All language subtitles for Biography.Rowdy.Roddy.Piper.2021.720p.WEB.h264-BAE

- Take my phone?
- Sure.

- Roddy.

Yeah, I'm doing great.
How are you?

We're just getting ready
to do an interview about you.

A little warm down there, huh?

You what?

Yeah, not anytime soon,
though.

You're holding a place for me.

Right next to you
at the table, huh?

Great.

No, I...No, I'm just gonna
talk about you,

all good things,
not to worry about it.

Great.

Thanks, roddy.

Roddy's in heaven.
Roddy's not in hell.

♪ ♪

- we'll check you
down there, guys.

We'll check you down there.

♪ ♪

- rowdy ronda rousey!

[no audible dialogue]

- coming to the wwe,
I really wanted to make sure

that every single time
that I walked out there,

everyone remembered
"rowdy" roddy piper.

Rowdy is the only name
I could have taken on.

I wanted to make sure that
that next generation of kids

knew who he was
and respected his memory

and what he's contributed
to the business.

- When I ran into piper,

he's the one that made
everything else possible.

He was the key,
the cog in the wheel.

Without piper,
we could have never launched

into the stratosphere.

- It's as simple as this.

When rp talks, brother,
people listen.

- He was the ultimate bad guy.

- How you doing, fatso?

- He sold it. He practiced it.

He was good at what he did.

♪ ♪

- just when they think
they got the answers,

I change the questions.

- Even if you had never heard
of roddy piper,

you could tell
you didn't like this guy.

- Nobody messes with piper!

- He was riveting.
- I seen a lot of men buried...

- A really good-hearted guy,

a really tough
son of a bitch.

- He was not like
any other wrestler.

He was in his own world,

real strong family man.

- He kept his family
completely out of the business,

and I think he took
too much of it on himself.

- Yeah!

- Everything he did
from the moment

he walked out in the ring
rubbed people wrong.

- You're gonna
see something

you never seen
in your life before.

- Whatever it was,
he went against the grain,

and he just lived
in that glory.

♪ ♪

[droning bagpipe music]

♪ ♪

- you know, god takes care
of fools and babies.

♪ ♪

before I was a pro wrestler,
I got hit by a pickup truck.

I was lived
in an indian reservation.

I had tonsillitis,
so they took out my appendix.

I moved a lot.

I got hurt a lot
as a little kid.

♪ ♪

- my dad, roddy piper,
he was born in canada

in a place called
saskatoon, saskatchewan,

which is one of the coldest
places in the world.

He used to tell me, you know,

the story of running uphill
both ways to school,

right, in the snow?
He actually did that.

♪ ♪

his dad was a police officer
that worked for the railroad,

and this meant
that they traveled 24/7.

They would spend a week in
one town, a week in the next.

I think he was
about 10 years old.

He was on a indian reservation
for about six months,

and he's the only
white kid on it.

Everybody else is indian,

and they don't like
white people at the time,

so he had to learn how
to fight his way through

and get their respect.

So every few months,
no matter where he was going,

he would have to start over,

build his reputation,
and be the tough guy

so he wouldn't get hurt.

He would go out and get
in trouble and come home

and face all kinds
of physical punishment.

[somber music]

- it was a hard
victorian upbringing,

very strict.

Being the youngest,

he always kind of felt like

he was an afterthought
in his family

is what he would tell me.

Like, he wasn't expected.

Not a lot of hugs.

Not a lot of verbal
"I love yous."

- my grandpa did beat my dad.
I don't know how often,

but he was physical enough
with him

that it was a dark place

that my dad never really wanted
to talk about with us.

- You're 12, 11, 10 years old.
You move 10 times.

All of a sudden,
you get into a fight,

and you come back home
and you get into a fight

because you got into a fight.

You know, it's...

♪ ♪

I don't think that punishment,

physical punishment,
is a way to raise a kid.

None of it goes on
in my house ever.

- There was a lot of trauma
in his childhood,

and it followed him.

He seemed like
the kind of person

that always had a demon
or something on his shoulder

and that he was fighting with

and I think that that started
at a very, very young age

long before wrestling.

[bagpipe music]

- I got into my bagpipes
a lot,

and it kind of pulled me away
from everybody.

I don't know how,

but that's where I started,
when I was six years old

playing the bagpipes.

It was a place for me to go.
It was loud.

People knew,
don't interrupt.

It actually became
a hideaway for me.

♪ ♪

- one day I was in my house,

and there was a knock
at my back door.

And there was two friends
of mine with this new guy, rod.

And so they said to me,

"cam, you're a pretty
tough guy,

"and this new guy, rod,
he's a pretty tough guy.

Why don't you have a fight?"

I said, "sure."

and we went at it.

Like in the movies,
he drilled me a good one

and I flew overtop
of my motorcycle.

And he won the fight.

As I found out later,
rod told me he was

the light heavyweight boxing
champ of toronto.

And from that point on,
we became best friends.

He was a high school wrestler,

and he was number two
in the city.

That was his goal
was to be a wrestler.

- And the day he did
graduate school,

he finally did leave home.

He would have liked a better
relationship with his father.

You know, that was
eating him up.

As rod became a young adult,
it just became too much

'cause rod wanted
to get rough back,

but the only other choice would
be to have an all-out brawl

with your father.

♪ ♪

he left home
and was out on his own.

- It was just time to go,

so I took my bagpipes
and I just never went back.

- He was really a nomad.

He went to youth hostels,
ymcas, anywhere.

Usually back then,

five bucks for the night
and you could do it.

Or you'd get there
and it'd be full,

so you would be
on the street that night.

- I had to make money,

and so played my bagpipes
and I'd get quarters

or whatever they give me.

You sleep during the day.

It's too dangerous
to sleep at nighttime.

At nighttime, you get cold,
you get hungry,

and so you start
to try to feed

some of these necessities.

I started stealing
what I needed

and then got
with a group of bad guys.

And all of a sudden,
you're carrying a switchblade,

and--you know,
and then the fights.

Now I was getting off
on this bully type of thing,

which I hated.

- He was beaten up.
He was made fun of.

Half of those beatings
were because

somebody was trying
to sexually abuse him,

and you fight back.

- You know, I think he did a
little robbery here and there,

and he was terribly
ashamed of it.

It was a brief part
of his life.

He also would fight.

People would pay to see him
fight on the street.

Doing whatever it takes
to survive.

- I was living
in a youth hostel.

Father o'malley,
you know, he says,

"you know, roderick,

have you ever seen
professional wrestling?"

I said, "no, sir."

he says, "I can get you $25."

whew! You know, that was,
like, three months' rent.

- He was 15 years old

when he had his
first professional fight

against
larry "the axe" hennig.

- Larry hennig

coming into the ring
at this time...

- You know, rod, he knew
that he needed an angle.

I don't believe at that time

he'd come up with
rowdy roddy piper.

His name was rod toombs,
so he went by that name.

[playing bagpipe music]

I don't know
how many wrestlers

can play the bagpipes
and has kilt.

And so that's what he did

to distinguish himself

based on the talent
that he actually had.

- The announcer, he just
knew my name was roddy.

He had to announce something,
and he says,

"ladies and gentlemen
here comes...

♪ ♪

roddy the piper."

- he was just
naturally good at it,

and then that evolved
into his wrestling career,

since it was a special skill
that he could use as a gimmick.

People would stand up and say...

You know, and yell at him.

That was his goal

was to get people
pissed off at him,

so they're going to look
in the program:

"who is this guy?"

- my nose was broke, you know?

And larry only hit me twice,
but he did a good job.

My eye was drooping,
and he says,

"kid, how'd you like to go
to kansas city?"

and that's how I got
into pro wrestling,

and I never stopped.

- He knew that there was going
to be many days

that he didn't know where
the next paycheck was coming,

and so he just
threw himself at it.

That took him
all across canada

and then into the states,

just wherever
he could get a job.

- When wrestling came along,
that's why I just boom!

Because it had all the
elements without the police.

- There were more
than two dozen

wrestling territories
in north america,

so that meant that guys
could make a living uprooting,

going from territory
to territory.

- I'm so fortunate
to have wrestling

and the way it evolved.

If it hadn't,
I would've been dead.

There's no doubt about it.

I've got a baby face
that looks 12,

in a dress,
playing bagpipes,

and they just beat me up.

- So when you're
just getting in,

you're breaking
into pro wrestling,

what do you do?

They beat you up,

and you have to continuously
get up and keep coming back.

- I got my first break
in los angeles,

and holy cow.

Really, really brutal,
brutal days.

