HULK HOGAN vs. ROWDY RODDY PIPER
INTRODUCTION: It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in professional wrestling history. "The Rowdy Scott" vs. "The Real American." Contrary to what that may make you think, this feud was not centered on patriotism or what have you, but rather on who was the better man: the immortal Hulk Hogan or Rowdy Roddy Piper. The first match ever between the two occurred at the show. It occurred at the inaugural extravaganza of the wrestling world. It occurred at none other than the inauguaral WWF Pay-Per-View, WrestleMania.
THE FEUD:
- The match at WrestleMania pitted monster heels "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff and Rowdy Roddy Piper against the dream team of Mr. T. and Hulk Hogan, the then-WWF World Heavyweight Champion. The year was 1985, and just one year before, Hulkamania was born in Madison Square Garden when Hogan pinned The Iron Sheik to win his first of six WWF World Heavyweight Championships. How fitting it would be for Hogan to return to Madison Square Garden to compete in the inaugural WrestleMania? That's just what happened. Hogan was in the midst of a feud with Paul Orndorff, and Orndorff's ally, Piper, eventually found his way into the feud, too. So, Hogan searched for a tag team partner to assist him in taking on the two heels, and who he found was one of the most popular celebrities of the time: Mr. T.
The buildup for the blockbuster tag team main event occurred on the various WWF syndicated television shows back in the mid-80's. The shows continually showed both teams working out and preparing for the grueling battle that was sure to occur at WrestleMania. Orndorff and Piper worked out and were coached by their manager, Cowboy Bob Orton in local gyms. They used some pecuiliar forms of training, though, including meditation, while Hogan and T. used more conventional forms of training, such as weightlifting, jogging, punching bags, rock climbing, etc. to increase their stamina and strength, something that would most likely be a big factor in who'd win at WrestleMania. Perhaps T. said it best about he and Hogan (he said it while talking to reporters backstage at a WWF event): "It was destiny that brought us together. We are the dream team."
- So, the stage was set for the WWF's inaugural Pay-Per-View broadcast. The card for WrestleMania was solid from top to bottom, and all the fans were ready to experience and see all of the anticipation for the main event to climax. The event made newspaper headlines all around the world, as it was virtually unheard of to have a celebrity like T. compete at a pro wrestling supercard. The event took place LIVE on Pay-Per-View on March 31, 1985 at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Orndorff and Piper were accompanied to the ring by Cowboy Bob Orton and the sounds of bagpipe music (actual musicians accompanied them to the ring and were playing that music). They were, of course, also accompanied to the ring by catcalls of boos from the fans. Next up, though, the mood of the whole arena abruptly changed as the 22,000 or so fans in the arena went bananas when "Real American" hit and (in order) Mr. T., Hulk Hogan, and the man who'd second that team, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka, made their entrance.
Piper and T. started it off with a slapping match. Piper takes T. down with a waistlock takedown. T. quickly recovers and lifts Piper into a fireman's carry and transitions into a front slam. A pissed off Piper ignites an in-ring brawl featuring all six men (including Orton and Snuka), and the special guest outside referee, the legendary Muhammed Ali, is forced to break it up. Once everyone is regrouped, the heels decide that they've had enough and walk off toward the backstage area. Ali begins counting them out as Hogan signals for them to come back, and after briefly rethinking it, they return. Piper immediately receives a double clothesline and a bodyslam by T. Orndorff receives his own bodyslam from T., and Hogan is then tagged in.
Hogan and Piper slug it off, with Hogan eventually sending the Scott out of the ring with a big boot. Orndorff, though, hammers Hogan from behind, sending the monster face out, too. With Ali distracted, Piper resorts to questionable tactics by using a chair as a weapon. The heels deliver a double atomic drop to Hogan (when's the last time you've seen that move recently?), followed by a suplex and a backbreaker by Orndorff.
Orndorff then goes up top, but Hogan moves away from his flying splash and makes the hot tag to T, who manages some brief offense, only to be slowed down by a front facelock by Piper. T. eventually escapes and makes another hot tag to Hogan, who dominates both of his opponents until Orndorff drops him with a backdrop suplex. Orton gets in the ring and attempts to interfere on the heel's behalf, but Snuka defends his men and fights off Orton and sends him back out. A ringside Pat Patterson, though, gets into the ring and tries to get Snuka out, allowing Orton to climb up to the top-rope.
