Roddy Piper Portland TV Interview (05-21-1985)

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper is interviewed on the Portland TV show "Two at Four" about a number of topics including his family, life in Portland, WrestleMania, Cyndi Lauper and the Don Owens 60th Anniversary show.
(May 21st 1985)

[@jnicholson79jn]

What's great about this is Roddy doesn't betray his nationally known heel persona, yet also holds true to the fact that he is a local hero in Portland. Great example of how awesome Piper was, he plays heel & face at the same time during the interview. And pulls it off spectacularly. There'll never be another Hot Rod.

[@SovereignStatesman]

Yep, he's always just honest about who he is, not a paid actor like the rest.

[@TheLifeisaParade]

An ORIG-INAL

[@RockyH.]

Piper is awesome.

[@doomrooster]

Classic Piper. Protects the biz but manages to also shoot straight. A masterclass in a few sentences.

[@LegendKiller03000]

Piper vs Austin is the all dream matches. Falls count anywhere!! Texas Death.

[@chriscerovec9898]

Rowdy Roddy Piper is a true legend, an icon & a wonderful human being. He was loved so much in the Portland Oregon area that he didn't wrestle there while in the WWE in respect to Portland promoter Don Owens ..... a father figure to Roddy. So cool to see him be himself on this talk show, Roddy was a genuine person. We love you Rowdy Roddy Piper & you're missed..... RIP RRP 😎⭐️👍❤️

[@controversialhunter8032]

Was, always one of my favorites! Remember set up the Ring at the convention center in SEASIDE ORE. as a kid. Then me n my 3 older brothers would wrestle . Tag team till they opened the doors. The day they all offered us Jobs wrestling Rowdy , really selling me on the Idea kinda kick my self for it but , glad I didn't at the same time. He was such a good man and still miss him and watch his old matches with Andre ,and Hogan.

[@jerrysmith7166]

Roddy was an awesome guy! What fun he is to watch, RIP legendary Roddy Piper!

[@PittsburghMarky]

The wonderful thing about this video is that we're not seeing Roddy Piper interviewed here. We're seeing Roderick Toombs.

[@ROSTAFA]

Respectfully I disagree. It's a work shoot. Still protecting the business.

[@PittsburghMarky]

@@ROSTAFA I know what you mean. All I can say is that when I saw this, I went back to 1985 in my mind. I remember being a big Roddy Piper fan then. And while I wasn't watching this at the time (I don't live in Portland), this was a very different side of him than the character we saw on a weekly basis. It does seem very real.

[@RockyH.]

Yeah I agree.

[@TheCodedtestament]

Vince respected Piper so much that he allowed Piper continue to help booking his home territory in Portland. Piper also would never perform on a WWE Portland card as respect for that promotion that helped make him a huge name. Piper would even still appear on their television. I can't imagine Vince allowing that now lol

[@derekcampbell537]

Roddy piper always told the truth and always shared his opinion he was a true legend and helped the buisness alot...

[@jackjohnson7396]

Roddy was always fun, even in his last interviews.

[@brainhakker7133]

It's so hard to hear him later , I loved him but it was like Over-medication or something .. he was so fast and quick . Loved him always

[@U2BEMatchmaker]

The greatest man that ever lived.

[@philipdefibaugh5683]

It's good to see Kitty who rarely made any appearances when Roddy was a wrestler.

[@jcastanza]

Rathbone is my chiropractor! He till has a practice in Beaverton (Aloha)!! I met Rod at the gym a few years before he passed. He looked very different and frail, but was still in there working hard and was the most down to earth cool dude ever.

