Article on "Rowdy" Roddy Piper

Rowdy Roddy Piper wrestles with a new foe: cancer

Hodgkin's disease - The Hillsboro resident and famous brawler vows to beat the illness

Sunday, December 03, 2006

TOM HALLMAN JR.

Rowdy Roddy Piper, the Portland-area wrestling bad boy familiar to fans worldwide, has Hodgkin's disease, according to announcements posted on his Web site and by World Wrestling Entertainment. Piper vows to defeat the aggressive lymphatic cancer, which often responds well to radiation therapy.

Piper, now 52, started his professional career at 15. He built his reputation with flamboyant performances, a smart mouth, appearances in dozens of low-budget movies and highly publicized feuds with the likes of Hulk Hogan. His wild persona sometimes played out in private life, and he has had some driving-under-the-influence run-ins with the law.

Born in Canada, his real name is Roderick George Toombs. He's married, has four children and a grandchild. And even though wrestling has taken him across the world, Piper -- as he is generally known -- has considered the Hillsboro area his home for the past two decades.

Piper was succinct in his statement. He and his family expressed thanks for the "overwhelming support" from fans across the world. "It seems like I have been fighting someone, something, someplace, in some manner, my whole life," Piper wrote. "But this fight is one I am gonna win!"

Piper is affiliated with World Wrestling Entertainment, and the organization released a statement saying Piper was "sent home early from WWE's early November tour of the United Kingdom and hospitalized for surgery, where doctors removed a mass at the spinal cord with an enlarged lymph node. The mass was completely removed, but the lymph node was positive for Hodgkin's lymphoma. Radiation therapy is used to treat Hodgkin's lymphoma. It is an extremely successful procedure, so the prognosis is very good."

Joe Villa, a WWE official, was unsure where Piper was receiving treatment or when the family would release more information or consent to be interviewed.

News of Piper's illness sent ripples through the wrestling world. Greg Tingle, a fan in Sydney, Australia, has a Web page devoted to his hero. "Roddy Piper is one of the world's most successful and respected wrestlers of all time," Tingle said in a phone interview. "He is a true icon."

In his official bio, Piper claims to have fought a record 7,000 matches as a pro. He became a local hero/villain among Portland fans during the years he was a featured attraction on Portland Wrestling, which was broadcast for nearly 40 years on KPTV. A TV announcer interviewed the wrestlers during breaks. Threats and insults would be hurled their way, prompting a melee -- all part of the show.

It was the perfect setting for Piper, who arrived in the late 1970s. The real entertainment didn't occur in the ring but during the interviews. The camera loves Piper and he knows it. As much an actor as an athlete, Piper could ad-lib with the best of them. He was cocky, smarmy and yet all at once charming, able to trash-talk in an instant, feign indignation and then trade blows -- all before the commercial break.

Piper, who'd spent years on the road honing his act, knew exactly what the crowd expected. He wore a kilt, and bagpipes sounded when he approached the ring. He was named "Rowdy" because of his temper. And he had all kinds of moves: the sleeper hold, the eye poke, the inverted atomic drop and, of course, the infamous low blow.

Show by show, his popularity grew.

"He started as a brawler and, over the years, matured and treated it as a profession," Tingle said. "He knew it was entertainment and a business. He helped bridge the old school and the new era of pro wrestlers."

Piper joined the World Wrestling Federation, which later became WWE. Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine named Piper the Most Hated Wrestler in 1984 and 1985. In 1985, Piper and Paul Orndorff teamed up against Hulk Hogan and Mr. T in Wrestlemania 1. In 2005, Piper was elected to the WWE Hall of Fame.

He has appeared in more than 30 movies and is the co-author of a book, "In the Pit With Piper: Roddy Gets Rowdy," referring to his "Piper's Pit" segment on World Wrestling Federation TV.

"I've been around the world seven times," Piper once said, "been stabbed three times, been down in an airplane and once dated the Bearded Lady. I've had Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy as a tag-team partner. I've been in 30 car crashes, none of 'em my fault, I swear. . . . OK, they were probably all my fault."

Cheap Heat Interview Part 1- Memphis Wrestling Star Tony Myers

(Coming up this week at hollywoodjimmy.com, the 2nd part of the interview with Memphis Wrestling star Tony Myers, in the meantime in case you missed it. Here's part one from a few weeks back)


GJ: What are your thoughts on the current state of Memphis Wrestling?


