Roddy Piper

Roderick George Toombs (April 17, 1954 – July 30, 2015), better known as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, was a Canadian professional wrestler and actor.

Roderick George Toombs was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on April 17, 1954, the son of Eileen (née Anderson) and Stanley Baird Toombs.

He was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and attended Windsor Park Collegiate.

His father was an officer with the CN Rail Police (Canadian National Railway) while they lived in The Pas, Manitoba.

After being expelled from junior high for having a switchblade in school and falling out with his father, Toombs left home and stayed in youth hostels.

Several professional wrestlers hired him to run errands as he picked up odd jobs at nearby gyms.

As a young man, he became proficient in playing the bagpipes, though he repeatedly stated that he was unsure exactly where he picked them up.

His childhood (and lifelong) best friend was ex-NHL player Cam Connor.

Piper was an amateur wrestler before he started to become a professional wrestler.

He claimed to have won the Golden Gloves boxing championship, though their lists of champions do not include any of his names.

He was awarded a black belt in Judo from Gene LeBell.

He started wrestling under the care of promoter Al Tomko in Canada, his first match involving "midget wrestlers" in front of a lumberjack audience in Churchill, Manitoba.

He soon began earning money wrestling while still going to school.

His first match in a famous organization was with Larry Hennig in the American Wrestling Association (AWA).

Friends of his played the bagpipes during his entrance while he was handing out dandelions; meanwhile, the ring announcer had to announce something, but all he knew was that Piper's name was Roddy.

Subsequently, after seeing the pipe band, he announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, here comes Roddy the piper."

This gave birth to the name "Roddy Piper".

From 1973 to 1975, Piper was a jobber in the AWA, NWA Central States territory surrounding Kansas City, and Eastern Sports Association in the Maritimes.

He also worked in Texas for Paul Boesch's NWA Houston Wrestling promotion, and in Dallas for Fritz Von Erich's Big Time Rasslin.

By late 1975 and early 1976, Piper was a top villain for Mike and Gene LeBell's NWA Hollywood Wrestling.

In 1977–78, he also started to work for Roy Shire's NWA San Francisco Wrestling in addition to remaining with the Los Angeles office, where Piper developed his Rowdy character.

During this time, he made continuous insults directed at the area's Mexican community; he later promised to repent by playing the Mexican national anthem on his bagpipes only to anger the fans further by playing "La Cucaracha" instead, which in turn caused a riot.

Piper also managed a stable of wrestlers in California.

In the Los Angeles area, Piper feuded with Chavo Guerrero Sr.., and his father Gory Guerrero.

Piper and Chavo Guerrero faced each other in several matches for the Jules Strongbow Memorial Scientific Trophy.

Piper also defeated Chavo for the Americas Heavyweight Title.

During the feud, Piper lost a hair match and had his head shaved.

Piper appeared in several loser leave town matches and was forced to leave the territory.

He also appeared in the territory as The Masked Canadian.

In his first televised match as The Masked Canadian, Piper teamed with Chavo in a match against Black Gordman and Goliath for the Americas Tag Team Championship.

Piper and Guerrero lost the match and faced each other two days later, with Piper defeating Guerrero for the Americas Heavyweight Championship.

In professional wrestling, Piper was best known to international audiences for his work with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) between 1984 and 2000.

Although he was Canadian, Piper was billed as coming from Glasgow and was known for his signature kilt and bagpipe entrance music; this was because of his Scottish heritage.

Piper earned the nicknames "Rowdy" and "Hot Rod" by displaying his trademark "Scottish" short temper, spontaneity, and quick wit.

According to The Daily Telegraph, he is "considered by many to be the greatest 'heel' (or villain) wrestler ever".

One of wrestling's most recognizable stars, Piper headlined multiple PPV events, including the WWF and WCW's respective premier annual events, WrestleMania and Starrcade.

He accumulated 34 championships and hosted the popular WWF/WWE interview segment "Piper's Pit", which facilitated numerous kayfabe feuds.

Most notably, he took the lead role of John Nada in the 1988 cult classic They Live and a recurring role as a deranged professional wrestler called Da' Maniac on the FX comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

In 2005, Piper was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Ric Flair, who dubbed him "the most gifted entertainer in the history of professional wrestling".

Outside of wrestling, Piper acted in dozens of films and TV shows.