Original subtitles

- Mr. T and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper nose to nose

in the center of the ring.

- Mr. T.

Serious point of contention.

- Describing Roddy Piper,

how about wild card-

- Oh, let's go.

- -renegade.

main eventer all day long.

- Roddy Piper has just gone bananas.

- And then there's the definition of pop culture icon.

- Wait a minute.

Hold on.

Here comes Mr. T ladies and gentlemen.

- Mr. T was huge at that time.

- Whoa, Mr. T making an entrance here.

- Now, chaos, I'm going to bring it.

- Roddy Piper wasn't a guy that anything was given to him.

He hated the act of someone coming into the business,

and getting it handed to them.

- You're looking at someone that will take your life.

- Everything he had worked so hard from a young teen,

it just couldn't be taken down by some actor

walking in the ring.

- If you bring me somebody outside our business,

I'm going to eat his lunch.

- They didn't know that I knew my stuff.

This is for real.

I can hold my own.

I wasn't a powder puff.

- There was so much animosity.

There was no love in that ring.

- Oh, what is going on?

- Pandemonium.

- I want Piper.

I want Piper.

- You look like

[bleep] idiot.

- Look what Roddy just did.

- Good right.

- Have a nice day.

- I am coming to end your career.

- I don't know how much more personal it can get.

- When two legends collide,

their rivalry stays pinned in our minds forever.

This is where we break down the legendary stories

behind the greatest rivalries of all time.

I'm Gabriel Iglesias

and this is

WWE Rivals.

- The war has just begun.

- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper versus Mr. T.

Having celebrities coming in

to be, uh, part of this world wasn't always so welcoming.

And Piper, I felt, was one of those guys who was just

old school, and it just needed to be the people

that needed to be there,

not someone else coming in to maybe take the limelight

away from those that worked so hard to be there.

- I think the biggest thing with Roddy Piper is he felt that he

wasn't really respected or appreciated by-by Mr. T

in some sort of way

because I can't see Roddy Piper just hating Mr. T.

- I can.

[laughing]

- I know, Roddy.

- What I think this guy is doing to wrestling

is damn right sickening, man.

- There is that thing of him wanting to protect the business.

and as far as the celebrity being in the ring.

- Right.

- I think that's what bothered Roddy.

- Because he felt it wasn't earned.

- The fact that you're prostituting my work,

just eats me inside.

- I didn't know Roddy Piper very well, but I met him a few times.

It seemed to me like he had a chip on his shoulder-

- Absolutely.

- -all the time.

About how good he was,

how he thought people should give him more credit

for how good he was,

and, you know, and then, you know,

Mr. T's kind of a tough guy.

He's not tougher than me.

- Piper just didn't like him.

Just plain, flat out did not like him.

Just never liked him from day one.

- Roddy was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

It was a hard upbringing.

He always kind of felt like he was an afterthought

in his family, is what he would tell me.

Not a lot of hugs.

Not a lot of verbal I love you's.

- I left home when I was 13.

I lived on the street for two years.

So I had a lot of, uh,

I had a lot of abandoment issues and,

I was-I was angry.

I was lost.

- About this time was also when he was visiting youth hostels

and going to gyms to work out,

and a owner of the gym and promoters there

saw that he had something and he fell into wrestling

and the right people saw him and said,

"Hey son, you want to do this?"

And-and he did.

- Roddy Piper.

- And it just rolled and rolled and rolled because he put

everything into it like he does with everything.

- I'm so fortunate to have wrestling,

and the way it evolved.

If it hadn't-

I-I would have been dead,

there's no doubt about it.

- Here's who I am in a nutshell.

I got seven brothers and four sisters

living on the south side of Chicago.

Welfare.

Food stamps.

My mother had to knock on her neighbor's door

to borrow a quarter or 50 cent,

so I can have something to eat when I go to school.

She would knock on Miss Johnson door,

said, "Miss Johnson, I hate to bother you,

but could you loan me a quarter or 50 cent?

I'll give it back to you when my welfare check come."

I want to give it to my kids."

- Like Roddy Piper,

Mr. T had to find his own way,

and the tough part of Chicago,

he had to fight to avoid falling into all of the traps.

- Wrestling.

That's what kept me away from the crime and drugs

and all the other stuff.

I was a couple years in high school wrestling champ.

One time Muhammad Ali visited the school.