While Piper and T. brawling in the corner, Orndorff is trying to wear down Hogan. He holds Hogan from behind, and Orton leaps off of the top and aims to hit Hogan with his loaded cast, but Hogan ducks down and the cast smacks Orndorff in the head, sending him down. Hogan quickly covers Orndorff and Ali counts the 1-2-3 (13:27), and the winners of the inaugural WrestleMania main event are none other than Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. After the match, Snuka, Hogan, and T. celebrate their win alongside Pat Patterson and ringside celebrities Liberace, Billy Martin, and Muhammed Ali as the show reaches it's exciting close.
- The Hogan/Piper feud, though, was far from over. At the WWF's second Pay-Per-View ever, "The Wrestling Classic," (11/7/85; Chicago, IL; The Rosemont Horizon) the two also faced off. The show featured a six-man, single-elimination tournament. Hogan and Piper, though, weren't participants in the tournament. In a non-tournament match, Hogan defended his WWF World Heavyweight Title against "the rowdy Scott." Before the match, Mean Gene Okerlund interviewed Hogan, btu after that, it was time for the match, and it was all business.
Hogan, for some reason, enters wearing mainly white instead of his traditional red-and-yellow colors. The match starts off pretty slow, with Piper clamping on a sleeper hold early in. Both men eventually end up on the ringside floor, where Hogan hulks up and begins dominating his opponent. He brings Piper back into the ring and eventually hits an atomic drop, followed by a big boot. The referee, though, is bumped "unconscious," so once the Piper recovers, he takes the oppurtunity and grabs a chair, which he weakly swacks it across Hogan's forehead. Hogan blocks a second chairshot attempt, though, and Hogan applies his own sleeper hold on Piper. Piper's manager, Cowboy Bob Orton, though, runs down and helps Piper gain back the advantage, and a two-on-one beatdown ensues. The referee awakes to see the interference, so he calls for the disqualification (7:17). Hogan retains his WWF Title via DQ.
The beatdown continues until Paul Orndorff, who had broke away from Piper and Orton earlier that year and aligned himself with Hogan, runs down and makes the save for the moster face.
Later on in that same show, Mean Gene again finds Hogan, this time in the lockerroom, and he and Orndorff discuss their hatred towards Piper, Orton, and another common enemy of their's, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
While in the WWF, the two had no more notable encounters. Piper went on to take on Mr. T. in a boxing match at the next WrestleMania, and then went on to various high midcard feuds (including an exciting one against Bret Hart), while Hogan, of course, feuded with top guys like King Kong Bundy, Andre the Giant, Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, Sgt. Slaughter, Yokozuna, The Undertaker, and more and won four more WWF World Titles (and then won another [his sixth] when he returned in 2002).
- In 1994, after more than a decade in the WWF, Hogan made the jump from the WWF to the ever-growing World Championship Wrestling, headed by Ted Turner. In late-1996, Piper did the same and signed with WCW. In mid-'96, Hogan shocked the world by turning heel and aligning himself with the evil nWo, comprised of newcomers and former-WWF superstars Kevin Nash (Diesel) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall).
The storyline captivated fans everywhere, and it helped skyrocket WCW into it's best financial period of it's life. It dominated the ratings war with the WWF, and Vince McMahon was having a hard time keeping fans interested in his product. The nWo gradually expanded, and the evil acts they did toward WCW's superstars made them megaheels, and Hogan was in the driver's seat of the whole angle. With the nWo's help, Hogan (renamed by WCW as "Hollywood Hogan") controversially beat The Giant (now The Big Show) to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and with the nWo behind him at all times, his reign seemed unstoppable.
- At WCW Halloween Havoc (10/27/96; Las Vegas, NV), Hogan, with help from the nWo, successfully pinned (at 18:37) one of his greatest rivals, ever "Macho Man" Randy Savage, to successfully retain his WCW World Heavyweight Title. After the match, though, Rowdy Roddy Piper surprised everybody watching by making a shocking appearance to his trademark bagpipe music, his first in WCW. Piper insisted that he was as big as a wrestling icon as Hogan was, and that it bugs him that he (Hogan) is basically the only top guy he never beat. Hogan tries to cut him off and get in some words, but Piper goes on and says that, "I'm gonna shoot with this one."
