UKFF TOP 50 Wrestlers ... EVER!

[steve rayson]

Anyone remember the story about D-Lo coming over for one of those BRITWRES training seminar and Q&As, around the time of his first release from WWE? I think it was GPW, or one of those tinpot companies, and before D-Lo came in, the trainees were instructed not to mention anything about Droz. D-Lo enters; first question, a pleather-wearing lad's hand goes up, "How did it feel when you injured Droz?"

 

How did he respond?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgGFyUknepI

[Reznor]

Anyone remember the story about D-Lo coming over for one of those BRITWRES training seminar and Q&As, around the time of his first release from WWE? I think it was GPW, or one of those tinpot companies, and before D-Lo came in, the trainees were instructed not to mention anything about Droz. D-Lo enters; first question, a pleather-wearing lad's hand goes up, "How did it feel when you injured Droz?"

 

How did he respond?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgGFyUknepI

Shit, that's mental. Remember Fatu decided to do that in some squash match?; wtf possessed him with that against a couple of ham n'eggers.

 

Pierre splatting himself with his flip to the floor in that TNA run was a bit mad too..

 

That story reminds me of "How's the son?"

[Egg Shen]

fanatasic work Hitman, this thread is quality

[IANdrewDiceClay]

23. Roddy Piper

Prime Years: 1976-1997

Info:There are only a few types of heels in wrestling these days. Most of them have been ripped off from Roddy Piper. He was a complete original. Hugely popular as a face, and despised as a heel. He was a huge drawing card for years. You can see Piper in a lot of the heel wrestlers of the last 20 years. He's instantly recognisable. The kilt, the Hot Rod shirt, the wicked eyes were all trademarks of this mental character. Piper began his wrestling career at the age of 15 in a squash against Larry The Axe Hennig before moving onto full jobber status in the AWA. As the years went on and he gained more experience, he travelled around the territories such as Kansas City and Texas, until he found his home in Gene and Mike Lebell

[Maverick]

One of my favorites, fantastic write up as usual Ian lad. Best promo of all time by a mile for me. He's up there with Billy Graham as the most ripped off guy in wrestling.

[Quentin]

I remember very well when "Fighting Fit" was released. I was 7 and my brother was 5 at the time. My mum had a friend working in the local HMV when Piper was in to do a signing for the video. Me and my brother had no idea this was happening but my mum and dad came and picked us up from school, took us to HMV and this lady whisked to the front of the line. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw who everyone was lining up to meet. Roddy Fucking Piper was just standing there smiling at me. We got a signed copy of the video, a t-shirt each and the man himself signed a figure, a card and a WWF annual as well. And we even got a picture taken with Hot Rod for the local paper. He never stopped smiling the whole time we were with him and seeing us so star struck he kept asking us loads of questions about WWF and seemed genuinely happy to be there. Aside from being an amazing performer he was such a nice bloke that day and really made an impression on me and my brother. My mum still talks about how that day and how happy she was to see her boys so made up to meet him. True gent.

 

Piper is A-OK in my book.

[ColinBollocks]

Like Sting, Piper should be higher up the list. I'm really surprised he didn't make the top 15.

[King Pitcos]

Here's Roddy Piper's episode of Highlander, where he didn't play a Scottish bloke but does have a swordfight on a rollercoaster:

 

Also, that GI Joe Roddy Piper figure is worth

[Loki]

He turned up in TNA in a rotten exploitation angle, where he accused Russo of killing Owen Hart in a worked shoot. It was awful.

 

 

Piper actually appeared in TNA before this, I think. I remember a series of videos where he was boxing and talking shit to the camera. Not sure if he ever appeared live though. Anyone else remember those?

[Tommy!]

Piper actually appeared in TNA before this, I think. I remember a series of videos where he was boxing and talking shit to the camera. Not sure if he ever appeared live though. Anyone else remember those?

 

I do, he was punching a dummy and talking shit. I remember watching it on the TWC. Was it him who walked out waving a NWA flag too.

