Piper Goes Into Business For Himself, Havoc 1996

[The Following Contest]

Watch the end of Halloween Havoc 1996 again.

 

 

 

Hogan leaves Savage laying. Bagpipes. "He doesn't even work here!" version 8.0.

 

 

 

But then, when the promo starts, Hogan clearly feeds Piper a line; "we were neck and neck." Roddy says "not yet," and proceeds to do his "did they come to cheer you or boo me" routine. Hogan cuts him off and again feeds him the line, "we were neck and neck," and Roddy again goes off on his own.

 

 

 

At this point it's clear Hogan is trying to get something in before the PPV goes off the air, whereas Piper is clearly going into business for himself, putting himself over rather than getting to the "me vs. you" part.

 

 

 

Was there any discussion of this in the sheets or on rspw at the time?

[The Following Contest]

Sorry guys. Typing on Blackberry. For some reason the spaces/paragraph breaks between paragraphs don't show up when I post.

[Loss]

I don't think this was Piper going into business for himself as much as it was Hogan's character groveling and trying to escape Piper's wrath, only for Piper to say, "Not so fast."

[PeteF3]

I definitely viewed it Contest's way when I watched this again on the '96 Yearbook--at one point, Hogan literally breaks character and practically pleads for Piper to get back on track. That said, Piper was such a rambler that it was often hard to tell when the working stopped and shooting began.

[drew wardlaw]

I just rewatched this a couple weeks ago and it didn't feel like Piper was going into business for himself. To me it just felt like he went off on a rant and got lost along the way.

[flyonthewall2983]

Warrior was much worse in this regard, as the Self-Destruction program pointed out

[Judy Bagwell]

Warrior was much worse in this regard, as the Self-Destruction program pointed out

because that exercise in propaganda is the definitive article right?

[flyonthewall2983]

Warrior pointed out on Nitro that he had a victory over Hogan, they even showed the clip.

[WingedEagle]

Don't recall Piper having much of a rep for adhering to scripts. Sounds like he was just all over the place rather than going into business for himself.

[goc]

Warrior pointed out on Nitro that he had a victory over Hogan, they even showed the clip.

Yea but what is bad about that? I never understood why that was apparently some big no-no, it was one of the most iconic matches in history and it's not like people didn't know Warrior beat him.

[thebrainfollower]

Because Hogan's ego.

[Loss]

Hogan I think also rightfully saw his role as the guy to keep the segment on focus. It doesn't mean Piper was sandbagging him as much as I think it means Hogan was really in a zone at this point and knew exactly what he needed to do to make everything work.

[Judy Bagwell]

there was a match in WCW where Piper changed the finish in ring and got a tremendous amount of heat for it, Im not sure exactly which match it was

that was one of Pipers faults imo he refused to do clean jobs for just about everybody

[Grimmas]

Am I wrong thinking that this segment freaking ruled and between this and WWIII I was super psyched to see a Hogan-Piper match in 1996? Heck even rewatching this stuff like 5 years ago those two segments did a really great job of wanting me to see a match that I knew would suck.

[KB8]

I'm actually in the process of watching the Hogan/Piper build up on the '96 yearbook, and I'm with you (Grimmas). I'm not expecting the match to be very good, but the build to it has been tremendous fun (I even watched any Piper and/or Hogan segments that never made the yearbook by hitting up Nitros on the Network).

[Loss]

Am I wrong thinking that this segment freaking ruled and between this and WWIII I was super psyched to see a Hogan-Piper match in 1996? Heck even rewatching this stuff like 5 years ago those two segments did a really great job of wanting me to see a match that I knew would suck.

 

They did a great job building it, it had been over 10 years since they locked up and it was with a fresh dynamic because of Hogan's turn and it being a new company. So no, not at all.

[Jingus]

In hindsight, the Starrcade match didn't even suck. (Especially compared to the rematches.) Perfectly watchable brawl, two or three stars.

