The Empire Music hall Belfast had the absolute honour of being graced by the presence of greatness on Thursday the 17th of July when it hosted ‘An Audience with Rowdy Roddy Piper’. ‘Hot Rod’ continued his tour to settle the score beginning with a meet and greet, which by all accounts was a roaring success and for the rest of the unwashed masses doors were 7:30pm.
A packed Music Hall was greeted with a concession desk for all your t-shirt needs (an absolute necessity at any Wrasslin’ related show), it was standing room only and we found a good place to see the show (optimum distance between bar, stage and toilets). Billy Kirkwood and Chris Brooker (the tour organiser who also brought us Nigel McGuinness and Mick Foley) give us some wrestling fan boy comedy and were the perfect curtain jerkers before the main event with their wrestling insider self-deprecating back and forth.
Then the moment we were all waiting for Rowdy Roddy Piper was there right in front of our eyes like a wrestling God (joined on stage by a projection screen for explanatory slide purposes). At this point I feel the need to point out that I love the John Carpenter film ‘They live’ starring Rowdy Roddy and never was a fan of Pipers nemesis Hulk Hogan. I am, was and always will be a Roddy Piper guy.
Hot Rod then went on to give us a fantastic, at times meandering, journey from hardened down and out street kid Roderick Toombs to being one of the biggest draws in the history of wrestling – Rowdy Roddy Piper. At times Piper lost his place and needed prompting, understandable from a 60 year old man with a more than full ‘bump card’. However, when in full flight Piper shows what really made him great, the ability to talk them into the building, accompanied by his unapologetic honesty. Some of the show highlights include his stories starting out as a young wrestler in AWA travelling with grizzled veteran Mad Dog Vachon (uncle of Luna for any 90’s WWF fans) who give him an interesting nickname. The stories of Ric Flair are legendary and Piper paints a great picture of a plane incident which ended up in his own arrest due to a case of mistaken identity. He give us the story behind his look for the match he had with Bad News Brown and Vince McMahons enthusiastic reaction. He ends this part of the show with stories about Vince on Pipers Pit which resulted in his 3rd firing from World Wrestling Entertainment and reminds us all why he’s one of the greatest to have ever graced the squared circle.
We then get a Q&A (which is standard fair) with Piper getting a little bit dark at times talking about some of his fallen friends, including the story of Owens Harts death. He ended the night talking about his ex-tag team partner the Adorable Adrian Adonis and with that we’re spent.
Roddy Piper put on a great show. He was both hilarious and entertaining, a must see for any hardcore wrestling fan. He came to chew bubble gum and kickass and he was most definitely all out of bubble gum.