Piper gives the fans a short history of his career. He started wrestling at age 15, has had about 6,000 matches, and has been stabbed three times. He says that when he was wrestling guys in his garage, Hogan was playing bass guitar in "Tootsie's Bar & Grill." Piper goes on to mention WrestleMania, asserting that if he hadn't been busy knocking out Mr. T., fighting the cops and "having my way with Liberace," it would have been him, and not Hogan, that the fans had cheered for. Hogan finally cuts him off and says let's not go into the backstory. He convinces Piper to agree that they're both equals. They agree to shake hands, and after that, Piper tells Hogan to "shape up." As Piper is leaving the ring, Hogan reminds him that if he goes to the bathroom, "in that one you have to squat!"
This gets Piper's attention, and he re-enters the ring for another confrontation. Piper tells Hogan to remember that he (Piper) is responsible for Hogan's hair falling out. Both of these harsh comments toward one another furthered the heat between the two. The whole angle was played out so that fans would think it was a shoot, and the next night on WCW Monday Night Nitro (10/28/96), Eric Bischoff said that Piper had requested five more minutes of airtime at the previous night's Pay-Per-View just to say some quick words, and that even though he appeared at the Pay-Per-View, he had no committments to WCW. Piper was in fact signed to WCW, but this statement by Bischoff was meant to further the impression of the angle being a legitimate shoot.
The confrontation between the two at Halloween Havoc continued to be replayed (in parts) on WCW television. The next week on Nitro (11/4/96), the whole thing was again played out to be a shoot, as the show began with the fans being told that Eric Bischoff wouldn't be there that night because he was in Portland trying to "sign" Roddy Piper. Just minutes before the show went off the air, Bischoff "called in" to the show and said that he's still negotiating with Piper to sign a WCW contract (if you're confused, Piper was already signed with WCW, but they were just trying to make the whole angle look like it was a legitimate shoot to further attention, just like what was done with the Outsiders invasion angle earlier that same year).
On Nitro the next week (11/11/96), after the night's opening match (Jeff Jarrett vs. Chris Benoit), a fan is shown fighting through security, and the brief second he gets before he's finally hauled away, he hands a package to WCW commentator Tony Shiavone. Tony opens it up and finds a letter. He reads it out loud, and it basically says that a video tape that's also contained in the package features something that proves that Rowdy Roddy Piper wants a piece of Hulk Hogan. Tony continues reading the letter and eventually finds out that the fan's identity is "Ken McDade."
The last few minutes of the show featured Eric Bischoff announcing that he had reviewed the video tape and that they would play it for everyone to see. They do just that, and it contains a music video that apparently "was a hit in Europe in 1992" (yeah...right). In the video, Piper, in great shape (this was just prior to his hip replacement surgery) sings a song called, "I'm Your Man," which basically sounds like your typical '60's love song. The video features Piper working out in a gymnasium, singing in a studio, and on the beach with a hot chick.
Periodically added into the video for split seconds are shots of a marquee at The Hollywood Bowl which advertise the ultimate showdown: "Rowdy Roddy Piper vs. Hulk Hogan." Piper, of course, isn't a very good singer, but his charisma makes the video watchable, and surprisingly, somewhat entertaining. Once the video ends, Bischoff concludes that it means that Piper has been dreaming of a showdown between he and Hulk since 1992 (why that year?). The nWo (accompanied by a lovely Miss Elizabeth, who's wearing a Christmas outfit [Ho! Ho! Ho!]) come out for the last five or so minutes of the show and talk about some various topics, but nothing to notable.
On the next week's edition of Nitro (11/18/96; Charlotte, NC), an appearance by Piper himself was hyped all night to occur, but the closing segment of the show featured Eric Bischoff coming out to the ring and telling the crowd that those rumors were apparently false. He says that he's hopeful that he can sign Piper to have a showdown with Hogan, but that Piper's management team have been hard negotiators. All of a sudden, the familiar bagpipe music hits and Piper himself comes out to the ring, with a microphone in hand. He confronts Bischoff: "I haven't heard so many lies 'less I was tellin' them!" Piper quickly mentions his ties to the Charlotte (North Carolina) area, saying that his first son was born at Baptist Hospital.
"How ya' doin'(?!)," he asks Bischoff. "I've
been better," Bischoff replies in a quiet mumble. Piper is
then interested in Bischoff's supposed trip to Portland to try to
sign him: "How did you fly - first class or coach? What
airline? You said you've
been to my ranch. (pause) Tell me - is the road to it straight or
is the road crooked?" Bischoff tries to sink away, cowering
by the ropes. ""I, I don't remember(!)," he
replies. An uncensored reply comes from Piper, who calls Bischoff
a "lying piece of shit!" Suddenly, the nWo enters,
accompanied by a bunch of security guards. Hall, Nash, and The
Giant (who had also joined the heel stable) grab Piper and hold
him while Hogan goes over and embraces (hugs) Bischoff, who's, at
least not yet, an nWo member. Doug Dellinger and the guards hold
Piper and his captives back from Hogan, who speaks on the mic,
saying that Piper is a coward to not have signed the contract to
wrestle him (Hogan).
