RETRO: In the Pit with Roddy Piper w/Hacksaw Duggan, Richard Tyson (Episode #1)

IN THE PIT WITH RODDY PIPER – EPISODE #1
HOST: RODDY PIPER
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: ??, ??, 2014
GUESTS: Richard Tyson and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan

DIRECT ITUNES LINK TO STREAM OR DOWNLOAD EPISODE

Report by Gary Milson, PWPodcasts reporter

TOPICS COVERED (w/Time Stamps)

0.00 Opening
4.05 Magic Johnson story by Richard Tyson
4.45 Roddy talks about his time at the Comedy Store
5.55 Roddy talks about the change in podcasting from Universal City Walk to PodcastOne
6.56 Hulk Hogan
8.55 Mr T
9.29 Ric Flair
10.19 Haunted House
13.00 Ad Break: Talk is Jericho (Howie Mandel)
13.50 Roddy’s Music
14.45 Tony Hinchcliffe
17.17 Richard Tyson
21.45 Physicality
22.29 Hacksaw Jim Duggan
23.52 Legend House
28.45 Hacksaw Jim Duggan
29.42 Pro-Wrestlers vs Zombies
31.32 Duck Dynasty
32.48 Family Time
33.20 Duggan sign off
34.02 Event hype
34.40 Ad Break: The Ross Report (DDP)
35.20 Bagpipes
37.25 Hinchcliffe as a wrestling fan
40.38 Monday Night War
41.23 Vince and Savage
44.27 Kevin Nash
47.41 Current product
49.10 Richard Tyson projects
54.04 Piper projects

SUMMARY OF CONVERSATION

Opening
· Roddy opened by introducing his guests: Richard Tyson as a Shakespearean actor and as star of Kindergarten Cop and Black Hawk Down; Tony Hinchcliffe as one of the next big upcoming comedians, who he met in The Comedy Store.

· Tyson presented Roddy with a gift from “See you in Hell”, the only movie he never finished.

· Roddy noted that Tony used to be an amateur wrestler, and Tony confirmed he wrestled at 112lbs.

Magic Johnson

· Tyson related a story where he asked Magic Johnson to sign some shoes, but Magic thought he asked him to “shine” the shoes.

The Comedy Store

· Roddy said that when he had some tough times, he went onstage at The Comedy Store, but only succeeded in learning the piano.

· He knew it was time to leave when he saw a bunch of comedians playing baseball at 4am with a whiffle bat.

Change to PodcastOne

· Roddy noted that the change in podcast locations was due to production issues.

Hulk Hogan

· Piper said he had recently seen Hogan for the first time since the 2005 Hall of Fame ceremony.

· He said there was a Q&A with Hogan and he which had a lot of tension and which was hosted by Mean Gene Okerlund.

· Piper said the session became heated, as the fans in Charlotte were smart and were looking to “light a fire” under them.

Mr T

· Piper said that he begged to do the induction for Mr. T when he was going in the Hall of Fame (“the Hall of Fame…celebrity division…”).

Ric Flair

· Roddy mentioned doing “Wife Swap” with Flair. He called it a shoot.

· Roddy said his wife got the better of Flair on the show.

Haunted House

· Roddy said that his house was haunted.

· Roddy hyped his Twitter address @R_Roddy_Piper.

· He lost his place in talking about the haunted house and was redirected back by Tyson.

· Roddy related stories about the paranormal activity his family had witnessed in his house.

· He and Hinchcliffe traded stories about rooms full of creepy dolls in their houses.

· Piper said that he cut a promo on the ghosts.

· Hinchcliffe offered that the ghosts might be Virgil running around Piper’s house looking for an autograph table.

Roddy’s Musi

· Returning from a break to his theme music, Roddy said that he would usually cut trees down to the music at home.

Tony Hinchcliffe

· Roddy suggested Hinchcliffe would have a career like Seinfeld.

· Hinchcliffe said he was working on a possible musical theatre role in The Book of Mormon. Roddy was not familiar with the show and thought he was becoming a Mormon.