He got on the public address system.

He said, "I want the baddest cat in school

to meet me in the gym room.

and the baddest kid out here, his name is T,

the wrestling champ."

Muhammad Ali, my childhood hero.

So that's my first wrestling experience.

After high school, I was a bodyguard and a boxer,

and a bouncer at the disco.

I had a reputation, you know,

being the tough bodyguard, the bouncer,

and that's who I am.

At the same time,

NBC had this contest.

- Games People Play.

- They wanted to find out who was the toughest bouncer

in America.

so I entered the contest on NBC.

- And all of a sudden, here is this colorful character,

and he comes across like a genuine badass,

and then you never know who's watching, right?

- Sylvester Stallone.

He goes to one of the biggest

movie franchises in the history of America,

and being a toe to toe legitimate rival

to Rocky Balboa,.

- You know, you've got a big mouth, you know?

- Why don't you come down and close it Balboa?

Come on, come on.

- Mr. T was unlike

anything, anyone had really seen

when he burst onto the pop culture scene in the 80's.

- At the time, Mr. T's probably

one of the most recognizable celebrities.

- It just keep getting bigger.

I was invited to the White House.

Kid from the ghetto get invited to the White House

to meet the President Ronald Reagan, wife, Nancy Reagan.

Me.

Wow.

- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.

What an ovation.

- Roddy Piper

in the mid 80's has

gone to WWE,

and you now have the top bad guy in the entire business.

- The boss is back.

- Everything Roddy got in this business, he earned it,

and I don't think anyone did it like Roddy Piper.

- Just when they think they got the answers,

I change the questions.

- Mic skills top 1%.

- 'Cause I was rowdy before rowdy was cool.

At that time-

- During the 80's,

the wrestling business was changing.

- You have just tuned in to the Rock and Wrestling Connection

right here on MTV.

- It was a crazy time frame to see suddenly

the biggest celebrities in the world,

and you're seeing them with wrestlers.

- I have a gold and platinum record

to give to

the World Wrestling -- and the fans.

- WWE starts to become

this pop culture thing.

- You gotta remember too,

without us, they're nothing.

- Oh look out.

- Either way this became mainstream popular.

- This was different.

There was something really big going on,

like bigger than I ever imagined,

like this was huge.

- And so, for Mr. T

WWE would be a natural venue for that kind of personality.

Without doubt.

- WWE was trying to figure out who the key players were

in pop culture,

who were willing to play ball,

and also who made sense as a brand fit.

- We were watching the A-Team.

We sure as heck were watching Rocky III,

and there were big brains and big voices that said,

"These are the eyeballs we need on our product."

- I was in the Rocky movie

and Mr. T had been a friend of mine from the movie.

We had a conversation.

One thing led to another, and we got this

whole new plan in motion.

You know, we said we could do business with him.

It was strictly business.

- WWE was establishing what it was going to become.

It was saying, this wrestling thing is great,

but if we add a more clear layer of just outright entertainment,

then we have a spectacle.

- And welcome to Madison Square Garden.

Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, the War to Settle the Score.

The hottest ticket in town.

- At the time, I had a rivalry with Piper,

and the War to Settle the Score was a big blow off

between me and him.

- And tonight, Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan

with a title defense against challenger "Rowdy" Roddy Piper

In the corner of "Rowdy" Roddy, his bodyguard,

his arm in a sling, Ace "Cowboy" Bob Orton.

- He had Orton.

I had Cyndi Lauper.

I mean, it was just crazy.

- Cyndi Lauper she was a female vocalist of the year that year.

That has nothing to do with business,

and it's stupid.

I mean, just one on one stupid.

- Madison Square Garden will be roofless,

minutes from now.

They'll blow the top off this joint.

[bell rings]

- It's underway.

- Eventually,

unforeseen circumstances work their way into the match.

Paul "Mr. Wonderful"Orndorff,

Roddy Piper's flunky gets involved.

- Orndorff.

- Oh, come on please.

- Look out.

- Oh, you got to be kidding me.

- Cyndi Lauper up on the apron

trying to come to the Hulk's assistance.

- Wait a minute.

What in the world is going on here?

- Well, guess who's sitting in the front row.

- Wait a minute.

Hold on.

- Mr. T, over the railing.

- Cyndi Lauper jumps in.

So then I think Orndorff or whatever,

they slapped her head off.