[PunkStep]

What in the blue hell is 'Hell Comes to Frogtown'? It looks fucking awesome, whatever it is. Has anyone here seen it? Roddy Piper VS gianr frogs with shotguns, stringing along a woman on a leash. This can only be good.

[flying tackle]

What in the blue hell is 'Hell Comes to Frogtown'? It looks fucking awesome, whatever it is. Has anyone here seen it? Roddy Piper VS gianr frogs with shotguns, stringing along a woman on a leash. This can only be good.

 

You'll get your chance to see it soon if you have Sky. It's on the horror channel next week I think.

 

Here is the wiki

 

Edit: Next Wednesday at 12.25am

[darkship]

Apart from Savage, Piper was probably my favourite guy in the early 90s WWF (although he shouldn't ever wrestle again). I used to like Raphael and Peter Venkman prior to that, so I guess I'm a fan of wisecracking guys who are slight arseholes. 'They Live' is a nice little movie, too.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

22. Jake Roberts

Prime Years: 1985-1996

Info: Old Jake’s deserving of a place of any list. He’s the master of ring psychology, one of the best interviews in the history of the business and the perfect heel character. He might have turned into wrestling’s version of Rab C Nesbitt, but Jake Roberts was fucking brilliant in his day.

 

Jake’s life got off the a typical start, with Grizzy Smith smashing his current girlfriends 12 year old daughters pasty as he creeped through the halls of her house during the night. Nine months late a balding, moustache laden baby was brought into the world, and was given the name Aurelian Jake Smith Jr., after old Griz. So either the man was marking out over the statutory rape, because it was Grizzly Smith from the telly or they must have all gotten on like a house on fire, considering for a period of his wife, Jake’s step-mam was also his grandmother. As Grizzly said in Beyond the Mat "he was born out of love and I still love him". You could never accuse Griz for being a shy bloke. Roberts had other siblings as well, one being former WWF jobber Sam Houston and also premiere women’s wrestler Rockin’ Robin. Jake claims at one point Smithy put it about to all his female children when he would make his rare trips home. Since Grizzly Smith was usually on the road booking his territory or actually wrestling, Jake was a victim of sexual abuse from his many step mothers. It was quite a fucked up life from early on. Jake's role in the household to hand out kickings to his sister if she ever came home pregnant. Which was regular. They all had it bad. He none wrestling sister, moved in with an older married man and was kidnapped and murder by his ex and a BLACK MAN.

 

Sick of a life of constantly anal rape, Jake got into the business as a referee for his father, before actually wrestling for promotions such as Stampede Wrestling, Mid-south and World Class, where he invited the DDT. Bill Watts especially took a dislike to Jake. There's a special dislike for Watts that Jake holds in his heart. Roberts started his need to live longer than Watts so he could give Cowboy Bill's headstone the Batcave. While in Mid-South, Jake gained a reputation for showing people up by no selling their blows. A legendary story is that when Muhammad Ali was booked in the Superdome for an angle where he would knock out all the heels, Jake proceeded to no sell Ali's punches in an effort to get himself over. Jake wrestled for years, but it was the WWF where people started realising how good he was. Starting off as a heel, he debuted his pet python named Damien in the WWF. He had a feud with Ricky Steamboat over who had the most lethal pet or something. In a shocking angle for its time, Roberts DDT’d The Dragon on the concrete floor. Jake ended up staring at the lights for most of the bouts, but they quality of the matches were really good. To capitalise on his verbal skills, he was given his own Piper’s Pit style talk show called The Snake Pit. Jake would start and end each interview segment with his own brand of words of wisdom. During an edition of the Snake Pit, the Honky Tonk Man wasn’t fond of the 20 foot python, so decided to bash Jake’s head in with his acoustic guitar. The guitar didn’t look to gimmicked from watching it back. The guitar cracks slightly but the sound on the guitar against the side of Roberts head was defending. Roberts claims to have cracked vertebra in his neck after the angle and was self medicating for years. A lot of people dispute this. It looked nasty, though. They had a match at WrestleMania III, where Jake failed in his attempts to wrestle the Intercontinental title away from Honky Tonk, but it was still a moment. Lead to the ring by his hero Alice Cooper, the pair took Damien and wrapped him around Jimmy Hart to a big reaction.

