OO Column: Online Onslaught by Rick Scaia (Pro Wrestling News, Analysis, and Commentary... WWE, WWF, WCW, ECW, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Rob Van Dam, Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, Trish Stratus, Lita, Stacy Keibler, Divas, RAW, SmackDown, WrestleMania

ONLINE ONSLAUGHT
Roddy Piper, Dead at 61
July 31, 2015

by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OOWrestling.com

We're here again, with a rare old school OO column, and for the second time in 7 weeks, it's for all the wrong reasons... in June, we gathered to mourn the passing of Dusty Rhodes, who I eulogized as engine that powered most of the NWA/WCW's finest moments, in part because he was the exact southern reflection of Roddy Piper.

Dusty was the red hot babyface in a well-known "heel's promotion" (the bad guys were usually booked on top, with faces chasing), and without him, Ric Flair would never have become the Ric Flair that we think of today. Just like Roddy Piper was the red hot heel in a well-known "babyface territory" (faces booked on top, a non-stop litany of heels brought in to feed to them), and without him, Hulk Hogan would never have become the Hulk Hogan we think of today.

Their respective passings, coming so proximate to each other, certainly gives us all pause for thought when it comes to making sure to appreciate the sometimes-underappreciated. That's not to say Dusty or Roddy were ever left short of accolades... over time, both were adequately recognized for their awesome years of service, given the benefit of hindsight. But maybe we can use this wisdom of the past to help inform our opinions of current events... such as the very viable case to be made for John Cena being the Wrestler of the Year for 2014. If I had to vote right now, he'd be my pick... and in the same breath, I'd make sure to give a shout-out to Kevin Owens, Rusev, Cesaro, and presumably, Seth Rollins at SummerSlam for doing the hard work of building themselves up into credible foes and drawing the necessary performances out of Cena.

But let's not get our heads too far up our own asses. This isn't a time to get TOO philosophical or theoretical. It's a time to remember Rowdy Roddy Piper, who passed away this afternoon, of apparently cardiac arrest. His real name was Roderick Toombs, and he was 61 years old. He's survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son (Colt) who does have aspirations in MMA and/or pro wrestling.

Though he was born and raised in Canada, Piper did have legit Scottish herritage on his dad's side of the family. Piper famously dopped out of school at the age of 15, angering his father (a member of the RCMP; a "Mountie"). So Piper left home, and began spending time at the Canadian equivalent of a YMCA, where he began picking up boxing and amatuer wrestling.

When his training advanced, and he started going to a gym popular among Manitoba's pro wrestlers, he ingratiated himself by doing odd jobs for them, and was soon indoctrinated into the pro wrestling fraternity. His first match was a total squash against Larry Hennig (Mr. Perfect's father), but made memorable by the fact that Roddy played his bagpipes on the way to the ring. Although he was introduced as Roddy "the Piper" Toombs, the legend is that fans misheard it, and from that day on, he was just "Roddy Piper."

Thus began a forgettable 4 years or so, in which Piper scraped and clawed to stay booked in Canada and the American midwest and upper midwest (including the AWA). But around 1976, his fortunes changed when he ventured otu to a couple of the NWA territories in California. In both San Francisco and Los Angeles, he became a huge hit as a heel. He worked a lot as a talker/manager in San Fran, but in LA, he was best known for a long-running in-ring feud with Chavo Guerrero Sr. and his general antoganization of the latino crowds.

But all good things must end, and so Piper's schtick finally started growing stale, so he moved his act north to the Pacific Northwest Territory, which essentially served as his homebase ( he continued to make guest appearances in various iterations of the PNW territory even after he'd made it to the WWF) for the rest of his life, even maintaining a home there for the past 35 years.

PNW and promoter Don Owen helped turn Roddy into a more well-rounded performer, as he massively upgraded his in-ring skills to match his speaking skills (courtesy of a long run as a tag team worker, and then a very profitable singles run against Buddy Rose). After 3 years in Portland, Piper could now talk the people into the building and then deliver a whole match that would send them away utterly sastified.

This is what led to the NWA's most powerful territory calling on Piper. The Georgia/Mid-Atlantic region -- a/k/a "Crockett Promotions" and the company that morphed into WCW -- started booking Piper in 1981. He immediately landed in a major feud with Ric Flair over the US Title, briefly winning said belt. This, of course, was the start of a feud that would pop up here and again for nearly 2 decades.