- Oh, no.

- You know, then I say, "You can't do that to no lady."

- Mr. T, to the aid of Cyndi Lauper.

He got her out of there.

They're fighting him inside the ring.

- This is so good because he was a massive star then.

- I mean-

- You're as big as you get at the time, right?

- About as big as you could possibly get-

- Yeah.

- -in a legit tough guy, and everybody knew it.

- Mr. T on his feet.

- Everyone's on their feet.

- So then I came up, and I just-

I wasn't supposed to.

I just came up to T and slapped him.

- Oh,

Piper nailed him from behind.

[chuckles]

- What is this?

- All of a sudden,

a New York City policeman with a uniform and a gun

is in the ring,

and then comes another one.

Like everybody that's not supposed to be in there,

is in there.

What's going on?

- Well, we've got a madhouse here.

- Three of them come back now.

Security holding everyone back.

- It was-

[laughing]

I live for this now because it's so old,

and think about it, you know,

it was madder than The Keystone cops.

- What is going on?

Ladies and gentlemen.

- It's pandemonium.

- What happened to our match?

- It was just wild.

- Ladies and gentlemen,

[bell rings]

the winner of this bout as a result of a disqualification,

Hulk Hogan.

[bell rings]

- Dude, what about Mr. T?

- Hulk Come on in.

- The dude was just sitting in the audience, man.

He came by my side like a blood brother.

I love you, man.

I love you.

- I love you, you know I like you ever since we did

Rocky III man.

And then when I saw him sitting around the ring,

I just liked to see a good match.

I like to go to wrestling,

but I don't like to see no stuff going on unfair

When the guy hits Cyndi, I don't like that.

I think that's a chump and a sissy,

you gotta hit a lady, you know.

- For Mr. T, it was the easy way to interject him, you know,

in a really high profile main event way.

- The only way this guy holds his title is he has this-

he has this stupid guy with some ridiculous haircut.

If you want this geek, Mr. T, to come in,

I'll be glad to put an X where the T is.

I don't really give a damn, man.

- But shortly after that, it was like crazy.

- It's now official.

It will be Hulk Hogan, Mr. T against "Rowdy" Roddy Piper,

"Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, WrestleMania.

- We're going to be ready for these guys

the Piper and Orndorff, and whoever else he got.

The broken arm-

- Mr. T came in and it was just like, "Are you kidding me?"

It's Hollywood.

It's WWE that's happening together.

This is like, "Wow."

- Oh man, that was heat.

- It's just so much heat.

Piper was so entertaining in this.

- The heat was supposed to be

I feel like between Hogan and Piper,

but it really was more with Piper and Mr. T.

- You're looking at someone that will take you

and make nothing of you.

will take your life and not even think twice about it.

I have been brought up old, old school.

One of the rules is this.

If you bring me

somebody outside our business,

I'm going to eat his lunch.

I don't care who he is.

If I don't, he's going to come in, laugh, go ha ha, and go back

out and tell him what a bunch of baloney we all are.

- Here you have Roddy Piper, who has devoted time, energy,

sacrifice to this craft.

And then there's the definition of the gatecrasher,

Mr. T.

Who is he?

- It's Hollywood guys coming in to our business,

and you feel this human nature need to-

to try to protect it or insulate it from the outside.

This is this thing I love.

I don't want people to ruin it or disrespect it.

- The fact that you're prostituting my work,

just eats me inside.

You see, this sport saved my life,

literally,

and it gave me a family

that I didn't have.

I was protecting every one of those people.

I was protecting the entire business for everybody.

T, ah Mr. T were supposed to call him Mr.

Are you ribbing me?

- You knew that that heat was real.

I remember this interview where Roddy Piper approached Mr. T,

who was on the set.

- Well, here I am on the A-Team.

Of course, I'm creeping up on the back of Mr. T, I can tell

you that because it's got it written right here on the back

of your chair.

- He's telling Mr. T, what is it like to portray someone like me,

a legitimate badass?

- How does it feel to be portraying someone like myself?

- Well, you ain't nothing, man.

- Oh.

- You could see the two of them getting in each other's face.

- Cyndi Lauper, she happened to be my friend.

You call yourself tough because you you can punch on a lady.

- Here you are,

you shave your head on both sides,

she dyes hers orange.

- Watch it now.

Watch it now.

- What you're doing is

you're supporting all these wonderful children.

