Roddy Piper vs. AJ Petrucci WWF Championship Wrestling 08-23-1986
Roddy Piper is for the moms.
My poor mother has had to deal with my affinity for pro wrestling for years. She has very kindly and politely kept her opinion of how dumb it is to herself. There are only two times I ever saw her out and out enjoy herself during wrestling. The first one is when Shawn Michaels butt came out in the Wrestlemania 10 ladder match. To this day, she can't even talk about it without breaking down into crying bouts of laughter. " HIS ASS WAS OUT THERE AND HE WAS ON THE LADDER BEN IT WAS THE FUNNIEST SHIT EVER". The other time is when she woke me up to let me know Roddy Piper was in WCW. How she found out Piper debuted I've never figured out. Every now and then all of a sudden we would get a free PPV on our television and I think that's what happened. She somehow stumbled upon the end of Halloween Havoc 1996 and Piper's debut. Now I mentioned she woke me up to tell me Roddy Piper debuted, but I don't think it was for my benefit. I think she was just genuinely excited Roddy Piper was back and wanted to tell someone, so she woke up her 8 year old son WHO HAD TO BE UP FOR SCHOOL IN SIX HOURS MOM. Don't ask me why , but my mom isn't the only one I've heard of who loved Roddy. I've talked to multiple people over the years who've mentioned that their mom's favorite was Roddy Piper. It's mind-blowing. Was it because he was handsome? Was it because he was funny? Was it because he was a bad buy? I thought about it a lot and I came to one logicial explanation
Because Roddy Piper is awesome as shit
Some things don't need a backstory, they just are. The best kind of things in life don't require a justification other than " Because it's rad". That's Roddy Piper. He was an absolute maniac in the best possible way. Of all the YouTube rabbit holes I've fallen into, Roddy Piper might be my favorite wrestling one. My favorite non-wrestling one of course being TV intros to shows I forgot existed. POPULAR WASNT POPULAR ENOUGH. He wasn't the biggest or most athletic guy , but Roddy Piper did everything possible to stand out. It shouldn't be a surprise that he couldn't have just a regular squash match
It's 1986 and we've got a match from WWF Champion Wrestling as Roddy Piper takes on AJ Petrucci. This is right at the beginning of the Piper face turn, this may actually be the first appearance, and the crowd is here for it. It's amazing to see Piper go from such a hated and vile heel to such an incredible babyface. Petrucci starts the match off by slapping Piper in the face. In what is an incredible moment, Piper calmly takes his hand ,puts it behind his back, and tucks it into his trunks.
I hope he wiped.
Piper then implores Petrucci to slap him. Petrucci slaps, but Piper ducks and pokes his eye. With One arm behind his back. Which I should point out STAYS BEHIND HIS BACK FOR BASICALLY THE ENTIRE MATCH. Keep that in mind while I do my lackluster play by play, he's like pro wrestling's Lieutenant Dan but he's got one arm instead of no legs. Piper starts kicking Petrucci. These are not elaborate Malachi Black strikes, no this is just Piper kicking him in the thighs and rushing at him as Petrucci falls down. A One armed- man in an ass-kicking contest Piper continues the assault by stomping away and bashing Petrucci's head into the mat. This is tremendous. Piper's not doing any unusual offense, but the combo of the crowd and the self inflicted handicap are making this special. A kick to Petrucci's stomach followed by a one armed snap mare. One Armed Snapmare sounds like a sex act. Petrucci tries to escape to the outside, but Piper follows him with that crazy look in his eye and throws Petrucci onto a table. The table then breaks in quite possibly THE SLOWEST WAY POSSIBLE. THAT TABLE KEEPS MY HOUSE HOT. THAT TABLE IS MY LIVELIHOOD. Piper gets Petrucci back in the ring and starts using his good arm to block Petrucci shots. He throws some knees to Petrucci's face including one that definitely looked like a live round. The crowd is still losing it this whole time by the way. Piper slaps Petrucci, calling back to the disrespect earlier. Petrucci tries a chop, but Piper nails him with one of his own. Piper gets Petrucci in the ropes and FINALLY SWITCHES TO TWO HANDS to whip him and wallop him with a Polish Hammer to the face. That's a wrestling move. It's not from Warsaw Home Depot. Then to be an even bigger dick, Piper tucks his hand back in his trunks and pins Petrucci with one foot. Piper is the kind of babyface who can do heel stuff and it doesn't matter, in fact it somehow works even better
As far as in ring action, we've seen better in the blog. This blog isn't about only in-ring action though. This match has so much heat and so much creativity that I have to put it in the hall of fame. This match is so fun and so entertaining and all because Piper decided to put a spin on the squash match format. This is an absolute blast
I should probably text my mom about this
TLDR Review
We're a Roddy Piper Family. Did my mom have a crush on Roddy? How many free PPVs did I miss out on because I didn't stumble upon them
If you're interested in more condensed version of my thoughts, You can check out my Twitter where I talk about wrestling or stress out during Boston Celtics games. Hell, I'll even take suggestions for matches you want to see reviewed. You can also check out my Youtube where I make weird videos where I put on wigs in front of a camera to mask my true identity.