Coming off that red hot US Title feud, Crockett had designs on trying Piper as a babyface, so they "cooled" him with a brief run as a TV commentator, where he moderated his tone, and then, when he saved colleague Gordon Solie from a beatdown at the hands of Don Muraco, the transformation was complete.

At this point of Piper's career, he had a falling out with the NWA, and disappeared for months at a time, doing runs in Puerto Rico and Texas. To be honest, I don't know the truth behind all that, as I was about 6 years old at the time, and Piper offers one story (thought to be a kayfabe cover story) while insiders of the day proffer another.

Regardless, the only thing that matters is that by mid-1983, Piper had returned full-time to Crockett, still working the babyface mojo to good effect. He kicked off another US Title feud against Greg Valentine, and the two had a memorably brutal dog-collar match at the very first StarrCade in November 1983.

In fact, Piper was still hurting when Vince McMahon came around with an offer for Piper to jump to the WWF. Because of this, Piper was introduced as a manager for "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff in early 1984... only after several months did Piper get cleared to return to action, as Orndorff's tag partner. Once again a heel, Piper was back in his true comfort zone, antagonizing the fans.

By mid-year, the WWF capitalized on this by creating "Piper's Pit," a weekly interview segment hosted by Piper. Not only did it get over like gangbusters, but it created a situation in which Piper famously did not compete on TV. If fans wanted to see him fight, they had to pay for tickets when the WWF came to town (and Piper did work a full house show schedule).

When Piper did wrestle on TV, he used The Pit as an excuse to fabricate heat with jobbers, so even his rare TV matches were squashes in his favor, and fans never got any satisfaction. [One such squash was against "Quick Draw" Rick McGraw, who actually died just days after the match aired on TV, creating an urban legend that Piper "killed him" due to the brutal one-sided beating. This is not true; according to Bret Hart, McGraw's drug use was well-known, and assumed to be the cause of his death.]

This is where he truly developed into the perfect mirror image of Hulk Hogan. Hogan, as champion, also wrestling rarely on TV, so fans would have to come out and pay to see him... it was inevitable that these two huge forces would intersect.

After Piper more or less won a memorable feud with Jimmy Snuka (the Coconut Incident is legendary), he feuded with Bruno Sammartino. Piper was presented as getting the better of Bruno on TV (when the confrontations were verbal, and Bruno, to be generous, was not much of a Speaker of English), but on the series of major house shows they headlined, Piper lost, but still gained some rub just be stepping into the ring with the legendary Bruno.

So, once he proved he could hang with the WWF's superhero of the 70s, it was time for Piper to try his hand against the superhero of the 80s. When Captain Lou Albano began bragging of his relationship with pop music sensation Cyndi Lauper, Piper called BS on him. But Albano really was cast in a couple of Lauper videos, and he was able to get her to show up on WWF TV.

Piper did a 180, and went from thinkin Lauper was too big a star to be slumming it with Capt. Lou, to thinking that Lauper was someone who had no business on a pro wrestling show. He was insulted by her very presence... but the WWF kept on rolling out the red carpet, enjoying the mainstream attention she brought. This made Piper more and more angry.

So one fateful night at Madison Square Garden, the WWF decided to celebrate Cyndi Lauper by presenting her with her latest Gold Record. Dick Clark even showed up to MC. And Piper showed up to crash the party.

Hulk Hogan came to the rescue. And just like that, we were off to the races. Hogan and Piper were able to sell out arena after arena for the better part of a year. Their first TV match was on "The War to Settle the Score," on MTV, and ended inconclusively thanks to interference from Paul Orndorff. Mr. T just so happened to be seated at ringside, and made the save for Hogan, setting up the main event for the first WrestleMania.

When Hogan and Piper revivied their feud in WCW in 1996, I was in my very earliest stages of internet semi-stardom, and I traded for a VHS copy of MTV's giant pre-WM "documentary" that covered the entire build up, and "reviewed" it (this was at the height of my WCW Hatred, and I thought it was funny to mock them for doing something that already happened 12 years ago). In betwixt my snark, I honestly was struck by how Hogan was probably only the third most important piece of that WM main event in terms of creating the sizzle.... but wound up as the sole beneficiary.