- That's right.

- Now, how can they look up to you,

with you looking like that, her with long hair.

The children of American today must be sick

to look at someone-

- Hey, hey, hey, hey

[yelling]

- I have felt the tension of Piper,

that wasn't scripted, you know.

- You mess with me T,

I'll put an X on your name, brother.

- As a wrestling fan back then,

I couldn't wait for Mr. T

to get in the ring, and do something.

Come on out Mr. T,

that wonderful human being.

- The barbaric mindset of Piper and Orndorff.

He's an actor.

He's not a wrestler.

We're just going to break his legs.

- This is exactly what you could end up looking like here.

And there would be no more A-Team.

No more nothing.

I'm giving you one more chance.

Give it up and get out of here.

- Guys, please.

You guys cannot

hurt him,

break his leg,

knock his teeth out.

- We can do it right now.

I'm a street guy.

I'm a guy from the other side of the tracks.

I can hold my own.

I wasn't a powder puff.

You really made me mad.

He-he didn't get it at first, you know,

Just say, hey, "He come in and make a mockery of our living,

so we're going to try to brutalize him."

I guess he thought I was just some guy who come in

and not keep wrestling in a good light.

They didn't know that

I used to really wrestle in high school.

They didn't know that I knew my stuff.

- Mean Gene on the scene.

Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff,

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper

WrestleMania coming up here for a training session

that I cannot believe.

- Come on T for Piper, man.

- That was the first round of WrestleMania.

I said, "I got to get ready.

This ain't no joke."

I said "My reputation is on the line."

- Come on T.

You gotta stick and move, man.

Come on, stick and move.

- They had to find out

that I wasn't just passing through wrestling.

I was legit.

I'm honored to be a part.

I'm honored to be with you guys.

I want to give the guys they respect, and they do.

- Are you ready?

- Let's do it.

- Do it slow and mean.

Come on, come on.

- Of course, Roddy Piper, he's not looking at that.

The only thing Piper sees is a guy coming in,

trying to perhaps taking your spot.

- They're out training.

You think in three miserable weeks you can get in good enough

shape to take on us?

- All right, baby.

All right.

We did it, man.

We did it.

All right, brother.

All right, all right.

- You saw that they were taking this very seriously.

Like he needed to be in peak condition because

especially if somebody's not a trained professional wrestler,

that's where things can really go awry.

- But you also have to understand the historical

significance of this first WrestleMania.

This thing doesn't work.

There's not WrestleMania Two

- Maybe not even WWE anymore.

- That's right.

- Because we went into WrestleMania One,

I remember there was a fear

that the whole company was going to go bust.

Like WrestleMania One would be the one big show,

and it's a big flop and kind of kills the whole business.

- Our whole lives were on the line.

This is what's either going to make us or break us.

The whole world knows about this man, Hulk Hogan and Mr. T.

That's why we were on every single show,

every single program.

The schedule was relentless.

- March 31st WrestleMania, Mr. T, Hulk Hogan,

running wild daddy.

- Hulkamania, hypomania.

- We are the dream team.

The best thing to ever happen to wrestling.

- To host Saturday Night Live

was being anointed.

Very few celebrities reached that level.

- About 12 hours from now,

Madison Square Garden, WrestleMania, that is.

- You see, Mr. T getting a lot of benefits,

and you're working just as hard

and you're not getting as many benefits.

I think that there is some resentment.

It was personal.

- When the very first WrestleMania came along,

hype was so high.

- Roddy Piper, right here.

- New York, Madison Square Garden,

whew, it was electric.

- Tickets for Sunday's sold out brawl at the Garden have been

going for as much as $100 a pop.

- We were all excited about putting our best foot forward.

This is our opportunity to gain some more momentum.

Everything was on the line that night at WrestleMania.

But then I get this crazy call screaming,

"Hogan, Hogan."

I was ready to have a nervous breakdown.

- WrestleMania One,

Hulk Hogan and Mr. T

versus Roddy Piper and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff.

- Piper's gonna get it.

- It's such a big platform,

and of course, it's really setting the tone for-

for so many WrestleManias to come.

- Because at the time, like you said, it was the first one.

And fans typically will-

It's hard to accept someone from the outside,

and it's a big challenge for whoever the person is,

whatever, however big a celebrity you might be.