[@Markis5150]

To see him here at his peak as a heel,sorta break kayfabe for just abit at times is really rare and a trip to see. You can see him being careful not to be too friendly,he had to keep in character yet he was being respectful to the territory that made him,thats why he did the tv interview. I guess he had to talk a fine line between answering questions that were personal, and also still answering them as Rowdy Roddy Piper would. And yeah for 1985 its awful strange to he him in jeans. Dude is put together to,he looks small next to Hogan,but upclose on camera the guy is really put together. Myself as a kid in 1985, he was my favorite, this guy ruled the scene,jumping midgets and cutting their hair, smashing coconuts on Superflies, beating up jobbers like Frank Williams,trying to break up marriages on live tv between with a pig farmer named Uncle Elmer, whipping the hell out of Mr. T with a belt, mocking and humiliating the hottest female musician in 1984,Cyndi Loopy Lauper, and ofcorse taking chair after chair to the back on Hullk Hogan and Mr. Blunderful. The greatest heel of all time baby. He made everybody else look like yesterday's news. I'm just anther fan but he had many as a heel. I consider myself so lucky to get tweets back from him on Twitter years back, talking about his movie Hell Comes to Frog Town. He made me incredibly happy to do that for me and its something I'll never forget. Miss ya everyday RP. Just when they've got all the answers, he changed the questions. You just don't throw rocks at a guy holding a machine gun. #RIPHotRod

[@randymanmaximus8419]

Very rare interview. Many were quite disrespectful to wrestlers back in the day. Piper could be real while still in Kayfabe and the hosts were very good.

[@jesusguerra1093]

The one and only Rowdy Piper, man I would love to meet this fella. Some people have no idea what this guy is and mean for the world of wrestling, a true legend... The most beloved heel.

[@stacymirba1433]

Thank you for sharing this. As someone who grew up in Michigan I would never have seen this back in the 80's. It's so interesting to see the hometown hero be both himself and the heel at the same time.

[@jgfear]

Loved in Portland even as a “heel”

[@SovereignStatesman]

He's loved EVERYWHERE for chewing bubble-gum and kicking ass, why would his home town be ANY exception?

[@davidjones6470]

I watched this about 10 or more times And I keep on watching it's entertaining Piper did it is way He told the truth and you got to love it! Respect And he help don owens

[@UCKABAH]

These hosts were so respectful of Roddy and wrestling in general, rare for the time.

[@ironcrosstrainingltd6482]

They Live is one of my all time favorite 📽 RIP 🙏🙏

[@jackbarnaba7751]

My favorite Wrestler of all time!

[@timbarry2232]

This was AWESOME!!! Thank you, belatedly (on my part), for posting this!!!

[@jasonbush741]

Fantastic! Thanks for posting. Have to hand it to the male interviewer. He definitely did his homework or was simply just a true fan. Anyone else think Piper was on his best behavior because Kitty was there?

[@universalmanchild]

This is so awesome!

[@Dr.Ballard]

The way Roddy looks at his wife....AWE!

[@ryanjones9498]

I think they hated each other even way back then

[@dallastvmemories]

@@ryanjones9498 What makes you think he and his wife hated one another?

[@WanetaWentz-1qrsw]

Great,great athlete,Prowrestler,actor, and father....rip up there in the squared circle in the heavens...❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@davidwilliams560]

They’ll never be another like him RIP hot rod

[@AlfredoHernandez-vr3wc]

When this was aired I was 15yrs old.Piper was 30yrs old at that time.I watched the WWF in 1986 when i first watched Piper Pit.I was hooked on Pipers pit.If Piper wasn't on WWF I probably wouldn't of watched WWF wrestling.Rowdy Roddy Piper was the real reason I watched wrestling.When I first saw piper was I was about 10yrs old turned on channel 36 in the bay area at that time,watching AWA when piper was wearing a yellow n black kilt with a yellow T shirt in red bold letters on back say 100% Satisfaction Guarantee and wearing a plaid hat playing his bag pipes in the ring before his match started.Another time when rick flair and Rowdy piper exchanged insults:Piper said about Rick Flair is the only guy that needed a map to find his way out of a phone booth and Rick Flair made fun of pipers kilt and rick called pipers kilt a kite and Rick told piper to leave to go fly his kite and piper applied to rick it's called a Kilt and Rick said I dont care what you call your kite just leave the ring and go fly your kite somewhere.That I remember as a kid.This was before HBO and Showtime was invented,which you needed a giant satellite dish and a brown cable box.