· Hinchcliffe said it was his first acting role.

· Tyson asked if Hinchcliffe would have four wives. Hinchcliffe said not in the show, but hopefully in real life.

· Piper asked about Hinchcliffe’s live performance experience and Hinchcliffe advised that he didn’t have any and that there were a lot of lines to learn, but he didn’t have a problem with this. Piper said this was probably because he hadn’t been punched a lot.

Richard Tyson

· Roddy said Tyson gave him a t-shirt as the gift at the top of the show.

· Roddy and Tyson discussed working together on “See You in Hell” and that the film was never completed as the money fell through.

· Roddy talked about the guy who played the Devil on the movie and how he talked with Roddy about playing the bagpipes and wearing a leather kilt. The guy was Jonathan Davis, the lead singer of Korn.

· Roddy was unfamiliar with his work, but Hinchcliffe explained his work.

· Tyson pointed out that Davis was under so much prosthetics for the movie, there has no point in hiring someone famous for the role.

· Roddy said the movie was looking good until it fell through.

Physicality

· Piper asked if his guests had seen him get physical outside of work. They said no, with Tyson joking that he’d seen Piper moving furniture on set, instead of working on his lines, but that was it.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan

· Duggan called in, opening with his trademark “Hooooo” yell, which Roddy joined in with…

· Duggan said he was calling from Lugoff, South Carolina, where he lives.

· Duggan said he had recently returned from New York, and was going to Wrestlemania 30 for Axxess, Legend House and the Hall of Fame.

Legend House

· Roddy explained the concept of Legend House.

· Roddy mentioned being asked to bunk with Duggan, and how he slept on the floor in the living room initially instead.

· Duggan agreed that he’d not had a roommate since his college football days and joked about his team beating Alabama with Tyson (who is from Alabama).

· Tyson said he has a master’s degree from Cornell.

· Duggan noted there was initial suspicion in the Legend’s House before they became friends.

· Roddy talked about cheating in some of the game show questions while on the show, but how Duggan couldn’t see the answers Roddy had written down because he wasn’t wearing his glasses.

· Roddy said the show was filmed in Palm Springs at Harpo Marx’ mansion.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan

· Duggan discussed his family and his daughters heading to college.

· Duggen discussed doing an NFL legends event and playing golf with other NFL players.

Pro-Wrestlers vs Zombies

· Duggan and Piper discussed the movie Pro-Wrestlers vs Zombies.

· Piper said it was a comedy and that it was getting more air time than Hell Comes to Frogtown.

· Piper celebrated killing Duggan in the movie.

· Duggan said the acting was surprisingly tough.

Duck Dynasty

· Duggan talked about guest starring in Duck Dynasty

Family time

· Piper spoke about spending quality time with his daughter and that they would be going to The Comedy Store.

Duggan sign off

· Duggan signed off (“Hoooo like you mean it!”).

· Piper talked about Duggan being a cancer survivor.

Event Hype

· Piper discussed Hinchcliffe being in shows in Vancouver.

· Roddy warned that the next part of the show would be dark.

Bagpipes

· Returning from the break, Piper talked about the origin of his theme music (“The Green Hills of Tyrol”) and the use of bagpipes at funerals.

PodcastOne

· 36.06 Piper thanked PodcastOne for giving him the chance to talk to people he liked for his show.

· Piper and Tyson talked about their time on the movie and Piper being hazed with props on set.

Hinchcliffe as a wrestling fan

· Hinchcliffe talked about being a big wrestling fan as a kid and wrestling his pillow. His mom would ring the bell for his victories.

· Hinchcliffe put over the WWE Network.

· He mentioned watching a roundtable with DDP, Hayes and Piper discussing celebrities in wrestling, and how DDP was discussing wrestling with Carl Malone.

· Hinchcliffe was discussing being 12-14 in 1997-1998.

Monday Night War

· Piper discussed the war and that he didn’t think of it as a war, as he was just doing a job.