 

Next up for Roberts was a highly entertaining feud with Rick Rude, after Rude put the moves of Jake’s wife Cheryl. The pair toured the country battling it out in the upper section of the card. As with most of Jake’s feuds, this was less about the matches, because the angles were so cracking. Ravishing Rick pulled down his regular tights to reveal a hilarious airbrushed picture of Cheryl on them. As the weeks went on, Jake finally got tired of seeing this, so he de-pantsed Ravishing Rick live on TV! The Heenan family was outraged by this and Andre was sent to teach the Snake Man a lesson. Problem was, Andre was shit scared of snakes. At every opportunity, Jake would open his big green bag and bring Damien out to make Andre run like the clappers. Andre actually won most of their matches via pinfall. The only time Roberts got a victory over The Giant was at WrestleMania V, via DQ is a limited match.

 

Roberts began a feud with Ted DiBiase. Father Ted saw Roberts for the scum he was and made sure everyone knew it. DiBiase had all the money and Jake had nothing. Jake disagreed with Teddy that this made him any better than your average man on the street and Jake was perfect fighting the charge for the everyman. Jake stole the Million Dollar belt from DiBiase and put it in Damian’s bag where nobody had the arse to nab it (expect the Boss Man but even he had a change of heart when he rightly question that someone was taking back handers on his behalf). They had a good match at WrestleMania VI, but Jake could only gain a DQ victory. After the match though, Jake took DiBiase’s roll of $100 bills and, in a move no doubt inspired by his Dad, gave them to overexcited brace wearing teenage girls at ringside.

 

Jake always made the best of what he had. He was losing value in the early 90s, though. Feuds with Rick Martel and Earthquake were silly on paper, but Jake always did he’s part when. He had a blindfold match (after he was blinded in one eye by a spray of Martel’s award winning Arrogance fragrance), which Jake won. Moving onto a feud with Earthquake, we saw the death of a loved one. As Jake was tied in the ropes, Earthquake rolled a bagged Damien into the ring and did his Earthquake Splash to him. This is a move that put Hulk Hogan out of action for 4 months, so you can only imagine what it did to poor Damien. What took the edge off the angle as far as public perception goes, was that Animal Rights groups came down on WWF hard and they had to admit that what was in the bag was actually hamburger meat and other items from the butchers window. Its not the last we’d see of Damian though. On an episode of Prime Time Wrestling, Earthquake came out with his own line of grilled sandwiches, he called Quake Burgers, which featured poor Damien grilled and put in a bun. As Bobby Heenan said to Lord Alfred Hayes “You can either eat these or make a pair of shoes out of them”

 

After the Ultimate Warrior found himself locked in a coffin following a scuffle with The Undertaker, Snakey Jake made it known that he was the man who held the key to the dark side and will take it upon himself to teach the Warrior the ways of all things evil, so he could no longer fear the Dead Man. So, off they went of their merry way to complete a series of trails to rid the Ultimate One from any fear he previously had. Warrior was first put in a casket, as he had been previously. Warrior wasn’t mad keen on it, but he did what he was asked. Next up, he was buried alive by Jake. The final Bushtucker Trail was to be locked in a crypt, and Jake promised Warrior that the way to beating the Man From The Darkside was through that door. Off he trotted, to find the crypt was filled with snakes, but for one tiny coffin. Warrior sheepishly went over to the coffin and opened it. Inside was a plastic snake, which we were supposed to believe was real, which attack the Warrior. As Warrior crawled towards the door losing consciousness, he was met by Paul Bearer and The Undertaker as Jake proclaimed you should “never trust a Snake”. Jake was now officially in the heel camp.

