WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.839 Welcome to the Deep Dive. We are so glad you 00:00:02.839 --> 00:00:04.719 decided to join us today because we are looking 00:00:04.719 --> 00:00:07.599 at a life that is almost too wild to believe. 00:00:07.719 --> 00:00:09.820 Oh, it really is. Today, we're exploring the 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:13.039 incredible life, the enduring legacy, and just 00:00:13.039 --> 00:00:16.780 the truly multifaceted career of Roderick George 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:19.940 Toomes. But, you know, you probably know him 00:00:19.940 --> 00:00:21.920 by the name he made famous across the globe. 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:25.480 Rowdy Roddy Piper. Exactly. Rowdy Roddy Piper. 00:00:25.859 --> 00:00:28.000 And to really understand this cultural phenomenon, 00:00:28.420 --> 00:00:30.940 our source material today is a comprehensive 00:00:30.940 --> 00:00:34.079 biographical dossier. It details everything from 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:37.340 his incredibly difficult journey as a runaway 00:00:37.340 --> 00:00:41.439 teenager to his eventual status as a global pop 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:43.700 culture icon. Yeah, we're going to look closely 00:00:43.700 --> 00:00:45.920 at the forces that shaped him both inside and 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:48.020 outside the ring. Our mission today is to unpack 00:00:48.020 --> 00:00:50.579 exactly how a kid from Canada came to be considered 00:00:50.579 --> 00:00:53.000 by many as the greatest heel, the greatest villain 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:54.799 in professional wrestling history. Right and 00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:57.060 we're gonna look at how he completely revolutionized 00:00:57.060 --> 00:00:59.259 the art of the interview and how he left this 00:00:59.259 --> 00:01:02.100 permanent unmistakable footprint on Hollywood 00:01:02.100 --> 00:01:05.420 and pop culture. It's a story packed with sheer 00:01:05.420 --> 00:01:09.099 entertainment value but also real grit and a 00:01:09.099 --> 00:01:11.700 lot of sacrifice. It is. And beyond just the 00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:14.200 entertaining anecdotes, I really want to explore 00:01:14.200 --> 00:01:17.099 why his specific brand of villainy and his unique 00:01:17.099 --> 00:01:20.599 charisma resonated so deeply with audiences for 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:23.379 decades. Because there is a psychology to what 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:26.219 he did. A way he understood crowd dynamics that 00:01:26.219 --> 00:01:29.620 was... Well, it was genuinely masterful. Okay, 00:01:29.620 --> 00:01:31.620 let's unpack this. Yeah. Starting from the very 00:01:31.620 --> 00:01:33.319 beginning, because I was looking at the dossier, 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:35.760 and right off the bat, I was completely thrown. 00:01:35.879 --> 00:01:37.299 Yeah, I know exactly what you're gonna say. The 00:01:37.299 --> 00:01:40.379 guy whose whole identity is bagpipes and kilts, 00:01:40.459 --> 00:01:42.859 who was famously billed from Glasgow, Scotland... 00:01:42.859 --> 00:01:44.760 Isn't actually from Scotland? Not even a little 00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:47.260 bit. Not even close. He was born in Saskatoon, 00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:50.140 Saskatchewan, Canada. Wow. Yeah, he was the son 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:52.640 of a Scottish -Canadian mother and an Anglo -Canadian 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:55.560 father, and his father was an officer in the 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:58.810 Royal Canadian Mounted Police... The RCMP. So 00:01:58.810 --> 00:02:01.569 a strict law enforcement household. Extremely 00:02:01.569 --> 00:02:04.269 strict. And Toomes was naturally rebellious. 00:02:04.390 --> 00:02:06.769 So the friction there was inevitable. His upbringing 00:02:06.769 --> 00:02:09.270 was far from easy. And the rebellion started 00:02:09.270 --> 00:02:12.270 early. He's a tough kid. He was. He was actually 00:02:12.270 --> 00:02:13.969 expelled from junior high school for carrying 00:02:13.969 --> 00:02:17.469 a switchblade. Geez. Yeah. That event, along 00:02:17.469 --> 00:02:19.949 with the overall tension in the house, led to 00:02:19.949 --> 00:02:22.610 a severe falling out with his father. He ended 00:02:22.610 --> 00:02:25.229 up leaving home at a very young age. And Saskatchewan 00:02:25.229 --> 00:02:27.530 is not a forgiving place to be homeless as a 00:02:27.530 --> 00:02:30.069 teenager. I mean, the winters there are brutal. 