Colleagues Remember Roddy Piper

-- Bret Hart reflects on Roddy Piper's death a month later: "Roddy's a really hard one; that's like losing a brother. I can't say I've gotten over it. If anything, I haven't even really absorbed it yet. I find myself reaching for the phone all the time to give Roddy a call. He was so much more than any of the other wrestlers who worked with me. He was a guy that mentored me and helped me in the very beginning of my career. He gave me advice back at a time when nobody was giving advice to me. Always good advice. When I wrestled him at WrestleMania VIII, I look back at those times - Mr. Perfect would be another one - there's a few guys who would reach down and help pull someone like me up to the next level. ... Roddy Piper was a guy that looked after guys like me, and a lot of the younger talent when the opportunity came for him to help make my career and pull me up to the next level. I owe a lot to Roddy Piper." [ Interview with John Pollock of the Fight Network HERE ]

-- Dr. AnnMaria De Mars, the mother of Ronda Rousey, remembered Roddy Piper being nice to Rousey before she was big-time in MMA fighting: "Every now and then he would just be at the gym, you know, like Gene's [LeBell] birthday parties, stuff like that, you know, things that everybody would come to. And he was just a really nice guy. I mean you would not have guessed that he was somebody very famous and successful if you met him. He would just be like 'Oh hey, how are you? Would you like some cake?' (Laughs). So it was just very sad.

And I know Ronda talked about how whenever she would talk to him, he would say how 'Oh it’s so great the relationship you and your mom have. My son is my best friend,' and he said that many times. So I think that when she heard that he passed away, that was her first thought of how heartbroken his family must be. And at that point she said she wanted to dedicate the fight to him because she knew how when you lose somebody in your family you feel like your world has ended, but everybody else in the world goes on, you know, 'cause it’s just Saturday. He was always nice to Ronda before anybody had ever heard of her. You know, once you’re very successful everybody is nice to you. But he was really nice to her when she was just some kid in a gym." [ Interview with Submission Radio HERE ]

-- Jim Ross on Piper being the perfect heel: "Roddy was the perfect pro wresting villain because he was fearless, he had no issues putting his own safety at risk, and had no desire to be 'cool' back in the day but to be a truly despised individual that lived up to his casting/booking and to fulfill all the obligations his bosses and his opponent needed and that was to make the customers pay money to come see Rod get his comeuppance.

Roddy had no issues 'retreating' when the moment called for it and was always willing to cheat to gain an unfair advantage to win a match via unethical methods which are so lacking today by the majority of pro wrestling's villains. Without Roddy Piper WWF would have had a more challenging time in developing their new presentation headed by super hero Hulk Hogan in the mid 80's with the launch of Wrestlemania 1 where Vince McMahon essentially mortgaged his company's entire future on the success of that one event. Rowdy Roddy Piper's contributions to Wrestlemania 1 can never be discounted." [ LINK: Ross's Blog at jrsbarbq.com ]

-- Bret Hart on Piper being like a family member to Sports Illustrated: "Roddy always called me, ‘Cuz.’ We never called each other Roddy or Bret, we always called each other ‘Cuz’ right up until he died. Along with my brother Owen and Jim Neidhart, the closest guy to me in the business was Roddy.

“Piper passed the torch to me at WrestleMania. I think I was the first guy who pinned him in the ring. Roddy was one of the first guys to help make me into a main attraction. I was supposed to work, at one point, with Ultimate Warrior, but he never passed the torch to anybody. [Hulk] Hogan didn’t have enough respect to put me over or help the next generation. When I think back about my career, with the exception of Mr. Perfect, Roddy Piper was the only guy who said, ‘I’m going to help make one of these new guys into a star for the next generation.’ I’ll never forget that. Roddy was always about business and trying to help the young guys, and he did that for me.” [ SI.com with Justin Barrasso ]

-- Jake Roberts on connecting over their upbringing to SI.com: "“There was something between Roddy and I that I never had with anybody else. A deep, deep connection. I think it’s from a rough upbringing. Roddy went through some tough times when he was young, but he was a fighter. A never-give-up fighter.

"Roddy and I made a couple road trips during our time in WWE. We talked about some serious things that happened in our lives. He had some dark areas, too. We talked about those dark areas, and over the years we became very close because of that. We both had substance abuse problems, and each time we’d try to pick the other one up. It’s just unbelievable to me that this [death] has happened. To go through this after losing Dusty [Rhodes], come on, it’s just too much. I said a prayer for him, and I don’t know what else to do. I know for a fact I’m going to have to sit down in the next day or two and get private and let it all come out. I need to grieve.” [ SI.com with Justin Barrasso ]

-- Mick Foley on Piper's legacy appearing on Live Audio Wrestling: "Roddy was one of the guys I looked forward to seeing the most. When he and I were at Raw's together, we would just sit at catering and talk for long periods of time. Five years ago he’d lost weight, beat cancer and was razor sharp on the mic. On Legends House he said he 'had more issues than TV Guide.' Roddy dealt with a lot and relied on his family to keep him grounded. We talked a lot about my experience with 'Celebrity Wife Swap' and by that point we had a lot of trust between us.

"It would be a rare occasion when I wouldn’t see Roddy without a family member especially his son Colt. Family was really important to him and that was our bond. We never really competed but we had that bond. He stole almost every scene he was in, during his career." [ FightNetwork.com ]

-- Chris Jericho on staying close to Piper on LAW: "The first time I ever came face to face with Piper was backstage in WCW, and when he came over from WWF it was a BIG BIG deal. My appreciation for Roddy came about in the last 10 years, more specifically when we did our WrestleMania program. That's when I really started to get to know him a little bit more. Getting to work with him there was a real intensity a lot of people might not remember. I wanted him to go back to the Piper from WrestleMania 1 because Piper was the catalyst that made that so successful. He gave one of the last GREAT promos on one Raw before WrestleMania, he was serious, direct, a great actor, he would speak from the heart and it was magic, magic, magic.

"He popped in and out of my career from 1994 up until two days ago. I was texting him and considered him a friend. A very sweet guy, huge family man, stayed married for 30 odd years, which as you know is some feat in the wrestling business. A real good hearted guy, and what a shock. Hug someone you love because you never know, because If I could give Roddy Piper one last hug I’d be proud to do that. [ FightNetwork.com ]

-- Marty Jannetty on Piper's leadership role to SI.com: “He was a real mentor to us. Everyone who ever met him talked about what they’d learned from Roddy. His psychology of the sport, as well as his philosophies in life, were just amazing.

"Shawn (Michaels) and I got to the building in Miami and found out we were in the first match against the Orient Express. We were both surprised - we’d work so hard but were still the opening match. Roddy overheard Shawn and I talking about it, and he called us over to the corner. ‘This is a compliment,’ Roddy told us. ‘It’s the biggest compliment you can get. The two biggest matches of a pay-per-view are the opening match and the main event. The opening match has to set the pace, tear it up, and get people going.’ And, to this day, that’s one of my favorite tag matches of all-time - we had the crowd going from the opening to the end. And Roddy was the announcer, but when the match was over, he left the announce table to speak with us. ‘See what I’m talking about?’ he shouted at us. ‘That’s the way to start a show!’” [ SI.com with Justin Barrasso ]

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