Mr. T was the biggest thing on TV, and Piper had the ineviably task of talking himself into being a credible/believable foe for the good guys. If fans didn't believe in the villain, WM might have tanked; why pay to see an inevitable outcome? But it didn't tank, because Piper did his job.

Hogan and T won, thanks to failed interference by Bob Orton. This kicked off a recurring trend: Piper cased Hogan countless times, all over the world, but NEVER LOST CLEAN. Not even once. He'd get DQ'd, he'd get counted out, but he never got pinned and he never submitted to Hogan. This was by design, as Piper understood that once Hogan beat him, he couldn't talk the people into the building, with the dangling carrot of "Hey, maybe tonight is the night it happens." To their credit, the WWF let this continue, including as the headline match for their first-ever PPV, "The Wrestling Classic."

Yep, that's right, WrestleMania wasn't a PPV. It was a closed circuit TV event. Only. In November '85, WWF tried PPV with the Wrestling Classic, which was a one-night 16-man tourney, with a Hogan/Piper main event thrown in. Piper got DQ'd, and so the beat went on.

When WM2 came around, the WWF figured they couldn't recycle Hogan/Piper again, but they did use the residual heat to book a Piper vs. Mr. T singles match. Piper, again, got himself DQ'd in a match where Piper usually stuck to a more kayfabe narrative (saying the thing was a legit shoot, and that he was told to just pick the moment when he'd had enough, and then get DQ'd; T had no idea what was going on; but again, others dispute this).

Despite never changing his tactics, Piper had started to get some cheers from fans.... I can't claim to being one of them. I was just too young and too stupid. But I know for a fact that in 1986, when I first got to watch wrestling OPENLY and then asked to go to live shows, it was my mom who drew that duty, and she seemed to dig it, at least in part because she thought Piper was hilarious.

The WWF must have sensed this, as they gave Piper 3 months off after WM2 (this marked one of the times when he went back to PNW to do some work; more importantly, he did a few weeks of work in Hollywood on a little picture called "Hell Comes to Frogtown," which anyone roughly my age should remember as primo spankterial on "USA Up All Night"), and introduced Adrian Adonis' "Flower Shop" as the replacement for Piper's Pit.

Needless to say, when Piper returned, announcers presented him differently, and when Piper wantes his show back, the fans RESOUNDINGLY backed him against Adonis. Face turn, baby.

And while I can't claim that Piper was the first bad guy I cheered for, the complete and utter ease with which I started cheering him was remarkable, and foreshadowed the days when Mr. Perfect and/or the Big Bossman were the first heels I cheered. [In contrast, I rejected face turns by Jake Roberts and Randy Savage, initially, because I held their pasts against them longer than WWF announcers did. THAT is how young and stupid I was.]

Piper was red hot as a face, and his match agaisnt Adonis was probably the #3 drawing card at WrestleMania 3 (still the biggest WM audience to date). It was presented as a retirement match for Piper, who was gonna try acting full time after his performance in "Frogtown" was deemed awesome. Piper won, and left the WWF to film "They Live."

I need not tell you that "They Live" makes "Frogtown" look like a damned dirty outhouse by comparison, and that Roddy never quite got all the way back to the dizzying heights of "They Live" for the rest of his acting career. Once I get done writing this, I honestly think I'm gonna pour a drink and watch "They Live" first, before watching the Piper DVD, or any of his wrestling stuff. "They Live" isn't what made Piper a WWE Hall of Famer, but it's an excellent display of what made him different and special in the world of pro wrestling.

"They Live" was filmed during the summer of 1987, and released in late 1988. I remember it vividly; I'm thinking it had to have been right aftert Halloween. Because that is when it became the first ever R-rated movie that I saw in a theater, without parental accompaniment. Actually, I never went to an R-rated movie with my parents; I know they were pretty excited to let us kids join them in watching "WarGames" (R-rated) when they rented it back in the day, but they never took us out to see a rated-R movie. [Also, I had seen "Porky's" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" by now, thanks to HBO and my friend down the street who was 2 years older than me.]

But "They Live" is the first time I dared approach a cashier to "sneak into" an R-rated movie after lying to my parents about which movie we were seeing (I still remember, it was at Dayton Mall #4, upstairs, off the food court, with fellow pimply-faced junior higher Bill Rueth, my best friend of the day). I have no illusions that we were fooling anyone. But they were fine letting us in to watch, since it was only a movie with swearing and violence. As long as there isn't any S-E-X, we'll let that slide! And that's how I saw "They Live" despite being comically under age, and never actually saw "Ernest Saves Christmas" (the movie I told my dad I was seeing).