00:02:30.430 --> 00:02:33.469 Oh, freezing. So bouncing between youth hostels, 00:02:33.990 --> 00:02:36.780 he had to build this incredible toughness. just 00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:40.759 to survive. Absolutely. Survival became his primary 00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:43.919 education. He started doing odd jobs at local 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:47.699 gyms just to scrape by. You know, running errands 00:02:47.699 --> 00:02:49.439 for professional wrestlers who would come through 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:51.639 the territory. Just trying to make a buck? Right. 00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:53.919 But he wasn't just watching them. He was actively 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:56.659 training his own body. He became an amateur boxer. 00:02:56.759 --> 00:02:58.960 He even competed in the Golden Gloves. Which 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.280 is one of the most prestigious amateur boxing 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:03.580 tournaments you can enter. It really is. So he 00:03:03.580 --> 00:03:05.599 was a legitimate tough guy before he ever even 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:08.000 put - on a pair of wrestling boots. The dossier 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:10.400 mentions he was even awarded a black belt in 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:14.379 judo from Gene LaBelle. Gene LaBelle is an absolute 00:03:14.379 --> 00:03:17.699 icon in the martial arts world. He's widely considered 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:20.139 one of the toughest men who ever lived, so earning 00:03:20.139 --> 00:03:22.560 a black belt from him is no small feat. That's 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:25.509 real credibility. It proves that behind all the 00:03:25.509 --> 00:03:27.810 theatricality and the eventual showmanship of 00:03:27.810 --> 00:03:31.389 his career, Toomes had legitimate real -world 00:03:31.389 --> 00:03:34.330 combat skills. When he finally started wrestling 00:03:34.330 --> 00:03:37.750 under promoter Al Tomko, he was ready. He definitely 00:03:37.750 --> 00:03:41.009 was. In fact, his very first match was up in 00:03:41.009 --> 00:03:43.490 Churchill, Manitoba, wrestling in front of a 00:03:43.490 --> 00:03:46.090 notoriously rough audience of lumberjacks. That 00:03:46.090 --> 00:03:47.750 sounds like a scene straight out of a movie. 00:03:47.770 --> 00:03:51.169 Yeah. But how do we get from a tough Canadian 00:03:51.169 --> 00:03:54.169 kid fighting lumberjacks to Roddy Piper. The 00:03:54.169 --> 00:03:57.189 story of how he got that name is completely accidental, 00:03:57.330 --> 00:03:58.889 isn't it? It really is. It happened when he was 00:03:58.889 --> 00:04:00.849 working for the American Wrestling Association, 00:04:01.009 --> 00:04:04.449 the AWA, around 1969 or maybe the early 70s. 00:04:04.509 --> 00:04:06.669 He was getting ready for a match against Larry 00:04:06.669 --> 00:04:09.030 Hennig, and he had some friends from a local 00:04:09.030 --> 00:04:11.250 pipe band who offered to play the bagpipes for 00:04:11.250 --> 00:04:13.870 his entrance. As you do. Right. So he's walking 00:04:13.870 --> 00:04:16.250 to the ring to the sound of bagpipes. And for 00:04:16.250 --> 00:04:19.509 some inexplicable reason, he is handing out dandelions 00:04:19.509 --> 00:04:22.639 to the crowd. handing out dandelions. Just such 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:25.660 a bizarre, surreal image for a tough guy fighter. 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:27.620 Completely strained. And the ring announcer's 00:04:27.620 --> 00:04:29.959 just standing there utterly confused. Exactly. 00:04:30.100 --> 00:04:32.279 The ring announcer had absolutely no idea what 00:04:32.279 --> 00:04:34.540 this kid's last name was. All he knew was his 00:04:34.540 --> 00:04:38.060 first name was Roddy. So seeing the pipe banned, 00:04:38.220 --> 00:04:40.220 the announcer just improvises on the spot and 00:04:40.220 --> 00:04:42.420 says over the microphone, ladies and gentlemen, 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:45.120 here comes Roddy the Piper. And just like that, 00:04:45.439 --> 00:04:48.680 history is made. A throwaway line from an announcer 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:51.819 completely rewrites his life. What's fascinating 00:04:51.819 --> 00:04:54.500 here is how organic and accidental wrestling 00:04:54.500 --> 00:04:57.339 personas used to be. Today, characters are