We get a pre-match interview segment with Okerlund and the heel team and as soon as Schultz said "Tony Atlas, where I'm from..." I knew it was going to be followed with something racist, if not overtly then at least covertly. Sure enough he says they're going to tie Atlas up and whip him, then they'll tie up Johnson and whip him too, and they'll make Putski watch. Overt rather than covert, then. Once they got in the ring they gave us an electric six minutes. I thought Piper was incredible here and it's one of his most fun WWF performances, certainly as a heel. At the intros Atlas tries to peek under his kilt to see if Piper is a TRUE Scotsman. I've never personally worn a kilt in America but I know the look of a man - even a Canadian one - who's endured his share of kilt-related japery, and I would guess Piper already had to spend half the day listening to Schultz making skirt jokes so he was about ready for a fight. He whips off the kilt and goes right at Atlas, no hesitancy at all, no stalling, no fear. The first couple minutes are a pure Roddy showcase. Atlas clonks him with a jumping headbutt and Piper is so dazed he asks the referee for a tag, then takes an atomic drop and flies into the babyface corner, realises where he is and frantically begs off before Johnson decks him. Putski comes in and does the machine gun punches while Piper is headlocked and Piper's jelly-legged sell is indescribable. Even Patterson on commentary was chuckling. Johnson comes in and does his own rapid fire punches, Piper stares dead-eyed into space, Johnson clocks him with a couple more shots and Piper does the greatest slow-motion face-first timber bump you've ever seen. When Piper gets the chance he rakes Johnson's eyes and immediately drags him to the heel corner to tag Orndorff, but in an awesome touch Piper falls to his knees right after the tag, still selling the effects of the beating he took. Another cool touch is him grabbing Johnson's leg so Orndorff can lay into him, Piper just lying on the canvas. As the ref' is distracted by Atlas running in Schultz starts beating on Johnson as well, but rather than joining in with this beating Piper keeps selling by lying on the apron grabbing hold of Johnson's trunks instead. A play-by-play rundown doesn't really do it justice, but it was a great showcase for some of the things Piper does well. Orndorff has some vicious stomps, a nice top rope forearm and a killer looking back suplex that about folded Johnson like an acordian. Piper hits a great falling fist drop and an AMAZING punch flurry, which he follows up by looking out at the crowd in open disgust, remembering the face of every jeering New Yorker. Even when Johnson tries to make his comeback Piper grabs him right away and drags him straight back to the heel corner to cut him off. I thought the desperation of that really put over the idea that Johnson could mount some serious offence and that the heels needed to swarm him. Great finish as well with Putski coming in hot, a melee breaking out, Piper pulling a foreign object from his tights in the commotion, and reversing a back suplex by hitting Putski with three quick shots to the head. This looked better than the usual single foreign object shot - it felt desperate and came across as really nasty, just a rapid flurry from a guy with nothing but bad intentions. His scurry out the ring on all fours after the pin was the cherry on top, that little extra to wring out every bit of hatred the crowd had to offer. Absurdly fun match and a stone cold epic Roddy Piper performance.
Roddy Piper v Randy Savage (WWF, 1/22/90) - GOOD
Six years later and people are still prodding Piper about this fucking kilt. Savage just sits on the top turnbuckle while Sherri does his bidding, lifting the kilt up, giggling like Piper's the "entertainment" at a hen party. Piper slaps her on the arse and I guess slapping someone on the arse was all still very whimsical in 1990, but the Macho King took about as kindly to his Queen being sullied as Piper took to having his kilt lifted. As a match this wasn't as great as that house show one from '86 that someone recorded from 30 rows away, but it was still very fun. Sherri might be my favourite ringside menace ever and she was amazing here, landing a couple cheapshots including a whole fucking enziguri to Piper's neck! Piper does what is very possibly the greatest airplane spin ever and naturally sells some dizziness upon dropping Savage, then Savage responds with his own and goes STUPID fast and actually it's this one that's possibly the greatest airplane spin ever. I'm honestly shocked Savage managed to stay upright the whole time. He was dead centre in the ring doing this, making at least a dozen rotations, and not once did his balance waver. I would love to have seen what sort of proprioception training he was doing around this time. Of course he drops Piper and immediately falls on his butt for the comedy pop, then he tries climbing the turnbuckles and we all expect him to fall off and then he does! Sometimes the simplest payoffs are the best.
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