- The day of WrestleMania,

I get this crazy call screaming

"Hogan, Hogan, Mr. T is downstairs and he's leaving."

There's like a spiral drive up to the Garden.

I went running down the spiral and right when I got there,

there was this extra long white stretch limo,

and Mr. T's got, like, 15 people he's herding in the car.

"We're out of here. I'm done.

I ain't wrestling."

- Mr. T was so hard to do business with

even the day of the Garden.

Mr. T wanted two limousines of people.

Frank Sinatra doesn't but T does.

He, "Oh, then I'll just leave,"

you know, doing that old baloney.

- He was looking for a reason not to get in the ring,

basically, he was getting cold feet.

- I wasn't surprised.

Eat my shorts.

- I stopped the limo driver.

"You're not going anywhere."

I said "He's not getting out of my sight."

So I sat in a room with him for, like, 3-3.5 hours.

And, man, he was just soul searching.

- There's a lot of distractions, you know, I'm trying to think

about what I got to do.

Everybody's trying to calm me down.

"It's all right.

Just remember the stuff we practice on.

Don't forget your move that you're supposed to do.

Concentrate on that."

- Once we got out to the ring in, that red light came on.

He was there.

- Welcome, everyone, to wrestling extravaganza

of all time, WrestleMania.

- The first WrestleMania,

it was electric, first of all, because there was no game plan.

There was no book.

Nobody knew how we were going to get anywhere.

- This was just a mega event.

It was all brand new, so it all seemed like a spectacle.

- There he is.

- Billy Martin, guest ring announcer.

One of the greatest baseball managers in history.

- You got Billy Martin there.

You got the Liberace and the Rockettes.

Man, you got Muhammad Ali.

- The Greatest, looking tremendous.

- Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper.

This is the genesis of the first WrestleMania,

but the real life heat between Piper and T-

- Look at the look on Piper's face.

One of disdain and disgust.

- -this felt even more dangerous.

- Mr. T and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper nose to nose

in the center of the ring.

- Hulk Hogan said "Man, watch that guy, man.

He's really mad."

- Wow.

Slap across the face and a return slap by Mr. T.

- He slapped me,

and I slapped him back and he said, "Don't hold back on me and

I won't hold back on you."

- Oh.

Piper now goes behind quickly takes him down to the canvas.

- I demanded that with T,

the only thing I'd do is amateur wrestling with him,

because I heard he was an amateur wrestler.

- Piper pushed his animosity aside and he told Mr. T,

"Pick me up in a fireman's carry."

- Oh, nice fireman's carry.

- Piper's a total professional.

He wanted the match to be memorable.

- Oh.

Drops him like yesterday's newspaper.

- And that was the photo that went all over the world.

- Look out T now in the wrong corner.

Here comes the Hulk.

- And all four of them are going at it in the corner.

Ace Bob Orton is getting into the ring.

- Cowboy Bob Orton, who is supposed to be Piper's

bodyguard, scampers up the ropes.

- Look out.

- Oh, he hit Orndorff.

- His intended target is, uh, Hulk Hogan and, um,

he winds up hitting Mr. Wonderful,

and it ends in the most chaotic fashion.

- He got him.

- He got him.

Unbelievable.

Pandemonium here in the Garden.

- And the winners of the main event, Hulk Hogan and Mr. T.

- The ending was, for a lot of fans, a bit unsatisfying.

- There were a lot of different scenarios that were discussed

for that match, but there was no payoff for this whole rivalry

between Roddy Piper and Mr. T.

- We're left hungry.

We want to see what will ultimately happen when we do get

Roddy against T,

and so we set on a path where that happens,

just not exactly in the way people thought it would.

- Just when the WWE

believes it knows all the answers,

the Rowdy one changes the questions.

His latest bombshell is boxer Bob Orton.

- Bob Orton, of course, was like the ne'er do well bad guy friend

of Roddy Piper.

- We thought that we would put an open contract

out for anybody who has ever had the wrestling trunks on.

It's a funny thing, the boxing match at a wrestling show, if

- If you nt to put the gloves on, this is all you got to do.

- But again, this was going to become something bigger.

- You just got to step up and say "Boo."

- Roddy Piper, he starts issuing, you know,

open challenges.

Who wants to get some of this?

- Well, Bozo visits the zoo, my goodness.

Are you kidding?

Are you trying to tell me that you have come out on here

because you want to don the boxing gloves.