heavily 00:04:57.339 --> 00:05:00.540 workshopped, you know, focus -grouped, and copyrighted 00:05:00.540 --> 00:05:03.120 by massive corporate creative teams. Oh, very 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:05.100 corporate now. But back in the territory days, 00:05:05.220 --> 00:05:07.740 a mistake by an announcer could define your entire 00:05:07.740 --> 00:05:10.879 career. And what's incredible is how Toombs fully 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:13.420 embraced it. He took this random, accidental 00:05:13.420 --> 00:05:15.379 Scottish identity, complete with the kilt in 00:05:15.379 --> 00:05:17.620 the bagpipes, and he committed to it with everything 00:05:17.620 --> 00:05:22.680 he had. By the late seventies, he had moved to 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:25.480 the National Wrestling Alliance, the NWA, working 00:05:25.480 --> 00:05:28.000 the California territories. And this is where 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.579 the dossier shows him really mastering the art 00:05:30.579 --> 00:05:33.899 of generating absolute nuclear heat. The bad 00:05:33.899 --> 00:05:36.699 guy heat. Right. He didn't just want the standard 00:05:36.699 --> 00:05:40.500 booze that a bad guy gets. He wanted pure visceral 00:05:40.500 --> 00:05:43.339 anger from the crowd. He was a master agitator 00:05:43.339 --> 00:05:46.660 and he understood cultural trigger points perfectly. 00:05:47.060 --> 00:05:48.720 When he was working in the Los Angeles area, 00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:51.879 he built up intense animal by continuously insulting 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:54.399 the local Mexican community. Just brutal stuff 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:56.500 on the microphone. Yes. He wound the audience 00:05:56.500 --> 00:05:58.779 up tighter and tighter over weeks of television. 00:05:59.500 --> 00:06:02.160 Then he set up this masterful piece of theater. 00:06:02.660 --> 00:06:04.459 He promised the crowd that he was going to make 00:06:04.459 --> 00:06:07.060 up for all his past insults by formally playing 00:06:07.060 --> 00:06:09.600 the Mexican national anthem on his bagpipes in 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:11.560 the middle of the ring. You can imagine the tension 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:13.379 in the arena. I mean, the crowd gives him a moment 00:06:13.379 --> 00:06:15.399 of silence. He raises the bagpipe. And he plays 00:06:15.399 --> 00:06:18.240 La Cucaracha. Wow. It caused a literal riot. 00:06:18.350 --> 00:06:21.750 in the arena. A real riot. Fans tried to storm 00:06:21.750 --> 00:06:24.310 the ring. That is the level of emotional manipulation 00:06:24.310 --> 00:06:26.730 he was capable of. He wasn't just breaking the 00:06:26.730 --> 00:06:29.290 rules of a wrestling match. He was poking at 00:06:29.290 --> 00:06:32.149 cultural pride and social nerves. He was making 00:06:32.149 --> 00:06:34.389 it deeply personal for the people in the seats. 00:06:34.709 --> 00:06:37.290 It was dangerous work. And playing the villain 00:06:37.290 --> 00:06:40.069 at that level comes with a massive physical toll. 00:06:40.670 --> 00:06:42.709 People genuinely wanted to see him get beaten 00:06:42.709 --> 00:06:45.629 to a pulp. And the matches reflected that brutality. 00:06:45.790 --> 00:06:48.019 They definitely did. I was reading about the 00:06:48.019 --> 00:06:52.220 1983 Starrcade event, the dog collar match against 00:06:52.220 --> 00:06:55.579 Greg Valentine. What exactly does a dog collar 00:06:55.579 --> 00:06:58.819 match entail? It is exactly as barbaric as it 00:06:58.819 --> 00:07:01.819 sounds. The two wrestlers are literally chained 00:07:01.819 --> 00:07:04.459 together at the neck by heavy leather dog collars 00:07:04.459 --> 00:07:06.620 and a thick steel chain. So there's no running 00:07:06.620 --> 00:07:09.110 away. There is no escaping your opponent. It's 00:07:09.110 --> 00:07:12.029 designed to be a bloody, grueling brawl. During 00:07:12.029 --> 00:07:14.790 this specific match, Valentine struck Piper in 00:07:14.790 --> 00:07:17.250 the side of the head with the chain so hard that 00:07:17.250 --> 00:07:19.750 it ruptured Piper's left eardrum. And that wasn't 00:07:19.750 --> 00:07:22.029 just a temporary injury for the sake of the storyline? 