TM: It is what it is. Meaning that the more you overanalyze it, the more you find wrong with it. When we were doing big houses with Funk and Lawler on top everyone knew it was hotstreaking and thought everything done was so wonderful but when business went down, fingers are always pointed everywhere





GJ: What's your opinion of Corey Maclin both as a person , and a promoter? Do you think he really thinks that FANS want to see him as the centerpiece in main angles and in the ring, or does he just do it cause he wants to?



TM: If Corey wants Corey to do the job, who is he going to argue with? Is Corey going to rely on Corey? Will Corey ever no-show Corey. It is still worlds better than Randy Hales, who was nothing short of a retarded retard. Corey cuts tremendous promos still and hey, he in the ring with the right talent has proven to draw money. I've always gotten along great with Corey, you have to understand the business world Corey was apart of to understand why the landscape of wrestling in Memphis is the way that it is. Ok, Corey came from a background of selling used cars and selling commercial time on Tv, radio ads, newpaper ads and the like. Unlike Jerry Jarrett and Lawler or even Nick Gulas or ANY of the Welches, in this day in age your bread is not buttered by fans attending matches and paying for a ticket. There are so many sources of revenue for Memphis Wrestling that clearly, the man has done his job and then some. I'll digress more here, follow me. When your passion is dying out and you've been up and down the roads for so long living out your dream, I don't care what it is you do in life, eventually you are going to get tired of it. If you told me at the age of fifteen, after having my first match that I was going to completely lose my passion(for wrestling) by 30 years of age, I d have sworn to Thesz (God of wrestling) that you were crazy, but hey, point is that's Ok, remember back in the mid-eighties when Vince McMahon was taking everything over (more like territories self-destructing and not being able to compete with him), well, all the dirtsheet readers (like me at the time) were going nuts claiming this cartoon wasn't wrestling, best example I can give would be a course I took in my second year of college in economics and the dreaded Widget system, if Widget A is more than Widget B, Widget B is more successful. If Widget B is operating at a plus margin of error, than Widget B is profitable and a success. You be hard-pressed to tell anyone anything when you don t even have a Widget that you own yourself. Yes, you have to listen to the fans and yes, Jerry Jarrett did that for 2 years on Wrestling Classics message board and where did it get him? You have to listen to the fans not attending anymore and find out why. The loyal fanbase will come regardless because that is what pro wrestling diehard fans do. They watch wrestling. To sum it all up, I am not saying the product is wonderful or has the greatest matches but I am pointing out the operational overall success STILL, every week from a financial standpoint. Gorilla Monsoon once said it best, If you are in this business for anything other than money, you are a fool. The reason we are fans and love the business is because we aren't the ones up and down the roads and paying dues. It would be a job for guys like you and I who really likes to work that hard and put up with all the politics and everything when we can just sit around and bash what we don t like from the comfort of our own home.




GJ: Was there ever a time at an indy show that someone didn't want to sell for you, or put you over cause you did jobs on tv?



TM: Just a few. Luckily for me, and I truly hate saying this, the guys ultimately respected what I could do because they knew I was being held back and was so thankfull that I even had the chance to do the loop and wrestle (along with haul Lawler's ring) for an almost a 4 year stretch. I learned too much. Only the indy talent smart enough to know it wasn't their time or who loved the biz so much that they would stay on independents to do it for next to nothing just so that they could go over on the less talented were the ones who understood. Most younger talents just lied to themselves and said, They wouldn't make me no job-boy. I was only learning and even knew being green that given the chance you'd have to be a fool in any context if you love the biz enough like I did (I moved from Jersey to Memphis) to pass up just being given the opportunity




GJ: Given the current state of Memphis Wrestling (low ratings, small crowds, cancelled shows) Do you think the benefits of doing jobs on television (getting exposure, paying dues, getting a chance to work with "legends") outweigh the damage it does to your reputation on small local indy shows?



TM: There is next to no money anyway on what is left in the sad state of the Memphis independents. I'll put it to you this way, Vince McMahon will be here tomorrow night (August 8, 2006) and I promise you, every single job-guy in the whole area from Channel 30 will be there.




GJ: Another hot topic in the area (thanks to an article in Brian Tramel's WrestlingRiotOnline) is wrestlers still using the Moondog gimmick on shows despite the fact that Moondog Spot's family has asked that people let the gimmick be buried with Larry Booker, Do you think it's right for people to continue to make money off the gimmick he helped make famous?



TM: It is the worst thing about the biz I've seen in years that on a personal note makes me wanna puke. The only time I've ever went into any detail about Spot's death was in the December 8, 2003 Wrestling Observer and I did it to clear the record and make sure Dave Meltzer got all the facts right. It took me 4 months to even talk about Spotty's death other than with his sons Jo Jo (Jody) and Bubba (James). He was my best friend and a father figure and someone I idolized. His stories and thinking for the entire business and passion for it are untopped. I know respect is more than due to a guy who took so much of his time in helping so much of the younger talent. The amazing thing is Spot never asked for a single thing in return.




