Roddy Piper Moment WWE Tried to Erase: Sean Mooney Shares All

Relive one of the most shocking and talked-about moments in WWE history as Sean Mooney opens up about Roddy Piper painting himself half black at WrestleMania 6! In this exclusive breakdown, we dive deep into the behind-the-scenes stories, Piper’s controversial decision, and the lasting impact it had on wrestling fans worldwide.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Controversial moments is a topic today and count with Sean Mooney. Sean,
the Golden Era has had so many crazy moments, but
today I think is one of the craziest.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, right up there.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
And if you say, you know, I'll give you three
guesses who's involved from that era, I think you would
probably come up with the person. Anything involving rowdy Roddy
Piper at the time was always kind of on the edge.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
He liked it that way.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
And then of course you bring into that mix bad
News Brown allan coach. Yeah, it was kind of destined
to be something people would be talking about for decades.
I don't know if they realized it at the time,
but you know, very sensitive topic back then. It remains
that way today.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yes, we're gonna put our sensitive gloves on today because
we're gonna have to tiptoe around some of the topics.
Obviously were brought up in nineteen nineteen. In today's world,
it's still talked about. But what's interesting about this is
we did a whole episode about Sartain slaughter At being
an Iraqi sympathizer. Huge, oh my god moments. I can't
believe this happened. That's not brought up as much as

(01:19):
Roddy Piper wearing black face paint at WrestleMania six, And
it's just because it's more it's a racy comment versus
that Gulf War was a time capsule and that happened then,
versus there's still problems in today's world with race.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Mm hmm, yeah, you know, I think that there was
a period of time not too we were much further
ahead as far as that went. But it's as we
see what's happening today. Even it's it's still there's a topic.

(01:55):
And you mentioned this, this whole blackface There is a
long list the people whose careers were left in tatters
after either doing something involving that or commenting on it.
So it's it really is amazing. And even back then,
I mean, we know, of course today you couldn't even

(02:17):
approach the subject to do something like that, but even
back then it was a very sensitive topic. And as
you know, Roddy tells the story of when they were
discussing this angle that somehow Vince blessed it, and you know,
and Vince always wanted to be that guy that pushed

(02:38):
the envelope and you know, would get headlines out of
it in a sense. But I think probably looking back,
as we discuss, probably should have left that one in
the room before they decided it was going to be
something that was worth doing.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
Yeah, I agree with that one.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
And over the years in today's pulp culture, off the
top of my head, I have seen Jimmy Kimmel try
to get canceled multiple times by individuals because he did
a segment which I should have been.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
I mean, if you go by all the things that
you know, we've seen happen to other people, man, you
dig into the archives with him, and the stuff he
did with the karm alone, it was just shocking. You
see it today and you're just like nobody he got
away with this skin.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
He still has a TV show, and it's not.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Just the.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Costuming of it, but the voices that he used, and
really it's amazing that But that's that's certainly a clear example.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, that's one and then the most recent one in
my brain. But it's a comedy show, and I don't
know if it's right or wrong. It's always sunny. In Philadelphia,
they were making a lethal weapon five and it has
only been four of them originally, and they one of
the guys does blackfaces that and they swapp places and
they finally get a guy to not.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
Be covered in black face.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
It's a big controversial moment, but that show is known
for being controversial, so it's kind of like, well, is
it okay?

Speaker 4 (04:08):
Is it not okay? And it comes down to it.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
And but today with Piper, this is something that I
wanted to go revisit. I wanted to go back and
watch it on Peacock because currently as we podcast, that's
where you can.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
Find the archives of the w WE. Well Wrestlmania six.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
If you watched the original broadcast, it goes Bruce Beefcake
shaving off the genius is hair. Then we go backstage
to Piper with his promo. Then we go to the
ring with Piper versus Brown. After that, Steve Allen's in
the bathroom with Bolsheviks.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yet Yeah, which happens to be one of my favorite moments.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
It's one of the the funniest.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Moments that ever ever was captured by the WWE. It's
Steve Allen and I know, oh, just remember that that.
It was hilarious the whole premise of it. In the
shower with the Bolsheviks, you know, Nikolai and Boris and

(05:10):
their their deadpanned reaction and try, oh man, just classic moment.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Thank you for sharing that, because.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
It is a fun moment, because I did watch it,
because like last night, I put on Rustlinia six, I
fast forward and watched a thousand commercials to get to
this moment. But it was Beefcake at the end of
beef Cake and Genius. So then the promo's supposed to
come up. It doesn't come up. All right, I'm thinking,
I'm thinking, oh, they deleted the promo. We'll have the match.
The match is a race as well. Yes, it is

(05:39):
a race from history. They also when Peacock or even
when the WW network was invented, they started racing history.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
They started releasing like Degeneration X.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
We went blackface as a nation of domination during the
Attitude era.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
They did it. But that's not brought up.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
That's not one of those moments where we all go
top ten worst moments, Top ten, this moment, but the
Piper moment rest when.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
You's six erase from history, how do you feel about that?

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Is it okay to learn from our history or erase
all things that offended us?

Speaker 2 (06:12):
No? I think the former to that.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
I believe that, you know, making things disappear you don't
learn any lessons from And that's why I feel about
with history that as we look back, that that's how
we get better. We see what we did along the way,
and it's says with life and you say, Okay, that

(06:35):
was a bad idea and I'm not going to do
that again, and others should learn from it, and that's
how you do. So yeah, I'm I don't like when
we do that because it just opens a whole door
to erase anything that you don't like or disagree with that.
You know, history is what it is and it should
be left that way and hopefully we learn from our

(06:57):
lessons and we become better.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
So yeah, I don't.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
I didn't The idea that you know, you just suddenly
just make things disappear like it didn't happen is is
just pretty crazy to me.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, like newer fans, if they want to go back
and watch Restmania six, they would watch it, say for
the first time. So you're a little kid, you discover wrestling,
you go back, you watch all the wrestmanias. You wouldn't
see this, you wouldn't even probably know about it, and
then years later, maybe on YouTube or maybe on an article,
it would pop up like, oh my god, most controversial
wrestlming you moments, and this was one.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
This kid won't have a clue what happened.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
So is it trying to whitewash in a way of like, well, yes,
that was bad, but we don't want our newer fans
to know we did this.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
We we'd rather you older fans.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
That's fine if you can remember, but we don't want
newer people in new advertisers to see that we have
this awful moment.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
We don't want to put a spotlight on ever.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, well, and I think that maybe you're looking even
too deep there, that their whole thought was, you know,
just get rid of it, you know. So then and
it just doesn't come up. People can't find it. It
doesn't become this, you know, find find this egg and
expose it again. You know, it's out there. But I

