"I came here to chew bubble gum, and kick some ass. And I’m all out of bubble gum." How can you not love dialogue like that? For those of you who don’t know, that line was taken from
the movie They Live, staring Portland’s own Rowdy Roddy Piper. Piper is the unsung hero in Oregon’s private war. Piper is the George to Oregon’s Ringo. The yin to the yang, the bang
for your buck, he’s Portland’s Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla. And I’m not just saying that because he can beat me up. While all the other formerly famous Portland wrestlers are all getting
nabbed for not paying child support or drug trafficking, Piper has lived a quiet life in Portland. There are less sightings of Piper than there are (ghost) Gus Van Sant. Roddy Piper is
the Portland legend no one talks about. Being the only state in the union who refuses to let wrestling into its hallowed borders, we don’t speak much of Hot Rod. He is the silent celebrity,
the quiet king of the northwest. But I ask you, how many Oregonians are multiple time NWA U.S. Champion’s, or have held the WWF Intercontinental Title? Hmmm, not Vera Katz, certainly not Lon
Mabon. How many Portland residents were Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s "Most Hated Wrestler" for two years in a row? Only Piper can lay claims to those laurels. Born Roderick Toombs April 17, 1954,
Piper would later gain national fame on par with the Hulk Hogan’s, Jesse Ventura’s, and Stone Cold Steve Austin’s of the world. Perhaps the pinnacle of his celebrity came in the eighties when he
broke Cyndi Lauper’s gold record over her head. Let’s see one of the Trailblazers do that. Oh yeah, they’re too busy getting high to pull something like that off. Roddy Piper is Oregon. He’s a
little gruff, ridiculously outspoken, and the rest of the nation thinks he has a weird job. He’s out to kick some ass and chew some bubble gum, just like Oregon. We should celebrate this. If Andre
the Giant can have a posse, isn’t it about time Piper had one too? "I’ve had more cage matches than Brigham Young had wives." Rowdy Roddy Piper.