I love it. I still love it. Best fight scene ever. "I came here to chew bubblegum, and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum." The 99% message 25 years before the 99%-ers Occupied Wall Street. The incredible featuring dumb-guy-dick-waving-and-posturing behavior, while also making fun of it. So much win.

But it was also pretty much the last chance Piper was given in a real major Hollywood movie ("They Live" even opened at #1, if I recall, and has DEFINITELY aged into a cult classic). He kept making b-movie dreck, up to last year (he maintained a residence in L.A., and that's where he was when he passed away today; my brother even has a story where he bumped into Roddy at a bar some years ago, and regaled The Rowdy One with stories of the Scaia Family's love of his work), but for whatever reason, it became rapidly apparent that he didn't have a second career waiting for him.

So Piper made a well-received guest appearance at WM5 in 1989, doing a special edition of Piper's Pit (the punchline was him humiliating then-relevant Morton Downey Jr.), with the idea that he was slumming it into between major Hollywood jobs. But the second major Hollywood job never came.

Piper started hosting Prime Time Wrestling, with Gorilla Monsoon (the story was that he replaced Bobby Heenan, which annoyed Heenan). When Piper agreed to a full-time wrestling return, months later, the Heenan/Piper heat was morphed into a Piper/Rick Rude feud. That feud climaxed when both men captained teams at the '89 Survivor Series... and then things got weird.

Piper took on a sporadic/part-time in-ring schedule, presumably in pursuit of more Hollywood gigs, but nothing substantial never developed (this IS when he and Jesse Ventura did a TV Pilot called "Tag Team," which is actually not bad; it's not good, either, but it's definitely not bad; it could have matured and grown, I think; I recently tracked down a copy of it on youtube, so you should be able to find it, if you want).... when he did pop up, he'd run red hot for a bit, the disappear. This was the career phase when he did the memorable-for-not-really-the-best-reasons feud with Bad News Brown (in which Roddy channeled an espisode of the original "Star Trek" and painted himself half black and half white).

But it's also the phase where he got into a feud with "The Mountie" (remember his dad? yeah, childhood fantasy realized much?), and wound up with the IC Title as a result. It's was his only major title in his entire WWF/E run, and he lost it in a really good match at WrestleMania 8, against Bret Hart (reminding us that he did, back in Portland, learn to do more than just talk well). I was there, it was my only in-person WM. I'm not afriad to admit that I was cheering for Roddy.

But Bret Hart won, and Piper disappeared again. He had cameos here and there, over the course of two years, but it was his return at WM10 (as the special referee for Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna) that gave him enough traction to become a full-time character, again. He feuded with Jerry Lawler, and won, and hung around for a few more months.

Then, he disappeared until WM11, where he was tabbed as a guest ref AGAIN (this time for Hart vs. Bob Backlund), before disappearing again. When WWF "President" Gorilla Monsoon was attacked by Vader at the Royal Rumble, Piper was brought in as the Interim President. This was early 1996, which many will remember as the height of the RAW vs. Nitro War.

WrestleMania, that year, was designed to have a Goldust vs. Razor Ramon match.... but Razor was a bit of a wreck, and a combination of his recreational activities and his decision to jump to WCW meant Piper had to replace him at Mania. The "match" was a semi-entertaining joke, with no actual winner. But since Piper got to strip Goldust of his gold lame suit to expose women's underwear, he left the ring as the moral victor.

Let's also pause to put everything in context: WM12 was also where Bret Hart began having his first doubts about staying with the WWF. Just about 6 months earlier, Randy Savage had exited the WWF because he realized Vince was going "young" and he'd never be treated as a real in-ring star. Now, Piper comes back, agrees to be a sub at WM, and it's a comic relief match.... in a company that's going younger, Piper realizes he'll only be an afterthought in the WWF.

So he steps away after WM12, and the whole nWo thing takes off in WCW. And all of a sudden, everything that's old is new again, and WCW approaches Piper about coming in as a lead babyface against the how heel Hulk HOgan. In late 1996, Piper agrees. He and Hogan headline StarrCade. The world goes mild.