- Hulk Hogan shows up.

Hulk's not a boxer, but guess who is.

- I don't give a damn whose name you put on there.

You sign it, he'll fight him.

Mr. T?

- Mr. T.

Mr. T, if I can have your attention.

T.

- What do you want fool?

Don't you see I'm trying to work out?

Trying to get ready.

You don't come interviewing nobody when I'm working out.

Now get that microphone out of my face.

- Wait a minute.

I was just trying to explain to our audience

that you're going to be

putting on the gloves tonight against Bob Orton

- Hulk Hogan signs Mr. T up and everybody goes crazy.

Now we have this match between Cowboy Bob Orton and Mr. T.

Well, it made more sense because T was a legit boxer.

- Come on, get up.

Get up.

- You were going into a boxing match.

There's an element of danger there, too.

That's still a performance,

but also this two physical worlds colliding.

- Of course, Mr. T, we all saw you in Rocky III.

- Yeah, Rocky III was just a movie.

But this is for real.

- What are you hiding your face for huh?

I would hide my face if I was that ugly.

- As they come to center ring now

for tonight's ten round matchup.

Look what-

Look what

Look at what Roddy just did.

- Now, okay, I said, "I'm going to bring it."

- Look at the jab by T.

Very impressive.

- Mr. T hammering away.

- Roddy Piper on the apron.

- Obviously intentionally distracting the referee,

and look what happened behind the referee's back.

Roddy with a right.

Oh, he hit Orton.

Mr. T connects.

T spins around left hand.

Orton over the top rope.

T waiting for Orton to step back in.

No, did not make the count.

Mr. T wins.

- Mr. T knocks out Cowboy Bob Orton.

- Here comes Piper.

Wait a minute.

- That leads to an altercation with Roddy Piper.

- Wait a minute.

- Here comes T.

From behind the knee of Orton into the back of Mr. T.

It's one on two.

- Oh they clutch-

Look at what they're doing to him now.

- Oh.

- Oh, come on.

- I wasn't expecting that.

I thought it'd be some clean fight,

but they're dirty.

- I thank you very much.

He is Mr. T.

Ladies and gentlemen, you heard what he said.

He wants "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.

- And that leads into WrestleMania Two.

- Standing by on the set of the A-Team in Los Angeles,

California right now, Mr. T.

- That's right all you wrestling fans out there,

you seen what happened to me on March the 1st?

That's right.

So that means it's going to be Mr. T and Piper

in WrestleMania Two.

- WrestleMania Two, in 1986,

they pitted myself

against Mr. T in a boxing match.

- I think the boxing thing plays for a couple of reasons.

We'd be remiss to not point out how big Mr. T's role was.

in Rocky III.

You're tapping into this part of people's sort of collective

subconscious that's like,

"I've seen Mr. T be a badass boxer before,

but at the same time, Piper is more of a fighter than

a technical wrestler himself."

Boxing is the perfect fit.

- Give me that double underhook.

Come on, underneath.

- Roddy Piper is trained by Lou Duva,

a legendary figure in boxing.

What's the response from Mr. T?

I'm going to get my help from Joe Frazier,

who at the time is as iconic a figure in all of sports

as anyone in the world.

- Right, right.

- Smokin'.

- Both of those guys had that intensity, that fight in them to

go out there, and neither one of them was going to back down.

He's got this vendetta

because he could not get

a hold of me last time

at WrestleMania,

now he wants to box me,

this crazed idiot.

- Yeah, I hope you can see this here, Piper.

I'm wearing this little funny skirt that you've been wearing.

It's coming back to me about the rubber chicken.

This is a chicken because Piper is a chicken.

It was just so funny, man.

- After this fight, I'll prove there's two things T can't do

is act and fight.

I suppose we all know he can't act.

That's why there's nothing left of the A-Team.

- The A-Team was starting to decline.

The show would be canceled later on in 1986,

so he was kind of saying things that seemed to be

a little bit true.

- You know why I'm talking to you?

'Cause you got more brains than T does.

- I don't think they could have gotten as heated as it did

without having some real friction.

- Tea?

Tea.

I hate tea.

[sigh]

- There was so much bad blood,

I didn't know what was going to happen.

- The moment of truth is right around the corner.

Are you ready?

- Yeah, I'm ready for Piper.

Hope Piper is ready for me.