- Roddy came into the gym.

I says, "what are you doing?"

"you gonna sweep up
the place,

or sell hot doggies,
chicken on a bun?"

he says, "no, I'm a wrestler."

and I says, "you look like
you got polio in your stomach,

"you're so small.

"you'll never make it.
You got to learn how to wrestle

so you can be
a sadistic bastard."

- we're gonna see things
that are different,

that's never been seen before,
ever, ever on any film.

♪ ♪

don't practice this without
a qualified instructor

right there with you.

- Judo gene--if you don't
know, look him up--

was the toughest man
in the world,

trained bruce lee,
chuck norris,

rowdy ronda rousey.

- Gene lebell
I would consider

the most decorated stuntman
of all time.

He was in the first-ever
televised mma event.

When I was doing judo,
he would help me a lot.

And then when I got in to mma,

he was in my corner for, like,
every single match.

- Judo gene saw that these
guys were bullying me,

and gene would tell me
what to do on the fly.

- You got to beat them
with the dark side of the moon.

Roddy said, "what's the dark
side of the moon?"

"well, what the referee
doesn't see, didn't happen."

watch you don't
take the eyes out.

This is the throat.
Throat's a great handle.

- [yells]

- he'd call me late at night.

And my wife said,

"hey, it must be roddy
calling again."

so he says, "hey, let's go
and roll for a couple hours."

we worked out hard,
no playing games.

He wanted to know
how to wrestle.

- The lebell family is...

They're legendary.

They ran
the olympic auditorium,

and because dad
had earned their respect,

he was able then to wrestle
there in la

for the lebell family,

and that is really where dad

got the chance
to spread his wings

and really become
not just another fighter

but the one they came to see.

♪ ♪

- one of my favorite memories
with him

is when I was, like, 15.

He brought me to la
to see hollywood,

and I wanted to be an actress
and a singer.

And so, to me,
hollywood was like, "whoo!"

marilyn monroe handprints,
and the glamour and all of that.

And we get here
and he rents a car,

he's like, "all right, kid,

I'm gonna take you
around town."

first thing he does is,
he goes somewhere

into, like, the compton,
maybe, area.

I was a little young
to understand

what I was looking at.

And he was like,

"that's where your father
slept on the streets.

"a woman got murdered
right outside my window,

but I didn't say anything,
'cause I'm not a snitch."

he's just telling me
these horrific stories.

So then I come home
from that vacation.

My friends asked me,
they're like,

"how's hollywood?"
and they were like,

"did you see this and that?"

I was like, "I think I got
the wrestlers' tour."

[laughs]

[upbeat spanish guitar music]

♪ ♪

- I was born and grew up
in los angeles,

and some of my earliest memories
that I have

are actually about
professional wrestling,

being a professional
wrestling fan.

I remember going
down on the bus,

running with my stepfather,
trying to catch a bus

to go down
to the olympic auditorium.

In 1976, one of the new faces
in the territory

was a young lad
by the name of roddy piper.

He was 21 years old.

He was a young,
fresh-faced kid.

Fans gave him
polite applause.

They start wrestling, and it
starts out as a clean match.

But little by little, subtly,

he starts doing these things
that only a villain would do.

He was fighting,

and he was giving people
kicks to the groin

during his wrestling matches.

♪ ♪

it was like watching
a caterpillar

transform into a butterfly,

and you just saw this magic
happening before your eyes.

People were booing
roddy piper.

They absolutely hated
who he was.

- I am the intelligence.

I think the most controversial
thing I did

was stir up controversy

because it draws money.

Conflict draws money.

- The wheels were always turning
for him as to what can I say,

what can I do next?

'cause you had
to keep them interested.

You had to keep them
coming back.

- There's no way, piper!
- Hey!

- Oh!
- Hey! Piper!

- Get up, you think
you're so tough!

- Anything he did,
he wanted to be good at it.

- I don't plan to go in there
and make it easy.

I don't plan to go in there
and not have some knocks

on my own noggin, brother.

- And they used him
to do the interviews

because he would showboat
and help sell boletos, tickets.

- You're a pig,
guerrero!

Your father was a pig,

your brother was a pig,

and you're a pig, guerrero!

- The guerrero family
was one of the first families

in professional wrestling.

If you're of latino descent,

you didn't really see
a lot of faces on television

that were like yours.

And usually if you did, they
played the roles of a gardener,

or they played the role
of a maid.

So for us to see the guerrero
family in hero roles

was very important.

We worshiped them.

- You get in that ring,
chavo guerrero,

and it's going to be
all over for you, brother,

because I don't give a damn
about nothing no more.

- When roddy piper
would insult the guerreros,

we took it very personally.

- You sitting at home
with your fat bellies

and your construction boots
drinking your beer,

you know who I am.

- Roddy really had
the whole package.

In the ring,
he was a dirty wrestler,

but he had all this
tremendous frenetic energy.

But also, he knew how to get
a reaction out of the fans,

and one of the ways
he would do that

was to bring his bagpipes
out to the ring.

[playing off-key]

- one time, he told everybody

and silenced
the entire stadium,

he'd play the mexican
national anthem

to apologize for attacking
the guerreros.

- I said, "you know,
I love you people.

I'd like to do
something special."

[crowd booing]

and all the wonderful
hispanic people came in.

I'm in the ring.

And, "please stand for
the mexican national anthem."

[whispering] just like this
I said to myself,

"I'm gonna die."

I put those bagpipes up, man.

It's too late, right?

- And roddy starts
playing his notes,

and it's not the mexican
national anthem.

But he starts playing
"la cucaracha."

he starts playing a song
about a cockroach.

[playing "la cucaracha"
on bagpipes]

♪ ♪

♪ la cucaracha, la cucaracha ♪

[hums]

holy cow, chairs that were
bolted down in the cement,

here they come.

- And the fans...

♪ ♪

they're just shocked.

- Chairs come up.
Things are being thrown.

Stage is being overcome.

- It was like watching...
Watching a car wreck, you know?

It's a horrible thing to see,
but at the same time,

you can't take your eyes
away from it.

- I was there that night,

and I was going to...

Whiz in my pants.

- You can't write
that kind of stuff.

- I says,
"this guy is a natural."

♪ ♪

- you had to move around,
especially as a bad guy.

You would run your course,

and then you needed to go on
and find another place to go

and stake your claim
for a while

and then you would move on
somewhere else.

- I am extremely pleased

to take my wonderful trophy.

- Once I left los angeles,
when I went to portland,

nobody knew who I was,

so you had to start
all over again.

[hopeful music]

♪ ♪

did you find the choke?
- Yeah.

- Okay, kick the engine over,
leaving the throttle closed.

It's probably just new.
It needs--takes a lot of kicks.

- Yeah.

- I met roddy in 1979.

I was working graveyard shift
as a waitress

just southwest side
of portland.

- Get you something out there.

- Roderick, you're lucky
I had it high enough

that that didn't show.
- [laughs]

- he was the funniest
human being on the planet.

[snickers]
- is that it?

- Oh, the guy...

All the wrinkles on my face
are from him making me laugh.

I was young,
I was 19 years old,

and so all the other
waitresses would say,

"you go wait
on those wrestlers."

prime rib was always
what he got.

He ordered two prime ribs and
always two pieces of lemon pie.

He started asking me,

"hey, can I have
your phone number?

I'd like to ask you out."

I thought he was cute as heck.
Thought he cute as heck.

But the crowd he was with
was so loud, and so I'm like,

"nah, you know.
Hey, hi, hi."

so we kind of flirted,
but after about a month,

his tag-team partner,
killer brooks,

got down on his knees
and he says,

"please give him
your phone number.

"I'm his tag-team partner,

"and I'm getting
beat to heck out there

"because he's only
thinking about you.

He wants to get to know you."

so I said, "okay, I'll take
his phone number."

and then we hit it off.

♪ ♪

portland wrestling

in the late '70s,
early '80s was huge.

The buildings
were always packed.

From the moment
I started dating him,

anywhere we would go,
people knew who he was.

Everyone pretty much
had the same reaction.

They were shocked,

but after they met him,

they all understood that he
was a genuine guy and caring.

- You come down here
and burn your bra

and think you're something?

You're getting in there
with men...

- And to have to do something

like when he attacked
a woman wrestler,

he has to do it over the top

because it's so hard
for him to do.

- This is why men wrestle
and why women don't!

This is why!
Get outta here!

Get outta here!
That's why!

- For roddy in real life,
a woman is on a pedestal.

♪ ♪

he's very old-fashioned.