(08:13):
think was there thinking is just say and and for
that image of looking.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Look what we did.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
You know, we recognize that we have made mistakes in
the past and we have eliminated it. So I'm sure
that kind of was the thinking of it. I don't
know if they thought that deep into saying try to
evaluate it and what kind of reaction were in again,
and I think it was just chop it out, as
as they've done with many, many, many other things along

(08:40):
the way. So I mean that's you know, the argument
about should anything exist with ben wah Right, that's another
been shot for mystery, and it's like, well, there's a
lot of other matches that he was involved in where
this you're not going to break it down, and what

(09:01):
happened to the guy was just it's wrestling.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Uh. And also he was part of that history.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
So I don't know what eliminating something like that from
their archives does anyway. I mean, it's not going to
make anybody go out and commit mass murder.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
So I don't get it. So that I just think.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
Overall, you just you you you know, within reason, as
long as it's not something that is beyond as far
as you know moral or or you know, explicit or
something like that, or you're protect protecting children. History is
what it is, and you leave you need to let

(09:44):
it remain intact. Maybe you put up another firewall to
get to it. Uh, you know, you got to be
so certain age to see it. I don't that's another argument.
But I think really before we get into this, Steve is,
I think we need to talk about these two personnel,
these that were involved in it.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Of course at the top of Rowdy.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Roddy Piper, and Roddy was a really really unique individual.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
I think that's putting it mildly in a sense.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
And yes, and I always really liked Roddy. I just
he was a very different person. You'd have these crazy
conversations with him because he could talk on all these
different topics and you're a lot of times you're going.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Wow, that's out there. But he was to me.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
One of the originals, you know, in a sense that
discovered early on is that you just got to be
who you are. And and that's that's the way Roddy
always was. And he was always thinking out of the
box of being different. I don't know if it was
a concerted effort to say, it was just the way
he was. And he would, you know, make all kinds

(10:57):
of notes on things that he encountered along the way
and would come up with these ideas and what he
would do with his promos and and always wanted it
was just he's he's outside, he's outside the boxer. He
just doesn't do anything the way you think he's going
to do it, and it served him well. I do

(11:20):
think some part of him that was I'm just I'm
to put it mine like out there. And whether that later.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
In life it.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Impacted him a lot more. I think that might have
been the case, because I don't know. I wasn't around
at that point. I saw him in Saint Louis when
I was brought back for the uh the event back
there that I took I've told you about where I
took my son for raw and and he.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Was just awesome.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
He was so great to my son and literally took
the shirt off his back and gave it to him.
He had one of his Roddy T shirts and you know,
just had a heart of gold. I mean, he just
did things for people. But he could also be on
the other end. There was a lot a lot to him.

(12:17):
He was very complicated. He was also one of the
first ones. You know, we talk about Hulk and these
guys that you know started doing movies and stuff.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Well, Roddy was doing some a lot of acting.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
He made some friends in Hollywood and and there's still
like these cult classics out there. I think frog Town.
It's one of those movies that has you know, this
following and the stuff that Roddy did back then. But
I mean he was a pretty good actor. He was,
you know, I thought, very believable in the role that

(12:51):
he put in. You know, like the like Hulk wasn't
Hulk was always Ulk, you know, he was. He just
we can get into what his his acting chops, but.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Roddy, Roddy had was shit. Man.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
He really uh did a good job acting and and
did a lot of stuff. So Who's one of the
first My point is that he was one of the
first that kind of crossed that line and he it
was they weren't blockbusters, but he appeared in a lot
of television shows.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
He appeared in uh, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
Movies and uh he he kind of led led the
way there where it was like first one where that
was really in uh, you know, these recognizable movies. Him
and him and Jesse definitely, Yeah and Jesse too, yes, exactly. So, uh,
you know, Roddy was a complicated guy. He had an

(13:43):
interesting upbringing and how he got into the business. But uh,
I wanted to really talk about, you know, who he was,
because that had a lot to do with his the
thinking I think behind this that he really believed he
wasn't making some kind of uh you know, it wasn't

(14:04):
just the angle, and uh, you know, he he really
felt that because.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
At the time there was a lot of this going on.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Earlier we had had seen you know, Ebony and Ivory
with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
And then he mentions, uh, you know, Cindy.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
Lauper and True Color that that his statement was they
wanted to make you know, there's no there's no.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Colors, like, we're all just people.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
But anytime you you know, you try and do something
like that, you're not there. There's going to be a
lot of people out there that that take it wrong.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
So I'll put it that way. And then you had
Alan Coach, who.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Was this guy that literally they built him from Harlem.
He grew up on the streets of Harlem. He was
a bad question about bad news. Brown and a judo
champion who won a bronze medal at the seventy six Olympics, and.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
That didn't do a whole lot for him.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
You know, you had maybe boxers got more recognition, but
a judo champion was kind of you know, you're not
gonna put they weren't putting them on the and so
he had to find another way to capitalize on it.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
And that brought him.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
To to professional wrestling. And you know when he got
into that, I mean he was trained by Antonio Ink.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
I mean that's that that you know, he had some pet.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
Where he came in and it also set the stage
of where how he would perform in the ring.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
You know, I.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Should a bit stiff, but what do you mean? Yeah,
I mean he knew now how to deliver. He could
do what what was uh you as far as the
matches went, but you didn't want to cross that guy.
So and and uh and Roddy could be a difficult
guy to get along with. So this was kind of

(16:06):
like uh, you know, dynamite and a just somebody waiting
for somebody to light it and uh, you know, bad
news even talks about when they're When he had heard that,
uh they were going to be working together, uh, he
was saying, you know, I don't like the guy, and
I knew at some point I was gonna have to
kick his ass, like you know, legit and uh then

(16:28):
uh yeah, and then of course when it all came
down to it, uh, the two of them refusing to
uh do a job for the other. And we'll talk
more about that, but there you have it. As we
go into this with with these two very large personalities

(16:48):
that could be shall we say, prickly could they could
they could you know, uh be a little tough and
difficult to work with, and that's that's not a good
mix when he got both of them coming tother.