Hogan also says that everything's pretty much in place now that the man calling the shots has been revealed. With that, Bischoff shockingly bows to Hogan, sigaling that he was joining the nWo. The commentators (Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay) are basically speechless. Bischoff and the nWo leave together as the guards hold Piper back. Piper, though, gets the last words in by calling out to "baldy" (Hogan), kissing his hand and then slapping it on his backside, in essence telling Hogan to kiss his ass. Piper says that he'll be at World War III with a contract to wrestle Hogan and that it's up to Hogan to be man enough to accept the challenge.
- At WCW World War III (11/24/96; Norfolk, VA), Rowdy Roddy Piper comes out and calls out the nWo to he can sign his contract with Hogan. Ted DiBiase, Vincent, and Eric Bischoff comes out and says that Hogan is busy, so he (Bischoff) has power of attorney, meaning that he can sign in place of Hogan. DiBiase and Vincent get into Piper's face, prompting the Scott to go on a verbal diatrabe directed toward them and Bischoff. He mentions his history with Vincent (when he was Virgil in the WWF), saying, "I taught you how to fight!" Piper basically says that he wants a No Disqualification Match against Hogan. Bischoff tries to sign the contract for Hogan, but Piper refuses to let him and calls Hogan out.
Hogan finally comes out and says some nasty things about Piper, achknowledging that he had hip replacement surgery. Hogan pulls up Piper's kilt to reveal a sick-looking scar on his right hip. After calling Piper a cripple, Hogan signs the contract and then calls Piper a "gimp (?)." Piper launches himself at Hogan and starts beating on him until the other nWo members pull him off and hold the Scott for Hogan to freely hammer on. After Piper is layed out by the nWo, Hogan gets a steel chair and swacks it against Piper's bad right him, injuring it far worse than it already is. The heels then spray "NWO" on his right leg. Hogan has some quick words for Piper ("Piper... I'm going to break you in half, you piece of crap!") before he spits on the limp body of his future Pay-Per-View opponent.
The next night on Nitro (11/25/96), the nWo, lead by Bischoff, comes out to the ring, and among other things said during his long speech, Bischoff warned that if Piper gets out of line, he (Bischoff) can fine him. Later on in the night, basically the whole confrontation between Piper and the nWo, including the aftermatch with the heels beating the Scott down, was shown.
The next week on Nitro (12/2/96; Dayton, OH), Mean Gene Okerlund (who had also jumped from the WWF to WCW) interviewed Arn Anderson during the first of the two hours of the show. Arn reminds the fans that Hogan is in fact beatable, as he himself (Arn) beat him two successive (straight) weeks on Nitro. Okerlund announces that Piper will make an appearance on the next week's Nitro, which will emanate from Charlotte, NC (North Carolina), the home stomping ground of Ric Flair and his fellow Four Horsemen stable (which included Arn Anderson). Arn says that the horsemen will have a "summit meeting" with Piper (on Nitro the next week), and that Hogan is welcomed to show up if he'd like.
On the next week's Nitro edition (12/9/96; Charlotte, NC), the show kicked off with, like was promised, an appearance by Rowdy Roddy Piper. He immediately made his way to the ring and spoke over the mic. He begins by saying that he has six kids, so he's "gotta' win this one (referring to his showdown with Hogan)!" Then, like he did on the 11/18/96 Nitro episode, he reminds the fans of his past history in Charlotte. He says the most embarassing moment of his career was boxing Mr. T. (at WWF WrestleMania II). He says someone, not the obvious person we're all thinking of (Vince McMahon), asked him to take a dive. Piper refused, so they made him wear extra padded gloves "so I wouldn't hurt the actor (Mr. T.)!" He says he'll never do that again.
After clearly seeing a fan holding an "NWO Country" sign, he switches topics and says that he has nothing against the nWo. He says he saw an nWo promo: "...six guys in a room - in black leather - drinking Dom Perignon - no women!" He tells the fan to keep holding up the sign because "we know where the nWo is coming from." He finishes his speech by challenging Hogan to come out to get it on right there and right then. After several moments, it becomes obvious that Hogan isn't going to come out right then, so Piper leaves the ring and makes his way to the backstage area.