He would never hit a woman.

He would never
insult a woman.

And I decided early on,

I was gonna love roddy
no matter what.

I did and I do

and wouldn't change it
for the world.

♪ ♪

- in portland,
it was a smaller territory.

In atlanta,
the business was growing.

You had to move around,

and you had to be able to go
from territory to territory.

That's the way that the
business worked at the time.

- They called me
on the east coast.

I was ready at any time to get
up and take a left-hand turn.

And I drove the old
yellow canary

right across the country.

[upbeat rock music]

- wtbs in atlanta, georgia,

ted turner's superstation,

wrestling was a staple.

Here's roddy piper.

Very few people knew who he
was on a national basis.

He wasn't the biggest guy
in the world,

but the one thing that he did

better than anybody else
was talk.

- It's a pleasure for you
to have me here, I'm sure.

You see, being the expert
that I am...

- The promoters realized roddy
knew how to tell a story,

not just his own story,
but other people's stories.

- People want to get
familiar with me.

People like yourself...

- He was brought in
as rod piper,

the color commentator:

Sport coat, no kilt,

and then the color commentator
began to skew his views...

- You got a big,
big, big mouth.

- If they let a bald-headed
geek like you in...

- Maybe a little bit
more nasty...

- You just stay out of my way,
pig face!

- Maybe a little bit more
against the fan favorites.

- And you won't have
to worry about nothing, man.

- Pig face?

- And they created another way

to get this character over.

- They say stick and stones
may break my bones

but words will never hurt me.

Well, some of the words he
says about me and my family

have hurt me deeply.

- Sticks and stones
may break your bones.

You are right!

And I'm nuts enough
to throw sticks and stones!

- Now you've got,

"I'm gonna kick
that commentator's butt."

- piper into the ring.

- The commentator was
a wrestler and a tough guy.

- As he gets through the
ropes, and they go at it!

- Now he comes out
with the kilt.

- The wild man, roddy piper.

- Now he's roddy piper.

- Roddy piper, the only way
that he's really been

outstanding in this match
is his bad sportsmanship.

They're trying to literally
carry piper out of the ring.

- I told you piper pays back!

I told you, nobody--
nobody messes with piper!

- When he wrestles
as a bad guy,

that was the most comfortable
for him.

- Come out here right now
and fight me like a man!

Come right now!
- If you're a bad guy,

fans aren't gonna come up
and shake your hand as much.

He could be alone more
if he was a bad guy.

Maybe because he was alone
in life early on so often,

that's where he was
comfortable.

- Piper has
hit him with his fist.

He hit him in the jaw
with a roll of coins.

- As a kid, he was around
some of the roughest people

you can imagine.
- It's mine!

- And sometimes I wonder
if that's part

of what pieced together that
bad guy psychology that he had.

- I am the legend killer.

[pen scratching]

- so my dad did
this thing.

There were these yellow
legal pads that he would write.

He would write
all kinds of ideas.

- Just in case he had
the opportunity

that a mic was handed to him

so that he had something
great to say.

- You know, you couldn't
get a date

with a $100 bill
on your forehead.

I wouldn't fight you

if my grandma was threatened
by the huns.

Sometimes maybe I heard it

in the middle
of a rock and roll song.

I just had a knack for putting
that kind of stuff together.

Of course, I don't have
to impress somebody.

They got to impress me,

because I'm roddy piper
and you're not.

- And that's why
he was so quick-witted,

because he put in work
nobody else did.

When everybody else was partying
and drinking, which he did,

he also was thinking and writing
these things down.

- Like, sometimes
people say to me,

"oh, you just say what comes
off the top of your head."

oh, [bleep] horse[bleep].

[scoffs]

you have no idea
how much work went into it.

I seen a lot of men buried
wearing a $50 stetson

and carrying a five-buck gun,
you geek.

- Whoo-whoo!

[dramatic music]

- there was a guy named
ric flair on the east coast.

- The greatest wrestling
in the whole entire wide world

comes right out
of the mid-atlantic area,

and roddy piper and I
are glad to be here, brother.

- Ric and I were so different.

You know, I wear a kilt.
Ric doesn't.

He's blond. I ain't.
You know?

That we got along real well
outside the ring,

and then everything
started to get out of control.

- Piper and flair
have formed a pact,

and where there's trouble,
we won't be hard to find.

- He's got a belt.

- Well, I knew--
yeah, I'd heard his name,

but I didn't know
anything about him.

He came in the studio,

and I knew right away
I was gonna like him.

He was full of himself,
and, man, I mean, talent.

- Ric flair, roddy piper!

That's what it's all about!

That's what
it's all about!

- God, he was entertaining.

It was so good
that it made everybody mad.

- You're gonna find it's a
whole lot easier to jump on

than it is to jump off.

- Whoo!

- I had moved over there
to the east coast with roddy,

and we were expecting
our first child.

It was very rowdy times.

Roddy and ric
and the other wrestlers,

they lived on a planet
that was theirs.

They were a wild,
wild pair of men,

lots of drinking and hotels
getting damaged and such.

- Next thing I remember,

I'm in my bed,
my clothes are on,

the door's knocked off
the hinges.

I didn't know what happened,

but I got the hell
out of there.

- You hear things.
You know some things.

You don't know
a lot of things.

Roddy was roddy,
and that's what it was.

- We like our kamikazes on ice
and our women on fire.

You understand
what I'm saying?

- A little woman?
- And everywhere we go,

we do it better, longer,
harder than anybody else!

We were the beatles, man.

It was suicidal
putting us together.

Ingesting or drinking,
anything,

roddy could beat anybody
to the draw.

- It just got way out of hand.

This is where ric flair started
the, you know, 99 kamikazes.

You know, here I'm, like--
whoa, you know?

I'm pretty hard core man.
Pretty hard core.

I'm drinking mine,

and I'd be the one always
be getting in trouble.

- It was a time to make money,
but it was go, go, go, go, go.

And you get three days off,

and then you come back on the
road for another couple weeks.

And I remember we were
driving in a snowstorm.

You know, we had beers
and everything in the car.

So we got out,

and we're all taking a leak
on the side of the road.

And all of a sudden,
roddy ran to the car.

And I remember it's like
we ran after him,

'cause we knew
that roddy was in

one of those kind of
states of mind

where he was gonna
take the car.

We pretty much tackled roddy

while he was trying to drive
off in the car.

- He was a...
A tough guy to handle.

He was a heavy partier.

And I would scoop him up,

and I'd make sure he got

to where he was
supposed to be going.

Got him to his rooms.
Got him to the hotel.

Got him to the airports.

- You go out there and wrestle
for 45 minutes,

and you come back,
take a shower.

You're wide frigging awake.

And a lot of times,
I'd look at the coke and...

"oh, I don't want to do this."

but you end up doing it.

- It was, "I need this
to wake up to wrestle."

"I need this to go to bed,

'cause I work in an hour
and this is all I have."

- it was also
about to numb the pain,

the physical pain,
the pain of being alone,

always having
to be in transition.

You know, you're never
sitting still.

- It's a vicious cycle that
would just go round and round.

It's easier to go
have a drink.

It's easier to go take a pill
or go smoke a joint.

- Back in those days,

like, any injury
could cost you your job.

If you can't do it,

they replace you a few minutes
later with somebody else.

You learn to be
your own doctors.

That's kind of the sad thing
is, you're your own doctor.

Roddy was pretty
out of control.

Lord knows what kind
of drugs and alcohol

were being consumed.

[chuckles]

- [laughter]

- having roddy travel so often

and be gone so much
and having a growing family,

it was very difficult.

- When you live like we did,
you know, 3,000 miles a week,

you become desensitized.

- Say merry christmas.

All: Merry christmas.

- One thing that roddy did,

he kept his family completely
out of the business

'cause he didn't want them
to see what he went through.

He wanted them to grow up

and be beautiful
and healthy and happy,

and I think he took
too much of it on himself.

♪ ♪

- sometimes when rod
would come home from the road,

he wouldn't come
straight home.

He would check into a
hotel room and just get rested

because when he got home,
he couldn't rest.

I'd like to know
where mine is.

- [laughs]
to barnacle bill.

♪ ♪

- he almost had to do
a transition mentally

when he came from
the road to home,

because he didn't want
to bring that character home.

He had such a hot temper
as hot rod.

And he had to,

because he had to be
on guard a lot.

It was very separate.

He didn't like to take us
to a lot of events.

We were very concerned
about safety

because of how much aggression
was being put towards rod.

[crowd cheering]

- he had been a villain
in the deep south

and fighting fans
and, you know,

getting assault charges.

