R.I.P. Rowdy Roddy "They Live" Piper @ age 61 (cardiac arrest)

[Miles Archer]

http://www.tmz.com/2015/07/31/roddy-piper-dead-dies-wwe-wrestler-cancer/

Wrestling legend "Rowdy" Roddy Piper has died at the age of 61... TMZ Sports has learned.

Piper -- born Roderick George Toombs -- died from cardiac arrest in his sleep at his home in Hollywood at around noon Friday.

Piper was a wrestling icon -- one of the biggest stars in the WWE back in the '80s, and even wrestled in "Wrestlemania I" back in 1985 ... squaring off against Hulk Hogan and Mr. T.

Roddy's rep tells us, "I am devastated at this news."

[sharp_stick]

1. I wonder how much

longer Vince McMahon and company will be able to deny the fact that they provided steroids to pretty much every WWE performer over the last 30 years.

It's unbelievable how many of these guys die young.

[CatWoman]

8. I made the same observation (about the young deaths)

a year ago.

They barely make it out of their 60's.

Some much, much younger

[Laxman]

17. I Was Thinking The Same Thing....

Andre the Giant-46
Randy Savage-58
James Hellwig (The Ultimate Warrior)-54
Eddie Guerrero-38
Davie Boy Smith-39
Hercules Hernandez-47
Rick Rude-40
Rowdy Roddie-61

They Live was just classic commentary on our society and Rowdy Roddie was terrific in the movie.

[90-percent]

20. Other WWE deaths

This may duplicate your list but there was one wrestler that died on stage doing a dive and his safetl cable went, and another that gunned down his wife and children, too?

-90% Jimmy

[LostOne4Ever]

28. You are thinking of Owen Hart and Chris Benoit nt

[Spider Jerusalem]

39. And Chris Benoit had chronic traumatic encephalopathy from repeated concussions...

and blows to the head, almost certainly as a direct consequence of his wrestling career (which probably contributed to the depression/anger that led him to kill first his family and then himself).

[LostOne4Ever]

41. IIRC the doctor who did the autopsy said he had the worst brain damage he had ever seen nt

[DonCoquixote]

42. the doctor that did his autopsy said

That if he did not know better, he would have thought he was looking at an 80 year old in the final stages of Alzheimer's. Not that we would excuse what benoit did, but there is a serious case for him being non compos mentis simply because his brain damage was so bad.

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/274585-report-chris-benoit

10 months, not even a year.

[hifiguy]

45. I doubt one could even begin to calculate the number of concussions

Benoit suffered in his career. Mostly from that insane flying head-butt from the top rope that was his signature move for years. His brain was only in slightly better shape than Terri Schiavo's and I am not being facetious in the least.

[hifiguy]

26. All but Andre, who died of natural causes related to his acromegaly

were well known for using a lot of steroids and recreational drugs, although Eddie Guerrero licked his coke problem several years before he passed. I still miss Eddie.

[Ghost in the Machine]

54. He must not have licked it good enough, I read somewhere that the official cause of death was

an enlarged heart due to acute use of cocaine.

Yes, the WWE *knew* that he had a problem, but kept him on. To this day, I firmly believe that's the reason they hired his wife for so long.... to buy her silence and just pay her instead of paying off an insurance claim/lawsuit.

Years ago, when Scott Hall came out drunk, it wasn't scripted.They gave him a few chances, but he blew them, so they finally fired him. I was surprised to see him recently inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Mr. Perfect, aka Curt Hennig, died of a cocaine overdose, too. Many have died from accidental overdoses of prescription pain killers.

Peace,

Ghost

[villager]

27. That movie predicted all the politics that would follow in its wake.

What was his line in that? "I always knew it was something like this."

[Laxman]

48. There Are Many Real Life Events....

these days that make me think They Live is not fiction.

[villager]

53. Was his line even simpler? "I knew it!"

And yeah, I don't think I'd be the least bit surprised either.

[Glassunion]

29. Andre was a heavy alcoholic.

[LostOne4Ever]

32. Because he was in constant excruciating back pain from his Acromegaly

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]He claimed the alcohol helped him with the pain.[/font]

[Glassunion]

35. Understood.

A lot of his pain was from his gigantism.

The thread leads back to steroid use. I don't think that's was killed Andre.

[hifiguy]

33. Supposedly Andre downed 120 beers in one sitting.

And six bottles of wine.

He had pain issues related to his giantism the last decade of his life. He genuinely liked to drink with his friends, and there are Andre stories that would be well beyond belief were it anyone else and the stories ot sworn to by people who spent a lot of time with him.

It should also be remembered that while he was a very enthusiastic drinker, he weighed more than 400 pounds. When he had to have back surgery the anaesthetist was at a loss because he'd never put someone Andre's size under before. So he asked Andre how much booze it took took to get him buzzed. Andre told him that after about a liter-plus of vodka he started to feel it. The anaesthetist worked it ouf from there and was able to figure out how much gas he had to give the big man. That formula is still used dealing with very large surgical patients.

Andre had a universal reputation as being one of the kindest and most generous people imaginable.

[LostOne4Ever]

34. Andre had a universal reputation as being one of the kindest and most generous people imaginable.

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]This.