[flyonthewall2983]

 

Warrior pointed out on Nitro that he had a victory over Hogan, they even showed the clip.

Yea but what is bad about that? I never understood why that was apparently some big no-no, it was one of the most iconic matches in history and it's not like people didn't know Warrior beat him.

 

 

Hogan's point in the interview was that dredging it up meant it took some of the heat out of the build-up.

[goc]

 

 

Warrior pointed out on Nitro that he had a victory over Hogan, they even showed the clip.

Yea but what is bad about that? I never understood why that was apparently some big no-no, it was one of the most iconic matches in history and it's not like people didn't know Warrior beat him.

 

 

Hogan's point in the interview was that dredging it up meant it took some of the heat out of the build-up.

 

Yea but that's just Hogan bullshit. I've seen that before he says something like "why would they want to see us wrestle again you already told them you could beat me?" which would essentially mean Hogan thinks no one ever wants to see rematches. Ever.

[flyonthewall2983]

That angle with him and Warrior in WCW didn't exactly set the world on fire anyway. And to be fair, bringing up past victories was the least of their problems.

 

Bringing this back to Piper, he had his moments on the mic in WCW but it was pretty clear that without Vince to rein him in his rambling style seemed much more aimless, which is the same old story of how WCW failed without having someone like him running things.

[Hawkeye12]

 

 

 

Warrior pointed out on Nitro that he had a victory over Hogan, they even showed the clip.

Yea but what is bad about that? I never understood why that was apparently some big no-no, it was one of the most iconic matches in history and it's not like people didn't know Warrior beat him.

 

 

Hogan's point in the interview was that dredging it up meant it took some of the heat out of the build-up.

 

Yea but that's just Hogan bullshit. I've seen that before he says something like "why would they want to see us wrestle again you already told them you could beat me?" which would essentially mean Hogan thinks no one ever wants to see rematches. Ever.

 

It wasn't so much that he brought it up since it was based on the past match, but he said he wasn't back to beat him again because that was too easy and no big deal since everyone else already had too. Yes, top heels lose three fourths of the time one way or another, Flair did it for years, but nobody ever came out and pointed that out quite like that. It was just an odd direction for him to go. Not even sure Warrior did it with that intention, but it came off terrible how he just dismissed Hogan as not even being a challenge on the very first night.

[thebrainfollower]

He never wants anyone to point out he's lost a match. Hogan's a delusional mark for himself and has been for decades.

 

Hawkeye is right but that's not what Hogan's said. Hogan thinks pointing out the WM VI result was the issue

[Kil]

Watch the end of Halloween Havoc 1996 again. Hogan leaves Savage laying. Bagpipes. "He doesn't even work here!" version 8.0. But then, when the promo starts, Hogan clearly feeds Piper a line; "we were neck and neck." Roddy says "not yet," and proceeds to do his "did they come to cheer you or boo me" routine. Hogan cuts him off and again feeds him the line, "we were neck and neck," and Roddy again goes off on his own. At this point it's clear Hogan is trying to get something in before the PPV goes off the air, whereas Piper is clearly going into business for himself, putting himself over rather than getting to the "me vs. you" part. Was there any discussion of this in the sheets or on rspw at the time?

 

Last time i watched this I thought the "not yet" was because Hogan was basically responding to Piper's promo before Piper even started it. That it was Hogan jumping the gun, skipping ahead in the "script" before Piper got his lines in.

[artDDP]

Bryan Alvarez recently said on one of his podcasts that Piper was going off script and Hogan was trying to reign him in. I figure he got that information from reviewing the Observer coverage around that time.

[jdw]

I definitely viewed it Contest's way when I watched this again on the '96 Yearbook--at one point, Hogan literally breaks character and practically pleads for Piper to get back on track. That said, Piper was such a rambler that it was often hard to tell when the working stopped and shooting began.

 

Unlikely to be shooting. Coke rambling was much more likely.