[@kevinbarry7475]

Fun fact, Back when Animal of the Road Warriors was starting out in wrestling, Piper said he didn't think he would make it, Animal said he wanted to punch Piper

[@shirleypena4133]

It always deeply impressed me how as drop dead gorgeous as Roddy was (and remained) he chose a real 'plain Jane' for his wife and actually remained married to her til his dying day. It spoke volumes for his character as a man.

[@psingh9248]

Great actor good wrestler. Miss him

[@95SLE]

I love how the phone number in 7 digits. RIP Roddy, simply the best.

[@gregp103]

is* Roddy loved his wife and children and you love the phone number (in) 7 digits. I'm sure Hallmark makes a card for both occasions.

[@DarkSkies72]

Awe, I loved Roddy. A true Canadian who had some demons. I think his childhood really hurt him, being on the streets as a kid, he had to grow up fast. He was used & abused. Wrestlers really put there bodies through hell and you could see he was in pain a lot throughout his life. I recognized it because my father was the same way from his drinking/fighting days. Roddy was hilarious, Pipers Pit was hysterical. When he beat Snuka with that coconut, lol, he said that pretty much ended Snuka’s career, it never recovered. After Roddys death we found out Snuka killed his girlfriend but was too senile to stand trial. Watching Celebrity Ghost Stories was sad to because you could see that the death of wrestlers that went before him actually haunted Roddy. In that episode he said he wanted to go to sleep and never wake up, that’s exactly what happened too. Piper is a legend. Rest well, boss. #RIPRoddyPiper 🙏🏼🇨🇦

[@dougiewugs5434]

I remember seeing this live. Classic.

[@battlestarmarc]

Piper was a great heel talker. Piper was perhaps the best heel ever .

[@aaronbrown3668]

Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan put wrestling on the map.

[@SovereignStatesman]

Buddy Rose made Adrian Adonis look like Rick Rude.

[@troyelich9307]

Hot Rod at his finest!!! Awesome!

[@nicolekatja5533]

Thanks a lot for sharing !!! Love your videos !!!!!

[@alloutofbubblegumRP]

No problem. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@jdbankshot]

All Out of Bubblegum holy shit on a stick, this is pure gold! thank you sooooo much! i've been a huge fan of roddy since his mid-atlantic days in 1982. i'm 39 now, & can't get enough of rare "rowdy". have you read his book? if not, find it, it's excellent! thanks again, great upload, keep em coming, & if you've got some of his late 70's matches from los angeles, that would be very freakin' cool!

[@alloutofbubblegumRP]

jdbankshot Thanks for the kind words. I don't think I have any other Los Angeles footage bar the Moondog Mayne promo I have up. And yes, I have read his book. It was a good read.

[@TakersMissy]

+jdbankshot I don't think it's possible to get enough of "Rowdy"! :-) He had pure God-given talent that never gets old!

[@fizzy4149]

"Get a job at a car wash." So quick witted!!

[@conoroboyle4547]

The baby that they had was Teal Piper, she was born 7th June, so obviously she was really late if she was due on the day of the interview. Great upload!

[@stevengallant6363]

The day of the interview was May 21st 1985 my 11 th birthday. Where does the time go?

[@scottsteele3368]

You know he loved being back in Portland heeling out.

[@mogg34y]

Great find. Roddy piper the best heel and my favs !

[@jdjjdjd2667]

Next 2 an average size man, Roddy is a BIG Dude!

[@harrykadaras9459]

I saw him back then, and he looked over 6 feet. 10 years later, he looked like he lost 2 inches, easily....maybe more

[@harlemcaron9094]

Legendary

[@rmartin7558]

2:45 For you non-Canadians, a grade eight education is an eighth grade education.

[@luisquinones1977]

My Mother's all time favorite wrestler.

