanooga, so sounds like Georgia territory. It's oddly placed in the book as well as he tells this story after talking about the late 83 dog collar matches with Valentine but as the story unfolds, it is clearly a year or more prior since the story ends with him being brought back to Mid-Atlantic. I'm sure this isn't a complete work as he devotes a whole chapter to his international travels with Flair to PR, etc. but claims it was due to him not being allowed to wrestle in the states. 3) The above road story with Rich also includes a conspiracy theory that Piper says he doesn't believe. The theory is that Rich was jealous of Piper, got lost on purpose, and thinking he was untouchable in the promotion that he would be fine & Piper would be fired. Which is what happened but also included the alleged blackballing. I would think it would take more to get "blackballed" than no-showing one show. 4) Claims he & Valentine had 45 dog collar matches over the 60 days following Starrcade 83. Looking at History of WWF website, there are only 5 listed post-Starrcade. All this may have been covered before since this book is probably close to 10 years old but I was wondering if my BS meter should be going off at these stories or if the details have been lost over the years. Any insight anyone has, I would be curious to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted September 4, 2012 Report Share Posted September 4, 2012 I know Piper abruptly left Georgia in late-82 just as he was starting a program with Lawler. He was booked to face him at the Omni and it was hyped on TV, but the match never took place. I'm sure there is a lot more to his leaving Georgia than just missing one show. And if he was "blackballed" in the US it wasn't for long because he was wrestling for Crockett as early as 1/1 83 and likely sooner. I don't think I've ever heard the plane crash story before and the 45 dog collar matches in 60 days is typical wrestler exaggeration. Edit: Piper wrestled Flair in Greensboro on Thanksgiving night 1982. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted September 4, 2012 Report Share Posted September 4, 2012 He did almost get blackballed when he got fired from GCW. That's legit, Gary Hart talked about it in his book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrestlingPower Posted September 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2012 Another thing in the book that seemed a bit of a stretch was claiming that Crockett's Starrcade 83 came as a result of being envious of McMahon's Shea Stadium show and feeling the need to be seen at the same level nationally. Shea Stadium was August of 1980, Starrcade some 3+ years later. Either Crockett was stewing for an awful long time or it took him 3 years to get the pieces in place to pull this off. Or Piper is just making things up. I seem to remember hearing the Starrcade idea came about after the March 83 Greensboro show where they turned people away for The Final Conflict. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyonthewall2983 Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 Anybody here listening to his podcast? I tried listening to the first one posted on iTunes and couldn't get past the douche-y comedians he's talking with. I'm hoping it got better from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 Scott Bowden said this The first Piper vs. Lawler match was scheduled second from the top for Atlanta’s Omni on Nov. 7; however, Roddy was fired by Anderson that afternoon. The story goes that he and Tommy Rich had partying like rock stars for months and showing up late to towns around the territory. In fact, a week earlier on Oct. 30, Rich and Piper were three hours late to an afternoon show in Chattanooga, leaving the boys to stall under they arrived. Piper’s last match in the area was on Nov. 6 against Buzz Sawyer in Augusta; afterward, he made a phone call to Flair, who eventually got his old friend booked again in the Carolinas with Jim Crockett Promotions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrestlingPower Posted September 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 Those details seem to line up with Roddy's story but the timeline doesn't. The story about he & Rich getting lost is most definitely on the way to Chattanooga. But his chapter on touring PR & Santo Domingo with Flair while he was blackballed from the states seems to line up with Flair's late Aug/Early Sept. 1982 tours of those places. And I'm finding results online of Piper in Mid-Atlantic in Aug/Sept 1982. The timeline is all wacky as Roddy seems to intimate that he was blackballed for months and that him getting a job with Vince was not too long after the blackballing was over, but that was 1984. Actually that brings up another interesting point. Meltzer always presented Vince going national as completely a Vince Jr. thing and that Sr. had denied knowing about it but most thought he must have. Roddy tells the story the opposite, that it was Sr.'s idea, that he did all the calling around to gather talent, complete with telling them they were going to invade other territories, and it wasn't until they all moved up there & showed up to TV in Harrisburg that Sr. & Jim Barnett introduced Jr. as the new guy running the show. If that's true that paints Sr. in a completely different light than I had ever heard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 Not picking on you Tim, but I have to think if that was true someone other than just Roddy Piper would have mentioned it by now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minds_Eys Posted January 13, 2013 Report Share Posted January 13, 2013 Anybody here listening to his podcast? I tried listening to the first one posted on iTunes and couldn't get past the douche-y comedians he's talking with. I'm hoping it got better from there. Yeah I listened to the first podcast and STUGGLED to finish it. Not a fan of his co-hosts or for that matter Roddy's podcasting skills either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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