Speaker 4 (17:01):
No, it definitely does not.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
And I want to talk about everything you talk about,
but one thing I want to say is when Crispin
Wa had matched. This is like forever ago we talked
about this, Crispin Wa had matches on the network. He
didn't have a dot to acknowledge it was a Crispin
Wa match. So if you went on Peacock, went on
ww network, they had dots for matches like, oh, next up,
it's Hogan versus earthquake or whatever.

Speaker 4 (17:23):
With Crispin Wah, there was no dot. So they put
all those matches in.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Didn't erase him, but didn't put a dot to acknowledge him.

Speaker 4 (17:29):
RESTMENA is six. This is missing from everywhere.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
There's no imaginary dot where you can skip over by accident.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
Or see it by accident. It's gone.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
And what you just said about these two men coming together, Ben,
excuse me bad news.

Speaker 4 (17:42):
Brown and Piper.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Piper just got off a rivalry with ravishing Rick Rude,
and so he's been doing that.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
And Piper's been in and out too of the WWF.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
At this time in eighty seven, Restmenia three was supposed
to be his last match.

Speaker 4 (17:54):
Yeah, that was not the facts. But he did so
many great movies. As you brought up too.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
One of the most famous lines, if I don't want
to watch it is I came here to kick ass
and chew bubble gum.

Speaker 4 (18:04):
Well I'm all out of bubble gum to people still
quote that today.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
He even was on again bringing up again always Sunny
in Philadelphia. He played a professional wrestler who lived out
of his car and beat people up.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
So he was He's been all over the place. I
always enjoyed Piper and acting.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
And as you acknowledge Hogan's acting, it was Hog Cogan
with a different name. When Piper was acting, it was
just I don't know, I could see his acting skills,
but it was just a little different versions of Piper
where suddenly the subtleties made it seem like I didn't
have to go. I think that's Ridy Piper. I think
that's Rudy Piper. Hogan was playing Hogan. Betnws Brown at

(18:44):
this point in time too, has been around.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
For a while.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
He has wrestled in a battle Royal WrestleMania where it
looked like he was about to win, but Brett Hart
does and the trophy gets Ben New's Brown wins.

Speaker 4 (18:57):
And they destroy the trophy. So these two.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
Personalities heading into this have a problem with losing. Roney
Piper is known for a wrestler who doesn't like to lose.
How do you, as someone who worked there, how do
you even acknowledge that? It's like, well, I don't want
to lose, but yet you're not in real fights. Why
losing and winning is so important to you when you're

(19:20):
already established like a person like Rony Piper.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
Well, and you know, like you said, it's we know
it's not. These aren't real matches or whatever you want
to call them, but it is all about the idea
is how you are respected, and if you lose your
your you know, you lose to somebody and then it
takes you down a few as far as uh, your
marquee like attracting people to coming to want to come

(19:47):
and see you.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
And uh, so.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
You know, Alan Coach says he The way he explains
is that I I never really had a problem with
with doing a job. I wasn't that that wasn't my
The thing was, I was out there to make money
and uh and it had to make sense to me.

Speaker 5 (20:06):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
He he knew how the business worked.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
Obviously, it wasn't easy an easy road for him, and
so that would mean that meant a lot to him.
So and he even said, well, you know, I was
willing to do it, but he had to do a
job for me. You know, we had you got to
give it back and and uh, the way the story
goes is that Roddy wasn't willing to do that.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
So why do you think that though?

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Why was his bad news brand? Wasn't a bad character
or a bad gimmick? Or he doesn't like the person
Maybe he doesn't like actually the person.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
That that was.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
That was part of it that happened more than once
where the guy just said I don't want to I
don't want to put him over.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
I don't like the guy.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
I don't like the way he operates in there, so
that that certainly was was part of it. But you know,
bottom line for for bad News Brown was that you know,
pay me, uh you know. He he claims that that
there was a huge disparity in their pay that you know,
Roddy got fifth, got ten and two thousand and Canadian

(21:08):
and said, you know, that was it for me.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
And also there is.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
The what was out there that he said that you know,
Vince had promised that he would be the first black
w W favueight champion and didn't come through. And that's
what finally he said, I've had enough. But there is
a point too, Steve, you got to think about it,
and I think Roddy was was guilty of in a

(21:33):
sense too, is that you know, you get in your
own way in a sense, and I think that that
that's what hurts bad News Brown throughout his career.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
He he grew up with this.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
You know idea, I'm not going to take ship from anybody,
and didn't his entire life. But at some point you've
got to learn to play. You gotta you gotta uh
you know, play the game. You gotta be part of
the business. And it's give and take. And if you're
always defiant or or having this idea that they're trying

(22:06):
to screw me or they're you know, they're not getting
there somebody they're giving him, you know, he's getting the
edge over me. And uh, you don't even have to
bring you know, race into this.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
It's they it's the.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Law of the jungle that you know that, that's how
it works in wrestling, that you know that, Uh, it's
who's ever on top and whoever they think is going
to put more people in the seats. And I think
that Roddy had it was was kind of guilty of
that too, that you know, that defiance and he would
he would have an idea that you know that in

(22:40):
his head and whether it was right or wrong. But
he was a he was a stubborn dude man Like
if he thought whatever, you couldn't change his mind no
matter what you did. And it may have made no sense,
it may have been been anything, uh that he well,
you know, I'm just saying anything that set him off there,
but that he would lock in and say I'm not

(23:01):
gonna do that, and you couldn't. There's no matter what
you did, uh, that was going to change his mind.
So I think in some cases with these guys especially,
they got in their own way as far as get
being more successful that you have you have to you know,
you have to know.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
How it works.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
And uh, some of the best in the in the
business knew, okay, this will work. If I if I
do a job for this guy, will It's actually going
to create more heat between us. It's gonna lung, it's
gonna make this storyline last longer. It's going to go,
you know, because they understood how it worked. They understood
the psychology of the business. Instead of looking at like

(23:40):
They're going to make me lose and I'm going to
look bad, That's not how it happens.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
And you and you.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
Know, Randy Savage was a classic example of a guy
like that that totally understood how that worked. When when
was it when you would take when you would take
a loss because it was building for something even know
ten times bigger.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah, now I agree, But I see the idea of
the law of a jungle where Piper is like, well,
if I lose, that brings down my value. So when
I want to go somewhere else, so I want to
go do something else, I can't go to the movie
company's studios and be like, hey, I should be in
these movies again, Like an't you're a loser on television. Now,

(24:24):
I'm not saying that's the case. Well, you can be
a star and still lose at the same time. But
and I've known these stories for years about Piper. Just
go back to WrestleMania's or go back to Hulkgan and
you watch their matches.