[@SupesMe]

It had to be so hard for him when a Little kid would ask him "Why are you bad?" I mean he kept Kayfabe & all but I bet it hurt a little inside

[@aaronbentley5469]

Awesome

[@andymassingham]

A study of how to keep kayfabe alive when you're money as face and heel. You could see how hard Pipes was working...

[@willd4731]

andy massingham what is kayfabe

[@michaelrubin4832]

He wasn't kayfabe guys get hurt constantly

[@ronmichaels9206]

I think that remark was in reference to the little boy's question about how can he be bad in New York but good in Portland

[@andymassingham]

Ron Michaels Yup, Piper did a great swerve. He was quick.

[@SovereignStatesman]

Yep, he went to his grave maintaining that the coconut was real ... but he never said it wasn't GIMMICKED.

[@bc1969214]

What happened to that All My Children plan to have Roddy and Hogan on? Didn't go forward according to imdb.

[@philipdefibaugh5683]

This interview reminds me of Memphis with Jerry the King Lawler where he's polite to his hometown audience but an evil heel everywhere else.

[@brianjansen3103]

'They wanna put their name on the bottom of his shoes cuz that's where it's seen most.'

[@SLiMCHiCKeN5150]

Vince should be made accountable for all the wrestlers that had health issues and suffered cte and other injuries with no help. 🤟 You just need to listen to his wife talk about the week up to his death

[@dallastvmemories]

Where can I hear his wife talk about the week up to his death?

[@jasonpdsi]

I think what worked here is that the Pacific Northwest has always been kind of an outlier in the eyes of literally every other part of the country. There's always been this kind of us vs. the world mentality here (I'm from Vancouver, Washington) and I think that fit very well with Roddy's rebel persona.

[@mistymage]

so awesome to see him Him, at his finest.. damn, wish the olden days recording media was better.. at least the sound worked (with a hiss) even if the pic part went all Gaussian

[@psfgtech]

Beam me back in time

[@BrianPiperata-ov2yu]

Love ya piper

[@jnicholson79jn]

In rewatching this I noticed something I didnt catch the first time. Sports Illustrated used the term "heel" in 1985. That must've pissed some people off, lol.

[@martyhelfrich8239]

I really miss Roddy Piper. I hated him as a heel, he was so effective in doing so. His mic skills are the best. His psychology is the best. RIP Hot Rod.

[@paularyche]

Call it like you see it Roddy !!💪🏽

[@CARTOONIVERSE1]

Roddy references 🍁The Littlest Hobo🍁 in this interview!

[@nicklengyel6710]

Its a kilt not a skirt

[@davidwesley2525]

Same Thing 😅😅😅

[@ericarcieri3836]

Back in the day when wrestlers weren’t handcuffed to one promotion

[@jackytreehornsghost]

The Rowdy One.

[@joeybrabham8091]

Class act show!

[@joeygana8864]

ME, THATS RIGHT HOT ROD, THE GOAT, THE REAL ICON! Nash Never PUNKED Piper, Nash did smack him, and Piper went right after him, Curt HENNING has even said Nash didn’t want to fight Roddy.

[@ianmeadows5937]

Joey Gana you are my brother

[@KaneRobot]

Yeah, because you were there. Learn to spell Hennig.

[@jbrunty1989]

Nash is fucking mark that rode hogans coattails

[@AmericanPhilosophyNetwork]

"You better say that she's my wife." "Yes, and she is a very beautiful lady..."

[@charleebrown7188]

The only kayfabe here a promo on Cindy Lauper, which he turned into a valid point. He could have been a better actor than The Rock, some say he was anyway. Dwayne hasn't been in a film as good as "They Live" in my opinion.

[@trinityj1]

He was definitely a much better actor than the Rock. Rock is charismatic and fun to watch, but he can't actually act.