I mean, I can think
of a few situations

with roddy with fans
trying to run us off the road

and chasing us in cities
like detroit.

- People would throw
thumbtacks in the ring,

hit with beer bottles.

In asheville, north carolina,

they threw a rattlesnake
in the ring one night.

Guy ran down to the ringside
with a gunnysack

and threw a rattlesnake.

[bell dings]
[crowd booing]

- there was a lot
of crazy fans back then,

and being a bad guy could be
a very dangerous living.

- 'cause I'm going to shove it
down your throat!

- There's certainly times
when I'd seen him

say or do something on tv
where I'm like,

"oh, my gosh,
we're in for it now.

This is gonna get worse
before it gets better."

but I never asked him
to curtail or tone it down

because that would hinder
his creativity.

- People wanted to kill me.

- I remember there was
a gentleman.

I wasn't really paying
much attention,

but roddy went taking off
down this hallway.

And the next thing,
I see them having some words

and the police
got involved in it.

He did have a big knife,
you know, like a bowie knife.

So finally the officer said,
"mr. Piper, we've got him.

He's going to jail."

he said, "well, I just wanted to
have a couple seconds with him."

the officer said, "why?"

and he said,
"because he stabbed me."

and roddy took his thumb
off of his chest,

and the blood started squirting
in the officer's face

at every heartbeat.

- It was going tsst-tsst,
tsst-tsst.

- And I went, "oh!"

- sergeant slaughter
took me to the hospital

and held the...
Held the wound.

- Doctor said,
"if that would've went

one more 1/2 inch or less,
you'd be dead."

- so what was it like?

It was a living hell.

- It wasn't just, "you're a
bad guy on tv," and that's it.

It followed you everywhere.

Dad was stabbed three times
in his life.

Three times they actually
stabbed him,

to the point where
he had a leather jacket

that was kevlar-lined
and it was stab-proof

because he had been stabbed
so many times.

- He was the next generation
to take it to the next level.

- What a tremendous match
to have live.

Millions of fans everywhere

can see greg valentine and
roddy piper go at each other.

- Me and piper started out
a long, long, long journey.

We'd probably wrestled
each other for a year.

[crowd cheering]

we just walloped each other.

♪ ♪

I took piper's head and rammed
it into the turnbuckle.

♪ ♪

every time I'd go out there,

I'd beat on his ear.

♪ ♪

blam!

♪ ♪

so I end up naming it
the year of the ear.

- Watch him go to that ear.

- And I'd laugh, "ha, ha, ha,
the year of the ear."

♪ ♪

and then finally they want
to blow it off, end it.

♪ ♪

- what happened was

bruno sammartino
and larry zbyszko

did $500,000 in shea stadium,

so it became a war of
the north against the south,

so the south said,
"all right,

we're gonna put on
the first pay-per-view ever."

so they come to me
and they said,

"I want you to make up
the meanest,

nastiest, most brutal match
you can possibly think of."

- and piper came up
with this dog collar.

- 40 pounds of chain.
I want you to check it out.

You're gonna see something

you never seen
in your life before.

- Well, it was a great idea.
It was my birthday.

Oh, what is this?
This is beautiful.

They presented me
with this big cake.

I love cake.
Wait a minute, what is this?

I look at it and I see
some steel in there,

and I reached down
and pulled out a dog collar.

What? What are you doing?

What are you trying
to do to me?

He wants to have
a dog collar match.

Piper was the best,
the best performer.

Good at the mic.
Probably number one at the mic.

Some people said he sounded
like daffy duck.

I love daffy duck.
[laughs]

- you're talking about
the biggest thing

that's ever gonna happen
in the history of wrestling.

[bell dings]
- ladies and gentlemen,

our next event of the evening
is a very special match.

This is a collar match.

- It was the very first
pay-per-view

ever for wrestling.

[bell dings]

- two men linked together
like this in mortal combat.

- This is a strategy.

This is what piper
talked to me about.

And then, see, I'm the first
one to get nailed.

- Used exactly as a whip
as we had talked about.

- You could use it
to batter the guy.

Now he's gonna get me
in the teeth right there.

I had to go to the dentist
the next day.

- You can see the concern

of the people
watching this match.

They really don't know
what to expect

when two men are going at it
like this.

- Now I'm going for the ear.

- Look at valentine
pounding on him now.

♪ ♪

- it was a ridiculously
hard match.

It was the toughest match,
probably, I've ever been in,

especially with valentine.

- Used as a whip.

Valentine on his knees.

Hard blow to the top
of the head.

- No, I'm not just selling;
I'm hurt.

But it's all
for you wrestling fans.

Giving you our love
in a strange way.

[laughs]

♪ ♪

this is the end of it,
right there.

He hog-tied me.

- He got the count.

- I think he was the greatest
of all time...

♪ ♪

a really good-hearted guy

but a really tough
son of a bitch.

- Valentine, you say--

you say your strategy
was to take away all my hearing.

You see, what you forgot is,
you got one more ear to go.

♪ ♪

- when you look for, you know,
attributes of a bad guy,

you have to be fearless;

you have to have
the gift of gab;

you can say anything
that you want,

even though you know
it's gonna be controversial;

you have to be able to
communicate with the audience;

and you have to a certain
attitude about you.

And roddy had all those
attributes and more.

♪ ♪

- vince mcmahon has these
plans of expanding nationally.

What's the best way to expand
all over north america?

You get the best wrestlers
from the individual territories

and you bring them all to wwe.

And vince mcmahon
wants it all.

- I got a call from roddy.
He says, "mr. Mcmahon called."

I said,
"yeah, are you coming up?"

he goes, "yeah, he wants me
to come up."

I said, "come on up."

roddy was coming
to new york city.

- Let me tell you
how to be roddy piper.

[laughs]
have a nice [bleep] day.

Go [bleep] yourself.

Gimme the microphone
and get out of the way.

Bowlegged, big, fat,
ugly penguin.

You know what?
You both stink!

It's as simple as this:

When rp talks, brother,
people listen.

- And new york,

new york is big guys,

at least 250-pounders,
6-foot whatever.

That's what I was.

You know, piper, later on,

I guess he gained weight.

But when he first came in,
he was smaller.

- So if roddy's not
the greatest physical specimen

in the world,
then don't let him do that.

Do what roddy does best.
Let him be a talk show host.

In a moment,
ladies and gentlemen,

we're going to take you
to "piper's pit,"

involving, of course,
the rather controversial

and certainly opinionated
roddy piper.

- They put up a backdrop,

and it was basically
a wrestling talk show

to stir the pot.

- You're a lousy wrestler.
It's a simple as that.

- I might be a lousy wrestler,
but I'm still in there,

and I'm not afraid
of nobody--

- it was "the tonight show"

where the host could end up
beating up the guest.

It was just the most
off-the-walls, unpredictable,

amazing idea that ever happened
in television,

in my opinion.
I'm biased, but whatever.

[laughs]

- is he supposed
to scare me?

- You had to be ready.

He was witty, smart.

He was like the fastest gun
in the west.

- Hello, peasants.

- Don't call my father stupid.

- Wait, wait, wait...

How you doing, fatso?

- He could take some guys
and make them look

like heroes and superstars,

or he could kind of like,
if he wanted to,

he could chop you down to size
pretty quick.

- I could slam you myself!
I don't care.

You're saying john studd
did at 520...

[crowd cheering]

- the most famous one,
of course,

is the interview
with jimmy snuka.

- There you go.

- There were a couple
of coconuts,

and one of them, you know, had
been what we call "gimmicked,"

but that's not the one
roddy chose.

- Am I making fun of you?

No, sir, no, sir.

[indistinct shouting]

- nothing was scripted
on "piper's pit."

- there, you sucker!

- It was all off of the top
of dad's head

or something that he'd maybe
written down in a note before.

And that's where
the magic happens.

- Just when they think
they got the answers,

I change the questions.

- He wasn't famous
for his technique

or his type of wrestling
or how big his arms were

or anything like that.

He was just
an incredible talker

and a guy that was taking
wrestling

and telling a different story.

- You do not throw rocks at
a man who's got a machine gun!

[cyndi lauper's
"girls just want to have fun"]

- ladies and gentlemen,

I want to introduce to you

the female entertainer
of the year,

miss cyndi lauper!

[crowd cheers]
[laughs]

- wrestling began
to work with mtv,

which was absolutely
red-hot.

- You look wonderful, cyndi.

- Captain lou albano
and cyndi lauper were friends,

and cyndi lauper
had put lou albano

in her "girls want to have fun"
video.

