Chris Jericho spoke about the late Roddy Piper on a recent episode of his podcast and shared some stories about Piper. Here are the highlights.
On Piper’s promo on him at prior to WrestleMania 25:
“[W]hen we showed up at Spokane [Washington] that night [for RAW], I said, ‘I want the Roddy Piper from 1985 that did not get the respect he deserves for being one of the architects of WrestleMania and I want the Roddy Piper who sold out Madison Square Garden that night and who put this company on the map with those promos’ and he said, ‘I get what you’re saying – I get it’ and went out there and cut this impassioned, amazing promo against me, because my whole schtick was that the old guys should just retire and leave and it was like he said ‘as long as [the fans] want me to be here, I will be here, crawl down the aisle, do whatever I have to do to get down here and perform because we love performing, the thrill of it’, and I think it could be his last great promo, like, great promo. You watch the clips of some of the greatest stuff he ever did and I think that ranked right up there with it and I think it surprised a lot of people just how damn good it was and I think it surprised a lot of people who forgot how damn good Roddy Piper was as well, including me. I forgot how great Roddy Piper is and was until the moment he passed away.”
On the possible feud between he and Piper in WCW:
“There was always, kind of, comparisons between Piper and Jericho, promo styles and being able to be a catalyst for getting results when you needed them or whatever. And actually even in 1997, when I went to talk to Eric [Bischoff] after my first year in WCW, he told me he was going to put Piper and I in a feud, a heel Chris Jericho versus a babyface Piper or maybe it was a heel Piper and a babyface Jericho. I don’t remember, but I think that would have been classic. But it never came into play, which is a drag because I think it would have been a real blast to do something like that.
“But it was a real blast a few years later when we got to work in WrestleMania. I mean, like I said, the promos that built that up were tremendous. I don’t think Roddy was happy about the match and I don’t blame him. I think maybe his time in the ring was a minute and a half. I’m beating Roddy Piper in a minute and a half and this is a guy who never did jobs. Ever.”
To check out the entire podcast, click here.