[@harrykadaras9459]

​@trinityj1 Rock's acting was pretty cheesy...Piper's wasn't - in fact, Piper was believable

[@joeygana8864]

Roddy should of got that shot vs Flair at WM8, Not Savage, and besides Piper, Savage, and HBK are right after in that order, piper should of won the WWF Title, and Had Savage put Bret over For the IC title, IMO, besides Hogan, Andre, Superfly, and Piper they were the ones that helped Vince jr take off in late 83, early 84, Savage didn’t start in WWF until summer of 85.

[@hattorihanzo2275]

Piper was a monster heel yet loved in Portland. They would try to cancel Piper in PDX these days.

[@SupesMe]

He was on "All my Children"?

[@1sportsfan]

11:06 It's still real to him, damn it

[@AceGoodheart]

It must have been crazy and hard to keep kayfabe (the act) back in those days. Now days wrestlers can just be themselves on social media, talk shows, etc... Back then, if they were a heel (bad guy) they had to keep up the bad guy act during every interview. The reason wrestlers, even today, don't appreciate the term "fake" is because of the wear and tear they put on their bodies. They get injured quite often. It's an extremely physical job and their bodies take a huge toll over time. It's entertainment in that they play a character and the matches and storylines are scripted. But it's real when you jump off the top of the ropes onto a table or another person. It's real when they get hit on the back or head with a chair. There's a reason these guys and girls get broken bones and torn ligaments. It's not "Fake" to them.

[@rowdylilpiper1379]

Golly!!! I'm tiny compared to you❤

[@horizontoday7874]

So weird seeing him in pants

[@ralphgoodman4670]

He always wears pants when he's chewing bubble gum.

[@PittsburghMarky]

What if he was all out of bubblegum three years before he was all out of bubblegum?

[@111oooo]

From Canada not Scotland

[@ralphgoodman4670]

You realize the Undertaker's not a real undertaker either, right?

[@seamus1956]

Roderick Toombs was from Canada, Roddy Piper billed from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@simonmadi1177]

@@ralphgoodman4670 But Paul Bearer was a real mortician, He had his mortician license. Percy Pringle, Real name William Moody.

[@thespaceram2879]

Roddy is Scottish descent.

[@Falkowski82]

Did rowddy fart at the start of the interview

[@Itanium153]

This interview cpu;d have went better.

[@culwin]

Get a job at a carwash! Great advice!

[@charlesgreen8703]

“I’m kinder to children than the Walton’s”

[@ROSTAFA]

He would never wrestle with WWE in Portland cause he respected Don Owen's too much. He was old school.

[@joegausch]

No- because Portland had the toughest Steroid laws on the books at the time. He was only loyal to himself..

[@ROSTAFA]

@@joegausch is that accurate? If do, then he lied.

[@justinbeetle2594]

@@ROSTAFA it's true WWF never came to Oregon in the 80's and 90's (WCW didn't either) because of the steroid laws. It wasn't till like 2004 after it became WWE that it ended up coming back to Oregon

[@ROSTAFA]

@@justinbeetle2594 I actually remember that show in 2004 oddly enough.

[@ROSTAFA]

Kayfabe

[@willietwilligerrock7661]

He was a Canadian not a Scotsman. Talk about not breaking KayFabe

[@thespaceram2879]

Rowdy is Scottish descent. His last name Tombs is Scottish. He is also Scottish.

[@harrykadaras9459]

​​​@@thespaceram2879Toombs. Scottish blooded, but he was a Canadian

[@thespaceram2879]

@@harrykadaras9459 I didn't say he wasn't . He descends from Scottish.

[@AaronCreech]

He told him to get a job at a carwash, lmao!🤣🤣🤣

[@user-ft6og5vl6n]

At the beginning of the interview, you can clearly see how much bigger Piper is than both hosts. Much taller and much bigger in size. He could have easily squashed the male host, if he wanted to. But, he Piper was a good sport.

[@dougschadel8094]

Great Interview back when people really believed it was real

[@CYPlusteam]

he farted -lol great man RIP

[@theoneanton]

He seems so defensive amd damaged here