The first WrestleMania in WWE the story was almost ruined in an instant. One of the biggest business decisions of Vince McMahon’s career as a promoter, WrestleMania would help launch WWE into the global superpower it is today. If the first edition had been a failure, the company’s lifespan would not have been as long. As fans know, the first WrestleMania was a resounding success, but the event nearly ended in disaster.
On YouTube, during the B4 the Bell podcast, a host, Chris Burns, revealed that a previous conversation with the late Roddy Piper saw the Rowdy One insinuate that he almost considered killing Mr. T during the main event of WWE’s first WrestleMania. The real fight that broke out behind the scenes between Mr. T and Roddy Piper has been well documented, but this is the first time it’s been said that Piper hated him enough to want to kill him.
To better understand why Roddy Piper wanted to kill Mr. T, you need to understand the rivalry the two had on and off screen.
WWE Stories Leading Up to WrestleMania I
Roddy Piper and Mr. Piper’s First Confrontation
Before diving into what was going on behind the scenes at WWE during the feud, it’s more appropriate recap what was happening in kayfabe to bring Mr. T and Roddy Piper together on screen for the first time. Heading into WWE’s first WrestleMania, the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling initiative was in full swing. This era was defined by WWE Superstars moving into the mainstream alongside high-profile celebrities, thanks to Cyndi Lauper. She met WWE Captain Lou Albano on a plane ride, leading to her cameo in his “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” music video.
Lauper would return the favor with several WWE appearances, leading other celebrities to follow suit, but this didn’t sit well with future movie star Roddy Piper. Around the same time the company launched its Rock ‘n’ Wrestling era, Roddy Piper launched his talk show segment, Piper’s Pit, where he aired some of WWE’s best on-air promos. With his bodyguard “Cowboy” Bob Orton in tow, The Hot Rod would spend a series of Piper’s Pit segments criticizing the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling connection and taking particular aim at Cyndi Lauper.
This would culminate when Cyndi Lauper received a special achievement award in a WWE ring for bridging the gap between rock ‘n’ roll and professional wrestling. Piper would interrupt, breaking the prize over Lou Albano’s head, even attacking Lauper before WWE Champion Hulk Hogan made the save. This led to Piper and Hogan facing off with Hogan’s title on the line on the MTV special The War to Settle the Score on February 18, 1985. Hogan arrived at the ring flanked by Lauper and Albano, while his good friend Mr. T watched from the front row.
The fight would end in disqualification when “Mr Wonderful” Paul Ordnoff (who co-signed Roddy’s initial attack on Lauper, saying she “deserved to be arrested“ because she had nothing to do with a wrestling ring) hit the ring to attack Hogan while the referee was unconscious. Mr. T would jump over the barricade to savewhich led to Piper criticizing “this stupid guy with a ridiculous haircut” in a backstage promo moments later. This would lead to a tag team match between the team of Hulk Hogan and Mr. T and Roddy Piper and Paul Ordnoff at the following month’s WrestleMania.
Did Roddy Piper and Mr. T hate each other in real life?
A one-sided hatred
As fun as it was to see Mr. T and Roddy Piper working together in a WWE ring, it may not have been as pleasant for both parties involved. Before dying, Piper has expressed in several interviews and documentaries her displeasure with Mr.. This mostly stemmed from the fact that Piper grew up with the old school mentality that wrestlers needed to earn their place in that ring. For Piper, seeing a celebrity like Mr. T waltzing into the main event of the biggest wrestling show of all time, with no prior experience, stealing the spotlight (and payday) from wrestlers who had paid their dues, just wasn’t going to happen. right.
Piper considered the idea an affront to himself and the wrestling business as a whole. He didn’t respect Mr. T as a celebrity who risked exposing the business, nor as a man who mixed Dom Pérignon with orange juice (something Piper often mentioned in interviews as a reason to judge the Team A star). Piper often criticized Mr. T and her perception of him in photo interviews, which is funny, because Mr. T has the opposite memory of his time with Piper.
If Piper truly despised Mr. T, the feeling wasn’t mutual. Mr. T described Roddy Piper as a consummate professional in interviews like WrestlingInc. There, the actor admits that the wrestlers thought he was a “creampuff” for stepping on their territory, but Piper still treated him with respect, insinuating that any feud between them was trying to sell a plot and they had no problems off-screen. T clearly has no issues with Piper, but it’s hard to believe that Piper would keep kayfabe alive decades after their feud.
Roddy Piper wanted to kill Mr. T at WrestleMania
And I knew exactly how to do it
B4 the Bell is hosted by three comedians – Martin Morrow, Clayton Thomas and Chris Burns – with varying degrees of wrestling insight based on their direct and indirect affiliations with WWE through working relationships and friendships. Chris Burns – who has dealt directly with WWE in the past, most notably as part of Sami Zayn’s touring comedy shows Sami Zayn & Friends – remembers meeting Piper at a convention. As Chris Burns would recall on the podcast, this is what The Hot Rod told him:
I can – again, within baseball – count [Piper] I wasn’t a fan of Hulk Hogan, [but] more so, Mr. T. I mean, rest in peace, Roddy, I don’t think he’d have any problems if I told that story. He was legitimately going to kill Mr. T. I’m not kidding. He said, he thought, “You know what? If I just suplex him and arch a certain way, he’ll fall on his neck, they can’t tell me I did it on purpose.” [Piper] I had that thought several times, and then I thought, “I’m not going to mess up WrestleMania like that.”
The way Burns describes it, at some point before or during the match, Piper’s frustrations with Mr. T’s presence inspired him to come up with the idea of performing a move – the back suplex – on him in a way that would appear botched. fatal consequences. At that time, Piper had already been fighting for 17 years, so there is no doubt that he had the ability to know how to make something intentional look like a mistake.
If this is true, Piper’s hatred of Mr. T and the idea of a celebrity entering a wrestling ring Truly limited in killer territory. The biggest ramification of this moment – besides murdering a man, of course – is the effect it would have on WrestleMania. If this had happened, it would have changed the course of history since it’s not likely WWE would have another WrestleMania if a celebrity died live. WrestleMania’s main event really could have ended in disaster, and how WWE If success depended entirely on this event, the company’s fate would also have been disrupted.