Speaker 4 (24:36):
There's really no winners because.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
You know, Steve, at some point, you can't if you
win all the time. Where's the drama, where's the comeback,
where's the resilience, where's the you know, that's that's the
human nature. That's what that's what wrestling is all about.
It's that adversity you face.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
And then you meet your match and you're down, and
you're down, and you're down, and then you with Hulk
with the arm.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
You know, it's the same thing. So you can't win
all the time. That's the that's there's no story there.
So uh, it's just you have to understand when it
when it works, and when it doesn't, when it does
hurts your your standing because you're right there, that's a
that's a huge part of it.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
You just have to know what it works. And unfortunately,
there's just there's a tremendous mistrust, at least back then
of what they were using you for.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
And uh, roddy at the time, you know, it's we've
talked about how uh you see these guys that you
know better route a while they and today they're like
kids in a sense, but back then they're long in
the tooth, you know, like, man, you know, I don't
got much I.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Don't have much time left.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah, they start moving you to commentary is like, oh
you know what's going on here? No, no, no, no,
we just want to you know, take more advantage of
your talents and everything. Well no, because uh you know
I could I make a lot more money going into
those arenas.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
So yeah, so you know.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
That might have had that had a part of an
element there, you know what they're thinking. But overall it
just comes down to you know, it was it was
a pissing match actually between I think between those two
and neither one of them was like, Okay, you don't
want to you don't want.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
To do a job for me, Well, f you, I'm
not going to do a job for you.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
And they kind of screwed themselves because it probably could
have been something that ran a while. Worked out well
initially immediately for for Bad News Brown because then he
got to work with.

Speaker 5 (26:43):
Jake see what Harlem sewer rats actually look like, and
it turns out they might look like Bossoms.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
Yeah, wouldn't have called that. I wouldn't have called that.
I wouldn't have said about him and he all. So
his finish was the Ghetto Blaster. There's a lot there.
There's a lot there to dissect, and the Bad News
Brown character. We's to do a whole podcast on Bad
News Brown someday because he is a he's a he's
a character.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
He's got something going on.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
What's crazy, though, is the match itself again is a
race from history. I watched it on YouTube, so it's
a race from history. So if you want to watch,
you gotta go find it on YouTube or somewhere else.
Double count out. So we have that as our finish.
But yet, if you flash forward you just mentioned Jake
Bad News Brown fights Jake at SummerSlam nineteen ninety. Roddy

(27:32):
Piper is not on the card of Summer Slam nineteen ninety.
Hell Go to Survivs Series nineteen ninety where Rodney Piper's
on commentary putting over the gobbly goooker. So I'm just
always shocked when someone keeps coming in and out like
this is maybe the first time that I've noticed it.

Speaker 4 (27:49):
Now it as you talk about it.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Piper was a part timer, a part time in ring
wrestler in his years would go on when someone else
would do that, say The Rock or Batista or John Cena.
They got so much shit for it because they thought
they weren't dedicated to the craft of wrestling. They were
looking at something else like Hollywood and showing up here
just because they were getting big paydays.

Speaker 4 (28:09):
So maybe that was the case with Piper. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
But in reality, let's take a storyline into this. It
kicks off Roll Rumble nineteen ninety. They both eliminate each other,
they fight each other, they fought to the back, so
we start there. My main research for this really wanted
to look into the deep dark story of the black
makeup on Piper because Wrestmania six, you feel like, oh,

(28:35):
by God, wouldn't someone be aware how terribles could go?
But yet I looked it up. Piper was doing this
blackface makeup for weeks doing promos built to WrestleMania six.
So this is no shocker that this was going to happen,
But Vince McMahon saying that he loved it. It's a
direct quote from Piper in a shooting interview. Loved the

(28:56):
idea of doing this. Did Vince McMahon possibly sacrifice wrestlers,
including Piper too controversial things because it would land on Piper,
not land on Vince.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Well, I I don't think that that's the way Vince
ever looked at it, like this guy could be vilified.
And I think really it was the same thing with
Roddy that it was pushing the envelope. It was it was,
you know, walking that razor's edge to see how far
you could go with things as we saw. I mean,

(29:33):
look at the Attitude era and some of the stuff
that Vince did just himself alone, not just what he blessed.
So yeah, he was that was always kind of his
attitude that that's that got attention and that got you know,
that got more fans to watch.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
But I think in this case.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
Maybe he thought that somehow this would you know, professional
wrestling could be kind of a bridge because you know,
we've we've known through the years, Uh, Jackie Robinson and uh,
you know, sports has always been uh coming together of
of of people from all walks of life, and and

(30:17):
uh erased a lot of these lines that we you
know that we're so strong prior to that. So maybe
in his head, Vince not, you know, maybe this is
going to be something that uh will help relations that
that we are making a stand here and saying, you know,
we're not it's not black or white or everything, you know,

(30:39):
anything else. It's it We're just one people. And and
uh and Roddy I think believed that that he was
kind of making a statement to say, you.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Know, it's we're just folks.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
We're just uh going in there and it's it's it's
man against man and mano amano and and uh it's
got nothing to do with anything else, uh, not really
thinking about the the implications of it. And I looked
at you know, I looked at a couple of those
promos and I it's, you know, cringe.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
And it wasn't just the look of it, but also
the stuff that that Roddy was sick.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
He was, yes, he does impressions of bad News Brown.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
Yes, Yeah, that I was just going to bring that
up that he had. You know, he put on like
that Jimmy Kimmel doing Carl Malone, that the accent and
all the you know with it, and was like, oh man,
there wasn't somebody off to the side saying, guys, man
this this doesn't work.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
But you know, it was a different time.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Look at you know, like comedians that got away with
stuff back then. You know, Don Rickles of course comes
to mind, but you know he was an equal opportunity offender.
He offended everybody. But still I I I even I
remember back then, this is not a this is not

(32:03):
good that he's doing that. He's trying to do the
impression of him and uh saying some things about him
where he came from, and you know, and it was it.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Was just why doesn't anybody see this? And they went with.

