When wrestling fans hear the name Roddy Piper, a number of different concepts might come to mind.
He was, perhaps, the greatest talker in wrestling history and certainly the host of the greatest wrestling talk show of all time. He was one of the best heels ever, and a darn good babyface too.
Then there’s the matter of WrestleMania.
Absolutely no one has a legacy at the Showcase of the Immortals quite like Hot Rod, ranging from all-time classic performances, to matches fans thought were his last, to a series of downright bizarre matches, to playing an interviewer, guest referee, and a number of points in between.
Roddy Piper’s Historically Great WrestleMania Performances
The original WrestleMania certainly wasn’t the greatest iteration of the event, but was one of the most historically important ones for establishing the WrestleMania brand and cementing WWE’s place atop the wrestling world.
Roddy Piper’s contributions to the event can’t be overstated. While Hulk Hogan was explosively popular and it was a score to sign Mr. T as his tag team partner, Piper was the engine of the heel side of that equation—the bad guy whom fans were all too eager to pay to see get his comeuppance against the heroes.
Paul Orndorff was the muscle and a formidable villain in his own right, but there’s no question Piper was the top bad guy on the show.
On the flip side of Piper’s great heel work at WrestleMania 1 came arguably his greatest babyface performance and perhaps the best match of his WWE career at WrestleMania 8. There, Hot Rod went out of his way to put over Bret Hart, taking a rare pinfall loss to drop the Intercontinental Championship.
It’s telling that, after this important victory, Hart would work world title matches at three out of the next four WrestleManias.
Roddy Piper’s First And Last Retirement Matches
At WrestleMania 3, a babyface Roddy Piper battled Adrian Adonis in a match that was billed to be Hot Rod’s last time in the wrestling ring. By all indications, he really did mean to transition to Hollywood, and did take part in his share of films in the years to follow.
Seeing him put Adonis to sleep and pass the upper mid-card babyface torch to Brutus Beefcake, who cut Adonis’s hair afterward, was a fitting enough send-off.
Of course, Piper wasn’t really done by a long shot.
Twenty-two years later, he’d work his true final match for WWE at a WrestleMania, when he teamed up with Ricky Steamboat and Jimmy Snuka in an elimination handicap match against Chris Jericho.
Hot Rod was a shell of his former self by then but performed respectably in an entertaining spectacle.
Roddy Piper’s Unusual Encounters At WrestleMania
Roddy Piper took diversification of his WrestleMania resume to the next level with his efforts at WrestleManias 2, 6, and 12.
WrestleMania 2 saw him headline his leg of the event from the Nassau Coliseum in a boxing match that went off the rails with celebrity visitor Mr. T. From there, he engaged in an even uglier spectacle at WrestleMania 6 with Bad News Brown.
The otherwise forgettable match achieved infamy for the poor choice for Piper to wear black paint over half his body.
Piper may have had his strangest match of all at WrestleMania 12 in a Hollywood Backlot Brawl with Goldust.
This was one of WWE’s first stabs at a cinematic match, staged outside before it gave way to a high-speed chase, clearly deriving from real-life OJ Simpson theatrics that was still in the news at the time.
Finally, the battle returned to the arena and culminated in the ring with Piper stripping Goldust’s garb to reveal lingerie underneath—a humiliation that was apparently profound enough for Hot Rod to be declared the winner.
Roddy Piper’s Guest Referee Appearances At WrestleMania
After appearing in the main event of the first WrestleMania, set in Madison Square Garden, it was only fitting that Roddy Piper returned to the venue for WrestleMania 10, this time to serve as guest referee for the last match of the show—a WWE Championship clash between Yokozuna and Bret Hart.
Piper counting the pin offered some symmetry to the first decade of WrestleMania, in addition to calling back to Hot Rod and The Hitman’s history from WrestleMania 8.
Piper officiated Hart’s match again at WrestleMania 11—a less auspicious affair when Hart won an I Quit Match over Bob Backlund.
While Hot Rod’s role felt a little random in this context—and a number of fans were annoyed with his insistence on repeatedly asking if either man gave up into a mic–it nonetheless kept Piper in the ‘Mania mix, adding another unconventional chapter to his history with the event.
In addition to the matches Roddy Piper wrestled or officiated at WrestleMania, he appeared at other events as well.
He hosted editions of Piper’s Pit with Morton Downey Jr. and Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleManias 5 and 21, respectively. He was also Virgil’s cornerman against Ted Dibiase for WrestleMania 7 and interfered on Mr. McMahon’s behalf against Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 19.
He made a series of oddball backstage appearances for WrestleManias 21, 30, and 31, too, all adding up to the most unusual legacy any wrestler ever has, or likely ever will have at WWE’s biggest annual event.