00:07:22.430 --> 00:07:26.509 No, the damage was permanent. He lost 50 to 75 00:07:26.509 --> 00:07:28.730 percent of his hearing in that ear for the rest 00:07:28.730 --> 00:07:31.170 of his life. He actually referred to that period 00:07:31.170 --> 00:07:34.209 of his career as the Year of the Ear. I want 00:07:34.209 --> 00:07:37.040 you to think about that for a second. The sheer 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:39.699 commitment it takes to sacrifice your own physical 00:07:39.699 --> 00:07:42.600 well -being, your own hearing, just to entertain 00:07:42.600 --> 00:07:45.939 a crowd, just to push a story forward. It speaks 00:07:45.939 --> 00:07:48.120 to the blurring of the lines between the performance 00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:50.560 and the performer. The pain was real, the hearing 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:53.439 loss was real, even if the narrative was predetermined. 00:07:53.699 --> 00:07:57.279 And it was that level of raw, undeniable authenticity 00:07:57.279 --> 00:07:59.959 that made him so compelling to watch. You couldn't 00:07:59.959 --> 00:08:02.180 look away because you felt the real danger he 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:04.149 was putting himself in. Here's where it gets 00:08:04.149 --> 00:08:07.769 really interesting. Because in 1984, he makes 00:08:07.769 --> 00:08:10.029 the jump to the World Wrestling Federation under 00:08:10.029 --> 00:08:12.589 Vince McMahon. The big stage. The biggest. He 00:08:12.589 --> 00:08:14.509 brings all of that heat, all of that mic skill 00:08:14.509 --> 00:08:17.670 to a massive national platform. He didn't just 00:08:17.670 --> 00:08:20.790 wrestle. He completely revolutionized wrestling 00:08:20.790 --> 00:08:23.129 television with a segment called Piper's Pit. 00:08:23.310 --> 00:08:26.170 To appreciate the impact of Piper's Pit, you 00:08:26.170 --> 00:08:28.089 have to understand what wrestling television 00:08:28.089 --> 00:08:30.870 looked like before it. The standard format was 00:08:30.870 --> 00:08:33.129 essentially a wrestler standing in front of a 00:08:33.129 --> 00:08:35.990 blue screen or a generic locker room door with 00:08:35.990 --> 00:08:38.470 a broadcaster holding a microphone. Very basic. 00:08:38.750 --> 00:08:41.830 Very basic. And typically, only the champions 00:08:41.830 --> 00:08:45.259 got the television time to speak. Piper completely 00:08:45.259 --> 00:08:47.200 shattered that paradigm. He demanded his own 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:49.639 set, right? He did. He got his own distinct set, 00:08:49.960 --> 00:08:52.340 and he made the interview segment itself a main 00:08:52.340 --> 00:08:56.019 event attraction. But the real genius of Piper's 00:08:56.019 --> 00:08:58.100 pit wasn't just the production value, it was 00:08:58.100 --> 00:09:00.600 the psychology. How so? Piper took the safest 00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:03.320 space in wrestling, the interview podium, and 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:06.259 turned it into an unpredictable hostage situation. 00:09:06.539 --> 00:09:08.940 He was the host and the instigator, and the other 00:09:08.940 --> 00:09:11.740 wrestlers weren't his guests. They were his victims. 00:09:12.340 --> 00:09:14.960 He violated the audience's sense of television 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:16.840 safety. And the things that happened on that 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:19.779 set were pure shock value. The most legendary 00:09:19.779 --> 00:09:21.919 moment, the one that is burned into the brains 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:24.460 of anyone who watched television in the 1980s, 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:27.259 involved Jimmy Superfly Snuka. Oh, the coconut. 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:31.179 Yeah. Piper was insulting Snuka's Polynesian 00:09:31.179 --> 00:09:33.779 heritage, bringing out pineapples and coconuts 00:09:33.779 --> 00:09:36.740 to mock him. And then, mid -sentence, Piper just 00:09:36.740 --> 00:09:39.179 grabs a real coconut and completely shatters 00:09:39.179 --> 00:09:42.009 it over Snuka's head. It was incredibly violent 00:09:42.009 --> 00:09:44.250 and completely shocking for television at the 00:09:44.250 --> 00:09:46.230 time. He was always looking for the absolute 00:09:46.230 --> 00:09:48.490 edge of what was acceptable and then taking a 00:09:48.490 --> 00:09:50.610 step past it. He really pushed the envelope. 00:09:50.629 --> 00:09:53.230 He did. And it is important to note objectively 00:09:53.230 --> 00:09:56.370 that a lot of his 80s heel work heavily utilized 00:09:56.370 --> 00:09:59.450 racially charged controversy to generate that 00:09:59.450 --> 00:10:01.990 anger from the crowd. Yeah, the dossier outlines 00:10:01.990 --> 00:10:04.690 that pretty clearly. We see another glaring example 00:10:04.690 --> 00:10:07.429 of this later at WrestleMania six, where he pushed 00:10:07.429 --> 00:10:09.769 the controversial boundaries of the era by wrestling. 