(This is a commissioned review! Commissions are always open!)
From December 1990 to March 1991, Roddy Piper and Curt Hennig wrestled for the WWF Intercontinental Championship 26 times, with Piper going an on-paper astonishing 26-0 over the champion, who lost by countout or DQ every single time. This match, from the 1/25/91 edition of Maple Leaf Wrestling, is the 10th match of the series. If you happen to be familiar with the grind that was the WWF house show circuit, you know how this kind of thing goes: two stars have a so-so match that’s only on camera because of the Fed’s obligations to a regional sports network, nothing much to see.
Only this match fuckin’ rocks. I’ll skip to the end here any say that, yes, it is let down by its finish, even though the way Mr. Perfect manages to find himself victim to a count-out is as unique and effective as anything else he’s really known for, and here he’s just stooging off the end of a house show main event. Take away the limiting factor of this being a loop match and, man, it’s a shame the WWF’s PPV/Saturday Night’s Main Event schedule didn’t fall in such a way that more people could see this. With an honest conclusion and an actual angle behind it, Perfect/Piper could have been akin to Piper’s WrestleMania encounter with Bret Hart, which made a legitimate argument for the former as one of the company’s greatest legends while affirming the later’s status as a man who would be joining him there soon.
Yes, I enjoyed this that much. It’s hard not to when it starts with Piper successfully getting under Perfect’s skin by doing his chewing gum schtick and getting paintbrushed a couple times for it. Things between the two escalate so quickly that Sean Mooney is at a loss, trying to tie this back to an occasion when Piper was the special guest referee for a match between Perfect and the Texas Tornado, but nah dawg, these are men, and men don’t need a reason to fight.
Lord Alfred Hayes sounds exasperated as Piper persecutes his agenda, calling for a disqualification when he whips Perfect with a belt, sighing “what is he doing?” as he tugs Perfect’s singlet off. There’s a guy near one of the cameras who has a big “ohhh ho ho hooo” belly laugh who absolutely loses it when Piper’s on the attack, and he’s hardly alone — the arena is rockin’ for this, and our announce team are like begrudging substitute teachers, trying to keep things settled and reminding us that what’s important is Mr. Perfect’s match against Big Bossman at WrestleMania.
I love this match in a way the rating I’m about to give it won’t quantify. Curt Hennig and Roddy Piper do a 15 minutes of house show horseshit, but play it sincerely. It’s a match that’s as funny as it is closely-contested, the punches and kicks landing with authority, the more complicated brawling spots feeling fresh and inventive, as if Piper had found a way to tap into the energy of They Live‘s famous fight scene and found, in Hennig, someone more than capable of translating it to the ring. They’d done this nine times before. They had 16 more to go. Was this the best of the 26? What does the worst one look like? What does a better match between these two look like? What if it was meant to do more than give some 5,000 people in Hamilton, Ontario a good time? So far as purposefully incomplete matches go, this one belts.
Rating: *** & 1/2
1 response to “Roddy Piper vs. Mr. Perfect (WWF, 1/25/91)”
I recall seeing one of these on the MSG network at the time and thinking it was fire. I don’t recall if they hit the same beats but it’s hard to top “put the top two arrogant heels into a feud, declare one to be a face, and let ‘em rip.”