GJ: Looking at the "big picture" from the old days of CWA up through USWA, Power Pro, and the current Memphis show, Where do you feel the true decline in Memphis Wrestling began? Could it have been avoided?



TM: Randy F***ing Hales and no, It could never have been avoided. You couldn't get through to him, like I mentioned before, Macklin has underated promo skills, what did Hales offer the business?



GJ: Do you think it can be salvaged? If they handed over the reigns of Memphis Wrestling to you tommorow, what would you do to try to bring it back to it's past glory?


TM: No, wrestling just works in cycles, the entire business is down, this next boom period will definitely surpass the last one. My duties right now are providing the old DVDs/VHS for the 'Opening the Vault' segments, booking the guys out of town to various promoters and throwing in an idea or two. The boys always come by for old videos and stuff. I don't have to leave the house any more. I just don't have the desire to climb into a ring since 2003 and I m essentially a health-nut at around 165 lbs. now. I just live out my true passion for my love of the actual business itself and wouldn't want all the fingers pointed at me if things continued down. I feel so fortunate that they (the office) value my opinions and I am kinda harsh to the guys at times but in all, the day they come to me with the book is the day I know Memphis has gone insane!

As for bringing back the glory years, all the voices speak and want the blood, brawls, dirty arena look, blood stained canvas, guys working tighter, younger undersized talent (Memphis was NEVER built on size) with speed and zip in what they do. THOSE were all that the glory days. We can't go back to how it was, it would take too long to reprogram the fans and clearly the promotion is more than still profitable.





GJ: I've heard various stories from different people, Was the infamous Power Pro "Doug Gilbert Shoot", really a shoot, or a "worked shoot" that maybe got out of hand? I was told Jerry Lawler (who wasn't working there at the time) raced down there from his house to the studio. This was told to me by a well known worker who was there at the time. Any truth to that?


TM: Worked or shoot? C'mon cousin, let's look at the repercussions shall we: Hales had money liquidated out of his paychecks from the Gilbert family for years afterwards, Lawler attempts to sue Hales, Doug Gilbert gets fired, Tommy Rich quits that night. Lawler goes roughly 4 years before even speaking to Doug (Doug broke the ice with a "Hello King" greeting to Jerry at the Memphis International Airport). YEAH! Lawler sure did march into the studio, about 10 minutes after it happened, he looked at Corey and said, I ain't got a f***ing thing to say to you, turned and found that jerkoff Hales and said to him, I wanna copy of that tape and I am suing you. They've since bridged the gap, Jerry and Doug got together and worked things out over a game of golf but it took years for things to cool off.


GJ: What is your all time personal favorite Memphis angle?


TM: I am so glad you didn t do this interview over the phone-lol. Ok, the Dundee-Lawler promos back and forth in '86. I just got goosebumps thinking of Dundee screaming, 1, 2, 3 and you re gone, outta here Lawler, incredible and unsurpassed.


GJ: Outside of the occasional "Legend's Show", Do you feel it's good for business for guys Bill Dundee's age to still be on tv every week, going over on the younger talent?


TM: He doesn't always go over and he really takes his time in helping out the younger guys with advice. I don't know how guys like him, Lawler, Brian Christopher, Koko Ware, Brickhouse and Robert Gibson have the patience with the younger talent. I go nuts on them when they get in the way of a VHS I am grabbing for in my basement-lol

IWF Benefit Show in Fulton, MS. on Nov. 11th!

Larry the Cable the Guy- without the gimmick

This isn't wrestling related but someone sent it to me. It's a video of Dan Whitney a.k.a. Larry the Cable Guy doing stand up before he got the Larry the Cable Guy gimmick. Check it out.




http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1694862

Check out the new 'Cheap Heat' Podcast!!

Now you don't have to just read my bullshit, you can listen to it as well!

http://genejackson.podomatic.com/

Long time, no update

Well it's been a long time since I've posted anything here as what little spare time I've had, I've had to use to write my column on hollywoodjimmy.com. I plan to write some new stuff here soon. Also, it looks like I may be coming out of retirement already as I have plans to wrestle at least two more times before the end of the year. More details on that in the next couple of weeks. Check back soon.

