Not forgetting today. Nope! I’m posting this on time! Yay!
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper is my all-time favorite wrestler. The first time I saw him was upon his return from hiatus following Wrestlemania 2. He promised to defeat a journeyman wrestler (polite way of describing one of the wrestlers who always loses) with one hand tied behind his back. And then he did it. He was being solidly cheered. I had no idea that a year earlier he was one of the most hated men in wrestling. However, as is so often the case, eventually you just get so good at being bad that people start to cheer for you and they had to turn Roddy from heel to face. Looking back, I believe that his heel work was stronger than his work as a face, but people loved him too much to ever really turn him back. One of my best memories is going to Montreal for a wrestling card at the Forum (when there was still a Forum) to see Piper wrestle live. It was a special “one-time-only” appearance after he had “retired” so I assumed it would be my only chance to ever see him. He unretired a year or so later but it did ultimately end up being the only time I saw him live. I’m sad that I’ll never get to see him in person again. RIP Hot Rod!
Here’s Todrick as “Rowdy” Toddy Piper. Colouring and shading the kilt was the least fun part as I don’t use masks so I had to carefully erase the white lines after each step. Although it occurs to me now I could have simply redrawn the white lines overtop the shading. Ha! Live and learn!
Here’s a comparison to the original piece. The proportions of the original piece are off, but I feel I really captured Roddy’s pose from the picture I was using as a model. It doesn’t come through quite as strongly in the new piece, though overall it’s a stronger picture.
That’s all for this week. I don’t know that I saved the best for last (I’m torn between Deema as Hawk or Sass as Warrior for that honor), but I wanted to close out this portion with my favorite wrestler so there you have it. Next Friday is the first of December and I’ll be stepping away from the wrestling theme until after Christmas. You’ll get to see who Skitter and Chae dress up as in January. Next week, we start some Christmas flashbacks!