There's a brief blip on the radar when Piper and the Four Horsemen crossed paths, and admitted their joint hatred of the nWo, but mostly, Piper's completely out of place and mis-booked for his initial 3-year contract.

He does re-up, however, because, Hey Guaranteed Money! Even though Piper is only a part time performer from 1999 onward, he's getting paid weekly for working once every 4 months. This isn't on Roddy; this is on WCW for being a fricking mess at that point. WCW, even the mess that it is, realizes Piper's contract is inane, and cuts him free a few months before the company as a whole is shuttered and sold to WWE.

For about 2 years, Piper bounced around the various projects that came together, in an attempt to fill the void left by WCW. None of them caught on, and in 2003, Piper agreed to return to the now-renamed WWE.

He made his surprise return at WrestleMania 19, attacking Hulk Hogan to re-establish himself as a heel. Throughout the spring and summer, Piper antagonized Hogan, and also positioned himself as the manager/mouthpiece for Sean O'Haire.... Piper (with Vince McMahon backing him in storylines) managed to get Hulk Hogan banned from WWE, only to have "Mr. America" (Hogan in a mask) return to cause trouble for Piper.

Mr. America and Edge even won the tag titles, and things were just starting to get good when Piper went and gave an interview to HBO's "Real Sports" with Bryant Gumbel.... in the interview, Piper torched the pro wrestling industry, and said that anyone who was a lifer had "The Sickness" and was broken and self-destructive. Piper claims he was the victim of selective editing.

But Piper is also famous for speaking before he thinks, so I'm not sure about that. Regardless, his comments got him insta-fired from WWE. Sean O'Haire was suddenly without a rudder (at the time, there was some angst over this, but in the end, it's probably all for the best), and the whole thing with Edge/Mr. America was easily glossed over.

Roddy wound up being TNA's first major "free agent pick-up," as Piper was hot off that controversy, and was willing to come into TNA playing up that angle (since Vince Russo was, at the time, booking TNA, and LOVED anything that seemed "real"). Piper did various stuff as an authority character, and more as an interviewer/host, but never emerged as an in-ring threat. Tensions between Piper and Russo got to the point that Piper was cut loose again.

In 2005, WWE decided to pay homage to the 20th anniversary of the original WrestleMania (held in 1985), by bringing Hogan and Piper back as inductees to the Hall of Fame. Past wounds were healed, and Piper even got to do a WM weekend segment in which he and Steve Austin destroyed Carlito.

From here on out, the Piper/WWE relationship was in pretty solid shape, with Piper accepting his role as a "Legend" and WWE happy to call him in and give him the royal treatment when they felt it fit storylines.

This included memorable bits like Piper returning for a mini-program when Randy Orton brought his dad back as his "manager." Needless to say, Piper pretty much owned "Cowboy" Bob.

Perhaps not as memorable, but certainly significant: Piper came in for a "fan vote" event in late 2006 (I can't remember if this was still Taboo Tuesday, or if it had gone back to Cyber Sunday), and won the right to be Ric Flair's tag team partner against the Spirit Squad (a tag title match).... Piper and Flair lost, but aches and pains after the match led WWE's doctors to check Piper out and send him to the hospital. It turns out, Piper's involvement in that match resulted in him being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Cancer.

Piper was intended to be part of Survivor Series that year (co-captaining a 5-on-5 match, with Ric Flair, against Spirit Squad), but had to pull out. He went away to deal with the cancer. He briefly showed up as part of the hoopla when Dusty Rhodes was inducted into the WWE HoF in early 2007, but his involvement was minor.

He came back in 2008, proudly declaring that he kicked cancer's ass, and was cancer-free. He had a brief feud with Santino Marella, during the "Honk-a-Meter" phase of Santino's IC Title reign.

In early 2009, Chris Jericho turned the Dick Knob up to 11, and started insulting all washed up wrestlers, as an off-shoot of his aborted attempt to feud with Mickey Rourke (fresh off his Oscar-worthy turn as "The Wrestler")... this resulted in Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, and Ricky Steamboat getting together to oppose Jericho at WrestleMania 25. It wound up being a showcase for Steamboat (Snuka and Piper were afterthoughts), but it's notable because it means Piper was an active participant at WM1 and WM25, one of only two men to claim that big of a chasm between first and last WM appearance.

