for a second here.
I am the originator of "Piper's Pit."
This is my show.
- What are you, crazy?
- Are you people half as confused as I am?
♪ ♪
I was in a bar in St. Louis.
McMahon was there, and I said to McMahon,
''You give me a bow tie and a mic stand
"and, uh, five weeks,
and if I don't get the job done, I'm out."
- The next week on TV,
he came into WWE,
and there was the "Piper's Pit" set.
♪ ♪
- What I'm doing out of the kindness of my heart--
I have a gentleman here named Frank Williams.
In the dressing room,
Frankie Williams on "Piper's Pit."
What? And I'm going, "Hmm."
Nobody knew anything about it.
Frank Williams, first of all...
So where are you from?
- Columbus, Ohio.
- You're from Columbus, Ohio.
I've never lost a match in Columbus, Ohio.
Have you ever lost a match?
- Yeah. - You have.
♪ ♪
- You know, you're a nice guy,
but you're a lousy wrestler.
You've never won a match.
Now he's hot, and now the cameraman's going,
you know, "Get off a minute."
So I'm getting off.
"Okay, Frankie.
Hey, Frankie. Get out, Frankie."
♪ ♪
Here comes Frankie back.
He's going to get his first win.
I had to knee him, and I'm turning,
and I'm seeing five, four, and I say.
Just when they think they got the answers,
I change the questions.
That first sentence might have been,
"Well, I was born in San Juan and, you know,
I got to Columbus and the end..."
I might not have it a second week.
When he said, "I'm from Columbus, Ohio,"
we're rolling.
And it set the tone for everything.
- It was a platform
to get other talent
and other stories over,
it was an avenue for Roddy Piper
to have exposure on television every week,
and it was highly entertaining.
- All the time,
somebody always wants to be a big shot.
- If you were a guest on "Piper's Pit,"
you must have been someone,
or you were about to be someone.
- We are the greatest tag team of them all.
- Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait.
No, you--you're the greatest tag team of all?
You've got a manager that-- woof woof,
that's afraid of Matilda.
In all of history,
there has never been a greater show,
and I have had some of the greatest,
most intelligent people and athletes ever.
I had, uh... well, I had Hogan.
Do you have a friend?
- Yeah, I got a very good friend,
something you don't know much about.
- It wasn't scripted.
I never talked with Piper about anything.
- I don't give a damn whose name you put on there.
You sign it, he'll fight him.
- Mic skills, top 1%.
He'd never let you know what he was gonna do.
That was so beautiful about it,
because it was poetry in motion.
You had to roll with his flow,
and if the flow didn't work for you,
you had to do a quick U-turn to catch him off guard.
- Mr. T.
♪ ♪
- I pity you fools.
- It was a battle of wits the whole time
I worked with him, verbally and physically.
- No, wait, wait, wait. The contract was not open.
- It's going to sound cliché,
but one of the Piper Pits that sticks out in my mind
is Jimmy Snuka and the coconut.
And I think the reason why is,
I see so much of my dad in that.
When he's naming the fruits,
he's like "One coconut, two bananas."
- Have yourself a banana.
- That is him in the kitchen making a hamburger,
that same loud, happy, hilarious energy.
That was Dad when he was just being fun.
You know, before the hitting with the coconut.
- Oh, sure.
[audience clamoring]
- I swear he could make a broom entertaining.
- Mr. Cameraman, come on over here.
In my interviews, what I would do is,
I would get a skeleton,
and I would get an ending and a beginning.
Then I just roll with it.
You and all your splendid have crowned yourself,
the king of professional wrestling.
Is that correct? I mean, wait a second.
Nobody else here did, man.
You know, kind of having an ace in my back pocket
because I knew how I was going to end it.
- There's only one king. - Here's his real throne.
♪ ♪
- "Piper's Pit" was a big success
cause nothing had been done like that
in our business at the time.
- He had all of the things that you couldn't teach.
- Hello peasants.
- He was the most innovative,
and he really, like, thought outside of the box.
♪ ♪
- When RP talks, people listen.
This here is the very last "Piper's Pit"
that you'll ever see in your entire life.
♪ ♪
It has been an honor and a pleasure,
but our time is up.
- You're out of time when I say you're of time.
- This is my show.
- "Piper's Pit" blossomed Roddy's creativity.
And it was a little preplanned and a lot of spontaneity.
He loved having his own show.
Yeah. He flourished in that.
♪ ♪
- I'm Roddy Piper, and you're not.