5's Believe It Brother!

Oh Yeah!!!

I just finished reading Bret "The Hitman" Hart's autobiography. Very revealing look at the era of wrestling I used to watch on the Saturday night late shows. My favorite was Kamala the Ugandan Headhunter. His trademark was "The 747", 300 pounds of flying Negro coming off the ropes onto his flattened opponent. Sad to learn that so many of the wrestlers died prematurely from drug abuse, often related to injuries suffered in the ring. Bret's brother, Owen was killed in Kansas City, attempting to perform an idiotic stunt that the promoters had not properly rigged. Even Miss Elizabeth eventually died from an overdose. I hear that Vince McMahon is sometimes in the ring, as an unscrupulous and corrupt boss. No acting there.

Some others that have died from WWF: Andre the Giant, Junkyard Dog, Ravishing Rick Rude, Randy Macho Man Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, and Rowdy Roddy Piper. Patrick, did you know there is a Rowdy Roddy Piper bubble gum soda? BevMo. My brother loves it. Not bad.

Rowdy Roddy appeared in a movie "Hell Comes to Frogtown". The title says it all. I recall seeing Hulk Hogan retire one night. Lovely speech. Wished his father had lived to see his success. Then McMahon walked up and told Hogan that he, McMahon, was the one who made Hogan and could decide if or when he retired. Hogan then proceeded to mop up the ring with McMahon and rip most of his suit off. I tried to find the video on youtube, but there were so many different "retirement" speeches I didn't have time to sort through them all. In his book Hart says that he retired due to a concussion. I found a later video that shows Hart and Vince McMahon shaking hands. Then McMahon suddenly kicks Bret Hart in the crotch. I remember somewhere an article comparing the starting teams from one year's Super Bowl to a similar number of men from that year's Wrestlemania. All the football players were still living at the time, while about half of the wrestlers were dead. Wrestling may be choreographed, but it's still real.

I think Rowdy Roddy Piper is best remembered in John Carpenter's "They Live!"