Speaker 4 (32:20):
It and they aired the aired on TV before WrestleMania.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
That's the most shocking part to me, is like the
rest of me is six one always gts brought up
because it stands out because you couldn't really watch Superstars
because they were making DVDs and the Best of Superstars
when they're putting out DVDs. But when when I went researching,
and Piper flat out says that it was about bringing
people together, bringing everyone together. It was kind of riffing

(32:44):
on pop culture with Michael Jackson. What's inside message?

Speaker 2 (32:48):
He tried, he did some dancing, He came out with
a glove you know.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, yeah, that that to me, Like, okay, that part okay.
I understand when you when I read your shoot interviews
from years later after this and you say these things, Okay,
I set to believe that you were trying to do
a great intention of bringing people together. But then when
I go deeper and see those promos you did on
Superstars and Primetime Wrestling, and you're doing Bad News Brown
impressions in blackface, I stopped believing you. I stopped completely

(33:15):
believing that this was about bringing people together. This was about,
in my opinion, just making fun of Bad News Brown.

Speaker 4 (33:22):
Because even Piper said to Vince McMahon.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
When he was told, hey, Piper, you're gonna fight Bad
News Brown, and that's when Piper pretty much said, I
gotta cut nine promos on this guy. He's boring, he's dult.
What am I gonna do? And he came up with
this blackface storyline in his brain. Ah, I don't think
this was about bringing people together. This was about cutting
promos on Bad News Brown any means necessary.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
Yeah, And Roddy talks about when they first went into
the room and it was you know, bad News Brown
was there and Vince and some of the other triumvirates
that were part of that then and he he said
he he says that you know, bad News Brown didn't
say anything about it. Coach was asked about it later

(34:09):
and said he hated it, he didn't didn't think it
was didn't like it at all, and made a comment,
you know, somebody's going to get him at one of
these arenas.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Who's not going to want to put up with it.

Speaker 4 (34:21):
I have a direct quote from that you're talking about,
have a direct quote.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
I thought it was the stupidest thing I've ever seen,
but I figured I'd let him go ahead and do it.
One of the brothers in one of these towns will
get all of him and he'll be sorry.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
And I think that that bad News felt that there's
things I can do in the ring to get even
with him. He wasn't he knew better than he didn't know,
you know, like you said, he wanted to make money,
so maybe speaking out against it and say no, I'm
not going to do this.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
We would lose him the shot. And I just think
he felt ways that.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
You know, people would reject it, and then he would
he would really end up losing out on that his
popularity because of it. And then also ways that he
could take care of it himself in the ring, which
he was used to doing. So I think that that
was his It wasn't his way back then to speak

(35:21):
out and.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Say, you know, just think this is not happening.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
And he took care of it in other ways, and
and you know, people did not mess with him. He
heard the story about Andre the Giant with him on
a bus that apparently Andre had made a disparaging what
he felt was a racist remark and on one of

(35:48):
the tour buses and went to the driver and told
him to pull over, and got off the bus and
called Andrea out like wanted to fight him, and Andre
didn't get up, didn't move, not to say that.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Andrea was afraid of him.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
You know, I always thought that people that would actually
call out Andre the Giant, you know, maybe thought that
because you know, Judo champion, there's things I can do
he can't move that fast, I can get him down
on the ground. However, But I always felt in a
sense that you know, if Andre really got into an altercation,

(36:25):
that he probably feared that he would he'd kill somebody,
you know, that somebody would with one of his punches
or the strength that he had. But anyway, that's just
an example of who bad News was. He was afraid
of anybody. And you know, they talk about Haku being,

(36:46):
you know, one of the toughest guys in professional wrestling.
I'd say bad News was was right up there. And
maybe he wasn't the toughest, but I don't think he
had any problem. Anybody gave him crap that okay.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Let's go so no, what your name is, bad News?
That's how he settled it.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
I don't think, I said, I don't think he was
going to make this big political statement. He said he
was about making money, and I think he felt that
that whole gimmick or whatever the angle of it was,
was going to take care of itself, that people were
going to stand up against it, and that Piper was
going to take a fall for it.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Yeah, that's what's even crazier about this, because here's a
quote from Piper on one of his shoot interviews.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
I was walking around the arena in Toronto.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
Pat Patterson was with me Vince McMahon and they told
me they want me to wrestle Bad News Brown. I said,
I don't want to work with Bad News Brown. Then
I said I'm going to paint myself half black, and
Vince looked at me and says, I love you.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Now.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
This is continuing what Piper said. Bad News Brown took
it wrong. He was just a bland wrestler, and I
knew I had to cut and do nine to.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
Ten interviews on him.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
So Vince McMahon got me Roddy Piper paint that wouldn't
come off when I sweat. So they actually did tests
with black paint to see when he'd wrestle in it
if it would come off. So if you notice the
Wrestumenia six when he's wrestling, it doesn't come off for
your sweating, and if you touch it it.

Speaker 4 (38:10):
Doesn't come off.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
It worked well.

Speaker 4 (38:14):
That happens right there.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
And it's interesting that they did test runs on this
black paint because Vince was clearly all in on this thing,
and so when he cuts this WrestleMania six promo he says,
this is Piper. I can stand here and be black,
I can be white. Don't make no difference to me.