00:10:09.610 --> 00:10:12.409 bad news brown with half of his face and body 00:10:12.409 --> 00:10:15.710 painted black. It was all part of the extreme 00:10:15.710 --> 00:10:18.169 button pushing lengths he would go to as a villain 00:10:18.169 --> 00:10:21.009 to generate pure shock. We're reporting this 00:10:21.009 --> 00:10:23.370 impartially of course, but it was undeniably 00:10:23.370 --> 00:10:26.429 a core part of his strategy to be hated. He wanted 00:10:26.429 --> 00:10:29.570 to be the most hated man on the planet and it 00:10:29.570 --> 00:10:32.250 made him the perfect essential foil for the ultimate 00:10:32.250 --> 00:10:35.929 good guy of the era, Hulk Hogan. Piper's ability 00:10:35.929 --> 00:10:38.490 to be so profoundly hated is what allowed the 00:10:38.490 --> 00:10:41.450 WWF to achieve mainstream crossover success in 00:10:41.450 --> 00:10:44.309 the 1980s. Absolutely. The rock and wrestling 00:10:44.309 --> 00:10:46.230 connection doesn't work without a villain you 00:10:46.230 --> 00:10:48.889 desperately want to see lose. Piper was the crucial 00:10:48.889 --> 00:10:51.590 antagonist for the MTV special The War to settle 00:10:51.590 --> 00:10:53.789 the score. And of course, he anchored the main 00:10:53.789 --> 00:10:56.970 event of the very first WrestleMania in 1985. 00:10:57.409 --> 00:10:59.990 WrestleMania. I was just a massive pop culture 00:10:59.990 --> 00:11:02.570 collision. You had Cyndi Lauper, Captain Lou 00:11:02.570 --> 00:11:05.830 Albano, Hulk Hogan and Mr. from the A -Team all 00:11:05.830 --> 00:11:07.610 mixing it up in a professional wrestling ring. 00:11:07.610 --> 00:11:11.730 It was spectacle. Huge. And Piper and Paul Orndorff 00:11:11.730 --> 00:11:15.029 wrestled Hogan and Mr. T. But the tension between 00:11:15.029 --> 00:11:17.009 Piper and Mr. T wasn't just part of the show, 00:11:17.129 --> 00:11:19.769 was it? No. That animosity was highly legitimate. 00:11:19.950 --> 00:11:23.289 Piper actively resented Mr. T. Oh, yes. Piper 00:11:23.289 --> 00:11:25.529 was a seasoned professional who had paid his 00:11:25.529 --> 00:11:27.990 dues in the territories, sleeping in cars and 00:11:27.990 --> 00:11:30.370 fighting for his life. And he felt an actor was 00:11:30.370 --> 00:11:33.389 coming in and disrespecting the business. More 00:11:33.389 --> 00:11:35.830 than that, Piper was frustrated because he felt 00:11:35.830 --> 00:11:38.649 he was being forced to cover up Mr. T's complete 00:11:38.649 --> 00:11:41.149 lack of actual wrestling ability in the ring 00:11:41.149 --> 00:11:44.090 just to protect the celebrity's image. And that 00:11:44.090 --> 00:11:46.370 real life tension just kept escalating until 00:11:46.370 --> 00:11:48.289 he finally had a boxing match at WrestleMania 00:11:48.289 --> 00:11:51.539 2. Right. And the boxing match devolved because 00:11:51.539 --> 00:11:54.919 Piper's real frustration boiled over. He essentially 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:57.519 stopped working the match, bodily slammed Mr. 00:11:57.639 --> 00:12:00.419 T to the mat, and intentionally got himself disqualified. 00:12:00.539 --> 00:12:02.980 He just refused to play along anymore. But the 00:12:02.980 --> 00:12:05.220 irony is that while he was rejecting a Hollywood 00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:07.860 actor in his ring, Piper himself was about to 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:10.250 make a massive leap into the acting world. Let's 00:12:10.250 --> 00:12:12.289 transition to his prolific Hollywood career because 00:12:12.289 --> 00:12:14.909 he wasn't just doing goofy cameos. He landed 00:12:14.909 --> 00:12:18.350 the lead role in John Carpenter's 1988 sci -fi 00:12:18.350 --> 00:12:21.200 cult classic, They Live. It's a brilliant piece 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:24.019 of subversive filmmaking. They Live is a sharp 00:12:24.019 --> 00:12:27.600 critique of 1980s Reagan -era consumerism and 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:30.340 yuppie culture. Piper played a character named 00:12:30.340 --> 00:12:33.080 John Nata, a homeless drifter looking for construction 00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:35.840 work in Los Angeles who discovers a pair of special 00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:38.259 sunglasses. The sunglasses that reveal the truth. 00:12:38.419 --> 00:12:40.639 Exactly. When he puts them on, he sees that the 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:42.860 world is secretly controlled by skull -faced 00:12:42.860 --> 00:12:45.500 aliens who are suppressing humanity with subliminal 00:12:45.500 --> 00:12:48.730 messages hidden in billboards and money. It's 00:12:48.730 --> 00:12:50.990 such a great concept. And Piper was the perfect, 00:12:51.129 --> 00:12:54.409 rugged, everyman protagonist for it. He brings 00:12:54.409 --> 00:12:57.289 this exhausted, working -class grit to the role, 00:12:57.629 --> 00:12:59.950 and he gave us one of the most iconic, quoted 00:12:59.950 --> 00:13:02.509 lines in cinematic history. Oh, the bank scene. 