Between The Ropes recently interviewed Roddy Piper. Below are some highlights:
On how he got involved with the Klondike Celebrity Challenge: “I don’t know. It was pretty cool. If you go to the Klondike Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Klondike) you see what these people would make Roddy Piper do for a Klondike bar. The Klondike people were pretty smart because was they did was you go to the Facebook page and people come up with different ideas like hit someone with coconuts, chew bubble gum, fight Hogan again. But whoever comes up with the idea that gets picked, they have to do the idea also. So this guy named Eric — who is a nice guy but said he wanted to wrestle ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper — (laughs) I don’t think he heard the rest of the rules. I just came right through the door. I didn’t even open it! OK bud here we go! He did OK but I think they next day he had a tremendous amount of respect for pro wrestling as he limped in.”
Piper on getting heat as a heel in his heyday vs. now: “Oh, they’re not even the same animal. I’ve been stabbed three times, the last one an inch from the heart in Raleigh, North Carolina. You know, we were pretty serious about what we were doing back then. It was more like gun fighters I guess. In 1982, 3, 4 the WWWF which was run by Vince McMahon, Sr., he called us all rebels who would work anywhere. And when you came into that locker room there was Hogan, (David) Schultz, (Don) Moraco, Andre (the Giant), Tony Atlas, Bruno Sammartino. It’s a pretty heavy-hitting crowd. Back then, they stabbed you. Now they don’t. I think that’s the difference.”
Piper on having been in wrestling for over 40 years: “It’s done this. I’ve given me four of the most beautiful children in the world. Today is my wife’s birthday and on October 12 we’ll married 31 years. It gave me a family I never had. When I got to pro wrestling, I considered them my family. And because of that family I got my own family. And that’s the greatest gift of all.”