(38:37):
I'm RP hot Rod, Roddy Piper. It's what's inside you.
So he's clearly trying to say it doesn't matter if
you're black or white because I'm here. He doesn't do
a bad news and brown impression at RESTMENA six, but
he does, and all those other promos on Superstars are
in primetime wrestling.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
Yeah, I said it wasn't just once.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
No, And that's the weird thing to me is you're taught.
You even said it. You're like you thought, this looks this,
this isn't good, this is this is not helping. It
didn't like if this disappeared, it wouldn't ruin business. Hogan
versus Start and slaughter in Iraq. That would have ruined
business because you're trying to build off of the heat
of that moment.

Speaker 4 (39:18):
That is breandn and Piper. They weren't your main event stars.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
They were maining stars, but they weren't gonna if they
weren't on the car.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
I don't think anyone would have lost their minds.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
So the black paint, though, there's a famous story about
this black paint because they had to get a special
solution to get this damn paint off him every time
he used it.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
So every time he has Capromo, he wipes it on
his face, his body. Rest.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
Mean, he's sixth though, when he goes to get all
this black face paint, and it's not just his face, mooney,
it's his faith, it's his arm, it's his stomach, it's
his legs.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
He goes all the way down. Well, after this matchup,
he goes backstage, he tries to get it off. He's rubbing.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
He's rubbing, He's rubbing his solution. He's not even starting
to bleed. He can't figure out what happened. Andre the Giant.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
Dumped out all the solution and filled it with water.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
According to So according to Piper, for the next few
weeks he was covered in black paint walking through airports.
That night, he said, after the rest being the sixty,
he went out and got pissed drunk as a half
black half man in Toronto.

Speaker 3 (40:22):
Yeah, well, we knew ribs were rampant at that time.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
It's a big part of the business.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
And that story goes that Arnold Skullen and Andrea got
a hold of that special solution, and you know, the
legend goes that he couldn't get it off and ended
up having to fly and saying that it took a
couple of weeks. I would have thought that they would
have like just one solution he couldn't get more somewhere.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
It makes a good story.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
But I'm sure they did have some kind of special
solution or something to get that often, because You're right,
the way that stuff stayed on him, I'm sure stained
his skin. It was probably like like getting a tattoo.
And I can you can imagine, like give me he's
you know, on a plane with with people are just

(41:16):
looking at him like uh and going through customs. He says,
that's just insane to think that that's that would happen.
I I hadn't. I did not remember that time then
that hearing that story, but hearing it back, I do
remember the that they did, you know, the rib of it,

(41:39):
but that that the whole thing I think was a disaster.
I I I'm still astounded that, like I said, that
they went forward with it anyway to begin with. I
wondered that did Vince directly ask bad news? You know,
are you uncomfortable with this at all? Or the fact

(42:02):
that he just sat there and didn't say anything and
there was like, all right, he's good.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
I don't know, but.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
I think that when they did those promos, and they
were taped promos that I think, you know, maybe they
did one and they go somebody says, he, uh, if
he's going to do that, just don't tell him not
to do the you know, the impression it's it just
sounds bad.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
And but you said that there was a series of them,
as you know, I think he said he did ten
or so.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
And I just I remember in the events center when
those things would air, and I would just be like, God,
does any And I remember saying that to Howard, you
know that.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
Has anybody really seen these? And He's like, you know,
they've they've written off on it this way, you know
that's what they want, you know, And.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
Yeah, yeah, even then, Uh, you know that then people
got away with a lot of stuff back then, but
it uh might you know, you always have kind of
this little gauge, your own gauge of things. And I
had at that point been there a while, and when
you just kind of get that feet those feelers of going, yeah,

(43:08):
I don't know about this one. And that was definitely
one of those that you know that I felt was
just over the line, and there's a difference, you know
that to push it to a point and it works,
you still think, yeah, you know, people, this is uh,
this to me was uh, it was It was beyond
trying to push an envelope. It was just a you know,

(43:28):
a bad idea that a lot of people might be
okay with, but a lot.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
We're not going to be okay with. And that that
was the case.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
That Restmenia is six promo two. You can tell they
toned it down completely. So you're bringing up how how
how did they not tourne it down. I'm glad you
brought that up because they kind of triggered my brain
because after watching the Restmenia's sixth promo, there is no
Bad News Brown impression. He is just there talking about
being hot Rot and hot Scott, and he's talking about
bringing people together.

Speaker 4 (43:56):
He's no longer acknowledging.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
That he's wearing black face paint and he's no it's
more just hey, I'm here to beat you up, Bad
News Brown.

Speaker 4 (44:04):
You talk about cockroaches.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
They don't have spines either do you blah blah blah uh.
The ones before that, yeah, very very heavy stuff, so
maybe maybe.

Speaker 4 (44:12):
Someone watched those.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
Finally, by the way, Superstars in my town I was
a kid, was ten o'clock in the morning. Ten am
in the morning Saturday morning is when Superstars air where
I lived, so that was airing those promos.

Speaker 4 (44:25):
Here's another quote though, for Piper. After Rest of Me
the six, I went to the airport.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
And I was wearing a cowboy hat carrying a four
foot Mickey Mouse doll for my daughter. When you go
through the Chicago Airport half black, they let you go
right through. I bought a first class seat for Mickey Mouse.
We got shit ass drunk the whole ride, and it
took me a whole month to get off that paint.

(44:51):
So he was suffering multiple ways of this altercation with
bad News Brown. It's just in in today's world, you never, ever, ever,
I can't imagine a wrestler even thinking about doing something
like this, even suggesting it would probably get them canceled
on if they found out on social media. Rodney Piper
might be the exception, because we all know how crazy

(45:13):
he was as a person. As a character, so we're
all accepting that this is a norm for him. And
we've seen other people over the years, celebrities, politicians in general,
when you are crazy, and you're crazy so many times
we accept that you're crazy, so not shocked by your
outlandish things. Is this one of those moments where like, oh,
just Piper being Piper?

Speaker 2 (45:35):
Yeah, oh absolutely. And then also, you know, Roddy wasn't somebody.

Speaker 3 (45:40):
Who would necessarily listen to others, you know, I mean
many of us. You've got a few trusted people that
you can, you know, you can go to and say
this too much?

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Is this? You know, what do you think of this?
And Roddy didn't operate that way.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
I think his idea was, you know, if I'm in it,
I go with it, you know, not not thinking, you know,
maybe I should run this by a few of the
guys that I you know, know and love and trust,
who will say to me, yeah, you know what lose
the the impression about bad news that just doesn't come
off well. And and and Roddy was headstrong that way.