00:13:02.690 --> 00:13:05.049 Yes. He walks into a bank, armed with a shotgun, 00:13:05.509 --> 00:13:08.169 completely deadpan, and delivers a line he completely 00:13:08.169 --> 00:13:10.750 improvised on set. I have come here to chew bubble 00:13:10.750 --> 00:13:12.889 gum and kick ass, but I'm all out of bubble gum. 00:13:13.129 --> 00:13:16.419 It is cinematic perfection. But beyond the catchphrase, 00:13:16.580 --> 00:13:19.259 the film is famous for an incredibly drawn out 00:13:19.259 --> 00:13:22.620 brutal alley fight scene between Piper and Keith 00:13:22.620 --> 00:13:25.820 David. The entire premise of the fight is just 00:13:25.820 --> 00:13:28.360 Piper desperately trying to force Keith David 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:30.679 to put the sunglasses on so we can see the aliens. 00:13:30.860 --> 00:13:33.809 It goes on for almost six minutes. Yes, and that 00:13:33.809 --> 00:13:36.570 single scene took three weeks to rehearse. What 00:13:36.570 --> 00:13:38.669 makes it a masterpiece is that it isn't slick 00:13:38.669 --> 00:13:40.649 or heavily choreographed like a martial arts 00:13:40.649 --> 00:13:43.649 film. It looks like two exhausted, desperate 00:13:43.649 --> 00:13:45.970 men beating the absolute daylights out of each 00:13:45.970 --> 00:13:48.629 other in a dirty alleyway. And that specific 00:13:48.629 --> 00:13:51.690 fight scene became a massive piece of pop culture 00:13:51.690 --> 00:13:54.570 all on its own. It has been parodied shot for 00:13:54.570 --> 00:13:57.029 shot in the animated series South Park at Adventure 00:13:57.029 --> 00:13:59.490 Time. He was even recreated in the video game 00:13:59.490 --> 00:14:01.730 Saints Row the Fifth. And the amazing part is 00:14:01.730 --> 00:14:03.950 that Piper actually voiced himself in that game, 00:14:04.129 --> 00:14:06.889 recreating his own fight. He had this whole second 00:14:06.889 --> 00:14:10.149 life in media. He really did. Decades later, 00:14:10.149 --> 00:14:13.570 he took on a recurring role as Da Maniac on the 00:14:13.570 --> 00:14:16.809 hit comedy series. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. 00:14:17.529 --> 00:14:20.429 He played this deranged, washed up, independent 00:14:20.429 --> 00:14:23.509 wrestler who lives in his car. hoards chestnuts 00:14:23.509 --> 00:14:27.409 and sells questionable essential oils. It was 00:14:27.409 --> 00:14:29.809 a brilliant piece of self -parody that showed 00:14:29.809 --> 00:14:32.970 off his incredible comedic timing and his willingness 00:14:32.970 --> 00:14:35.309 to highlight the sometimes tragic absurdities 00:14:35.309 --> 00:14:38.299 of his own industry. If we connect this to the 00:14:38.299 --> 00:14:41.220 bigger picture, Piper was a true pioneer. In 00:14:41.220 --> 00:14:43.879 what way? He was one of the very first wrestlers 00:14:43.879 --> 00:14:46.259 to successfully bridge the gap between the squared 00:14:46.259 --> 00:14:48.659 circle and mainstream Hollywood credibility. 00:14:49.480 --> 00:14:51.879 Before Dwayne The Rock Johnson or John Cena or 00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:54.120 Dave Bautista were carrying major motion pictures, 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:56.559 there was Roddy Piper proving that a professional 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:59.440 wrestler could be a captivating, critically appreciated 00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:01.799 film lead. He paved the way for everyone who 00:15:01.799 --> 00:15:04.580 came after him. But the wrestling ring always 00:15:04.580 --> 00:15:07.299 seemed to call him back. He made several returns 00:15:07.299 --> 00:15:10.259 to WWE throughout the 90s and 2000s. And there 00:15:10.259 --> 00:15:12.080 is a story from his late career that just gives 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:14.659 you chills. It's about how a fan vote literally 00:15:14.659 --> 00:15:17.179 saved his life. It's an unbelievable sequence 00:15:17.179 --> 00:15:21.299 of events. In 2006, the WWE held a pay -per -view 00:15:21.299 --> 00:15:24.399 event called Cyber Sunday. The gimmick of the 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:27.000 show was that fans could vote online to determine 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:30.509 the stipulations of the matches. The fans overwhelmingly 00:15:30.509 --> 00:15:33.389 voted for a 52 year old Roddy Piper to team up 00:15:33.389 --> 00:15:36.009 with Ric Flair to compete for the World Tag Team 00:15:36.009 --> 00:15:38.110 Championship. Which they actually won against 00:15:38.110 --> 00:15:40.009 a much younger team. They did win the belts. 