 

Jake’s big run on top, which was going to lead to Hogan and Warrior vs. Undertaker and Jake main events all over the country didn’t happen, due to the Warrior leaving in the Summer of 91. So attentions were turned to Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. Throughout SummerSlam 91, the commentary team speculated about the whereabouts of the Deadly Duo of Taker and Roberts. We eventually saw Roberts at the reception for Randy and Liz’s wedding where they were opening presents and one had a King Cobra in it. Undertaker popped out of nowhere and decked Randy with the Urn as all hell broke loose. Sid made the save. Since Randy was currently retired, his hands were tied to extract any kind of physical actively on a WWF superstar. It would finally come to ahead in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at the WWF Superstars taping when Savage finally darted to the ring and was blindsided by Jake. The Snake Man then tied Randy to the ropes and got his mean looking Cobra out of the bag. As officials panicked at ringside, Roberts attached the Cobra to Savage’s arm as the blood poured out in a segment my Mam described as “this is nasty, what do you want to watch this shite for?” when we first saw it years ago. The visual more than holds up today. Its arguable whether they have done anything this terrifying since. Its as real as you could get. The referees, Elizabeth and Roddy Piper played their parts perfectly, Savage’s selling was world class and Roberts looked like the Devil himself. It was a remarkable angle.

 

Because of this, Randy was reinstated and the snake was taken away from Roberts. The match itself didn’t live up to expectations, but it was more about the follow up angle. Cutting one of the best promos of his career, Jake promised that whatever happened was on Jack Tunney’s head. After a short brawl, which Savage won, Roberts again beat Savage down and planted him with a DDT. What followed was as much a change of pace to your usually WWF programming as the Snake angle was, when Jake slapped Elizabeth right across the face. Their feud ended soon after, when Savage gained a measure of revenge in the Royal Rumble match. Jake’s old pal The Undertaker was getting sick of Jake’s actions and saved Liz from a chair attack backstage at a Saturday Night’s Main Event special after Savage ended their feud with a win. WrestleMania VIII proved to be the final bout of Roberts long WWF run, when he put over the Undertaker strong. Undertaker sat up from the DDT and pinned Jake clean to make himself 2-0. That was a huge deal at the time.

 

When Pat Patterson was taking time during the sex scandal, Jake thought it would be a good idea if a wholesome, scandal free, stand up chap like himself was put in charge of the writing staff. When he was turned down, Jake ran up out old pal Grizzly Smith who brought him into WCW. Starting off as he meant to go on, Jake arrived and immediately locked himself into a feud with the promotions franchise, Sting. Roberts actually pinned Sting in his first televised bout with him. Their most famous bout, was the Spin The Wheel, Make the Deal bout (Raw Roulette) where they would spin the wheel and see what their match type would be. They had a Coal Miners Glove bout, where Jake actually attached his King Cobra to his own face when Sting punched him with the glove. Jake was his typical self as far as stirring up the heat in the arena. At a show in Dallas, an elderly man, who had been attending wrestling events for 30 years and was well known by the staff at WCW, pulled a gun out was stopped by a fellow fan when he had had enough and was looking to blow Roberts head off. His WCW run was never going to last when Bill Watts was brought in shortly after he started. Jake left WCW at the end of the year.

