Roddy Piper v Greg Valentine (Mid-Atlantic, 7/9/83) - EPIC
What a dirty, violent belter of a pro-wrestling match. I don't know if it was better than the dog collar match but it somehow might've been nastier, and bear in mind we're talking about a match where someone is whipped in the ear repeatedly with a rusty chain. Piper was unbelievable in this. It might be his very best performance. Both guys' strikes were amazing, but Piper was as vicious as anybody I've ever seen, throwing amazing body shots, jab combos, clawing at Valentine's face, his all-time great eye poke, headbutts, all of it. Valentine wasn't exactly straight-laced, because this was a fight and you don't throw clubs to the chest like that in a gentleman's contest, but once or twice he did show his wrestling chops. He wasn't downright feral at least, which I suppose was one thing he had over Piper, and at one point he hit one of the best gut busters I've ever seen. He's rougher than a stuntman's knee and tough as stewed skunk, but Piper is a wild street brawler on methamphetamines and that'll put a fear in even the hardiest of men. Valentine taking over by going to the ear ruled and obviously ear workover was amazing. There was an awesome bit where Greg throws him ear-first into the ring post and then starts mashing the ear up against the steel. Lots of great little teased comebacks as Piper staggers around trying to fire back with flurries of punches and bites and eye gouges. He's near dead on his feet in the corner and Greg is blasting away on him, but then Piper starts ducking and moving and all at once he's in the groove again, Greg missing five, six, seven swings in a row as Piper is evading everything, the crowd going full on apeshit when he hits back. We get the revenge posting and Valentine blade job and naturally Piper bites the cut, but then he took it a step further and tried to Tyson his ear off. There are parts where they're rolling about on the mat sticking fingers in eyes and ripping hair and trying to throttle each other, just pure, visceral hatred. And then there's the finish which was basically attempted murder. Piper trying to saw Valentine's fucking head off with a rope was crazy enough, but the image of Greg frothing at the mouth as Piper hangs him over the top rope was borderline disturbing. Folk are trying to tear Piper away and Roddy will not have it. He's going to kill this man if it's the last thing he does. Holy shit this was something else.
Complete & Accurate Hot Rod
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