(46:18):
I think he had a lot of trust in his
character and who he was and had served him very
very well as far as success went. You know you
mentioned that, you know, he was in and out of
the w WE that period of time, and you know
how many people could really do that. But I think
that Vince, you know, had a fascination with him, that

(46:41):
that he was this just you know, loose character that
you never really knew what you were going to get.
And I think that the audience responded to that. They
felt the same way.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
About Roddy, you know.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
You that's where he would go off on something, you know,
like Piper's some of the stuff that he used to see,
you know, and people are going, what, but you know,
it's rott It's just, uh, he is who he is.
But I think that that's that was something that that
had served him well.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
This he did.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
I I think that, uh, that he didn't realize the
damage that he was doing and that he really did
feel like me, you know, I'm I'm people trust what
I say and and I'm trying to bring us together.
I don't think they were bad and necessarily, but I

(47:37):
do think that taking a shot at bad news while
he was doing it probably didn't bother him at all,
because I don't think he thought a lot.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
You know, he describes him.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
As a bland wrestler, and you know, so you could
you could tell there wasn't a lot of love between
those two.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
So that that that was part of it.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
But I I really do think that, you know, Roddy
was just who he was, and he always trusted the
fact that I just go and do it and it
usually turns out pretty well for me.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
This wasn't one of those cases. And uh and I
you know, to his credit though, and I and and
the whole industry I mentioned before Steve about the you
know what sports has done for race relations, you know,
for decades and decades and decades it still does it today.

(48:23):
And and professional wrestling if you think about it, like
over the years, it did a lot for that. I
mean think of where you know, all the different uh
uh you know ethnicities and and people that are represented
you know through different characters and and I think it
it uh you know, exposed people to a lot of

(48:45):
others from different walks of life. And saw how all
these guys got work together, you know that. And they
had people from all walks uh, you know, and they
had Hispanics, they they had you know, the blacks, whites,
uh uh you know Native Americans. Uh, I mean the

(49:05):
list goes on and on and on and and it's
so this wasn't some you know, where did this come from?
But at the same time, it just was one of
those that just uh went too far with it. But overall,
I you know, professional wrestling should be celebrated for that
that really overall, it does the big messages.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Yeah, we're all just one.

Speaker 3 (49:28):
People, uh, and everybody loves professional wrestling. And it doesn't
matter where you come from, or your your status in life,
or how much money you make or where you live.
It's uh, it brings all kinds of people together and
it's done so since its origin and and and still

(49:50):
doing it today.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
And I I know the w W E.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
Uh you know, doing shows in Saudi Arabia and they
they are known to be uh, you know, just discriminatory,
but their idea of it is the more that you
look at now now they have women in the ring there,
which would you know how many years ago that would
have been absolutely no, not no way, it's not happening.
So you know, overall, I'm glad that this has been

(50:16):
a part of the business, and it has it has uh,
it's it's been a part of uh forever and I'm
and it will keep going that way, so professional wrestling
should be celebrated that way. It has brought a lot
of people together and has shown that.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
We are we're just people, true, true.

Speaker 4 (50:34):
I mean I'd even go further too.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Is the seventies and eighties, it was all about your background,
like your Italian, you're Polish, you're this, you're that for
a long time, and then I feel like when vincetik
over for a little while, it became characters. And I
think that's why territories started to try to say, well,
he's rudy wrestling, he just changed wrestling, and then his
time has gone on.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
We have had wrestlers who.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
Were a little too like the Mexicools riding lawnmowers to
the ring. Not so much, but when you in today's world,
when you are you know, the LWO, when you're promoting
where you're from, where you're promoting who you are, and
I think the backgrounds before it was like, oh, we
can only have one type of a person here. Now
it's we have so many different types of the same

(51:18):
people here, but they're different, they're not the same.

Speaker 4 (51:20):
Like, no longer is it we can only have one
black guy?

Speaker 1 (51:23):
In the territory, or one Polish guy in the territory,
or one this in the territory. It is there are
so many groups of people all together in all companies,
not just one all companies, so it's nice to see that.
It's just as we kind of wind down here, it's
still shocking to me.

Speaker 4 (51:39):
I get it. If I was an ad, if.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
I was like Buttel, if I was Coca Cola and
I saw this pop up, I'd be like, dude, get
rid of this shit now. I don't want this on.
I don't want this connected to me at all. I
don't even care that happened in nineteen ninety or race it.
So it's me it's a race from history. I can
see why, one hundred percent.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
Why.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
But yet when you do that, as in people trying
to for years of trying to say the Holocaust wasn't real,
and you're like, well, it's okay, you.

Speaker 4 (52:05):
Know that it happens, A no, no, no, no no.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
We need to acknowledge that these terrible things did happen,
and we can learn from terrible things. And Piper doing
those promos as Badne's Brown horrible here WrestleMania six, trying
to bring people together.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
Okay, I don't know which one.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
To believe, but all I know is erasing it probably
not the best idea as a socially you know, conscious person,
As an advertiser, great idea deleting that shit because that
looks bad.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
That's how I feel about this.

Speaker 6 (52:34):
Yeah, and and and overall when it all comes and
even did then, But as we see, it's.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
And true, very true. In sports, it doesn't matter what
your background is, what you're a that's where you came from.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
It.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
All that matters is can you play the game. The
best athletes in the world are the ones that get
to that stage and make the most money. And professional
wrestling is no different. Sports entertainment is no different. It
doesn't matter what you look like or what you know,
what your genetics are.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
It is do people want to see you? Do you
entertain them?

Speaker 3 (53:16):
And if they do, you're going to be successful at
this and you're going to make a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
That is it. It doesn't.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
And that's what the great equalizer of all of this
is is that that's that's the bottom line. It's just
as Steve Austin would say, that's that's the bottom line,
is all. That's all that matters, and that is what
the absolute beauty is with professional sports and sports entertainment.
If they want to see you, they want do they

(53:44):
want to see you in that ring? And that's what
I love about it.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
Yeah, And if you want to have a fun fact
for you, Michael Jackson's Black or White come out in
ninety one, nineteen nineties or some meania six so that
Piper are just trying to bring.

