08:21:03
Roddy Piper
-You
mentioned HBO, I guess it was about a month ago, they heavily
publicized that you were going to be part of a segment they
were doing on Real Sports.
Armen
Keteyian interviewed you--we actually had Armen with us
on The Stranglehold that Tuesday night right before the
show debuted. You had some pretty candid comments.
I
asked Armen what his slant was on this, if he was a wrestling
fan, where you trying to take down the industry, what he
was hoping to accomplish with this piece and he said he
was really just trying to raise some awareness.
That's
something that you've wanted to do, but you actually wound
up paying a personal price for some of your comments.
-I've
never heard that before, that's real interesting. Let me
tell ya how this came down, capsulized. The folks, I think
Tim Walker producer, Andrew Bennett associate producer,
had been calling me since January wanting me to do this
thing. To do their show. They said they had read my book
and Chapter 12, "The Sickness", was what they
wanted to hone in on. I didn't want to do the interview.
Finally,
I got call. Curt Hennig died. I got a call three days later
from the associate producer and he asked me if I'd get him
in touch with Mrs. Hennig and if I would do the interview
also. Very, very tasteless. Obviously, not a chance I'm
getting you in touch with Mrs. Hennig three days after the
passing of her kid's father.
At
that time, I said okay guys, if you want me to do this interview,
I'm going to have my own camera crew and I'm gonna B-roll
the whole thing. I go to California, I was at the Garden
in New York, I went to California did this interview with
Keteyian. Now, I was tired. I was real tired, had been working
hard. I sat down for two and a half hours and I gave him
my heart. I was candid and honest as anyone could ever be
on our industry.
So
then they said to me, listen, we'd like to come up to your
house because they, HBO Real Sports, Armen Keteyian said
that they have found that 400% higher suicide rate in wrestling
than any other sport. You know, deaths under the age of
45 years old.
-The
"acutalities", the insurance term, right?
-Yeah,
exactly. I'm 49. I got a family. I'm very proud, my second
oldest daughter just graduated 4.0 with honors. She's in
Italy. And they came on down, they wanted to come to the
house. I don't usually let people in the house. Two and
a half hours in the house and one of my daughters played,
she's an accomplished musician, and she played a tune. And
my little 'cornmuffin'--remember that shot of me walking
by myself down the road? 'Poor Roddy', you know? I have
all this on film. The first time I did that, I grabbed little
cornmuffin, she's eight years old. I walk on down with cornmuffin,
I finish and then a cameraman from HBO says we just want
a shot of you by yourself.
Sure.
I walk back and I do the shot. That's the only shot you
guys have seen. The other thing, I'm a businessman, I say
what's in it for me? What do you want me to do? Well, we're
plugging your book, etc. Well, they never once mentioned
the name of the book. They never showed the book. I have
in my footage, Armen Keteyian holding the book in his hand
while I'm doing the interview.
At
one point, he actually passes me the book to get a quote
from the book to make sure I'm exactly right in what I said
in the book and I hand it back to him. We redo the piece
and at the end of the day--you saw what they showed. No
family in there.
The
one contemplating shot, looking over the valley of the ranch
here, they asked for that shot also. So, Mr. Keteyian--he
was a very nice man. But, it's quite obvious that they just
wanted to do, they were looking for ratings. They're a kind
of investigative-type of show. There was nothing real about
that interview.
-I
was frustrated because Armen Keteyian spent twenty five
minutes with us. The whole wrestling piece on Real Sports
lasted thirteen minutes. And one of the questions raised
then, because one of their claims was 65 wrestlers have
died in the last five years--all under the age of 45. And,
I've been doing The Stranglehold for longer than that, and
thankfully, we haven't rung the bell that many times for
guys because of that.
Exactly.
Now there's a really good point, because in the raw footage
that nobody's seen with McMahon, I've never heard that figure
60 before either. In the book, I think I said approximately
one per year. And I've been in the business thirty three
years. Maybe thirty four, I'm not sure (laughs).
And
when he's talking to McMahon, he says to him something of
the effect that 'do you feel any responsibilty for these
deaths? According to our numbers, 60 people, 400%.' And
he's kind of going after McMahon and Vince says 'how do
I feel responsible for all the deaths?' and finally Armen
Keteyian says 'well, Roddy Piper says you are.' Hang on,
hang on. I'd never heard the number 60.
So
at that time, Vince starts to lose his temper and he swats
Armen Keteyian. And I haven't talked to anybody from the
WWE to this second. The way I found out was on the internet
like everybody else.
-When
they posted that very next day, that negotiations had ceased,
that was how you found out about your release?
That's
how I found out about it and to this day, nobody from WWE--they're
afraid to call me, I guess. That's the m.o. I've heard.
And in it, one of things it says is Roddy reveals his personal
drug habits. Well, hang on. My book, "In the Pit with
Piper", went from about the early '70s to early '90s.
Armen
Keteyian had asked me about the Zahorian trial. Remember?
When you used to see my name every 30 seconds on the channel
five news about the steroid investigation. Me and Hogan.