· Hinchcliffe talked about the need of legends like Piper to build the nWo.

· Piper discussed wrestling Piper and Savage.

Vince and Savage

· Piper told a story about Vince trying to pull Piper down into a chair and accidentally pulling his pants down at a bar.

· Piper discussed talking to Savage about pulling his sweatpants down while Elizabeth was in the room.

· Piper talked about an incident with Savage while doing voice overs with Vince. Savage had to be pulled out to his hotel room for four hours to cool down.

Kevin Nash

· Roddy talked about getting into it with Nash, but said Nash lies about the incident.

· Piper thought it was a tag team event at a show (with Flair, X-Pac, Hall and Nash), and how Nash and Hall were pulling politics back stage.

· Piper said the match was awful and Nash didn’t know how to work, so he was angry, and Nash accused him of thinking he was running things. Piper said he got up and charged Nash out of the dressing room, but Nash said he had punched Piper.

· He explained that Brad Reagan (a shooter) heard the story and said Nash didn’t want to fight as he wanted to wait until a PPV event in a couple of days.

· Nash then changed his story, saying Piper had gone for his bad knee. Piper denied knowing Nash had a bad knee, but joked that he would have gone for it if he’d known.

Current product

· Piper asked Hinchcliffe his current favourite wrestler. Hinchcliffe said he was a fan of heels, and was a fan of Bray Wyatt. He explained Wyatt’s character and gimmick, and spent time putting him over.

Richard Tyson projects

· Tyson talked about current projects, and playing psychopaths and sociopaths, which Piper joked was typecasting.

· Tyson talked about playing a psychopath in a movie called Reversal.

· They talked briefly about the use of songs in the public domain in movies.

· Tyson thanked Roddy, talking about growing up with his brothers as wrestling fans. He says his brother still believes it’s a shoot.

· Tyson talked about wrestling in school/college and how he expected a three count in his first amateur wrestling match.

· Piper and Tyson recounted a story of Piper talking to Tyson’s brother (a wrestling fan) over the phone.

Piper projects

· Piper talked about his soda coming out (“All Outta Bubblegum”).

· Roddy mentioned his son as being a fighter who wasn’t actually fighting for a living and then mentioned his other children as well.

Sign off

· Piper signed off, talking about his children, and hyping projects and contacts for his guests.

REVIEW & SCORE

3.5 out of 10: The format of the show was a little scattershot, with two quite different guests and a brief call in by Hacksaw Jim Duggan, so there wasn’t much of a thread to connect all three. Despite that, the main driver for the whole podcast was Piper, who seemed to be talking about whatever came up, without a deliberate structure or plan in mind.

The “meat” of the show where Piper was talking about some of his wrestling experiences and his movie experiences was very interesting, but there was a sense that this was purely down to Piper himself, with his guests mostly there to join in occasionally or to provide talking points more than they were there to be interviewed or to go into any particular subject in detail. Both guests were wrestling fans, so Piper did get into some interesting wrestling stories with them, but this wasn’t until about the 35 minute mark, and the stories were all Piper’s rather than his guests’.

Interestingly, the discussion with Duggan was not particularly wrestling-related, but instead focused on their shared experiences at Hall of Fame ceremonies and at Legends’ House. Given that Hacksaw is Piper’s guest on his next show, it’s possible they may go into more there.

Piper remained entertaining throughout the podcast, keeping the sense that many of his comments could be controversial, and retaining his trademarked cutting humour, although he did occasionally lose his place, or jump suddenly to different topics without first setting up. One thing of note is that before the final ad break, Piper did indicate that some much darker topics would come up, but this did not appear to happen.

This was an interesting show to get a feel for the overall style of delivery that Piper uses, but there was little real depth to the conversations compared to the intensity of some of Piper’s later shows, so for wrestling fans in particular, there isn’t a whole lot to recommend for this episode, outside of Piper’s own natural entertainment factor.

DIRECT ITUNES LINK TO STREAM OR DOWNLOAD EPISODE

 

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