Hot Rod v Mr. Wonderful (in the Garden)!

Roddy Piper v Paul Orndorff (WWF, 7/13/85) - GREAT

This is Hot Rod at his best; aggressive, conceited, wild, larger than life, full of hubris. A charismatic force of nature. And this felt like one of those penultimate matches of a feud, the one right before the eventual blow-off, where things threatened to break down a few times without going all the way there, until the finish which would set up Orndorff's exaction of revenge at a later date (I'm assuming they blow this off but I couldn't tell you for sure). Everything was still heated though, and straight from the bell Piper tries to jump Orndorff only to be find himself scouted. I loved how Piper sold having his head rammed into the post, I loved him slapping Orndorff while the latter applied an armbar, I loved Piper's sell of that armbar and how he never forgot about it even when he took over. When he did take over he was so self-assured you wanted nothing more than to see him punched in the mouth. He gave us the all-time great eye poke - honestly one of the very best he's done - and when Orndorff took a spill to the floor Piper soaked up every jeer the people directed at him. Then he went out after Orndorff, despite the referee's protests, and it almost cost him, so when the ref' admonished him a second time Piper was apologetic and anxious for the count out. The way he convulses on the mat at one point is goofy as all get out, but there's a sort of charm to it and I'd rather see a guy like Piper do too much than too little. I threw this on because it popped up on my youtube feed and it turned out to be totally awesome. Life is alright like that sometimes.


Complete & Accurate Hot Rod