ROWDY RODDY PIPER X ROOTS OF FIGHT
LATEST ARRIVALS
About — Rowdy Roddy Piper
“If you are a heel and you’re doing your job right, you are most hated.”
At first there was the sound, as if blowing in from a distant countryside. Bagpipes that chilled an arena in anticipation. Then the visual itself of a strutting villain in his kilt, wearing a white tee shirt emblazoned with the word “Hotrod,” staring through the bangs of his cocksure feathery hair.
Rowdy Roddy Piper. The Hot Scot, straight out of Glasgow. Loud, Obnoxious. Threatening. Irritating. Perhaps a little crazy. Always ready to make you mad by screaming into your television set. Forever ready to take out your favorite wrestler.
Hotrod was the original Legend Killer. The foil of Hulk Hogan. The man who smashed a coconut over Jimmy Snuka’s head. He cut the meanest promos, and he electrified crowds all over the world. He was a born villain, proudly named the “Most Hated Wrestler” for many years running in the 1980s. They loved to hate Rowdy Piper.
And they loved him, period.
A greater icon has never existed in the squared circle. Roddy’s career spanned 42 years, a virtuoso on the microphone who was unlike anyone the world of pro wrestling had ever known. Roddy was a superstar. A one-man show. His Piper’s Pit talk show became the stuff of legends, and his motto tells you everything you needed to know — “Just when they think they know the answers, I change the questions.”
Piper singlehandedly created Hulkamania by becoming Hogan’s greatest foil, which culminated in March 1985 at Madison Square Garden at the very first Mania. “If they didn't hate me so much,” he once told Hulk, “Do you really think they would've loved you so much?”
There were layers to Roddy’s genius. A black belt in judo trained under the legendary Gene Lebell, he had the chops. He was an actor. An entertainer. A self-proclaimed golden gloves boxer. His sleeper hold was emulated in every junior high across America.
They don’t make villains like Rowdy Roddy Piper anymore. And the only thing more powerful than the sound of his bagpipes as he came in, is the sound of those same bagpipes as they walked away.
We’re proud to announce our partnership with the great Rowdy Roddy Piper, and introduce this new collection honoring the legend!