00:15:40.549 --> 00:15:42.409 But the championship isn't the most important 00:15:42.409 --> 00:15:44.870 part of this story. Because Piper was selected 00:15:44.870 --> 00:15:47.330 by the fans to wrestle on that specific card, 00:15:47.809 --> 00:15:51.570 he was required to undergo WWE's strict pre -match 00:15:51.570 --> 00:15:53.850 medical examinations to ensure he was cleared 00:15:53.850 --> 00:15:57.220 to compete. During those routine exams, doctors 00:15:57.220 --> 00:16:00.000 discovered an abnormality. It turned out to be 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:02.480 Hodgkin's lymphoma. Wow. If he doesn't get voted 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:04.080 into that match, he didn't take the physical. 00:16:04.539 --> 00:16:07.929 Precisely. Piper later posted a very emotional 00:16:07.929 --> 00:16:11.090 message to his fans on his website, stating explicitly 00:16:11.090 --> 00:16:12.990 that if they had not voted for him, he never 00:16:12.990 --> 00:16:15.309 would have gone to the hospital. The cancer wouldn't 00:16:15.309 --> 00:16:17.370 have been diagnosed in time for him to undergo 00:16:17.370 --> 00:16:19.750 the radiation therapy that ultimately saved him. 00:16:20.309 --> 00:16:23.509 The fans, quite literally, saved his life by 00:16:23.509 --> 00:16:25.789 wanting to see him perform one more time. That 00:16:25.789 --> 00:16:28.590 is just an incredible twist of fate. But Piper 00:16:28.590 --> 00:16:31.629 was always very aware of his mortality. And unlike 00:16:31.629 --> 00:16:34.690 a lot of veterans from his era, he wasn't afraid 00:16:34.690 --> 00:16:37.029 to pull back the curtain and talk about the darker 00:16:37.029 --> 00:16:40.250 realities of his profession. The dossier highlights 00:16:40.250 --> 00:16:42.990 a highly controversial interview he did on HBO's 00:16:42.990 --> 00:16:46.169 Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel in 2003. That 00:16:46.169 --> 00:16:48.889 interview caused massive friction with WWE management 00:16:48.889 --> 00:16:51.850 at the time. Piper spoke incredibly candidly 00:16:51.850 --> 00:16:53.950 about the dark side of the industry. He discussed 00:16:53.950 --> 00:16:56.809 the grueling physical pain, the relentless schedule, 00:16:56.889 --> 00:16:59.509 and his own extensive drug use over the years 00:16:59.509 --> 00:17:01.929 just to cope and keep performing. He didn't hold 00:17:01.929 --> 00:17:04.809 back. No, he admitted that he actively disliked 00:17:04.809 --> 00:17:06.950 the person he became when he was deeply entrenched 00:17:06.950 --> 00:17:09.349 in the wrestling business. He made a really stark 00:17:09.349 --> 00:17:11.690 prediction during that interview, too. He did. 00:17:11.769 --> 00:17:14.269 He stated plainly that because of his poor health 00:17:14.269 --> 00:17:16.490 and the immense toll the industry took on his 00:17:16.490 --> 00:17:20.609 body, he would not make 65. And tragically, that 00:17:20.609 --> 00:17:23.529 prediction was accurate. Roderick George Toomes 00:17:23.529 --> 00:17:27.809 passed away in his sleep on July 31, 2015, at 00:17:27.809 --> 00:17:31.049 his home in Los Angeles. He was 61 years old. 00:17:31.150 --> 00:17:34.190 Far too young. The death certificate cited a 00:17:34.190 --> 00:17:36.789 cardiopulmonary arrest caused by hypertension 00:17:36.789 --> 00:17:40.109 with a pulmonary embolism as a contributing factor. 00:17:40.609 --> 00:17:42.829 It was a massive sudden loss for the entertainment 00:17:42.829 --> 00:17:45.869 world. But the evidence of his legacy was immediately 00:17:45.869 --> 00:17:49.000 visible across the combat sports landscape. Look 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:51.339 at Ronda Rousey, one of the most famous and dominant 00:17:51.339 --> 00:17:53.599 mixed martial artists in the history of the sport. 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:55.880 Before she ever transitioned to professional 00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.339 wrestling, her friends in the MMA world called 00:17:58.339 --> 00:18:01.380 her Rowdy. But she initially refused to use the 00:18:01.380 --> 00:18:03.519 nickname professionally in the UFC because she 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:05.779 felt it would be disrespectful to Piper's legacy. 