GENE

Cheap Re-Heat Video Review- Southern Discomfort

Speaking of videos a couple of years ago I heard about a video/documetary called 'Southern Discomfort: Life on the indie circuit'. I was intrigued by the concept of a 'beyond the mat' type documentary of indie wrestling so 2 years later I finally landed a copy of it. Here's what I got....... Rather than a full blown "documentary" on indy wrestling it's documenting a "outlaw" show in Anniston, Alabama in 1995. We start out with an old man (the promoter) hanging posters and then cut to the local high school gym where Rick Montana(they act like we should know him?) is setting up a ring. It should be noted right off that this took place in '95, before the death of kayfabe, it was on life support, but not dead. So this tape drifts in and out of kayfabe at different points. Well Rick Montana informs us that he 'rassled' for years but a knee injury forced him out of the ring, and and now he has a less active role. But apparently his legions of fans demand his return everytime he goes anywhere but, "I don't see it happening", (remember that for later) Anyhow we now cut to a rabid crowd(literally in some cases) and for some reason decide to ask some of them why they like "rasslin". Here's a quote, "I come to see tha gud rasslers not dem sorry ones off tha street but tha gud ones like Joe Armstong and tha Iron Sheik and dem." (Joe Armstong?, perhaps he meant Bob who is on the card) Anyway, we now go to the dressing room to meet some of the "stars", a few I recognized like Jack Lord and Bulldog Raines(who I think used a different name then) We then hear from some local guy who has a belt and some skank(credit:Dwight Bradford) with him and he's wearing a Jim Beam hat. He cuts a total kayfabe promo to the camera about only being in the business to "kick ass and defend this belt" they then show some of his awesome heel mic work with grownbreaking stuff like, "you people need some soap, you stink!" and things of that nature. We then meet his opponent a masked man named Shanghai Pierce, while he is clearly dressed like him it is not Mark Canterbury who did the gimmick in WCW. He too while wearing his mask cuts a kayfabed promo about his all important belt which he claims to be the "NWA World Title", ......mmmkay. They show clips from the match which isn't worth mentioning. We then meet Bambi and Peggy Lee Leather, who can work but I fast forwarded through it cause I really don't care and I didn't figure they would tell how they are dikes that actually live together and travel all over working the same match everynight......Next we hear from "Bullet" Bob Armstrong as he tells some of his background in the business, which I'm sure most of you know. We then meet his opponent the Masked Flame, who is not in fact Jody Hamilton(the Original in Alabama) but is actually Jim Barnhill manager of the local Jack's Hamburgers in Anniston. We get to see Jim without his mask sitting at a table at Jack's telling about his weekend antics as a 'rassler'. We then get a tour of the restaraunt where he takes time to shill the lunch specials,"We have a great selection at a great price", He shows us where they bake the biscuits and brags that he bakes the "best biscuit you ever put in your mouth".(Ha! Take that Hulk Hogan, you may be the biggest star in wrestling, but how's your biscuits, brother?) Anyway, they intertwine this with footage of him "wrestling", here's the picture. A balding guy in his late forties, early fifties, short and dumpy comes out wearing some tights three sizes too small, some amatuer wrestling type shoes, and a big sweatshirt and a mask it looks like he bought off the gimmick table when Continental came to town in 1985. Well we are treated to clips of this trainwreck of a "match" and they then cut to the back when "Bullet" Bob gets back in the dressing room, I'm expecting a tirade about how bad the guy sucked but instead I got.....Our good friend The Bullet trying to kayfabe us by trying to say this is the same Flame that tried to burn him in Birmingham in '86!! WTF!?!? So anyways next we get the Iron Sheik doing his tired ass Iranian Club deal at an intermission and then we meet his opponent, some tool dressed up like an f'n Power Ranger. The Power Ranger tells how he wrestles all over the world and what great payoffs he gets working a couple of shows a day every weekend. He never took off the mask but he seemed awful familiar, I'm gonna watch it again cause I'd almost swear it's someone I've met. Well as you can imagine it was a high flying spotfest with the Sheik winning with a Shooting Star Press!!.......no actually it was the steaming turd you imagined with the Sheik winning with the Camel Clutch. Now after a show filled with kayfabe we suddenly cut to the dressing room where a masked man and someone else are practicing the finish to the main event battle royal....which is a check on a pole type thing. They show clips of the battle royal with the man in the blue "Mr Olympia" type mask climbing up and winning the check and the battle royal. He then unmasks to reveal he is actually the world famous Rick Montana who just earlier told us he had bad knees and would never wrestle again....man did they get me!! ..............And that's it.........it ends. That apprently is life on the indie circuit.......I would still recommend seeing it if you get the chance and it will help you understand why some people look down their nose at you when you say your a wrestling fan.