- I said, "vince, I got
this guy named dave wolff

"that manages cyndi lauper,

"and they just did a video
with albano

but now they wanna get involved
in the wrestling business."

and vince was like, "hmm, hmm."

- dave thought it was going
to be good for cyndi's career.

You know, here she's doing
this crossover

in this very unusual world.

It's like,
"what the hell is this?"

- would you please welcome
cyndi lauper!

[crowd cheering]

- so now there's all this
attention, suddenly, to wwe.

People who were fashionable,

people who were in
the rock and roll world,

they're gonna start
watching wwe.

So they had this ceremony
in madison square garden.

Lou albano was one
of the primary forces

responsible for the
rock 'n' wrestling connection,

and what better way
to honor a man

but to give him
a gold record?

- I'm so grateful
to receive this award.

- Now that's going
to provoke some jealousy,

and who is the most jealous
performer of all?

- There is roddy piper.

- This is beautiful, cyndi.

- Maybe they have some kind
of presentation to make.

- I want to present you
with this.

- Oh! Look out!

Captain lou albano
clobbered!

- Roddy piper shockingly kicks
the biggest pop star in america,

a female pop star,
in the head.

- David wolff trying
to come to the rescue,

but he's no match!

Oh, he pile-drived him
right down into the canvas.

- 20 minutes before
the match, I was asked,

"do you think you can kick
cyndi lauper and not hurt her?"

by her manager.

I'm thinking,
"I hope you never manage me."

you know?

But when they saw that,

uh, saddam hussein
got nothing on me.

- Look out!

The hulkster's
hitting the ring!

- Cyndi wasn't a wrestler,

so she had to have somebody
defend her honor.

- He knew what he was doing.
He was stirring up the crowd

and he knew it
and he loved it.

All heels do.

- What a disgraceful display.

Cyndi, look at her.

Tears running down her face.

Hulkster's hot.
Everybody's hot.

Boy, he wishes he could have
got his hands on roddy piper.

- Every dog has its day,

you know what I'm talking
about?

And that one's
gonna get his.

- She expects me to sit there
and do nothing about her,

so I kick her
12 yards across the field.

- But she's a woman.
She's a woman.

- Just imagine it.

In about a four-month period,

I had the kicked cyndi lauper
in the head.

I don't know how many guys
on piper's pit I had,

whatever I had done,
all in this very short time.

It was getting
really heated up.

I couldn't go anyplace.
I was fighting.

I had a family.

I was fighting
in and out of denny's.

It was crazy.

- Roddy understood
that bringing in the musicians

brings it to a whole
nother level,

so he was onboard for that.

- All right, let me just
step out this way a tad.

- But he found it very hard
being the old-school person,

and he tried best he could
to cooperate.

It was never easy.

- And the last one
is, "mtv stinks"?

- Once we got hooked up
with mtv,

it took us to mainstream.

- Mtv...

[laughs]

music to vomit by.

- Tonight,
ladies and gentlemen,

the war to settle the score,

the hottest ticket in town.

- The rock 'n' wrestling
connection

helped us change the look
of the business

to where we get families
and kids at ringside.

- This is broadcast on mtv.

This is big time.

- Everybody wants
to be a part of it.

Well, there's something
going on here.

I got to see what it is.
I got to check it out.

- Piper was
the ultimate villain,

so you want to have
the ultimate villain

against the ultimate hero.

- It was
the biggest thing ever.

It was hogan and piper
going at it.

- We have got action.

Oh! They're at it!
[bell dings]

it's under way.

Look at this,
back and forth.

Oh, raking the eyes
of roddy piper.

- When I ran into piper,

he's the one that made
everything else possible.

- Oh! Dropped
the big elbow on him.

- I had to have an opponent,

and nobody had the air,
the arrogance, the attitude

to go to toe-to-toe with me
and not back down.

Without piper,
we could have never,

never launched
into the stratosphere.

- Oh!

- Piper has two confederates:

Cowboy bob orton, jr., and
paul "mr. Wonderful" orndorff.

- Orndorff going up
to the top rope!

- Oh, please.
- Look out!

- They interfere in the match.

- Cyndi lauper
up on the apron.

Orndorff going around the side
rope now at cyndi lauper.

- What? Wait a minute.
Hold on!

- Mr. T over the railing!

- Oh, no!

- Here comes mr. T,
ladies and gentlemen...

- Who was going
to save the day?

Well, mr. T, the biggest tv star
in the united states.

Everybody in the country
knows mr. T.

- They're inviting him
inside the ring.

- And so insert mr. T.

It was vince's way
to interject entertainment.

It was nothing but excitement
and electricity

and it sure worked.

- I don't know anything

about his background
as a wrestler...

- I used to be a bodyguard.

I used to be a bouncer
at a disco

and all that stuff.

You know, now, I knew
how to wrestle, you know,

and I wasn't no fluff.

So I stepped into the ring,
and piper snuck up behind me.

- Piper nailed him
from behind.

- I didn't think it would
go down like that.

If I'd knew it'd go down
like that,

I would've have did
something else.

So therefore I was so...

I guess I can say pissed.

- All hell has broken loose.

- Roddy was
the ultimate bad guy.

He sold it. He practiced it.
He was good at what he did.

- We've got a madhouse here.

- Security holding
everyone back.

- And it just went--it just
went berserk, you know?

It was--
[laughs]

I laugh at it now
'cause it's so old,

I think about it,
you know.

It reminded me
of the keystone cops

'cause everybody
was fighting.

- What happened to our match?

- We don't have
a match anymore.

It's pandemonium.

- Well, back then,

we were still really
protecting the business.

"should we tell the cops
what we're doing or not?"

and the standard mode was,

"oh, don't tell anybody
anything."

let's just get
their natural reaction.

- All of a sudden,
some policemen

came in the ring on me.

There's a cop with a gun,
and here the rest of 'em come.

- Piper was fighting the cops
and everything.

It was just insanity.

- Hulk hogan
was the biggest hero.

♪ ♪

roddy piper was the most
detested villain.

And now we are ready
to start our road

to the first wrestlemania.

- Okay, ariel, let's go.
Whoo, whoo, whoo!

Come on, ariel.

- She's tired.

There's the proud papa.

Papa piper.

- My dad often
would say things like,

"I can't imagine
how hard it is

to be roddy piper's kid."

- here comes roddy and ariel.

- He felt guilty, like he was
some way a bad parent

because his career was,
in some way,

affecting our lives.

[laughter and
indistinct chatter]

- when we were starting out
as a young family,

he came to me and said,

"I really do not
want our children

"to grow up in a hundred
different places.

I want them to have roots."

you sure are pretty.

'cause he never felt like
he had a home.

We chose to live
in the country...

- [laughing]

- and have a lot of land
around us.

It was a safe zone.

- We lived on a 10-acre ranch
in the middle of nowhere,

end of a gravel road,

and we really kept
to just that ranch.

- Good-bye.
With any kind of luck,

she'll keep going and we won't
have to feed her.

[laughs]

- we wanted to be isolated

because we had actual stalkers
who would come

and try and break into our house
or be on our property.

- We did not go to the malls.
We did not go to the movies.

I must've gotten 30 fights
in one year,

just because people wanted

to test their moxie
against me.

[dog barks]

♪ ♪

- and this kind of thing
is real life.

♪ ♪

this is the kind of thing
that makes a family.

♪ ♪

it's a great way of nature,

just teaching a family
how to be a family

and stay together.

♪ ♪

- I had a meeting with a small
room full of our executives,

and I said,

"there is a super bowl,
you know.

There's a world series."

there's this, there's that.

It was really common sense.

So why not have
one of your own?

Call it wrestlemania.

We would not have
wrestlemania I

had it not been for roddy
because you have to have,

again, a strong antagonist
to go with the protagonist.

- Check this out, dude.
Check that out.

- You have to have
good stories

and you have to have
bold characters

and larger-than-life
individuals,

and roddy was all of that.

So I knew I had roddy,
I knew I had hogan and mr. T.

It was like,
that was gonna work.

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

- Well, you ain't nothing, man.

- Oh, oh, why?

Oh, because I don't have
a chair with my name on it?

- Roddy piper really did not
like mr. T.

- Don't look at--
- hey, hey, hey.

[overlapping shouting]

- in those days, you know,
you really paid some dues

to be in the main event.

Then mr. T walks in, not even
having a match anywhere,

and it's like, "what right
does he have to be in my ring

in the main event?"

- you want to get in there,
brother,

and you want to try
some fighting, huh?