Hogan got out of it, I went and testified. He (Keteyian)
said 'well, what kind of drugs did that doctor have?'
I
don't want to go over the gambit because we have great kids
listening, but I just went through this gambit of drugs
and about a half hour later, Armen says 'So, Roddy. You
lived under these conditions for twenty years?' Yeah, I
lived under these conditions for twenty years, but I've
been in the business 34. Yeah, I didn't mean I took all
those drugs but it was the environment of the day.
It
made it look like I was the leading drug addict. Then when
it said that WWE couldn't reach contractual agreement. Now
boys, I gotta let you know. It was already booked for me
to do Piper's Pit at live venues around the country and
Japan.
-Vince
and Brother Love filled in for you afterwards.
-Exactly.
So that was already down. So that's a fib. There was no
contractual disagreements. If as a businessman and me being
in the business that I am and the way it is, if I go out
of house. Meaning, out of WWE into mainstream media. Post
this and say what I said in mainstream media, and McMahon
can say whatever he wants also, you take us and you put
us in a house show.
You
put us in St. Louis at the Kiel--Kiel Auditorium, that thing's
gonna sell out.
-Yeah,
just a few people would show up for that one.
A
couple of people, God bless their souls. And that's called
business. Well, Vince. Vince. Get your head out of your
bum, here. What are you doing? So, the way that it came
down is they couldn't read me contractual agreements but,
you know, I think it's time that--I'd like to interview
Armen Keteyian myself. (chuckles) And Bryant Gumble. Put
a different hat on and they may find that I'm not so friendly.
-You
mention the book, I want to make sure people are aware of
the website. It's "In the Pit with Piper".com.
People can check it out. It's a great read and anyone who's
heard you join us before with stories, a lot of them are
in it. You mention the chapter on "The Sickness",
one of the things that was obviously edited on the Real
Sports segment was...well, one of the things WWE cited was
they didn't want you to "hate yourself" because
you were quoted as saying you hated the person, the character
of Rowdy Roddy Piper. The man who was down in the ring.
I
took away from that segment that you were referring to the
old Roddy Piper. The Roddy Piper that was under those circumstances
for 20 years, not the Roddy Piper who accompanied Sean O'Haire
down to the ring.
That
part of the interview, again it was a two and a half hour
interview, when they were talking under the onus of that
20 years, I didn't like what I was doing. I wanted to be
a father, a family man was always where I was headed. And
no, I didn't. Roddy Piper at the time, was a very vicious,
intense kind of guy. And as Vince McMahon said, we kind
of all grew up under that "wild west" kind of
idea.
Going
down to the ring now, the self-destruction idea? Well, I
wasn't wrestling. I was doing Piper's Pit. So, it seemed
to me that Vince--his feelings were hurt. And so, in a fit
of rage, he threw up this and tried to hurt my feelings.
The
only thing I have a big time problem with, you know I say
things people say things about me, but my children saw that
on the internet. And that's a big-time mistake there, Vince.
You're going to find out Roddy Piper's invincible.
And
you know, with Real Sports, shame on you guys. Shame on
you guys for taking that piece and even trying to disguise
it as--you come straight to me and say 'hey, we want to
find out about these guys deaths. We want to be candid about
it. This is what we want to do.'
I'm
a straight-up guy and I'm gonna meet you in the middle.
But shame on you for taking all that footage. Shame on you
for putting two and a half hours of my family's invconvenience.
I got a lot of kids, husbands, grandchildrens, and all the
rest of it. Shame on you for putting them on camera and
having one girl sing who didn't want to sing and then doesn't
show anything on HBO. Shame on you for maybe the few people
my daughter might have told and then she looks stupid on
HBO Real Sports-- there's nothing real about that interview
and I'm pretty damn hot about it.
-It
was frustrating, because again, I felt Armen Keteyian was
more informative when he visited with us than he was on
the piece. And I realize, some of that may have been out
of his control, with people up above making decisions on
what stays in or doesn't. But getting back to that number,
I asked him how did they even decipher who qualified as
a professional wrestler for this death toll, because let's
face it, there's a lot of guys who have 40 or 60 hour per
week jobs and wrestle part-time. Are they considered pro
wrestlers or are they considered...
Weekend
warriors. Yeah. They're weekend warriors, and that's not
a negative. I'm just saying they're weekend warriors, I
do this for a living. Period. So, I don't know where they
got that number from. They were talking about people in
Japan, so given their investigation and their numbers, etc.
the one thing that's just so blatant here is we don't pay
our guests, we plug the book. Why did you not even mention
the name of the book? Why did you not show the book? You
came back, Armen Ketyeian and Bryant Gumble and they say
well, I guess the sickness is going to last a long time.
During that interview with Armen Keteyian, I talked about
a Player's Association, about health benefits, pensions,
about how we could do that. None of that aired.
So
you know, I've always told you guys--the shameful part ain't
getting knocked down. The shameful part is not getting up.
I'm getting up.
Check
back soon for the second part of the conversation with Roddy
Piper, where he shares more about creative control and Vince
McMahon, plus his upcoming arrival in NWA-TNA and what Vince
Russo may be fearing most.
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