- Hi, everybody.

Mean Gene Okerlund

here at WrestleMania Two.

You can cut the electricity in the air.

- I say this to you.

I say if Mr. T can knock me out in this fight right here,

I would not only quit professional boxing,

I would quit and retire professional wrestling.

I would quit dating girls.

- It's time for the main event.

A scheduled ten rounds of boxing.

- In WrestleMania Two,

now we boxing.

First of all, let me tell you, people out there suffering,

it's not my idea to be talking right before a big fight.

I don't like to do a lot of talking.

My fists are gonna do the talking in the ring.

You know, we can talk all day.

I don't know what I might do to Piper, but I know it's going to

be getting hurt out there.

Oh, look at that.

- We had the gloves on.

[bell rings]

- All right, round one.

- We was punching and whatnot,

so that's what we're going to do.

- Roddy begins to throw jabs.

- I remember Roddy Piper throwing the jab

throwing the jab and Piper always-

he was always good with his hands.

- Piper, look at this.

- And, Mr. T, uh, you get hit one time,

the first thing you're going to do is fire back.

- T with a peekaboo.

Look at this.

Not getting hit at all.

Look at the left hand by Mr. T.

the whole notion that anything

can be completely and totally scripted is false.

- Oh.

- They wanted me to do a particular spot.

That spot was

Mr. T catches me with a left hook,

and I go out of the ring onto the floor.

I refused again to put him over,

but, um, I said, "Okay, just this spot."

So it's coming time for that spot.

- Piper wide open now.

He's catching punches from T.

- I'm doing my job.

I'm doing what I need to do.

So I'm going bom bom bom bom.

Here comes the left hook.

- Oh.

- Oh, right out of the ring.

Right out of the ring.

- The only thing is

he missed.

He missed the left hook,

you [bleep] idiot.

I'd rather you knock my teeth down my throat

than hit me with a popcorn punch.

You idiot.

You idiot.

- He said real boxers don't know how to pull their punches,

but that never was my intention to hurt him or whatever,

you know.

- We're doing everything possible

to get Piper back into the ring.

- I know there's no playbook here,

but it's a lot more serious than everybody's thinking

I'm the only one in there.

I take the heat.

You know, I-

there's not many guys that can hold the line.

Never a sailor was made on a calm sea,

and I was brought up in such a stormy weather that I-

You can't make me back up.

You have to kill me.

- Both fighters are weary at this juncture.

- I got this idiot.

I'm trying to see what's going on.

I don't know what he's going to do.

Nobody's telling me nothing.

Nothing.

And I was giving him my heart.

Serious point of contention.

- You can see Piper holding on.

[bell rings]

- End of the round.

- I have to imagine that they had some semblance of an idea

of how it was going to go,

but did anybody know what was actually going on here?

You know?

It sort of seems like real chaos to some extent.

- It can get dangerous in there if somebody doesn't really

know what they're doing.

- You get out there and get lost.

Deer in the headlights and somebody's hurt.

- Yeah, but there's also that, like, you never know what

Mr. T is capable of.

- Now, look at T over in the corner of Roddy Piper.

- There's no communication happening,

so I'm in the ring going,

"What do you want me to do with this guy?

What if I just took him out?"

[bell rings]

- Oh, look at that.

- Beginning of round four.

- Uh oh.

Uh oh.

I told ya, Vince.

- Oh my.

I told ya.

[bell rings]

- Okay.

If I just take this guy out without telling him,

What am I going to do?

I got my business on my shoulders.

There's a lot of rules

and we'll never get to them all

to go in there and snake him.

That's just as bad.

- Round four.

They're going punch for roundhouse punch.

- Oh, and a right hand by Piper.

- Come on, oh.

- One by T.

- Clearly, it doesn't look like a real boxing match.

It actually resembles a real fight.

- Oh, what a right hand by Roddy Piper

knocked Mr. T's mouthpiece right out.

- Roddy did not want to be beaten by an actor.

Everything he had worked so hard from a young teen was now

worldwide.

So this huge image he had built,

it just couldn't be taken down

by some actor walking in the ring.

- And a right by Piper.

And a left.

- Piper just says, "You know what, I'm done boxing

and it's a little more physical.

- Referee trying to get between them now.

Bring them back out.

Wait a minute.

- Oh, wait a minute.

Come on.

Oh, wait a minute.

I knew this was coming.

[bell rings]

- Everyone jumps in the ring.

- Look at this.

All the men in there.

- It turns into complete chaos.

- Piper is right back on top of him.

- Ladies and gentlemen, the decision

as a result of a disqualification, Mr. T.

- So finally, Piper disqualified.

And is no doubt,

Mr. Piper was bending and breaking the rules all the way

through the match up.

- It's probably for me,

it's one of the matches I'm most ashamed of I think.

Um, I should have taken him out.

- This is not Mr. T's fault, by the way.

I don't care who you stick opposite a Piper in there.

You're not going to have a good working boxing match

to give a big payoff.

It's just stuff like that just doesn't work.

- Yeah, but while their match may not have been a five star

match, they still, I mean,

it just shows the drawing power of that rivalry

that they had.

- Here we are.

Like how many years later and we're talking about it.

So how can you say that it's not.

Oh, it wasn't a good match.

Well, we're here talking about it, brother.

Like, it's it's history.

And a favorite memory.

- Here's the irony of the whole thing.

For two years, Roddy Piper has done nothing but complain

about outsider Mr. T,

trespassing on the sacred wrestling business.

- But wait a second.

What does Roddy Piper end up doing?

He goes Hollywood.

- In '87, a director asked me if I would star in his next movie.

I got two kids and another kid on the way.

What do I do?

I do a movie.

I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass,

and I'm all out of bubblegum.

- The stars coming from Hollywood,

coming into wrestling.

We're opposed to that.

But wrestlers going in to Hollywood, that's cool.

- Whether he ever actually sat down and wrote a handwritten

thank you note to Mr. T to say,

"Mr. T, thank you for showing me the way to Hollywood."

Somehow I don't think that note was ever delivered.

- With everything that transpired between

these two guys,

you fast forward to WrestleMania 30 where Mr. T gets

inducted into the Hall of Fame.

- Whose speech are you looking most forward to tonight?

- Uh, Mr. T's.

- Yeah?

- I'm glad that he's getting inducted

into the celebrity ward.

That's good.

- I am so happy to be here,

and to stand among the very best in wrestling.

- A bunch of the original superstars that were in

WrestleMania One were backstage.

- You know something, guys,

30 years of WrestleManias,

we need to bury this hatchet right now.

Be men about it, Piper.

- And then Mr. T offers his hand to Roddy Piper.

[groaning]

- Good.

- Done.

[laughing]

- I thought I was going to die in here tonight, man.

- Thank you.

- Why'd you hit me so damn hard, man?

You almost killed me for heaven's sake.

- No, it's alright man.

It's alright man.

- No, it's not alright.

- It's alright brother.

- It showed that maybe there was finally this closure,

this ending, this- this peace.

I feel like it just came full circle for this moment,

for the two of them to finally put their beefs at rest

and have this moment.

- Me and Piper.

We just hugged.

We shook hands and we talked.

We came together.

- That day they bonded.

It was the first time Piper was

"Man, I'm so sorry, I was an [bleep] to you."

"I was an [bleep], too."

And I listened to the conversation.

It was like two guys that actually really made friends,

and brothers at that time.

- Roddy Piper versus Mr. T,

we can easily call that the start of Sports Entertainment.

It's the beginning of a path.

- Bad bunny, crossbody.

- There's another world to go to,

and Mr. T's involvement,

that was a critical part of all of it,

and I think it opened the door for when the rest of the world

crosses over with the business we love.

- This is exactly what you could end up looking like here.

- This business owes a lot to that rivalry between

Hot Rod Roddy Piper and Mr. T.

- They did some special stuff together.

WrestleMania One and Two were still huge moments in wrestling,

and that's something that even if you don't really get along

with whoever you're partnered with for WrestleMania,

it's a big moment to share with someone.

- What is going on?

Ladies and gentlemen.

- It's pandemonium.

- Their real life animosity,

it helped, you know, really sell that rivalry and set the tone

for-for WrestleManias to come.

- I don't know what I might do to Piper,

but I know he's going to be getting hurt out there.

- It was just insane

with nothing but excitement and electricity,

and it sure worked.

- Mr. T connects.

- What a ride.

I can only say what a ride.

- It was competitive and there was a whole bunch of animosity.

I'll be glad to put an X where the T is.

I don't really give a damn, man.

Just another day at the WWE.

[laughing]