Black Widow
06-19-2009, 01:48 PM
If, as they say, the world of pro wrestling is filled with colorful characters, Roddy Piper is a double rainbow. The semi-retired brawler makes an appearance with Big Time Wrestling at the Quincy Armory on Friday.
Piper, 55, recently checked in by phone from his home in Los Angeles to talk about his careers in wrestling and acting, some memories of past visits to Boston and the state of his health, after discovering a few years ago that he had cancer.
Always a showman and a fantastic talker, Piper begins the story of his cancer battle with, “Let me entertain you a little bit.” Then he gets into the details.
“I was in Glasgow and my hips wouldn’t work, and no one could figure out what was going on. I went home and checked into the hospital that was closest to my ranch. The doctors took it seriously, and had some x-rays done. Later on one doctor told me it was one of those freak things. He said, ‘You have a bone chip that is cutting the nerves to your legs.’ They go to look inside and, holy cow, they find a huge mass tumor on the inside of my spine. So they did an operation they didn’t expect, and while they were doing it, the doctor found a lymph gland that was a little swollen and he took a biopsy. A few days later, I hadn’t heard anything, and two doctors and a nurse came in and said ‘How’re you feeling, and by the way, you’ve got cancer.’”
He was diagnosed with low-grade 2A lymphoma, then went through 20 radiations and chemo treatments over four weeks.
“I beat it three years ago,” Piper says. “In two more years, if it doesn’t come back, I’m out of the woods.”
It isn’t the first time Piper has gone through a struggle. A troubled kid, Piper ran away from home at age 13 and lived on the street until he was 15. He first wrestled as an amateur in the Police Athletic League in Winnipeg. At the same time he was training as a boxer at the Lansdowne Street Gym.
“I was more on the boxing side,” he recalls, “and they had it all set up for me to turn pro. But I was outside, I was stupid and I got into a fight. I threw a punch and missed the guy, and hit the steel railing, and I broke my left hand. So I started amateur wrestling really hard to stay in shape so I could go back to boxing.”
But one of those right time-right place scenarios got in the way. His coach heard that a wrestler didn’t show up for matches in town and asked the 167-pound Piper if he wanted to fill in. His first opponent was 275-pound legitimate tough guy Larry “The Axe” Hennig, who proceeded to wipe the floor with Piper. But Piper liked his first taste of the sport.
“I was sent down to Kansas City,” recalls Piper. “But they didn’t have steady work for me, so I came back to Canada. I fought in a lot of territories, then I got my first break in Los Angeles.”
Many more breaks and territories followed, until he received a call from Vince McMahon Sr. Piper joined what was then called the WWF, where the two most important abilities for a wrestler were what he did in the ring and what he did on the microphone.
Piper is fine with being labeled a brawler rather than a wrestler.
“You know why I brawl?” he asks. “When I was in L.A. I saw a lot of great athletes, and everybody was doing all of these wrestling moves. I can double bridge and do all of that. But after a few years I thought, ‘You know what? Everybody’s wrestling. I’m just gonna fight. Because I’ll stand out in the card more.’ So that’s how I started that.
“When I got to L.A., the guy put a microphone in my hand and said, ‘Here you go, kid. Say anything you want to.’ I thought to myself, ‘Anything?’ So I started and I got into it. I’d be driving at night, and I’d have the music as loud as I could, probably ZZ Top. I’d be steering with my knee and I had a yellow pad and was writing things down all the time. I got to where I invented a system to it with layers of subtext – things like undoing your jacket and pulling it back. And it just worked.”
Piper fought in Boston many times, loving it here because he felt he was so sincerely hated.
“The old Boston Garden was magical,” he says. “I had a lot of fights going to the ring there – maybe more than in the ring. But those people were sports fans. If you’re putting out 100 percent, they know it, and holy cow, what a great, great wrestling scene. Salt of the earth people, and then I got to go out to Irish pubs and eat meat pie and play the bagpipes.”
In the middle of all of this, a second career came calling, starting with a small uncredited part in the Henry Winkler film “The One and Only,” and costarring roles in “Body Slam” and “Hell Comes to Frogtown.”
In 1987, Piper beat Adrian Adonis in a hair versus hair match at Wrestlemania III. Before that match he was introduced to someone named John Carpenter, who suggested having dinner after the match.
“I didn’t know who John Carpenter was,” admits Piper. “But we went, and it was like, ‘Would you like a roll? Could you pass the butter? Do you want to star in my next movie?’”
The movie, which Carpenter wrote and directed, was “They Live.” Piper starred as a homeless guy trying to save the world from aliens.
And he’s never looked back. Though bad hips and knees have curtailed his wrestling, he’s regularly acting, with two films – the comedy “Fancy Pants” and the drama “Clear Lake” – in post-production.
But first, he’s coming to Quincy.
“I never know what I’m going to do,” he says. “We’ll throw in a Piper’s Pit, we’ll talk a little bit, then we’ll get down to business with the main-eventer.”
It’s doubtful that he’ll actually fight, but he probably could.
“I’m strong right now. I’m in shape,” he says. “In the morning I’m juicing two apples, two carrots, two celery, two beets, two ginger. I’m drinking that every morning to try to keep the cancer away. I’ve got a lot on my shoulders, but I’ve got the most beautiful family in the world. When I come there, the only thing I can guarantee is that I’ll give you my heart, 100 percent.”