- We'd never brought in
somebody from the outside,

and one of the biggest
problems I had

was the barbaric mindset
of piper and orndorff.

- You're looking at someone
that will...

- "he's an actor.
He's not into wrestling.

We're just gonna
break his legs."

I said, "guys, please."

- how can I say it
without sounding cocky?

They didn't understand
that bringing me in

would broaden they thing

because, basically,
you know, vince,

being the pioneer
that he is, he said,

"wow, we gonna broaden,
bring it to the world."

- you come on down, t.

We'll put an x
where the t should be.

- Roddy hated the thought
of a mr. T

coming into his arena.

It's an insult. It's a slap
in the face to the business.

- I had these two guys

that had this
old-school mentality,

and plus I got this guy who's
got this real edgy attitude.

You know, he's always talking
in the third person.

"mr. T don't put up with that."

- mr. T ain't no powder puff,

you had to understand,
you know.

- They didn't want to lose
to mr. T

because he's not
a "real wrestler."

[no audible dialogue]

- there I am, the hottest heel
they've ever had,

and now they want me
to take a dive.

I said, "I ain't doing it."

- I was kind of like
the babysitter,

the moderator,
the peacekeeper,

and I was ready to have
a nervous breakdown.

- The wrestling extravaganza
of all time, wrestlemania.

- The people knew

the wrestling business
was changing that night.

There was a fever pitch
in madison square garden.

- Piper's gonna get it.
- Get what?

- Get his butt kicked.

♪ ♪

- what do you do to show
the world what this product is

and what it will be, you know,
in a really big way?

Liberace, how the hell
doe he fit into any of this?

He doesn't.
That's why I had him.

This is what sports
entertainment is all about.

It was everything we had,
we threw it in,

and let's roll the dice
and do it in a big way.

Everything I had
was on the line.

[playing
spirited bagpipe music]

- there he is.

[crowd booing]

- rowdy roddy piper...

- Here is what is arguably
the turning point

of the wwe
in just so many ways.

Roddy was very stubborn,

but you're about
to make more money

than you ever had
in your entire lifetime.

[bell dings]

- there goes the bell.
Look at the bell by liberace.

- Fans are chanting t, t, t.

And they're going
nose-to-nose.

- Lookit, nose-to-nose.

- Mr. T and rowdy roddy piper,
nose-to-nose...

- Roddy was smart enough
to know,

"yeah, I'm gonna do business,

and I'm gonna make it
look right.

You don't have to like it.

- They're exchanging--oh!

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

- At a certain point,
roddy piper instructs mr. T,

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

- oh, nice fireman's carry.

- Even though he didn't want

mr. T
to take advantage of him,

roddy piper knows
how to sell himself,

and he knows that's the photo

that will go
all over the world.

♪ ♪

- what's he gonna
do with him?

Oh, drops him like
yesterday's newspaper.

- You need to make mr. T
the hero.

This is what this is all about.

- Mr. T now
in the wrong corner.

Here comes the hulk.

- Mr. T should have beaten
one of those guys

right in the middle
of the ring,

preferably piper.

- As piper
was about to lower--

look out!

- But instead,
they had to have orton

jump off the top rope
with a cast.

It hits orndorff on the head
just so we could get a win.

Piper didn't want
to do the job,

even in wrestlemania.

You're the bad guy.
You're supposed to get beat.

That's what bad guys do.

♪ ♪

he was so protective
about protecting roddy piper,

and he didn't realize if
you just listen to our opinion,

I think you might find things
a lot easier.

♪ ♪

but piper didn't like me,
you know, at all.

I mean, there was no rapport
at all with him and I.

It was strictly business.

We didn't talk
unless we had to.

But later on in life, piper and
I got to be real good friends.

I said, "you screwed up, man.

"you could've been one of
the richest guys I've ever met,

but you wouldn't let me
beat you."

so he goes, "damn it.
I'm so pissed.

I wish we would've talked."

I said, "I tried to talk.
You wouldn't talk to me."

- hulk hogan, mr. T,

kind of taking the center
stage of that whole event,

he always felt

they couldn't have been
the center stage

without him being there,
being the bad guy.

And he knew his worth.
He knew his worth.

- It's things like that that
made roddy the ultimate rebel.

♪ ♪

- for myself to stay on top,

I needed to get out
of the business completely,

do something
in another form.

♪ ♪

- I spent a lot of time
with roddy

and had a lot
of big talks with roddy

about that time period,

and I remember roddy
basically telling me

that you got to have something
else after wrestling.

"what are you gonna do
after that?"

and he's like, "hollywood."

♪ ♪

- roddy had a quality
that I could use in a movie.

- Well, first of all, he didn't
have a pretty-boy face

like a hollywood actor,

and this role required him
to be kind of a working man.

- You, you're okay.

This one?
Real [bleep] ugly.

- The character of john nada
is really based a lot on roddy

and his past
and what he'd been through,

and he added a lot
of color to that.

He gave me a notebook.

Now, this notebook were
written all these phrases

and ideas he had
for interviews.

♪ ♪

and right there,
sitting there, was,

"I've come here to chew
bubble gum and kick ass,

and I'm all out
of bubble gum."

I went, "that's a great line.
I could use that."

- I have come here to chew
bubble gum and kick ass,

and I'm all out of bubble gum.

- Oh, [bleep]!
[gunshot]

- that's all his idea.
That was all from his brain.

- I've never felt safer
in my life

than fighting
with roddy piper.

[both grunting]

I believe that fight scene

lasts literally about
seven minutes onscreen.

[both grunting and shouting]

- we really, you know,

choreographed the [bleep]
out of it.

But there was one time
we were both so hyped up--

I was especially hyped up--

and that first punch,

I hit him right in the face.

And it was--and I'd be like,
"oh, [bleep]. Oh, [bleep]."

and he's like,
"come on, man. Don't worry.

"come on, snap out of it.
Come on, let's start again."

and he was great.

- Brother, life's a bitch.

Don't feel sorry for me.

My name's john nada.

- [laughs]

a year and a half
we were in los angeles

while he was filming
those movies.

He brought the scripts home,

and we'd go over them.

He was always leaving
to go to acting classes.

I mean, it was--it was
a whole nother lifestyle.

- It was not
like it was today,

where it's a lot more flexible

for wrestlers
to also do acting.

Back then, it was,
you didn't do that.

It was not an easy road to be,

really, the first wrestler
to go into film.

- When vince
was booking everything,

without piper's name,

it was real hard for us
to make that transition

'cause piper was so hot
at the time.

- If roddy wanted to go off
and do film,

what am I going to say?

No, don't take advantage
of that opportunity?

As long as I know
that he's coming back.

- He loved acting
and he loved the work of it

but he felt alienated

and didn't really have
a lot in common

with a lot of the people
in hollywood.

- The only people
that can understand me

are other wrestlers.

♪ ♪

I needed to come back
to the wwe...

♪ ♪

and walk back in
the front door.

♪ ♪

- rowdy roddy piper!

- When I came back into
wrestling from hollywood,

bringing that credibility back
was huge.

- As far as roddy's
standpoint is,

well, you had to bring me back

because I was the greatest
star of all time.

You know, that would be roddy's
point of view.

But it didn't matter
what you want.

You give the audience
what they want.

They want roddy to come back,
well, let's give them roddy.

- Standing ovation here
for rowdy roddy.

- And after a respite,

you know,
roddy's ready to come back.

Great, he's fresh.
He's new all over again.

Different set of opponents.

- Mr. Downey?

- Yes, mr. Piper?

- Don't blow no more smoke
in my face.

- Morton downey, jr.,
was a talk show host.

You know, he was a big mouth.

And roddy had this
impeccable timing.

So when downey blows smoke
in roddy's face,

it's like,
"one, two, three, four."

instead of
immediately doing it,

"watch something's going
to happen now."

and then it does.

- Ya-ha!

[laughs]

- he was so creative.

- I think the fire is out,
jess.

- Very quick on his feet.

♪ ♪

but at the same time,
he was very opinionated

and wanted someone
to listen to his opinion.

I listened to a lot
of roddy's ideas,

some of which were really
dead on

and some of which were,
whew, wow, that was out there.

- They say you shouldn't blow
your own horn.

Don't they say that?
Why not?

- You are the most
arrogant individual

I think we've ever had.

- I believe roddy once
described our relationship

as a love-hate relationship.

We never fought.

There were a couple times
when it was very close,

but that was the way it was
back in those days.

A lot of times, you settled
things in a fistfight.

You just did.

