Husband.
Father.
However, in the make believe world of professional wrestling, he was, and will always be for millions of fans worldwide, The Hot Rod: Rowdy Roddy Piper.
Piper was the epitome of a bad guy in the 1980s version of WWE (and the independents which I was lucky enough to watch from Portland before and during his WWF days), and that was the guy you loved to hate.
Piper was not the biggest. He was not the baddest.
You know, on second thought, maybe he was...
But he was sheer bravado and swagger, never afraid to take on anyone, anytime, and anywhere.
If he had to cheat to win, so be it.
The crowd reacted accordingly, and Piper relished in it.
In wrestling, or any other entertainment form, the hero is only as good as the villain, and without Piper, Hulkamania would likely have not run wild over you, and it's quite possible that the granddaddy of them all, WrestleMania might never have fully gotten off the ground.
Not to discount what Vince McMahon accomplished or what Hogan did, but Piper was why you bought the tickets; you wanted to see him get shut up by Hogan in the center of the ring.
That Hogan never pinned Piper became one of Piper's biggest accomplishments because Hogan pinned everyone!
This is the guy who took a coconut and smashed it over Jimmy Snuka's head.
He takes a gold record and smashes it over Captain Lou Albano's head and knocks Cyndi Lauper to the ground.
He's spit on by the public, detested by the fans, and he ate it up.
As a villain, he hosts Piper's Pit, the most popular talk show in wrestling history.
So beloved is Piper as a bad guy, that cool factor began to sway the fans and organically, the boos turned to cheers and finally, Piper's a good guy.
Before Stone Cold, wrestling had its first anti-hero in Piper.
Amusingly, very little of his character changed. He was still mean, rude and nasty to his guests, they were simply now the bad guys in the feuds.
Like Hogan, and long before The Rock, Piper wound up in Hollywood and starred in movies, the most notable being "They Live" which is a true cult classic, his most inspired ad-lib line referenced in the title of this post.
He left the blueprint on how to be a charismatic character on the microphone for generations to learn from.
Plus he did it all while wearing a kilt.
Not bad.
R.I.P. Hot Rod.
You will be missed.
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