The Hot Rod turns up the heat
Rowdy Roddy Piper arrived in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s during the Chicano Movement — a push for Mexican American civil rights and political equality. Soon, he began a program with popular Mexican star Chavo Guerrero, one that would end in a riot.
In his 2002 autobiography, In the Pit With Piper: Roddy Gets Rowdy, the WWE icon recalled the events leading up to his confrontation with Guerrero that was to culminate in the main event at LA’s historic Grand Olympic Auditorium. Following a failed gimmick in which he would pretend to hypnotize people, Piper explained:
“Now I had the added burden placed on me to come up with a promo for my next fight, which was against the very popular Chavo Guerrero. So the next week I showed up on TV sitting on a donkey, which was painted like a zebra, just like they do in Tijuana. I was wearing a sombrero and I had a carrot on the end of a stick, which was dangling in front of the donkey. Of course I was wearing my kilt and saying terrible things about Guerrero, while wearing an antagonizing T-shirt that said CONQUEROR OF THE GUERREROS.”
After Piper used racial slurs and insulted the audience’s intelligence, complaints began to pour into the TV station. With growing concerns about how his actions might affect ratings, Piper said he had to go on TV and apologize to the Hispanic population.
But what should have been an act of contrition quickly turned into a stunt by the provocateur — one aimed at inflaming an entire community. As a make-good, Piper promised to learn how to play the Mexican national anthem on his bagpipes. As the weeks passed, Piper boasted about how good the anthem sounded. On the Wednesday before his main event match on Friday, Piper told fans that he had finally learned the song and would play it for them that Friday.
According to Piper, the Olympic was sold out, and the match would be broadcast across the nation in Spanish. Guerrero, meanwhile, wanted no part of the Hot Rod’s schtick and simply wanted to get to the match.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.
As Piper described it, he asked ring announcer Jimmy Lennon to ask the crowd to stand as he was about to play the anthem on his bagpipes. As people removed their caps, bowed their heads, and held their children tightly with pride, Piper began to play “La Cucaracha,” a traditional Mexican folk song that was certainly not the national anthem.
“Well, it’s safe to say that the night was pretty much over,” said Piper in his book. “Up came the chairs, up came the knives, the entire place came unglued in a matter of seconds.”
The police, who were at ringside, pulled out their nightsticks, but it wasn’t enough to stop people from rushing to the ring. As fans got caught between the ropes, Piper said he moved in with kicks that knocked them back down to the floor. Successful as he was at keeping fans at bay, Piper didn’t walk away unscathed, saying:
“I was also stabbed on this night. After (LA promoter) Mike LeBell found out I was stabbed, he said, ‘Well, this is why they pay so much for those seats.’
“Ah, the price of fame...”
While times have changed, cultural pride still runs deep in Los Angeles. It’s perhaps for this reason that El Grande Americano, a faux luchador played by Chad Gable, isn’t on next Saturday’s card. Once billed from “The Gulf of America,” which raised the ire of many, Americano has been on a quest to destroy luchadores.
In Americano’s place, however, will be Gable wrestling as himself as he squares off against the popular Mexican superstar El Hijo del Vikingo. Assuming fans can contain their emotions to boos and creative chants, the wrestling world could be in for a potential Match of the Year candidate at Worlds Collide.
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