Roddy Piper is a legend of the wrestling business and arguably one of the best ever to do it. He will forever be remembered by fans for the unique flavor he brought to the table. Many people consider him to be among the best talkers in wrestling history.
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Piper had a great career, and had a lot of success in the wrestling world. He was among the most popular wrestlers from the 1980s. Despite achieving a lot, there are things even Hot Rod couldn't accomplish during his wrestling career.
10 Win A WWE Or WCW World Title
Roddy Piper had a pretty good win-loss record during his time in WWE, but he was never really known for holding championships. Throughout his WWE career, he only won two championships: none of which was the WWE Title. He couldn't win the WCW World Title either.
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In fact, Piper challenged for the WWE or WCW World Title in televised matches just three times, all against Hulk Hogan. During Piper's peak in the 80s, Hogan was the Face of WWE and held the championship for most of the time, due to which Piper never got a chance at the belt. By the time he arrived in WCW, it was too late for him to become the World Champion as there were younger and better wrestlers available.
9 Win The King Of The Ring
King of The Ring was introduced by WWE in 1985 and was held in house shows until 1993 when it became a PPV. It was a single elimination tournament, and the winner would be called the "King of the Ring".
It was a very coveted prize, and many legends won the crown. However, Roddy Piper was never successful in winning the event. He participated in the tournament just once in 1986, where he was eliminated in the first round itself after his match with Don Muraco was a draw.
8 Win The Royal Rumble Match
Royal Rumble has been an important part of WWE's calendar since 1988. Since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner started getting a WWE Title match at WrestleMania. Roddy Piper however was never chosen as the Royal Rumble winner.
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Piper made his Royal Rumble debut in 1990, where he was the 6th entrant and lasted 12 minutes and 20 seconds. He had a pretty good performance in the 1992 edition, where he lasted more than 34 minutes, and was the 26th wrestler to be eliminated. He was a surprise entrant in the 2008 Rumble, but lasted just 1 minute.
7 Main Event WrestleMania In A Singles Match
WrestleMania is the biggest wrestling event, and main eventing the show is a wrestler's dream. Roddy Piper had a total of 6 matches at 'Mania, most of them being high profile. In fact, Piper main-evented the first-ever WrestleMania event.
He was part of a tag team match at the event, where he teamed up with Paul Orndorff in a losing effort against Hulk Hogan & Mr. T. However, Piper was never able to headline 'Mania in a singles match. His boxing match against Mr. T at WrestleMania 2 could have been the main event, but WWE went with Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy instead.
6 Have A Match At SummerSlam
After WrestleMania, SummerSlam became the 2nd annual WWE PPV, with the first event being in the year 1988. Piper was an active WWE wrestler at the time, but it is quite surprising that Hot Rod actually never had a match at the event. With the kind of popularity and appeal Piper had, he should have wrestled in some SummerSlam matches.
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He did make appearances at the event. He was the host for SummerSlam 1991 alongside Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan. He also hosted the 1990 edition alongside Vince McMahon. He also had a surprise cameo at SummerSlam 1992.
5 Have A Retirement Match
Roddy Piper's wrestling career was very long. He made his wrestling debut in 1969, and had his last match in the year 2011. Over the years, we've seen many wrestlers have retirement matches. Although many come out of retirement, it is still a pretty good way of thanking the fans and having one last go in the ring. However, Piper never had an official retirement match.
His last match ever was a random tag team match, where he teamed up with Bob Orton to take on Mick Foley & Terry Funk at JCW Legends & Icons. It is very important to time your retirement perfectly in order to have a retirement match. But, Piper was 57 already during his last match, and it was hard to have him retire in a proper match.
4 Headline WWE Hall Of Fame
The WWE Hall of Fame is an annual event where WWE inducts some of its best wrestlers. Although WWE inducts anyone these days, it still chooses its headliner very carefully, and only the best ones get to be the headliner pick. Roddy Piper was inducted in the Hall of Fame as part of the 2005 Class.
Piper was a legitimate contender to be the headline, but since Hulk Hogan was also inducted the same year, he was WWE's pick. It is a shame that Piper had to be inducted the same year as Hogan, as he could really have been the headliner in some other year.
3 Be A Part Of A Faction
Roddy Piper never really had the image of a lone wolf, but he surprisingly was never part of a faction in his wrestling career. He was part of many tag teams, and even won tag team championships, but never part of a stable.
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Piper formed a partnership with Paul Orndorff & Bob Orton, and also led his own team at Survivor Series 1989 against Rick Rude's team, but both of these were very short-term to be called factions. Piper would have been a pretty good faction member, with the kind of persona he portrayed and his microphone skills.
2 Retain A Title On PPV In WWE Or WCW
As mentioned earlier, Piper was never really known to win a lot of championships. He did win a few titles eventually in WWE and WCW, but he never managed to retain any of the championships on PPV. He won the Intercontinental Championship at Royal Rumble 1992, and lost it in the first PPV title defense against Bret Hart at WrestleMania 8.
He won the tag team titles with Ric Flair in 2006, but lost them the next week on Raw. When he won titles in NWA, there weren't many PPVs and thus wasn't able to have a successful defense. When he won the WCW United States Title in 1999, he lost it to Scott Hall at SuperBrawl IX just 13 days later.
1 Main Event Saturday Night's Main Event
Saturday Night's Main Event was a television special produced by the WWE. It was hosted regularly in the 1980s, and we saw many SNMEs over the years. As mentioned before, Roddy Piper was among the most popular WWE wrestlers during the 80s.
Piper had a total of nine matches at Saturday Night's Main Event. However, it comes off as a surprise that none of those matches ever closed the show. He had an Intercontinental Title match against The Mountie at SNME #30, but the main event was Randy Savage vs. Jake Roberts instead.