Speaker 4 (54:00):
Before I wrap this up, I do have one final.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Up question, because I didn't even ask it throughout the show,
was what was the feeling backstage seeing this? Was it
just I said earlier? Was it Piper just being Piper?
Or the backstage feelings were.

Speaker 3 (54:12):
Like, uh yeah, it was the same thing I think
I felt. I think a lot of people felt the
same way I did. And you know, it's it's interesting
about that is that people were even then afraid to
speak up and say something because they felt that it
would be taken wrong or get them in trouble.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
And that was kind of the way it was. It
was kind of like, you know that whole thing.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
You look at each other like, but I'm you know,
I'm not going to say anything because I get in trouble.
It's not my lane, I you know, and and as
we know, this is a solo business. You're on your
own and everybody is an independent contractor. Is that when
it all comes down to it, And so I don't

(54:58):
think it was any different than I think everybody he
felt the same way, unless you just absolutely don't care
about any you know, what they did. There were certainly
people that were just well it's a gimmick, let's go,
you know. But I do think I do remember that,
you know, like backstage and you see and stuff like that,
and everybody was kind of like you, boy, I don't
know about this, but nobody would, nobody wanted to speak out,

(55:22):
was way behind it. It shows that the fact that
he let us continue on and those promos aired, and
you know, it wasn't the first time that, you know,
He's a lot of brilliant h storylines, and but there
were some really bad ones, and to my in my opinion,
this is this was one of them. It just maybe

(55:43):
I don't know, you could maybe it could have been
done in a different way. I don't know, but it's
always a sensitive topic. And it's amazing Steve, here we
are how many decades later and it's you still have
to you know, people are careful about how what they
say and how they talk about that subject.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
It's still very sensitive.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
Yeah, we acknowledge off camera to each other saying this
is this could be very dicey talking about a subject
like this, but I think it's important in today's world
where you know, these types of things that you think
is a haha joke is very serious to somebody else.

Speaker 4 (56:18):
So in reality we can't.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
You know, I'm all, I'm all about what I do
shouldn't affect you. At the same time, sometimes my actions
or someone else's actions can affect you by accident or
on purpose. And this time around Bad News Brown. According
to our crows, we brought up where it was like, well,
you know, this guy can do ever he wants because
someone else is gonna kick his ass when they seem
like this and you know, it didn't happen, But in

(56:42):
reality it's it's one of those things where we're still
talking about it spent thirty something years and it is
still one of the most like head scratcher moments of Wow,
I can't believe this happened, but it did.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Yeah, and it's unfortunate that you know, Bad News Brown's
tenure there was was short lived. He was only there
for a couple of years. He had wrestled a couple
of times prior to the WWWF It.

Speaker 4 (57:10):
Was October relieve October of nineteen ninety.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Yeah, but I thought he I thought this was a
strong character man and and you know, he was a
legit tough guy, and it came across that way, and
I think he could have done a lot more. But
as I said, I think that he got in his
own way as far as and through his stubbornness and
his feeling that you know, behind there, you know, they

(57:37):
they don't have my best interest at heart all the time.
And that's unfortunate because I think he could have done
a lot more, But it was it was, you know,
you look at it, bad News Browns. That character was
pretty short lived in the history of the WWE.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
True We did Survivor series nineteen ninety podcasts, and he
was supposed to be on the million Dollar Lands team
and so he leaves the company and.

Speaker 4 (58:02):
Who replaces him the Undertaker.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
So it's just one of those like whoa one of
those weird moments that happened in time. But this is
also a weird moment that happened in time with Rodney Piper.
But I put him behind me because you know, I
still love I still love Piper.

Speaker 4 (58:17):
This is like nineteen ninety.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
It's gross and disgusting and it probably smells like my childhood,
which is you know, fill with.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
And he could he could legit play those pipes.

Speaker 4 (58:28):
Let's see, like like, oh I look at that. It
still works.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
Good job, matel you don't have the bagpipes.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
Oh well, I don't think they came with that hair.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
That he could that he could legit play Steve. If
he could play those bagpipes.

Speaker 4 (58:40):
Could he really play him?

Speaker 2 (58:41):
There? Yes, yes, absolutely there he did a he did
a few appearances with the WW with with those bagpipes,
and yeah he was legit.

Speaker 4 (58:51):
He was Summer sem ninety too. I think he played
randomly there for no reason at all.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
But in reality he was another page Addie.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
He was a he was a unique individual. And uh
never never a dull conversation with that about this. No, nope, never.
And I didn't want to approach that either. I didn't
want to get any I said it was it was
just a topic. I think that when it was over,
because I think Roddy felt good intentions, but I think he.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Knew that it just didn't work.

Speaker 3 (59:25):
And uh so, uh, you know that wasn't something we
weren't that we weren't close enough to have a conversation.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
To get into that that that cavern.

Speaker 4 (59:37):
So hey, Ronnie, Ronnie, want to get a drink tonight?

Speaker 1 (59:39):
And by the way, why did you wear black face paint?

Speaker 4 (59:42):
It's resting his six what no drinks?

Speaker 3 (59:44):
By the way, Yeah that was. But always he was
a unique individual man. There was nobody ever like him,
and he blazed the trail and it was all his own.

Speaker 4 (59:56):
Oh yeah, no, trust me.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
We We have so many more wrestlers on the Golden
Era to talk about their first year, second years, their careers,
their big moments, to low's or highs. Today maybe a
loaf of piper up and all in all, people are
still talking about this crazy moment. If he was trying
to bring people together, then thank you so much. If
you weren't, well I think you weren't. But in reality,
thank you so much. Sean Mooney again talking about another

(01:00:18):
Golden Era of moment here on the Golden Hora Podcast
with Sean Mooney and the Sea Fall. Here on Tank
count media across on Prime Time with Sean Mooney on
the audio version, having a good time working out with us,
taking a walk, taking a poop.

Speaker 4 (01:00:30):
All in all, thanks for.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Being here, I'm see faul He Shawn Mooney, have a
wonderful day and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 4 (01:00:36):
Don't forget to wipe twice. Bye,