It was Piper's last signifiacnt in-ring performance, and he finally settled into a sporadic "stunt-casting" performer who could make fans smile just by showing up in a throw-away capacity. The height of this was WrestleMania 30 in 2014, when Hogan/Piper/Mr. T (and Paul Orndorff) finally all buried the hatchet in a backstage bit; it's the first time Piper and T publically admitted that they weren't hated enemies).

But Piper also sometimes brought his skill and gravitas to bear in those last years. My own personal Last Favorite Piper Moment was in late 2011, when he came back and had a one or two week run where he tried to mentor John Cena (at the time, Cena was a victim of his own goody-goodiness; it was the Summer of Punk; and Piper delightfully advised him to look into Evil; "Darth Piper" was really neat, even if Cena doubled down on staying Good).

Piper's last on-screen WWE appearance was almost a year ago, and though I believe he was present at WM31 this year, he was not asked to participate publically. He and WWE had something of a falling out, with some claiming that Piper's erratic behavior was creating problems. His "WWE Legends" contract was terminated back in May or June.

If this becomes a matter of intrigue, I'm sure I'll post more about it. But for now, it's merely the whimper with which Roddy Piper's career ended (rather than the bang it probably deserved). But not for one nanosecond will I pretend like that whimper is the defining characterstic of Rowdy Roddy Piper.

He's the bad guy who made it OK to cheer for bad guys. He's the secret reason why WrestleMania 1 was so successful. He's passed nis nickname onto "Rowdy" Ronda Rousey, which is perfect for so many reasons. He is, bottom line, essentially the greatest talker and greatest villain to step into the wrestling ring in the modern era.

And now, he has passed on. Rest in peace, Roddy Piper. Condolences to his afforementioned family, as well as all friends and fans. OO's thoughts are with you tonight.

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Bonding Exercises

RAW RECAP: The New Guy Blows It

PPV RECAP: WWE Night of Champions 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: 18 Seconds? NO! NO! NO!

RAW RECAP: The Show Must Go On

SMACKDOWN RECAP: The Boot Gets the Boot

RAW RECAP: Heyman Lands an Expansion Franchise

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Losing is the new Winning

RAW RECAP: Say My Name

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Deja Vu All Over Again

RAW RECAP: Dignity Before Gold?

PPV RECAP: SummerSlam 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Backfired!

RAW RECAP: Bigger IS Better

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Hitting with Two Strikes

RAW RECAP: Heel, or Tweener?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Destiny Do-Over

RAW RECAP: CM Punk is Not a Fan of Dwayne

SMACKDOWN RECAP: The Returnening

RAW RECAP: Countdown to 1000

PPV RECAP: WWE Money in the Bank 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Friday Night ZackDown

RAW RECAP: Closure's a Bitch

SMACKDOWN RECAP: In-BRO-pendence Day

RAW RECAP: Crazy Gets What Crazy Wants

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Five Surprising MitB Deposits

RAW RECAP: Weeeellll, It's a Big MitB

SMACKDOWN RECAP: #striketwo

RAW RECAP: Johnny B. Gone

PPV RECAP: WWE No Way Out 2012

RAW RECAP: Crazy Go Nuts

SMACKDOWN RECAP: You're Welcome

RAW RECAP: Be a Star, My Ass

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Needs More Kane?

RAW RECAP: You Can't See Him

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Lady Power

RAW RECAP: Big Johnny Still in Charge

PPV RECAP: WWE Over the Limit 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: One Gullible Fella

RAW RECAP: Anvil, or Red Herring?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Everybody Hates Berto

RAW RECAP: Look Who's Back

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Care to go Best of Five?

RAW RECAP: An Ace Up His Sleeve

PPV RECAP: WWE Extreme Rules 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Sh-Sh-Sheamus and the nOObs

RAW RECAP: Edge, the Motivational Speaker?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: AJ is Angry, Jilted

RAW RECAP: Maybe Cena DOES Suck?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: No! No! No!

RAW RECAP: Brock's a Jerk

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Back with a Bang

RAW RECAP: Yes! Yes! Yes!

PPV RECAP: WWE WrestleMania 28

E-MAIL RICK SCAIA
BROWSE THE OO ARCHIVES

Rick Scaia is a wrestling fan from Dayton, OH. He's been doing this since 1995, but enjoyed it best when the suckers from SportsLine were actually PAYING him to be a fan.