 

Jake spent a couple of years in Mexico for AAA, where he drew some monster houses with Konnan, as well as doing the independent circuit in the United States. It was around this time Jake just stopped showing up for advertised appearances. Everyone seemed to know that Jake was completely off his tits by this point. The WWF actually brought him back for a year long sting in 1996, when they were desperate for name talent. They acknowledged his battles with drink and drugs. Jake was fatter than he’d previously been. He wasn’t that much older than Bret Hart, Scott Hall and Diesel, but was pushed as a old man who wanted one last shot at glory before being put out the pasture. He turned to a big pop at the Rumble, with a green wasted coat, buttoned up to the chest so we didn’t see his gut, a bright yellow snake called “revelations” and a new religious outlook on life. When quizzed about how much he got out of this man of god type status, he replied “$1,500 a shot, plus gimmicks." A true Christian if there ever was one. Jake’s main contribution to this run was the match with Steve Austin at King of the Ring 96. A pivotal moment in the history of the promotion, Austin cut his famous “Austin 3:16” promo after beating Jake until he couldn’t continue. Jake’s main contributions were behind the scenes helping the writing team. Most reports of this period in Jake’s life include stories of him being a sleep most of the day during the TV tapings, and pissing on hotel room floors. He was sacked in February 1997 and headed back to the independent circuit. His wife also filled for divorce.

 

He showed up in ECW, in a new era in his career where he got rid of his wrestling gear altogether in favour of jeans, cowboy boots and whatever shirt he’d been wearing that day. This is where it all fell apart for Jake. He appeared in the documentary Beyond The Mat, where he was show as a drunk, a terrible father and an all round lowlife, who promoters buried for asking for crack in exchange for wrestling. It didn’t do much for his reputation. It was compelling stuff. He them appeared on the disastrous Heroes of Wrestling show, pissed off his face, rambling about very little and wanking his snake off. He was so out of it, they had to make his match a tag team ‘contest’, so he’d stay in the corner for a bit. Roberts made a decision in his life. The United States had had enough of him. He’d pissed off all the promoters over there, they’d all seen him for what he was and he wasn’t in the right place in his mind. There was only one thing for it. Jake was coming to the UK.

 

Jake originally came over here because he was planning a new career as an architect (?), and to supplement this drastic change in lifestyle, The Snake Man opened up a wrestling school and accept independent bookings. His wrestling school included charging students vast sums of money just to talk to him, then ask for 500 quid to watch the WWF’s Slamminest Matches 89 with him on a TV and VHS top loader. To the best of my knowledge, the only people of note who came out of the school was a girl who allowed him to live rent free at her house for six months that was sick on his cock and a lad who posts shit threads on the UKFF. There’s all kinds of stories about his 2 year stint living in the UK. Better people know those than me, but I’ve heard all kinds of ungodly horrid shit that he’s into and the things he’s done. There’s nobody like Jake, it has to be said. The final straw came when the RCPCA got on his case when they discovered a decaying snake in his garage in Hertfordshire, that had been left to starve.

 

Jake returned to America and signed a WWE legends deal. He appeared on Raw in an angle with Randy Orton. WWE released a DVD of him as well. He’s yet to make it in the Hall Of Fame yet, though which is odd. Jake turned up a few times in TNA to referee a Monsters Ball match and at Jay Lethal and So Cal Val’s wedding. He’s been in and out of WWE rehab for years. He recently retired, until the next time someone offers him a few quid. These days he spends his time fishing with his sons. He’s said to be doing better now than he has in years.

 

Did he have shit on the market?: As has been mentioned in this thread, there was limited spots for mass merchandising back in the day, but Jake was a big enough star to get some stuff out there.

They Said? “Master of the sport. Awesome character from when I was a kid. Amazing interviews”

[air_raid]

Cracking write-up, Ian. What a mind and what a talent Jake was. Some of his promos / interviews were phenomenal and he was the king of in-ring psychology. Jake could do as much with his eyes or a smile as others could with a thousand words.

 

They had a match at WrestleMania III, where Jake failed in his attempts to wrestle the Intercontinental title away from Honky Tonk, but it was still a moment.

 

Not quite mate. Honky wasn't champion yet. That 'Mania had the Intercontinental title match where Steamboat pinned some dead fella. Never seen it, don't know it was any good.

 

They had a good match at WrestleMania VI, but Jake could only gain a DQ victory.

 

Not quite mate. DiBiase by count-out thanks to the interference of Wrestling Superstar Virgil.