00:18:05.940 --> 00:18:07.579 Right, because in the minds of the fans, there 00:18:07.579 --> 00:18:10.480 is only one Rowdy. Exactly. But she was eventually 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:13.000 introduced to Piper through Jean LaBelle, the 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:15.319 very same martial arts legend who had given Piper 00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:18.039 his judo black belt decades earlier. Full circle. 00:18:18.259 --> 00:18:21.299 They met and Piper personally gave Rousey his 00:18:21.299 --> 00:18:23.720 blessing to carry on the rowdy nickname into 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:27.230 the octagon. The day after Piper died, Rousey 00:18:27.230 --> 00:18:30.970 had a major title defense at UFC 190. She dedicated 00:18:30.970 --> 00:18:33.589 the real fight to him, won it in dominant fashion, 00:18:33.970 --> 00:18:36.410 and made sure to honor his memory first thing 00:18:36.410 --> 00:18:38.490 in her post -fight interview. That's amazing. 00:18:38.930 --> 00:18:41.470 It shows the cross -generational, cross -disciplinary 00:18:41.470 --> 00:18:44.490 respect he commanded. From fake fighting to real 00:18:44.490 --> 00:18:47.410 combat sports, his influence was undeniable. 00:18:48.009 --> 00:18:49.630 So what does this all mean? When you look at 00:18:49.630 --> 00:18:51.809 the runaway kid from Saskatchewan, the riots 00:18:51.809 --> 00:18:54.009 in Los Angeles, the broken ear, the pop culture 00:18:54.009 --> 00:18:57.430 impact of they live, the medical miracles and 00:18:57.430 --> 00:19:00.609 the tragedy. How do we summarize a life like 00:19:00.609 --> 00:19:03.619 this? I think it comes down to a man whose absolute 00:19:03.619 --> 00:19:06.220 unflinching dedication to his craft permanently 00:19:06.220 --> 00:19:08.420 blurred the lines between performance and reality. 00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:11.019 He didn't just play a character on television. 00:19:11.160 --> 00:19:13.400 He inhabited it so fully and with such physical 00:19:13.400 --> 00:19:15.759 and emotional sacrifice that Rowdy Roddy Piper 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:18.319 became as real as Roderick Toomes. He showed 00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:20.059 that a villain could be the most captivating 00:19:20.059 --> 00:19:22.259 essential person in the room and in doing so 00:19:22.259 --> 00:19:24.140 he changed the grammar of sports entertainment 00:19:24.140 --> 00:19:27.059 forever. Well said. And this raises an important 00:19:27.059 --> 00:19:29.920 question for you to ponder. There's one final 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:31.519 detail on our source material that we haven't 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:33.619 touched on yet, and it comes from another wrestling 00:19:33.619 --> 00:19:37.539 legend, Bret Hart. Sometime after Piper had passed, 00:19:37.700 --> 00:19:40.299 Bret Hart suffered a severe stroke. It was a 00:19:40.299 --> 00:19:42.740 very dark, incredibly difficult time for him, 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:45.460 filled with uncertainty. Hart noted that of all 00:19:45.460 --> 00:19:47.759 the people he worked with over the decades, all 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:50.319 the people in the massive interconnected wrestling 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:53.420 business, Roddy Piper was the only wrestler who 00:19:53.420 --> 00:19:55.259 took the time to come visit him in the hospital. 00:19:55.319 --> 00:19:57.519 The only one. I want you to leave with that thought 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:01.160 today. Consider the profound irony of the man 00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:03.339 dubbed the greatest villain in wrestling history. 00:20:04.220 --> 00:20:07.000 How does a man who spent his entire life mastering 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:09.579 the art of generating absolute visceral heat, 00:20:10.180 --> 00:20:12.640 a man whose job was to be hated by millions of 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:15.059 people every single night, end up being the only 00:20:15.059 --> 00:20:17.319 one with the deep quiet compassion to show up 00:20:17.319 --> 00:20:19.779 for a friend in their darkest hour? That is a 00:20:19.779 --> 00:20:22.059 powerful dichotomy. come all over. It really 00:20:22.059 --> 00:20:24.880 makes you realize how deeply complex people behind 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:27.619 these massive pop culture icons truly are. Thank 00:20:27.619 --> 00:20:29.400 you so much for joining us on this deep dive. 00:20:29.779 --> 00:20:31.859 We encourage you to keep exploring the fascinating, 00:20:32.220 --> 00:20:34.420 contradictory lives behind the figures you think 00:20:34.420 --> 00:20:36.380 you know. We will see you next time.