He Was Going to Kill Mr. T:” How Roddy Piper Almost Ruined WWE’s First WrestleMania

The first WrestleMania in WWE history was almost ruined in an instant. One of the biggest business decisions of Vince McMahon’s career as a promoter, WrestleMania would help launch WWE into the global superpower that it is today. Had the first edition been a failure, the company’s lifespan would have not been so long. As fans know, the first WrestleMania was a resounding success, but the event actually almost ended in disaster.

On YouTube, during the B4 the Bell podcast, one host, Chris Burns, revealed that a past conversation with the late Roddy Piper saw the Rowdy One insinuate that he almost considered killing Mr. T during the main event of WWE’s first WrestleMania. The real heat that stemmed backstage between Mr. T and Roddy Piper has been well-documented, but this is the first instance that it’s been said that Piper hated him badly enough to want to kill him.

To best understand why Roddy Piper wanted to kill Mr. T, one must understand the feud that the two had both on and off-screen.

WWE Storylines Leading to WrestleMania I

Roddy Piper and Mr. T’s First Confrontation

Before diving into what was going on backstage at WWE during their feud, it’s most appropriate to recap what was happening in kayfabe to bring Mr. T and Roddy Piper together onscreen for the first time. On the road to WWE’s first WrestleMania, the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling initiative was in full swing. This era was defined by WWE Superstars crossing over into the mainstream alongside high-profile celebrities, thanks to Cyndi Lauper. She met WWE’s Captain Lou Albano on a plane ride, leading to his cameo in her “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” music video.

Lauper would return the favor with several WWE appearances, leading other celebs to follow suit, but that didn’t sit right with the future movie star Roddy Piper. Around the same time the company launched its Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Era, Roddy Piper launched his talk show segment, Piper’s Pit, where he had some of WWE’s best promos on the air. With his bodyguard “Cowboy” Bob Orton in tow, The Hot Rod would spend a string of Piper’s Pit segments criticizing the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling connection and particularly targeting Cyndi Lauper.

This would culminate when Cyndi Lauper was awarded a special achievement award in a WWE ring for bridging the gap between rock ‘n’ roll and professional wrestling. Piper would interrupt, breaking the award over Lou Albano’s head, even attacking Lauper before WWE Champion Hulk Hogan would make the save. This led to Piper and Hogan facing off with Hogan’s title on the line in the MTV special, The War to Settle the Score, on February 18, 1985. Hogan arrived to the ring flanked by Lauper and Albano, while his good friend Mr. T watched from the front row.

The match would end in a disqualification when “Mr Wonderful” Paul Ordnoff (who co-signed Roddy’s initial attack on Lauper, saying she “deserved to get busted“ because she had no business in a wrestling ring) hit the ring to attack Hogan while the referee was unconscious. Mr. T would hop the barricade to make the save, prompting Piper to lambast “this stupid guy with some ridiculous haircut” in a backstage promo moments later. This would lead to a tag team match between the team of Hulk Hogan and Mr. T and Roddy Piper and Paul Ordnoff at the following month’s WrestleMania.

Did Roddy Piper and Mr. T Hate Each Other in Real Life?

A One-Sided Hatred

As entertaining as it was to watch Mr. T and Roddy Piper work together in a WWE ring, it may not have been as enjoyable for both parties involved. Before he died, Piper expressed in multiple interviews and documentaries his displeasure for Mr. T. It mostly stemmed from the fact that Piper grew up with the old-school mentality that wrestlers needed to earn their place in that ring. For Piper, seeing a celebrity like Mr. T waltz into the main event of the biggest wrestling show of all time with no prior experience, stealing the spotlight (and the payday) from the wrestlers who paid their dues, just wasn’t right.

Piper took the notion as an affront to himself and the wrestling business as a whole. He did not respect Mr. T as a celebrity who risked exposing the business, nor as a man who mixed Dom Pérignon with orange juice (which is something Piper frequently brought up in interviews as a reason to judge the A-Team star). Piper frequently criticized Mr. T and his perception of him in shoot interviews, which is funny, because Mr. T has the opposite recollection of his time with Piper.

If Piper truly held disdain for Mr. T, the feeling wasn’t mutual. Mr. T has described Roddy Piper as being a consummate professional in interviews like in WrestlingInc. There, the actor admits that wrestlers thought he was a “creampuff” for stepping on their territory, but Piper nonetheless treated him with respect, insinuating that any beef between them was trying to sell a storyline and they had no issues offscreen. Mr. T clearly has no issue with Piper, but it’s hard to believe Piper would keep the kayfabe alive decades after their feud.

Roddy Piper Wanted to Kill Mr. T at WrestleMania

And Knew Exactly How to Do It

B4 the Bell is hosted by three comedians – Martin Morrow, Clayton Thomas, and Chris Burns – with varying degrees of wrestling insight based on their direct and indirect affiliations with WWE through working relationships and friendships. Chris Burns – who has dealt with WWE directly in the past, most notably as a part of Sami Zayn’s touring comedy shows, Sami Zayn & Friends – recalls meeting Piper at a convention. As Chris Burns would recall on the podcast, this is what The Hot Rod said to him:

I can – again, inside baseball – tell you [Piper] was not a fan of Hulk Hogan, [but] moreso, Mr. T. I mean, rest in peace, Roddy, I don’t think he’d have a problem with me telling this story. He legitimately was going to kill Mr. T. I’m not kidding around. He said, he thought, “You know what? If I just back suplex him and arch it a certain way, he lands on his neck, they can’t tell me that I did it on purpose.” [Piper] had that thought several times, and then was like, “I’m not gonna mess up WrestleMania like that.”

The way Burns describes it, at some point either before or during the match, Piper’s frustrations with Mr. T’s presence inspired him to come up with an idea to perform a move – the back suplex – on him in a way that would look botched with fatal consequences. At that point in time, Piper had already been wrestling for 17 years, so there’s no doubt that he had the skill to know how to make something intentional look like a mistake.

If this is true, Piper’s hatred for Mr. T and the idea of a celebrity entering a wrestling ring truly bordered into murderous territory. The bigger ramification of this moment – besides murdering a man, of course – is the effect it would’ve had on WrestleMania. Had it happened, it would’ve changed the course of history as it’s not likely that WWE would’ve had another WrestleMania if a celebrity died live on the air. The main event of WrestleMania truly could’ve ended in disaster, and as WWE’s success hinged entirely on this event, the company’s fate would’ve been cut short as well.