Roddy Piper's Forgotten Boxing Match In WCW, Explained
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The use of boxing in wrestling is usually polarizing since it creates drastically different reactions. Some fans love to see the other world sprinkled into wrestling, but many hate it due to the idea of a real sport being used in a scripted world. Roddy Piper is among the wrestlers most synonymous having boxing matches in pro wrestling.
More fans remember WWE using that form of a match for Piper in the Golden Era, but he had a boxing match in WCW as well. The forgotten feud with Buff Bagwell of all people created conflict that warranted boxing gloves. WCW tried to make it work with some wild variables coming into picture. Unfortunately, Piper’s boxing match is forgotten for good reason but warrants a deeper look at why.
Roddy Piper's Weird WCW Feud With Buff Bagwell
Most WCW fans remember the New Blood vs Millionaire’s Club feud featuring the younger stars vs veterans, but there was a short-lived storyline before that with the same intent. Roddy Piper and Ric Flair represented the old guard against younger talents sick of them, aka Buff Bagwell and Dean Malenko. Flair was the WCW President as a heel authority figure, and his former Four Horsemen Malenko felt sick of being held back.
RELATED: 10 Things Fans Forget About Roddy Piper In WCW
However, those two became secondary parts of the feud as Piper and Bagwell developed deeper issues. Piper aligning with Flair led to his first heel turn in WCW after feuding with the New World Order as a babyface. The idea was that Piper felt younger talent like Bagwell were entitled and needed to work for their spots if they wanted to move up the card.
Even though Piper was still cutting elite promos, he was too old to have compelling matches anymore. Bagwell was also considered a weak worker that couldn’t lead Piper to strong matches. There was also a drop down in star power from Piper’s previous WCW opponents like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. WCW knew something more unique than a standard match was needed to pay off this feud.
Why WCW Booked The Match Between Roddy Piper & Buff Bagwell
There were three main reasons why WCW decided to go with a boxing match of all stipulations for Buff Bagwell and Roddy Piper. Both men having in-ring limitations has already been established. Piper’s boxing match against Mr. T in WWE was a little over a decade removed by Bash at the Beach 1999, but it was still considered one of the defining nights of his career.
However, the biggest reason was that WCW wanted to bring in former boxing referee Mills Lane for a cameo. WCW became obsessed with trying to get headlines via celebrity appearances after finding success with Dennis Rodman, Karl Malone and Jay Leno. Lane was a popular figure in pop culture for being the referee of the infamous boxing match where Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield’s ear.
The success of his Judge Mills Lane show as a district court judge added more fame to him when WCW came calling. Piper and Bagwell had a real boxing referee with name value calling the fight and the famous ring announcer Michael Buffer introducing them to the ring. However, it was still going to be a tough sell as a scripted boxing match in pro wrestling.
The Horrible Results Of Roddy Piper & Buff Bagwell's Boxing Match
WCW had an all-time bad match when they finally had the boxing match between Roddy Piper and Buff Bagwell on the Bash at the Beach 1999 PPV. This was meant to provide comedy with Ric Flair in Piper’s corner and Buff’s mother Judy in his corner. There were a few short rounds with the first being a complete bore of two guys trying to script a boxing match in front of a dead crowd.
Flair placed a substance on Piper’s glove in between rounds to give Piper an unfair advantage hitting a blinded Bagwell until that round finally ended. Things fell apart when Judy realized what Flair was doing and got involved herself. The forced comedy spot of Judy biting Roddy’s ear as Mills Lane tried to pull her off was the moment WCW felt made the match worthwhile, but it’s hard to watch back today.
Judy then placed a bucket on Piper’s head as Buff delivered a knockout punch. Even though it was a boxing match, Bagwell pinned Piper for Lane to count to three and declared him the winner. WCW somehow ended a boxing match with a pin fall based on moves executed in between rounds. Cagematch readers rated it a 0.50 out of 10 as the fifth-worst match in company history. Piper was lucky that fans barely remember this low point of his legendary career.