And I loved him in the Princess Bride![/font]

[Glassunion]

37. He was the best in that movie.

We were just talking about it at work, doing quotes of Miracle Max.

[LostOne4Ever]

31. One third of all wrestlers who performed in 1990's Wrestlemania VI are now dead

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]In comparison, only 1 football player from 1990's Super Bowl XXIV is dead.[/font]

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201404/ultimate-warrior-dead-wrestlers-wrestlemania-vi-andre-savage-rude-hennig

[bobbobbins01]

44. Piper was a heavy coke user as well.

I don't know if any of it is related to his death, but I'm sure it didn't help any.

[bigwillq]

2. RIP

[shenmue]

3. Aww, man

[exboyfil]

4. Never followed wrestling

but he did a great job in the movie, They Live. A pretty good science fiction flick.

[Kingofalldems]

5. "I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum,

and I'm all out of bubblegum."

RIP

[exboyfil]

6. Great quote

Thank You.

[sarisataka]

9. One of the best lines ever

He will be missed

[RecoveringJournalist]

43. Also...

The greatest fistfight in the history of movies - with Keith David - hands down! "I'm giving you a choice: either put on these glasses or start eatin' that trash can."

The frame by frame inspiration for South Park's famous cripple fight.

[msanthrope]

7. Damn...."They Live" is an awesome flick. nt

[CatWoman]

10. I really need to find that DVD

to watch tonite

[msanthrope]

14. It's on Amazon streaming.....not on Netflix streaming. nt

[CatWoman]

15. ty

[WestCoastLib]

11. Sat next to him on a plane when my daughter was a baby

He was very nice.

RIP

[hifiguy]

47. It is one of the weird things about wrestlers

that usually the guys who play "heels" are often extremely nice in real life and the "babyfaces" (the good guys on TV) are often dicks. It's more fun to be a bad guy, and wrestlers like being heels for the same actors like plaaying villains. I have run into people who met Ric Flair and Randy Savage back in the day and was told they were both very nice people IRL. Larger than life and a little goofy, but nice guys.

[BlueJazz]

12. Rats. "Put on the damn glasses"

[Glassunion]

30. .

[d_b]

56. "Well...they ain't from Cleveland"

[geek tragedy]

13. A very charismatic and entertaining villain

He was much more engaging than most of the hero stiffs.

[Gothmog]

16. They Live was a really decent sci-fi movie

May he rest in peace

[Juicy_Bellows]

18. Take er easy Roddy. God's sleeper hold is taking you to the canvas in the sky. Nt.

[Dwayne Hicks]

19. The best!

[link:

|

[Mnemosyne]

21. My daughter and her girlfriends watched wrestling back then and after 'They Live' I had a terrible

crush on him.

Oh, the good dreams....

Rest in peace, Roddy.

[StevieM]

22. I am so sorry to hear this news. He gave me a lot of entertaining moments in my childhood.

Anyone remember when he threw the coconut in Superfly Jimmy Snuka's face?

[hifiguy]

25. To this day I laugh every time I think of it.

There was no one like Roddy Piper.

[tabasco]

23. Sorry to hear about this

Seemed like a cool guy.

[hifiguy]

24. Been a wrestling fan since I was a wee lad

watching Verne Gagne with my dad.

Loved Roddy Piper. The man was magic with a microphone in his hand, and he reduced me to peals of laughter more times than I could count,especially back in the'80s.

He had a rep in wrestling circles as being a pretty damned good guy IRL, too, which is rare.

He will be much missed.

RIP, Hot Rod.

[kimbutgar]

36. He was my favorite WWE wrestler and I loved him in, " They live"

It is one of those movies I can watch over several times. I have it in my dvd collection. Sometimes I think the republicans of today remind me of the aliens who were trying to take over the country. We just need to supply people with those sunglasses.

Also Roddy looked great in his jeans.

[Fearless]

38. Cardiac arrest for a wrestler is code for past steroid abuse.

[hifiguy]

49. Possibly, but Piper never looked as if he came anywhere near steroids.

He always had the same build, was never a musclehead with that can't-miss-it gassed-up look, and didn't get smaller after he retired from active wrestling, which is a real tell.

[Fearless]

51. Also cocaine.

[DonCoquixote]

40. to be fair

Roody Piper also had serious cancer which nearly killed him. He survived it, but it could have easily added to the admitted damage he took with all those bruises and broken bones.

[Blue_In_AK]

46. So sad,

and much too young. Shannyn Moore used to use his "kick ass and bubblegum" quote as part of the intro to her radio show.

[Liberal_in_LA]

50. I remember him looking like this.

[Liberal_Dog]

52. I Am In Shock

RP will always be my favorite. I got to see him wrestle a couple of times in Raleigh--once vs Greg Valentine and once vs Dick Slater.

Piper was one of those who was pretty effective whether he was a face or a heel. Not as easy as you might think.

Rest In Peace Roddy. I will miss you.

[Ghost in the Machine]

55. R.I.P. Roddy!

Condolences to his family and friends...

Peace,

Ghost

[d_b]

58. One of my favs from childhood

RIP Roddy

[Kaleva]

59. He was my favorite back when I watched pro wrestling

R.I.P.