The Patriot Ledger
Piper, 55, recently checked in by phone from his home in Los Angeles to talk about his careers in wrestling and acting, some memories of past visits to Boston and the state of his health, after discovering a few years ago that he had cancer.
Always a showman and a fantastic talker, Piper begins the story of his cancer battle with, “Let me entertain you a little bit.” Then he gets into the details.
“I was in Glasgow and my hips wouldn’t work, and no one could figure out what was going on. I went home and checked into the hospital that was closest to my ranch. The doctors took it seriously, and had some x-rays done. Later on one doctor told me it was one of those freak things. He said, ‘You have a bone chip that is cutting the nerves to your legs.’ They go to look inside and, holy cow, they find a huge mass tumor on the inside of my spine. So they did an operation they didn’t expect, and while they were doing it, the doctor found a lymph gland that was a little swollen and he took a biopsy. A few days later, I hadn’t heard anything, and two doctors and a nurse came in and said ‘How’re you feeling, and by the way, you’ve got cancer.’”
He was diagnosed with low-grade 2A lymphoma, then went through 20 radiations and chemo treatments over four weeks.
“I beat it three years ago,” Piper says. “In two more years, if it doesn’t come back, I’m out of the woods.”
It isn’t the first time Piper has gone through a struggle. A troubled kid, Piper ran away from home at age 13 and lived on the street until he was 15. He first wrestled as an amateur in the Police Athletic League in Winnipeg. At the same time he was training as a boxer at the Lansdowne Street Gym.
“I was more on the boxing side,” he recalls, “and they had it all set up for me to turn pro. But I was outside, I was stupid and I got into a fight. I threw a punch and missed the guy, and hit the steel railing, and I broke my left hand. So I started amateur wrestling really hard to stay in shape so I could go back to boxing.”
But one of those right time-right place scenarios got in the way. His coach heard that a wrestler didn’t show up for matches in town and asked the 167-pound Piper if he wanted to fill in. His first opponent was 275-pound legitimate tough guy Larry “The Axe” Hennig, who proceeded to wipe the floor with Piper. But Piper liked his first taste of the sport.
“I was sent down to Kansas City,” recalls Piper. “But they didn’t have steady work for me, so I came back to Canada. I fought in a lot of territories, then I got my first break in Los Angeles.”
Many more breaks and territories followed, until he received a call from Vince McMahon Sr. Piper joined what was then called the WWF, where the two most important abilities for a wrestler were what he did in the ring and what he did on the microphone.
Piper is fine with being labeled a brawler rather than a wrestler.
“You know why I brawl?” he asks. “When I was in L.A. I saw a lot of great athletes, and everybody was doing all of these wrestling moves. I can double bridge and do all of that. But after a few years I thought, ‘You know what? Everybody’s wrestling. I’m just gonna fight. Because I’ll stand out in the card more.’ So that’s how I started that.
“When I got to L.A., the guy put a microphone in my hand and said, ‘Here you go, kid. Say anything you want to.’ I thought to myself, ‘Anything?’ So I started and I got into it. I’d be driving at night, and I’d have the music as loud as I could, probably ZZ Top. I’d be steering with my knee and I had a yellow pad and was writing things down all the time. I got to where I invented a system to it with layers of subtext – things like undoing your jacket and pulling it back. And it just worked.”
Piper fought in Boston many times, loving it here because he felt he was so sincerely hated.
“The old Boston Garden was magical,” he says. “I had a lot of fights going to the ring there – maybe more than in the ring. But those people were sports fans. If you’re putting out 100 percent, they know it, and holy cow, what a great, great wrestling scene. Salt of the earth people, and then I got to go out to Irish pubs and eat meat pie and play the bagpipes.”
In the middle of all of this, a second career came calling, starting with a small uncredited part in the Henry Winkler film “The One and Only,” and costarring roles in “Body Slam” and “Hell Comes to Frogtown.”
In 1987, Piper beat Adrian Adonis in a hair versus hair match at Wrestlemania III. Before that match he was introduced to someone named John Carpenter, who suggested having dinner after the match.
“I didn’t know who John Carpenter was,” admits Piper. “But we went, and it was like, ‘Would you like a roll? Could you pass the butter? Do you want to star in my next movie?’”
The movie, which Carpenter wrote and directed, was “They Live.” Piper starred as a homeless guy trying to save the world from aliens.
And he’s never looked back. Though bad hips and knees have curtailed his wrestling, he’s regularly acting, with two films – the comedy “Fancy Pants” and the drama “Clear Lake” – in post-production.
But first, he’s coming to Quincy.
“I never know what I’m going to do,” he says. “We’ll throw in a Piper’s Pit, we’ll talk a little bit, then we’ll get down to business with the main-eventer.”
It’s doubtful that he’ll actually fight, but he probably could.
“I’m strong right now. I’m in shape,” he says. “In the morning I’m juicing two apples, two carrots, two celery, two beets, two ginger. I’m drinking that every morning to try to keep the cancer away. I’ve got a lot on my shoulders, but I’ve got the most beautiful family in the world. When I come there, the only thing I can guarantee is that I’ll give you my heart, 100 percent.”
The Patriot Ledger