HE NEVER DID GET MORE BUBBLEGUM
Aug. 4th, 2015 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogRowdy Roddy Piper is gone.
Which may not mean much to non-wrestling fans, except the ones who liked They Live.
For me, of course, Piper was part of the Toontown that was the WWF’s heyday in the late-80s. And he was always one of the standouts, whether in the ring or on the mike.
Also, while he wasn’t the first WWF superstar to break into films, he was one of the few who made at least one really good one (see above). The rest of them were mainly straight-to-video B-movies, but I’ll take that over Hulk Hogan’s kids films any day.
Piper brought Hell to Frogtown.
He went to the police academy with Jesse Ventura.
He inspired a punk rock song.
It’s hard not to respect that.
I think Jade Bos sums it up well:
Amen.
Sooner or later everybody pays the Piper,
This is dF
Which may not mean much to non-wrestling fans, except the ones who liked They Live.
For me, of course, Piper was part of the Toontown that was the WWF’s heyday in the late-80s. And he was always one of the standouts, whether in the ring or on the mike.
Also, while he wasn’t the first WWF superstar to break into films, he was one of the few who made at least one really good one (see above). The rest of them were mainly straight-to-video B-movies, but I’ll take that over Hulk Hogan’s kids films any day.
Piper brought Hell to Frogtown.
He went to the police academy with Jesse Ventura.
He inspired a punk rock song.
It’s hard not to respect that.
I think Jade Bos sums it up well:
Rowdy Roddy Piper was just an average dude full of disdain and hatred, for well, pretty much everything. And we loved him for it. Because deep inside we fucking hated everything too. It was the eighties. Sleek flamboyant artifice, Ronald Reagan, flawless over produced synth pop, and cocaine ruled the day. And much like the cocaine. It looked like so much fun, but in the end you’re miserable, broke, and alone with an empty mirror.
I know this probably doesn’t make much sense, but my hope is you feel like it does. Because that’s what Rowdy Roddy Piper was to me. In the middle of the fakest thing around, in the phoniest decade. In the grandly absurd Kabuki opera known as Professional Wrestling, he was somehow undeniable real.
I know this probably doesn’t make much sense, but my hope is you feel like it does. Because that’s what Rowdy Roddy Piper was to me. In the middle of the fakest thing around, in the phoniest decade. In the grandly absurd Kabuki opera known as Professional Wrestling, he was somehow undeniable real.
Amen.
Sooner or later everybody pays the Piper,
This is dF
