Sports Illustrated’s “Extra Mustard” blog has a new featured article on the passing of “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, which features comments from Piper’s longtime friend and work associate, fellow WWE Hall Of Famer Bret Hart.
Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On Roddy Piper helping his career: “I would be a footnote in this business without Roddy Piper. Roddy took a shine to me and took me under his wing. Maybe it was because I was a Canadian kid like he was, but he protected and looked out for me right from the start from the first time I met him.”
On rumors that Bret and Roddy were related: “Roddy’s last name was Toombs, and I told him my dad had family with the same name on his side of the family. Roddy was from around the Saskatoon area, and my dad was from Saskatoon, so we toyed with the idea that we might be blood-related.”
“As it turned out, when Roddy and my dad got to compare notes when he came to Calgary, we determined there were two different spellings—Toombs and Tombs. So we weren’t related, but from the very first day that we always wondered about it, Roddy always called me, ‘Cuz.’ We never called each other Roddy or Bret, we always called each other ‘Cuz’ right up until he died. Along with my brother Owen and Jim Neidhart, the closest guy to me in the business was Roddy.”
On Roddy and Randy Savage being leaders of the locker room: “Roddy and Macho Man were leaders in the dressing room. think of guys like Hogan, they never did anything for anyone. Hogan came to his private locker room with the star on the door and no one was allowed to knock on the door.”
Check out the complete interview at SI.com.
