Roddy Piper was beyond iconic in WWE. Piper shares credit with Hulk Hogan for taking the company national in 1984. Top heels make top babyfaces. Without Piper as a foil, Hogan’s star (and WWE) doesn’t shine nearly as bright.
But that’s Wrestling 101. Everybody knows that, or should.
If you want to know what Piper was all about, go to You Tube and find a confrontation between Piper and Ric Flair from Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in 1981. Piper had just won the promotion’s top belt, the U.S. title, from Flair via use of a foreign object. Piper was a double champ, already being in possession of the Mid-Atlantic strap.
Piper was the heel. Flair was the face.
To understand the dynamic of Piper’s unabashed brilliance as a heel, remember that Flair always hated being a face. He far preferred being heel. Whenever Flair was face, he’d scheme and campaign to turn back.
Predictably, Flair was a better heel. Once the Four Horsemen exploded, marks cheered him anyway. That’s another column.
But against Piper in ‘81, Flair was at his finest as a babyface. Earnest, not smarmy. Heroic, not cliched. Piper made Flair bear down. That spoke to the close relationship between the two. But mostly, it spoke to the fact that if Flair hadn’t dug deep, Piper would have left him in the dust. Piper was that good.
This was a battle of the two best heels ever. Except, at the moment, one wasn’t a heel.
Piper presents Flair with a box: “Go ahead, open it!” It’s the Mid-Atlantic belt. Piper doesn’t need it: He has the bigger title. Flair declines the gift, but puts shine back on the prestige of the Mid-Atlantic championship. Then the foreign object Piper used is produced: “I ain’t never seen that before in my life!”