Later on in the show, Ric Flair comes out for an interview with Mean Gene Okerlund. Several Carolina Panthers players are sitting at ringside, and Flair directs a comment toward star player Kevin Greene: "I may not like you, but you are the man!" Flair then calls out Piper, who quickly appears and makes his way to the ring. Flair says that Piper came to (North) Carolina back in 1980, and women started calling him "Hot Rod!"
Flair then gets cheap heat by saying his belief plain out: "(referring to Hogan) sucks! He sucks! He sucks! He sucks!" Flair tells the fans that his biggest regret is that when Hogan came to WCW (in 1994), he tried to beat him (Hogan) but "I (Flair) dropped the ball (lost)!" After quickly doing his signature strut, Flair says that, "a lot of wrestlers get old, but only you (Piper) and I get great!" After Piper says that he wants to beat Hogan on his own, Nitro goes to a commercial and then begins its second hour.
Even later on that night, the main event, scheduled to pit Rick Steiner (w/ his brother, Scott) against nWo member Scott "Flash" Morton, was never able to occur due to Piper coming out, grabbing a steel chair, and challenging Hogan to come out right then and there. Eric Bischoff, instead, comes out, and is forced to walk the long aisle while being pelted with garbage from ringside fans at seemingly every moment. He's even doused with liquid courtesy of a drink thrown at him by a fan. Piper says that Bischoff "ain't gonna' cut it! Send Hogan out now!" He picks up a bit of trash (which has by now basically filled up the ring) and throws it at Bischoff. "I believe this is meant for you," Piper says.
Piper really wants Hogan now and he hands his mic over to Bischoff, who sputters, "Relax. I truly am your best friend. I'm here to protect you! Now I've seen your movies (pause) and they're very good, (pause) but you're no Hulk Hogan!" Bischoff says that the nWo has left the building, so Piper will have to wait for StarrCade on the 29th (of December) (to get a piece of Hogan). He finishes by, like Hogan did at World War III, calling Piper a "gimp," whatever that is. With that, he stupidly tries to limp (practically crawl, actually) his way toward the ropes to get away from Piper, but after taking only a few steps, Piper sneaks up from behind and rabbit punches him in the back. Bischoff drops to the mat, and Piper drags him into the middle of the ring, where he steps on his neck and prepares to ring him with a chairshot.
Hall, Nash, and DiBiase surround the ring, as the crowd is buzzing (albeit still pelting debris into and around the ring), and Kevin Greene then leaves his ringside seat and makes his way into the ring. He and Piper look to be squaring off (at least that's what it looks like), but then move into a back - to - back position. Bobby Heenan is going nuts on commentary and the crowd is really buzzing now. As Kevin Nash climbs into the ring, the show fades out and comes to an end.
Two weeks later on Nitro (12/23/96), the show's last segment featured Hulk Hogan coming to the ring and saying that in a telegram that he (Hogan) received while in the backstage area, Roddy Piper achknowledged that Hogan was the better man. Suddenly, the familiar bagpipe music hits and out comes...Eric Bischoff, dressed in a kilt, Scottish hat, and a red-and-yellow Hulkamania t-shirt. Bischoff comes to the ring and, in a terrible Scottish accent, cowardly says to Hogan that he (as Piper) didn't even belong in the same ring as Hogan at WrestleMania (the first one, where they had the tag team match).
Bischoff (as Piper) says that he has six kids and a ranch he can't afford. Bischoff then calls for a referee, which prompts Nick Patrick to come out to the ring. Bischoff says they'll do the match right there. Hogan calls him Piper as he lays down on the mat, allowing Hogan to lightly, yet triumphantly place his boot on Bischoff's (errr - Piper's) chest. Patrick counts the "pinfall": 1-2-3. Hogan then declares it the end of Piper's career. Then they have this exchange:
Eric Bischoff: "I have always been a Hulkamaniac! You are
(pause) the man!"
Hulk Hogan: "Who bought your house for you?"
EB: "You did!"
HH: "Who fed your kids?"
EB: "You did!"
HH: "Who's coattails did you hang on to?"
EB: "Yours!"
