Monty - always love reading your feedback, not that I am defending Piper but he probably had a different type of sickness...
He dropped out of school at what 14?? So he leaves wrestling making well into the 6 figures and what can he really do? Flip burgers for $7.00 per hour......Wrestling is the only thing He could do.....
He didn't have to do anything.
Piper dropped out of school at 14, but he’d made enough money by his mid-20’s that he could have stopped wrestling for a while and gone back to school, start a business, explore other career paths
(which he did in movies), etc.
By his mid-30’s, he’d made enough to retire, which he did following WM III.
It didn’t matter if his other business ventures didn’t prosper; he didn’t need the money at that point. Yet, he CHOSE to return to the “evil” world of pro-wrestling in 1989...and he KEPT working semi-regularly throughout the 90’s.
Bret claims that Roddy mentioned to him that he went back on the road because it drove him crazy to stay at home all the time. Hell, he could have taken up fly fishing to get out of the house more!
Roddy knew and recognized how bad the business is, but made a conscious decision to return when he didn’t have to do anything. He'd escaped the grasp of wrestling. He went back because he wanted to.
Just as Mike Benoit wants to blame Vince & CTE for his son’s actions in 2007, Piper wants to lay blame for his selfish ego and addiction to wrestling on someone and something else rather than his own stupidity.
Think about it like this: someone pays you $20,000 every time you bang your head against a brick wall. It hurts and damages your body, but you’re making good money doing it. Suddenly, you win $50 million in the Powerball. You never need to do anything for money again, but you decide to return to your head/brick wall gig because you’re bored being at home all the time and miss people watching you abuse your body.
Now, of the audience, the guy who pays you to hit your head, and YOU…who’s the biggest idiot?
So what are some of your favorite books?
Heenan's are undoubtedly my favorites.