- Vince and I were two peas
in a pod.

I love the ass[bleep].

I do.

He's an ass[bleep] sometimes.

So am I.

[crowd chanting "roddy"]

- roddy piper was
an attraction all to himself.

The fans could no longer
boo him.

♪ ♪

you came to see
roddy piper's intensity,

you came
to hear his big mouth,

and you came to watch
that frenzied,

kinetic spirit
he brought between the ropes.

- Rowdy roddy piper!

- Whether he won
or whether he was humiliated,

he was a draw,
and he remained a draw.

- We have a new
intercontinental champion:

Hot rod rowdy roddy piper.

- Roddy piper was maturing,

and it wasn't
all about roddy

and roddy was proving that,
hey, I can make people too.

♪ ♪

- I wouldn't lay my shoulders
down for anybody.

But when I do,
I make somebody,

and it means something.

- This is
going to be something!

- This was a special match.

This is the biggest moment
in my life,

for sure, up to this point.

Roddy really launched me.

Like, my whole career
just starting climbing,

and it was roddy was the one
that gave me that first boost.

- This is the first time
these two men are meeting

for the world wrestling
entertainment

intercontinental title.

- I think the last time--I think
I did watch this, maybe,

when roddy died.

I always make a point of, like,

trying to go back
and find some good memories.

- I always felt roddy
took a special interest in me.

Roddy was born in saskatoon,

and my dad grew up
in saskatoon.

And there was a possibility
that their name--

like, they were in
the same family.

Maybe there was
some blood between us.

When I first met him,

we joked that we might
be cousins.

Like, it was like, "hey, cuz."

and I didn't mind. I never
minded roddy being a cousin.

- I know this guy since he'd
been knee-high to a grasshopper.

I remember when they were
changing your potty pants.

- I think it was a message
to the other wrestlers,

some of the other superstars

that weren't in the habit
of reaching down

to help the next guys.

Roddy was like, "here,
I'll show you how it's done."

- eye-to-eye, nose-to-nose.

- But I was relieved
to find out

that this guy's really
pitching for me.

He's actually opening
the doors for me.

That match was roddy's match.

- Now rowdy roddy...

Oh, bulldog!

- Roddy put that match
together.

- Wide open!

- Roddy was so tuned in to
what would work with the fans.

- He's got the bell.

Piper's gonna
ring his bell.

- They don't want him
to brain me with the bell.

"no, no, don't do it."

- he's having second thoughts.

- His conscience
gets the better of him,

and he changes his mind here
and decides not to.

- Oh, look at that move

off the turnbuckle!

It's over!
[crowd cheers]

- see that? Being a nice guy,
it cost him.

Idiot.

[laughs]

♪ ♪

over the years,
roddy told me many times

that it was his most
favorite match,

and, you know,
you never forget that.

- There's an old saying
that's,

"you need a license to hunt.
You need a license to fish.

"any jerk can have a kid.

It takes a man to be a dad."

♪ ♪

oh, man.

- When I look at my childhood,
my dad was gone almost every day

for at least
up until I was five.

- The first, at least,
12 years of my life,

he was gone for long periods
of time.

I think at one point, I didn't
see him for over a year.

♪ ♪

- we both made
the same choice,

that the wrestling business

took precedent over anything,
even family,

so that's a tough choice

to look in the mirror
and live with.

- You were gone at least
300 days a year, every year.

Roddy was--like me,
was a real strong family man.

You know, you--
you commiserate together,

and you're missing your kids'
birthday parties

and you miss Halloween

and you miss all these little
special days all the time.

You see pictures,

the heartbreak at home
of being gone all the time.

You know, it's just this
very tough part of your life.

- When roddy would come home
and have to be dad,

he was always fun.

[kids chattering excitedly]

he would spoil them rotten.

He would pull them
out of school,

didn't matter
what was going on.

[girls screaming]

christmas, he was always home,
and always lots of presents.

- Hey, you!
- A lot of cuddle time.

He was trying very hard
to create what he didn't have.

- He would come home,
and he would be so exhausted,

you know,
while trying to see us.

And then he would want
to have fun

or just do something
as a family.

And then immediately, like,
as soon as we were having fun,

you could see him
getting antsy about work.

You could see it start to tick
like a clock,

going faster and faster.

And I think he missed it.

You know, he missed us
when he was gone,

and he missed the action
when he was home.

- He was like a runaway
as a kid growing up

and spent a lot of time on the
road in his own mind-set.

Like, roddy against the world.

He was not like
any other wrestler.

He was in his own world.

I think that world
also meant going away.

- I'm gonna get 30 minutes
with my dad this month.

I just want to hug him,
cuddle with him,

kiss him, and do whatever
I can in that time,

because I literally get him

on his transfer
layover flight.

He wasn't an nfl player
that had a season.

He went 365.

- [plays note]
- there you go.

- They never liked
seeing him go,

everyone,
including myself.

- If you could wish for
anything in the whole world,

what would you wish for?

- For my family to be together
all the time.

You know, it's hard not
to get sad

when he's going out the door,
but...

Sorry.
[clears throat]

[exhales]

♪ ♪

[whispers]
I need a minute.

♪ ♪

- it's hard to live with a man
that has constant injuries.

Of course, they varied
from bruises to broken bones.

He never let on how bad
he was hurting.

I would beg him to sit still
and recover from an injury.

Yes, yes, I would.

But you cannot make rod
do anything he doesn't want to.

♪ ♪

- dad was injured
90% of the time.

♪ ♪

so when I say I had
to lace his boots up

since I was eight years old,

it's because it physically
hurt him.

- He is sorely
outnumbered here.

- I remember the first time
that I really felt, like,

wow, he is mortal.

- Hogan gives a whuppin'
on him.

- And truly hating hogan.

[crowd cheering]

- they can't hold him down!

- The hardest thing
as a kid, for me,

was knowing your dad's
injuries.

- And he had just had
a hip replacement.

- Showing that scar there.
You can see it.

- He had a scar
from the hip replacement.

Hulk hogan took a chair
and hit my dad.

- Oh, no! No!

- He's not supposed
to be wrestling.

We were told he might not
even walk again.

♪ ♪

- I just remember
breaking down in tears

because, for the first time,
it became real.

- Roddy! Roddy! Roddy!

- So at that point,

my parents stopped letting us
watch altogether.

- When we had the inside
and the outside view,

it was really rough.

- I mean, he was just
in constant pain

and yet could work through it.

As he got older,
he had a shoulder injury,

and his arm would just hang,
like, a couple inches lower

than the other arm,
and he was probably like that

for a year or two.

It turned out his, like--

they pulled out something
like five or six shattered bones

that were just, like,
floating around his shoulder.

- It was kind of fascinating

for me to see him
behind the scenes

having a hard time
getting out of bed,

having a hard time walking,

and two hours later,
he's in the ring

and you'd never know
anything was wrong

because he loved it.

He loved putting on a show.

It really was just two
completely different lives.

♪ ♪

- during the time of 2003
when dad talked to hbo,

it was a dark time for dad

in front of the camera
and at home.

- Everybody's dead.

They're all dying early,

and nobody cares about it.

- What the hell is he doing?

And what the hell is he saying?
It's like, really?

- They take them
and they screw them up so much

and they being the rash
of promoters

that I've gone through
in the 33 years.

- And a lot of times
you lash out, you know,

and that's what roddy was
doing was lashing out.

♪ ♪

- a lot of his friends
had started passing away,

and it makes you worry
and it makes you concerned,

and so that's when he started
being vocal about it.

- I know he blamed the company

for just about everything
in the interviews,

but at that time,
he had lost so much.

He wasn't wrestling.
He was hurt.

He was just trying
to stand up for his buddies.

But later on,
towards the end,

dad had talked to me and,
you know, he said,

"it's the business we get into.
We know what it is, you know.

"we don't get in there
thinking we're gonna live

to 70, 80 years old."

- what would you
have me do at 49 when,

like, my pension plan,
I can't take out until I'm 65.

I'm not gonna make 65.
Let's just face facts, guys.

- When someone says really
rotten thing about your company,

you know, you're not gonna
welcome them with open arms.

You know, you're gonna say,
"time for us to say good-bye."

♪ ♪

- he wasn't expecting
the consequences.

He lost a contract.

It was pretty bad
for our family

as far as, like,
our well-being goes.

I think he felt very lost,
very depressed,

a little bit reckless
with his behavior.

Obviously,
with the hbo interview,

that's a good example.

And, you know, I've talked
about him having demons,

and I think that this was
sort of like the height

of his demons coming out
was this period of his life.

♪ ♪

- yeah, nothing's permanent
in this business,

and as piper's been fired,

I've been fired a couple times.

You know, but things change

and, you know,
the president or...

Oj or somebody
will do something

that takes precedent
over something that we did.

So I think vince understands
that he's dealing with

a bunch of high,
intense personalities.

But vince has been
pretty forgiving.

- Whoo! Ladies and gentlemen,
I give you--

I give you the most
gifted entertainer

in the history
of professional wrestling:

My man, the hot rod.

[playing bagpipe music]

- I think it was huge for him,

you know, 'cause his whole
life was wrestling.

Even though wrestling
is an exhibition,

for us,
the hall of fame is real.

[crowd chanting "roddy"]

roddy! Roddy!
Roddy! Roddy!

♪ ♪

- I want to tell you this.

I love you s...

[chuckles]

[laughter]

I love you so much, man.

I love you so much,
but I guarantee you this:

My name is rowdy roddy piper,
and you ain't seen nothing yet.

[solemn music]

♪ ♪

[pen scratching]

- you can find sympathy
in the dictionary

between [bleep] and suicide.

♪ ♪

- roddy was definitely
depressed

off and on during his life.

You know, you're either up
100%

or you're kind of down,

and it was always hard for him
to find the middle spot.

One of the demons was
that time in his life

as a teenager when he was
surviving on the street.

He never let that go.

- I was so young.

I had to fight
for everything I had.

♪ ♪

oh, man.

♪ ♪

- he told me some stuff
about his childhood

and living on the street.

He was in a bad spot
and used and abused

and just a lot of bad stuff
that I had no idea.

♪ ♪

- nobody--you know,
nobody feel sorry for me, man.

- You know, he had phoned me
from the road,

and he'd been in his hotel
room for three days

with the lights off.

He was depressed.
There was things on his mind

that went back
to his childhood.

♪ ♪

his mind went to spots
that weren't good for him.

♪ ♪

- he still had that crumbling
part inside his soul

that he could never mend.

He was so depressed at times,

I'm sure that he did
think of suicide.

He wouldn't follow through
with it

because, as he would
be the first to say,

he's not a coward,
and that's a coward's way out.

But he was so sad at times
inside himself

that I know that he did
think that occasionally,

and that's heartbreaking.

- At 242 pounds,

the hot rod,
rowdy roddy piper.

[playing jaunty piano music]

- hey, buddy!
- How you doing, pal?

Yeah. Nice.
- Good to see you!

- Good to see you too.
Been in jail.

- As he started
to wind down wrestling,

he really started to have fun

going into acting
as well as comedy.

[laughter]

- in a weird way,
I think it was a nice,

therapeutic thing
that he realized

that just because he couldn't
wrestle anymore

didn't mean
that he couldn't perform.

[laughter]

- he enjoyed telling
these stories,

he enjoyed connecting
with his fans,

and that was something that
he was very passionate about.

- May all your dreams
come true. God bless you.

[applause]
- how cool is that?

Rowdy roddy piper!

January of 2009,

his manager reached out
and said,

"would you have any interest

in helping roddy cultivate
a stand-up comedy act?"

and I was like, "absolutely."

because here's the thing:

When you watch pro wrestling
with brothers,

that wasn't even a tv show.

That was an instruction guide
on how to hurt each other.

That's all it was.

I grew up the middle of three
boys in suburban philadelphia

in really the golden age of
modern professional wrestling.

♪ ♪

I remember being a kid
when he showed up.

He was the worst.

[laughs]
like, I remember being

a chubby 11-year-old kid
buying a t-shirt that said,

"I hate rowdy roddy piper."

like, he could get you
to yell at a television set.

♪ ♪

and meeting roddy
was like meeting somebody

out of a comic book.

That began a really cool
relationship

where I would just
listen to stories

and try to help him craft that
into some sort of cohesive act.

- As a comedian, I have a
unbelievable amount of respect

for somebody that can connect
with audiences

on such a deep level.

That was his mutant ability.

- Like that power walking...

[laughter]

- I got to go through
roddy's life with him

on a comedic journey,

but hearing his life experience
was just so amazing.

- Roddy's darkness
is one of the things

that drew him
to stand-up comedy.

[playing harmonica]

you can turn pain into joy,

and making people laugh
meant a lot to him.

♪ ♪

- he is the wwe
hall of famer

and one of the all-time greats,
rowdy roddy piper.

- When he would
get off the road,

he would be tired or hurt,
and he'd recover.

But there was never a time
that he did an interview

or he got on camera
and he couldn't turn it on.

- What was the question?
[laughs]

- this time was different.

He had this interview.

And he gets on and he's, like,

can't put his thoughts
together.

- Nah, but--but what I don't
think is an honor...

Uh...
Let me--let me try to do this.

- It's one of those things
that, as a family member,

when you know someone close
and you're like,

"they're being odd."

- I went into a--
excuse me.

I went into a mexican...
Uh, restaurant

with my youngest daughter,
who's, uh...

- It was heartbreaking

because that was not
the man I knew.

There was obvious problem
he was having.

- I just think that...

- It was like the moment the
world knew something was wrong.

♪ ♪

and a few days later,
roddy was home.

He was very tired that night.

We were gonna go see
his doctor the next day.

We decided to do that.

And we went to bed

and he passed away
in his sleep.

♪ ♪

- his heart failed.

As far as the specifics
as to what was causing it,

it probably was a combination
of his entire life.

♪ ♪

- I am so grateful
that he was home because,

even at that age,

so many days of the year,
he was gone away from home,

and he could have been alone.

Sorry.
[clears throat]

and I'm just very grateful
that he was home with me

when he passed.

♪ ♪

- you know, the news came
that he passed away, you know.

I felt like I got shot in the
chest with a cannon, you know.

And it kind of like knocked me
off track for a couple days,

and now all of a sudden,
I get this voice message.

It was really weird
because either

my phone was messed up,

sometimes you'll get
a text message at that night

when it was sent to you
in the morning.

- That really spooked me out.

Like, hmm, alien thing, you
know, like "close encounters."

it was just crazy to get
a voice message from somebody

after they passed away,
and especially for him to say,

"I'm loving you and walking
with jesus, my brother.

Just loving you
and walking with jesus."

I was like, "wow."

totally screwed me up.

[wistful music]

♪ ♪

- all right, guys.

[overlapping chatter]

- it is.

- Hey, nice to see you again.
How are you?

- So good to see you.
Oh, my god.

When I first started doing mma,

I was trying to think
of a fight name,

and, of course, the first thing
that everybody thought of

was like, "what do you think
as a fight name?"

"well, rowdy.
Rowdy ronda rousey."

like, I know, but it's like
rowdy roddy piper.

And he has that.
I don't want to steal it

until I happened to see
the original rowdy one

and got his blessing

and, yeah, he was very
sweet about it.

He was like, "yeah, sure, kid.
No problem.

Better do the name proud."
or something like that.

I don't know.
[laughs]

- and then kitty, my mom.
- Hi.

♪ ♪

no one can do it better.

- [laughs]
thank you so much.

Thank you so, so much.

- He was a loner and a wolf,

and he was often
misunderstood.

- I was so wild,

scary wild.

- But he was always 100%
in your face.

- You do not throw rocks at
a man who's got a machine gun!

- This is what you get.
I am who I am.

- What you got here
is all man.

- He didn't change
for anybody.

- We are the most popular
wrestlers in the entire world.

- I haven't found anyone
that has what roddy had.

Loved life.

Lived it to its max.

- Ya-ha!

- He came in spitting fire
and crapping thunder.

- I'm not afraid
of nobody--

♪ ♪

- I am the legend killer.

- He started with so little
and ended with so much

and had every hardship
thrown at him along the way.

That's my dad's legacy.

I hope it is one
that gives people strength.

- I still hear new stories
about him all the time,

and I realize how lucky I am
to have a father

that has impacted
so many people in the world.

♪ ♪

- best part of my job:

When you come with your daddy
and your mommy,

and you're all excited and...

We can put a smile
on a little boy's face.

That's the greatest reward

a guy can ever have
in his life.

Thank you.

I love you too.

♪ ♪

- I have come here

to chew bubble gum.

- I have come here to chew
bubble gum and kick butt.

- And I'm all
out of bubble gum.

- And I'm all out
of bubble gum.

- Just when they think
they have the answers...

- Just when they think they
have the answers...

- I change the questions.

- I change
the questions.

- You do not throw rocks...

- You do not throw rocks

at a man with a machine gun,
brother.