Suddenly, this exchange is interrupted by the same familiar bagpipe music played earlier when Bischoff came out dressed as Piper. This time, though, a contingent of bagpipe players come out and line the entrance aisleway. Rowdy Roddy Piper himself then appears and walks to the ring a determined man. Bischoff hides behind Hogan, and as soon as Piper steps into the ring, a slugfest between he and Hogan ensues. They trade blows until some other nWo members run down and into the ring and grab hold of Piper.
A quick view of Sting is shown, and he's watching from the rafters high above the ring. The nWo members hold Piper for Hogan to hammer on until a load of security guards scramble into the ring and break-up Hogan and Piper (who's getting in little offense, if any, due to various nWo members holding him still for Hogan). Tony Shiavone wraps up the show as the chaotic brawl is slowly coming to an end: "We've got to go!" It was time for the showdown...
- On December 29, 1996, WCW held their annual StarrCade supercard LIVE from The Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN on Pay-Per-View. The main event of the show saw the battle of the two wrestling icons, as Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper were scheduled to, in front of about 9,030 screaming fans, settle their differences, once and for all. Hogan, the reigning WCW World Heavyweight Champion (the title wasn't on the line in the match), was accompanied by nWo members Ted DiBiase, Vincent, and Miss Elizabeth. After a lot of stalling, Piper takes it to Hogan, who really sells the blows. They eventually end up on the outside floor, where they brawl for a bit before re-entering the ring. After an exchange, Hogan is able to find an opening and drop his trademark leg drop across the throat of Piper. The Giant then comes out and makes his way into the ring to help Hogan assault Piper.
Giant wraps his massive hand around the throat of Piper, looking for his massive chokeslam, but Piper is able to fight out of it and eventually lock his signature sleeper hold onto Hogan. Not even Hogan is able to survive that, as he's forced to tap out. The war is apparently over, as Rowdy Roddy Piper didn't pin Hogan, but did something more impressive: he forced him to tap out (at 15:36). He also, of course, fought off the colossal Giant, so that's another accomplishment. After the match, Hogan and Giant yell at eachother, and the commentators announce that the nWo is "in dissaray." That was the first time they had said that, as the nWo had dominated most of WCW's superstars for much of the year. The show then faded out and went off the air.
The match itself between the two was pretty bad (like most other Hogan matches), but the historical significance was much more, as it was really the blowoff (end) to the famous Hogan/Piper feud.
CONCLUSION: This is definitely one of the most exciting and celebrated rivalries in pro wrestling history. While it wasn't as "glitzy" as Andre vs. Hogan, it wasn't as technically pure as Flair vs. Steamboat, it wasn't as legitimately heated as Bret vs. Shawn, and it wasn't as innovative as RVD vs. Sabu, it was definitely a heated feud between two men who, at least in storyline, hated eachother. It was never really capitalized on as much as it couldn've been, but WCW did use the history between the two very well in their buildup to the blowoff match at StarrCade.
While Piper was not Hogan's most top opponent (like Andre, Savage, and Flair are), Piper provided an interesting obstacle for Hogan to have to overcome about a year after Hulkamania was born, while Hogan provided a challenge for Piper to have to overcome when he first entered WCW. This was not the greatest feud of the "good ol' days" (the mid-80's to early 90's), it was among the top rivalries and provided fans with a typical heel (Piper, at least until they got to WCW and Hogan joined the nWo) vs. face (Hogan, at least until they got to WCW and he joined the nWo) feud. Who got the best of the feud? Read on to see.
TAG TEAM Match Results:
TALLY:
Hogan: 1 win; Piper: 0 wins
ONE-ON-ONE Match Results:
TALLY:
Hogan: 0 wins (DQ wins don't count in my book as a win); Piper: 1 win; No Decisions: 1 Disqualification
FINAL TALLY:
Hulk Hogan: 1 win; Rowdy Roddy Piper: 1 win; No Decisions: 1 Disqualification
UNDISPUTED WINNER of the HULK HOGAN vs. ROWDY RODDY PIPER feud:
Tie
Who do I think won: While Hogan teamed with T. to beat Piper and Orndorff at WrestleMania, that was in a tag team match, and the one-on-one win by Piper over Hogan at StarrCade '96 meant so much more because, not only was it the blowoff to their historic fued, but Piper didn't pin Hogan, but he instead made the legend tap out. While Hogan had an overall more successful career, it was Piper that gained the most important win of all, and that came at StarrCade when he overcame all of the beatings that he had suffered at the hands of the heel nWo and forced Hogan to tap out.
Other Spotlight Feuds You May Be Interested In: