I don't really remember a Piper/Heenan feud from around this time. I always thought Piper was busy with Muraco and by extension the devious Mr Fuji, but this is very much Piper v Heenan. You may be shocked to hear that Piper v Heenan was a blast. Piper is obviously wearing the same mask as the Destroyers and makes no attempt to hide who he is other than that, but Heenan is still apoplectic whenever Piper pulls the mask up behind the ref's back and sticks his tongue out at him. Bobby was an incredible chickenshit in this and would flatly run away or bodily fling himself out the ring whenever Piper got close. Heenan would come in when Piper had been incapacitated, but none of his stuff hurt Piper and as soon as that became apparent Heenan was OUTTA there. Piper's knee is bandaged to the size of a beach ball so the heels take over on it, then when Heenan comes in he tries to fist drop the knee, but Piper raises his leg and Heenan goes face-first into it instead. And then he is fuckin OUTTA there. Piper eventually rips the mask off to start the big comeback and the place goes nuts, then unloads with a punch flurry to Studd before slamming him to a MONSTER pop. Ton of fun and definitely one for the Hot Rod enthusiasts.
Roddy Piper v Adrian Adonis (WWF, 2/15/87) - GREAT
I love this match up. The Wrestlemania 3 match is one of the great WWF spectacles and this was an awesome test run for it. Christ alive Adonis is huge. Monsoon calls him the Enormous One and says he "must be at least 500," presumably pounds but he could've meant kilograms and it wouldn't have been the most egregious nonsense Gorilla has ever come away with. After all, this is a man who once proclaimed someone coming off the top rope as being "25 feet in the air." They meet in the aisle and Piper's glare would shrivel your insides, then he chucks the kilt at Adonis' face before bum-rushing him. Even at his PLUMPEST Adonis is still a mad bumper. Those signature bumps don't come off the same as they did when he was a bit lighter, like the upside down corner bump or the one where he goes backwards over the ropes and gets tangled up. He tried the former and it resulted in a flat back bump when he simply bounced off the buckles, then on the latter he couldn't rotate all the way around and just flopped forward again. But for a man who looks like the antithesis of athleticism he was still very athletic, still has nice spring on a big atomic drop bump, still willing to jump off the top rope and eat knees on a splash. Piper muscling him up in a vertical suplex late in the match looked pretty amazing as well. Piper was molten hot and knows how to get the absolute most out of Adonis' willingness to chuck his huge frame around the ring. Jimmy Hart is a constant nuisance and Piper wants to get at him in the worst way, but Adonis will always be there whenever Piper gets close enough. Piper literally picks Jimmy up by the ears before Adonis clubs him in the neck, then as Hart clings to the referee in protest Adonis grabs his big atomiser - that Gorilla calls a "squirter" - and sprays it about a dozen times in Piper's face. Piper is one thousand percent Roddy Piper selling being blinded for the next few minutes, swinging wildly as Adonis prances around, hitting a big bulldog in the ring before throwing Piper onto the ramp and hitting another bulldog there. The last few minutes are sensational, with Piper and Adonis and Hart running through a bunch of spots, the ref' getting bumped, Piper regaining his sight and going bonkers, Adonis trying to clonk Piper with a chair only to have it kicked back in his face, Hart being flung across the ring onto Adonis, Piper being shot in the face again with the squirter. Piper throwing the referee around the place and tackling the ring announcer in blind fury makes up for a somewhat unsatisfying finish. We get that payoff at Wrestlemania anyway, and it's about as satisfying as you could want.
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