title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Philadelphia officers involved in the investigation of two murdered cops interrogate Mike, who hires Jimmy to represent him. Mike has Jimmy create a diversion, enabling Mike to steal one detective's notepad to learn what they know. He finds that Stacey contacted them after finding money hidden in the lining of one of her suitcases. Mike admits to her that he was involved in corruption in Philadelphia, and confesses that he "broke" his son Matt by persuading him to go along. Matt's partner and another cop killed him for fear he would report them, so Mike retaliated by killing the two of them and then moved to Albuquerque to be near his daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Stacey accepts Mike's explanation and consoles him. The detectives leave for Philadelphia, and one privately assures Mike that he has little to fear. Mike aids Jimmy in proving that his clients, Betsy and Craig Kettleman, staged their own disappearance. He then helps Jimmy recover and return the money the Kettlemans embezzled.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: On one of his "muscle" jobs, Mike is employed by Daniel Wormald ("Pryce") to protect him during a drug deal with Nacho Varga. Mike has no weapon, but remains calm and controlled. When the payment is $20 short, Mike insists that Nacho pays Pryce the full amount. After the deal is complete, Mike explains that he investigated Nacho beforehand and determined he was operating without the knowledge of his bosses in the Salamanca drug cartel, giving him an incentive to ensure that the transaction went smoothly.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Impressed by Mike's work for Pryce, Nacho approaches him with a request to kill his boss Tuco Salamanca, Hector's nephew. Nacho fears Tuco may learn about his outside drug deals, and that Tuco's erratic behavior will draw unwanted police attention to the Salamanca drug business. Rather than kill Tuco, Mike engineers a public altercation so that Tuco is sentenced to prison for assault. Hector wants to reduce Tuco's prison sentence by having Mike tell police the gun Tuco was carrying was his, and threatens Stacey and Kaylee so Mike will comply. Mike agrees to take responsibility for the gun in exchange for a $50,000 payment.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Upset at Hector's threats to Kaylee and Stacey, and fearing Hector will learn the truth behind his altercation with Tuco, Mike attempts to disrupt Hector's drug trade by hijacking a Salamanca truck and stealing the $250,000 it carries, but leaving the driver, Ximenez Lecerda, tied up at the side of the road. He intended for a "Good Samaritan" to free Ximenez and contact the police, but learns from Nacho that when someone stopped to help, Ximenez called Hector, and Hector's crew cleaned up the scene and killed the Good Samaritan before police could be summoned.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Mike decides to kill Hector and procures a black market sniper rifle. As he prepares to fire, he is suddenly interrupted by the horn of his car. Mike finds a branch wedged against the horn and a note on the windshield with a single word: "don't".


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Mike finds his moves have been tracked by Gus Fring, the owner of the Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant chain, which is part of the cartel's drug trafficking chain. Gus meets with Mike and explains that he does not want Hector dead until Gus decides the time is right. He encourages Mike to continue to disrupt Hector's drug trafficking and attempts to pay him, but Mike does not accept the money. He asks for help to launder the $250,000 he stole, and Gus obliges by arranging for Madrigal Electromotive, the parent company of Los Pollos and a participant in its drug activities, to hire Mike as a contracted security consultant and pay him monthly consulting fees. Mike joins Stacey at group therapy sessions to help her overcome Matt's death.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Mike quits work at the parking lot and conducts actual security consulting at Madrigal. Lydia Rodarte-Quayle informs him the consulting contract was supposed to be a paper transaction, but Mike argues that his inspections provide plausible cover if anyone questions the payments. When Lydia complains to Gus, he tacitly approves of Mike's actions. At the group therapy sessions, Mike confronts another attendee over his lies, which causes a temporary rift between Stacey and Mike.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Conflict between the Salamancas and Gus' organization leads to Hector Salamanca suffering a stroke, and Gus discreetly pays for his recovery to the point where he recovers his mental faculties and can move his right index finger. Gus initiates construction of a meth lab under an industrial laundry, which is part of a plan to end his reliance on cartel cocaine smuggled from Mexico. Mike arranges for structural engineers to secretly visit and assess the site while Gus silently observes. Gus selects Werner Ziegler to oversee construction of the lab, and Mike arranges for living quarters for Werner and his men during the months-long project. Mike befriends Werner and tries to cover for him to Gus when Werner inadvertently reveals some details of the lab's construction to patrons at a local bar. When construction falls behind schedule, a homesick Werner escapes, intending to meet his wife at a nearby spa. Mike catches up to Werner and realizes that he has inadvertently revealed the existence of a construction project to Hector's nephew Lalo Salamanca, who has arrived to take over management of the Salamanca drug business. Gus orders Werner's death and offers to send someone to do it, but Mike executes Werner himself.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Werner's death forces Gus to halt construction of the lab. Mike reacts with disgust at Gus's seeming lack of compassion for Werner and refuses Gus' offer to continue paying him during the delay. Mike continues to struggle with Werner's death and drinks to excess. He becomes alienated from his family when he loses his temper with Kaylee, which leads Stacey to ask Mike to keep his distance.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: After a night of drinking, Mike is set upon by a street gang and breaks the leader's arm before walking away. Mike is stabbed during a second altercation with the gang, which he sought out of guilt for Werner's death. He awakens at a ranch in Mexico that has ties to Gus, where his wounds have been treated by Dr. Barry Goodman. Gus asks for his aid against the Salamancas because Mike understands Gus' need for revenge. Mike secretly points police to Lalo's car and its ties to the murder of Fred the money wire clerk, which causes Lalo's arrest. Gus wants Lalo released, so Mike gives Jimmy details about the work he did to investigate to Lalo. Jimmy uses the information to accuse police of witness tampering, enabling him to win Lalo's release on bail. Mike spends time with Kaylee and tells Stacey he is over the recent events that angered him.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Lalo has Jimmy pick up the $7 million in bail money from a remote site in the desert. Several gunmen stop Jimmy, take the cash and prepare to kill him. Mike was tracking Jimmy for Gus and kills all but one of the attackers, who escapes. When Jimmy's car breaks down, Mike and Jimmy take the money and walk cross-country, camp overnight, and then resume their trek the next morning. When they see the surviving gunman is still searching, they work together to kill him. Jimmy and Mike make their way to a truck stop, where Tyrus and Victor pick them up. Jimmy posts Lalo's bail and, following Mike's orders, says he was alone and his car broke down, so he walked in order to avoid risking the money. Mike updates Gus, who realizes Juan Bolsa hired the gunmen in the belief that he was protecting Gus' business by keeping Lalo in jail.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Lalo intends to skip bail and return to Mexico. Nacho brings him to the same place where Jimmy received Lalo's bail money so that Leonel and Marco can pick him up. Instead, Lalo searches for Jimmy's car. After finding it, he returns to Albuquerque with Nacho and goes to Kim and Jimmy's apartment. Mike calls Jimmy to alert him to Lalo's imminent arrival and directs Jimmy to leave his phone on and hidden so Mike can listen in. As Mike trains a sniper rifle on Lalo from a nearby roof, Lalo reveals he found bullet holes in Jimmy's car. Kim tells Lalo that passers-by probably shot at the car for fun and berates him for not trusting Jimmy. Lalo appears satisfied and departs.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Jimmy asks Mike why he is protecting him, but Mike hangs up. Mike informs Gus that Lalo is "en route" to his home in Chihuahua and Nacho is with him. Gus tells Mike he sent gunmen to kill Lalo and says Nacho might be able to help. Jimmy goes to Mike's house and demands to know why Mike has been aiding him. Mike tells Jimmy that Lalo will be killed that night. Lalo kills all but one of Gus' hitmen, forces the survivor to call his contact and report Lalo's death, then walks away from his home.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Nacho flees after opening the gate to Lalo's home so the hitmen can enter, and Tyrus later directs him to a motel. Inside his room he finds a gun, cash, and a cell phone. Nacho calls Tyrus, who tells him to hide until it is safe to move. He then attempts to call Mike, who declines to answer. While Nacho remains hidden, Mike and Gus' men enter his home and pay his girlfriends to leave town. They break into Nacho's safe, from which Mike removes the cash and the fake Canadian IDs Nacho had made for himself and his father Manuel. Victor delivers a duplicate safe, into which Mike places the cash, Nacho's fake ID, and an envelope. Nacho discovers he is being surveilled and confirms the watcher is reporting to Gus, causing him to realize Gus has betrayed him to the cartel. A cartel hit team led by the Cousins arrives and a firefight breaks out. Nacho escapes in a stolen truck. Mike engages in a standoff with Tyrus and Gus because he wants to lead a team to Mexico to find Nacho, but Gus wants to force Nacho to reveal himself by holding Manuel hostage.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Mike receives a call from Nacho, who asks to speak to Gus. Nacho offers to give himself up as long as Manuel is protected. Gus arranges to smuggle Nacho into the U.S. Afterwards, Mike and Nacho go over the plan for Nacho to absolve Gus of blame for Lalo's death by falsely blaming another drug family. After confessing, Nacho will attempt to flee so that Victor can kill him, guaranteeing his death will be swift and the Salamancas will not torture him. Mike administers a beating so it will appear Nacho was captured. While Mike watches and trains his rifle on the location, Gus, Tyrus, and Victor meet with Juan Bolsa, Hector Salamanca, and the Cousins to hand Nacho over. Nacho claims he killed Lalo while working with a rival family, the Alvarezes. He further absolves Gus by admitting he tried to kill Hector, but that Gus saved him. Rather than attempt to flee, Nacho uses a piece of broken glass from Gus' trash to free himself from his restraints, seize Juan's gun, and kill himself. As Gus and his men depart, the Cousins assist Hector to fire bullets into Nacho's lifeless body. Mike places his rifle in its carrying case and walks back to the road so Gus, Tyrus, and Victor can pick him up.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Mike has his men follow Kim and Jimmy. After Kim confronts the men surveilling her, Mike tells her the men work for him and Lalo may still be alive, and Kim realizes Mike is the man who helped Jimmy in the desert. When Kim asks why he chose to tell her rather than Jimmy about Lalo, Mike tells her she is "made of sterner stuff". Kim recognizes Mike as the former courthouse parking attendant, and she later chooses not to tell Jimmy that Lalo may still be alive. As Gus continues to worry over the possibility that Lalo is not dead, he and Mike go to the site of the planned meth lab, where Gus hides a gun on an excavator. After Lalo kills Howard Hamlin and forces Kim to drive to Gus's house and shoot him, Mike intercepts Kim, then leads the majority of his men to her apartment. Gus recognizes the shooting attempt as a diversion and drives to Lavandería Brillante, where he is ambushed by Lalo, who forces him to reveal the underground site where Gus's meth lab is being constructed. Gus kills Lalo, but is wounded himself. Mike later supervises the cleanup of Howard's murder and the staging of his death as a suicide, as well as the burial of Howard and Lalo under the floor of the meth lab. Some time later, Mike visits Manuel at his place of business and informs him his son is dead, without offering details. Mike assures Manuel that Nacho, in spite of his crimes, was never like the men he worked for and promises justice upon the Salamancas. Manuel rebuffs him, saying this would only be revenge, not justice, and dismisses Mike as just another gangster.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: By 2008, Mike occasionally serves as a private investigator for Saul while still working full-time for Gus. After Saul is kidnapped by Walter White and Jesse Pinkman during their effort to make Saul represent Brandon Mayhew ("Badger"), Mike does a background check on Walt. Mike's report to Saul includes the fact Walt has cancer. Mike describes Walt as an amateur and advises against working with him, but Saul is impressed by the quality of Walt's meth and decides to offer Walt his services.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: After Walt allows Jane to die from a heroin overdose, Saul dispatches Mike to clean Jesse's apartment. Mike removes all traces of the drugs and provides Jesse advice that enables him to avoid incriminating himself when speaking to police after Mike leaves. When Jesse later goes missing Mike tracks him down and drives Walt to the location.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: With Walt and Skyler White in the middle of a divorce, Saul has Mike spy on Skyler. Mike sees Walt arrive home, followed soon after by Tuco's cousins, who intend to kill Walt in retaliation for Tuco's death. Mike has Gus call off the cousins, since Walt is central to Gus's meth making scheme, and Gus convinces them to instead target Hank, the DEA agent who shot Tuco. Gus then anonymously warns Hank, who is able to fight back. He survives the attack and kills one cousin, and Mike kills the other in the hospital.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: The cartel disrupts Gus' meth distribution and he has Mike investigate. Mike kills the four cartel operatives sent to harass Duane Chow, one of Gus' chemical suppliers. He later hides in one of the Los Pollos Hermanos trucks during a drug run so he can learn the cartel's tactics and implement countermeasures that protect future drug shipments.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: While Walt and Jesse have been cooking meth in the underground superlab, Jesse has become more unstable. He learns that two of Gus's local drug dealers were responsible for the death of his friend Combo and Tomás, the younger brother of Jesse's girlfriend Andrea. Knowing Jesse intends to kill the dealers, Walt acts first and runs them down with his car, then tells Jesse to flee. Gus keeps Walt on, but requires that he work with Gale again. Walt correctly fears that once Gale knows enough to take over, Gus will have Walt and Jesse killed. Walt tricks Mike into looking for Jesse in the wrong place, giving Walt time to meet Jesse and tell him to find Gale's address. Mike later escorts Walt back to the lab on the pretense of responding to a chemical spill, but Walt knows Mike is supposed to kill him. Walt begs Mike not to kill him, and offers to give up Jesse in exchange for his own life. Mike allows Walt to call Jesse and find out where he is hiding. Instead, Walt tells Jesse to kill Gale so that Gus will have to keep them alive to continue meth production.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Jesse kills Gale. Victor arrives soon after and brings Jesse back to the lab. Mike and Victor keep watch over Jesse and Walt while waiting for Gus. Knowing he was recognized at Gale's house, and hoping to demonstrate that he can still be useful to Gus, Victor begins producing a batch of meth, revealing that he has learned the process by watching Walt and Jesse. Gus arrives, kills Victor in front of Walt and Jesse, then tells them to get back to work. Mike increases security at the lab, including installing video cameras and personally standing watch over Walt and Jesse while they work.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Mike informs Gus they may be able to drive Walter and Jesse apart. Gus agrees, and Mike takes Jesse with him on dead-drop retrievals and other tasks. Jesse foils a prearranged attack on Mike, boosting his confidence and increasing his loyalty to Mike and Gus. After another Los Pollos Hermanos truck is robbed and the meth stolen, Jesse aids Mike in retrieving it. His competence convinces Mike and Gus to continue making use of Jesse, and he goes to Mexico with them for a meeting between Gus and the cartel leaders that is intended to end their dispute. Jesse produces a superior batch of meth on his own, and Gus offers to have him stay in Mexico to produce it for the cartel. Jesse is apprehensive, but the offer is a ruse. During a party at Don Eladio's house to celebrate the rapprochement, Gus uses a poisoned bottle of tequila to kill most of the cartel leaders, including taking the first drink himself to alleviate suspicion. Mike is shot helping Gus escape, and Jesse helps both the ill Gus and injured Mike make their way to pre-planned medical treatment. For the doctor Gus has hired, Mike's wounds are secondary to Gus' illness, and after Gus recovers, Mike remains in Mexico for several weeks while Gus and Jesse return to Albuquerque. While Mike is recovering, Walt engineers Gus's death, after which he and Jesse destroy the meth lab.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Mike learns of Gus' death and intends to kill Walt in retaliation. As Mike drives back to Albuquerque, he encounters Walt and Jesse, who explain why they killed Gus. They remind Mike that the security camera footage from the lab can implicate both Mike and them, and ask for his aid in destroying it. Mike tells them the recordings were stored on Gus' laptop, which is now in police custody. He aids Walt and Jesse to build and employ an electromagnet that wipes the laptop's data. This inadvertently leads the police to discover hidden account numbers and access codes for the money Gus deposited offshore to be used to pay the members of his organization for their silence. They seize the accounts, making it likely that Gus's former employees will reveal Mike, Jesse, and Walt to the police.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Mike joins Walt and Jesse in a new organization, with Jesse and Walt producing meth in a mobile lab operated inside the tented homes of a fumigation company's customers. When Lydia suspects the DEA is tracking the methylamine Madrigal supplies, she provides Mike, Walt, and Jesse with information on a train that includes a tanker car of methylamine. They arrange to steal a large quantity without detection, but Todd, an employee of the fumigation company who aids in the robbery, shoots and kills a young boy who witnessed it. Wanting no part of this brutality, Mike and Jesse sell their share of the methylamine to Declan, a drug dealer from Phoenix, while Walt produces the meth Declan distributes. Mike agrees to continue paying Gus's former employees from his share of the methylamine sale in order to ensure their continued silence.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: The DEA identifies Mike's connection to Gus, but he removes evidence from his home and hides getaway money in a "go bag" at the airport, so a police search of his home turns up nothing. The police identify the attorney Mike has been using to make the payments to Gus' former employees, then locate the money he has been saving for Stacey and Kaylee. Intending to flee, Mike asks Saul to retrieve his go bag. Walt retrieves it instead, and meets with Mike. Intending to have Mike's associates killed in prison to protect his identity, Walt demands their names in exchange for the bag. Mike refuses and Walt shoots him with the gun from the go bag. After following a mortally wounded Mike to the edge of a river, Walt comes to the realization that he could have simply asked Lydia for the names. As Walt begins to apologise, Mike stops him, saying "Shut the fuck up, and let me die in peace", before collapsing and dying by the riverbank. Walt and Todd then secretly dissolve his body in acid.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Mike appears briefly in a flashback in the opening scene of the film "". In a discussion that takes place shortly before Mike and Jesse leave Walt's meth business, Jesse asks Mike where he would go if he could start over. Mike says if he was younger, he would go to Alaska, an idea Jesse finds appealing. Jesse expresses a desire to make amends for past wrongdoing, but Mike cautions that starting over would make that impossible.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: The "Breaking Bad" fifth season episode "Say My Name", which ends with Walt killing Mike, received critical acclaim, with many critics singling out Jonathan Banks and Bryan Cranston for particular praise. The episode is recognized by many television critics as one of the best in the series, with TV Fanatic's Matt Richenthal giving "Say My Name" a five-star rating, and calling it "one of the best in series history." Seth Amitin of IGN gave the episode a 9 out of 10 rating, calling it "mind-blowing", but stating that "I hate to see Mike go out like that. He deserved more. I literally can't give this higher than a 9.0, it was just too sad of an ending." Alan Sepinwall of HitFix thought the episode was "a mostly tremendous episode of a drama", adding the death of Mike "is just a gorgeous, devastating scene", but he was unimpressed by the plotting that led to Mike showing any trust for Walt in that situation, writing that it was a contrived way to ensure that Walt would be in a position to kill Mike per the requirements of the overall show story.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Jonathan Banks has received several awards and nominations for his portrayal as Mike Ehrmantraut in both "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul". In 2012, he received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for his role in "Breaking Bad". In 2013, he received a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: In 2015, he received a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for "Better Call Saul". In 2016, he received a Satellite Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. In 2017, he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and a Satellite Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. In 2019, he received another Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.


title: Mike Ehrmantraut

text: Similar to the series of fictional employee training videos used during season three of "Better Call Saul", AMC posted a ten-short video series titled "Madrigal Electromotive Security Training" to YouTube and its social media accounts during the run of season four of "Better Call Saul". The videos feature a mix of live-action footage of Banks portraying Mike in providing training to new security employees of Madrigal and animated segments. The series had been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series, but the nomination was pulled by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences after they discovered the episodes were too short for the category, stating "This decision is in no way a diminishment of the quality of Better Call Saul Employee Training or Mr. Banks' performance in it".


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Marvin John Heemeyer (October 28, 1951 – June 4, 2004) was an American automobile muffler repair shop owner who, following a dispute with town officials, demolished numerous buildings with a modified bulldozer in Granby, Colorado, on June 4, 2004.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Heemeyer had feuded with Granby town officials, particularly over fines for violating city health ordinances after he purchased property with no sewage system. He had incurred the fines for improperly dumping sewage from his business instead of connecting to the city sewer system. Over about eighteen months, Heemeyer had secretly modified a Komatsu D355A bulldozer by adding layers of steel and concrete, intended to serve as armor.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: On June 4, 2004, Heemeyer's feud with Granby culminated in a spree in which he used the armored bulldozer to demolish the Granby town hall, the former mayor's house, and several other buildings. Heemeyer's rampage concluded with his suicide, after his bulldozer became trapped in the basement of a hardware store he had been in the process of destroying.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Marvin Heemeyer was born on October 28, 1951, in South Dakota and lived in Grand Lake, Colorado, about away from Granby. According to a neighbor, Heemeyer moved to town more than ten years before the incident. His friends stated that he had no relatives in the Granby–Grand Lake area.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: John Bauldree, a friend of Heemeyer's, said that he was a likable person. Heemeyer's brother Ken stated that he "would bend over backwards for anyone". However, while many people described Heemeyer as an affable person, local resident Christie Baker claimed that her husband was threatened by Heemeyer after refusing to pay for a disputed muffler repair. Baker said her husband later paid Heemeyer $124.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: In 1992, Heemeyer purchased of land from the Resolution Trust Corporation, the federal agency organized to handle the assets of failed savings and loan associations, for $42,000 to build a muffler shop. He subsequently agreed to sell the land to Cody Docheff to build a concrete batch plant, Mountain Park Concrete, for $250,000. According to Susan Docheff, Heemeyer changed his mind and increased the price to $375,000, then to a deal worth approximately $1 million. This negotiation happened before the rezoning proposal was heard by the town council.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: In 2001, Granby's zoning commission and trustees approved the construction of the concrete plant. Heemeyer unsuccessfully appealed the decision, claiming the construction blocked access to his shop. He was subsequently fined $2,500 for not having a septic tank on the property his muffler shop occupied.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Heemeyer's bulldozer was a modified Komatsu D355A, which he referred to as the "MK Tank" in audio recordings, fitted with makeshift armor plating covering the cabin, engine, and parts of the tracks. In places, this armor was over thick, consisting of Quikrete concrete mix sandwiched between sheets of tool steel (acquired from an automotive dealer in Denver), to make ad-hoc composite armor. This made the machine impervious to small arms fire and resistant to explosives. Three external explosions and more than 200 rounds of ammunition fired at the bulldozer had no effect on it.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: For visibility, the bulldozer was fitted with several video cameras linked to two monitors mounted on the vehicle's dashboard. The cameras were protected on the outside by shields of clear bulletproof lexan. Compressed-air nozzles were fitted to blow dust away from the video cameras.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Onboard fans and an air conditioner were used to keep Heemeyer cool while driving. He had made three gun-ports, fitted for a .50 caliber rifle, a .308 caliber semi-automatic rifle, and a .22 caliber rifle, all fitted with a steel plate.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Authorities initially speculated that he may have used a homemade cranefound in his garageto lower the armor hull over the dozer and himself. Heemeyer apparently had no intention of leaving the cabin once he entered it. "Once he tipped that lid shut, he knew he wasn't getting out", Daly said. Investigators searched the garage where they believed that Heemeyer built the vehicle and found cement and armor steel.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: "It is interesting to observe that I was never caught", Heemeyer wrote. "This was a part-time project over a year time period." He was surprised that several men, who had visited the shed late the previous year, had not noticed the modified bulldozer "especially with the lift fully exposed ... somehow their vision was clouded".


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: On June 4, 2004, Heemeyer drove his armored bulldozer through the wall of his former business, the concrete plant, the town hall, the office of the local newspaper that editorialized against him, the home of a former mayor (in which the mayor's widow then resided), and a hardware store owned by another man Heemeyer named in a lawsuit, as well as a few others. Heemeyer had leased his business to a trash company and sold the property several months before the rampage.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: The attack lasted two hours and seven minutes, damaging thirteen buildings. It knocked out natural gas service to the town hall and the concrete plant, damaged a truck, and destroyed part of a utility service center. Despite the great damage to property, no one besides Heemeyer (by a self-inflicted gunshot wound) was killed in the event. The damage was estimated at $7 million. According to Grand County commissioner James Newberry, emergency dispatchers used the reverse 911 emergency system to notify many residents and property owners of the rampage going on in the town.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Defenders of Heemeyer contended that he made a point of not hurting anybody during his bulldozer rampage. Ian Daugherty, a bakery owner, said Heemeyer "went out of his way" not to harm anyone. Others offered different views. The sheriff's department argued the fact that no one was injured was not due to good intent as much as to good luck. Heemeyer had installed two rifles in firing ports on the inside of the bulldozer, and fired fifteen bullets from his rifle at power transformers and propane tanks.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: "Had these tanks ruptured and exploded, anyone within one-half mile (800 m) of the explosion could have been endangered", the sheriff's department said. Twelve police officers and residents of a senior citizens complex were within such a range. Heemeyer fired many bullets from his semi-automatic rifle at Cody Docheff when Docheff tried to stop the assault on his concrete plant by using a scraper, which was pushed aside by Heemeyer's bulldozer.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Later, Heemeyer fired on two state patrol officers before they had fired at him. The sheriff's department also noted that eleven of the thirteen buildings Heemeyer bulldozed were occupied until moments before their destruction. At the town library, for example, a children's program was in progress when the incident began.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: One officer dropped a flash-bang grenade down the bulldozer's exhaust pipe, with no apparent effect. Local and state patrol, including a SWAT team, walked behind and beside the bulldozer, occasionally firing, but the armored bulldozer was impervious to their shots. Attempts to disable the bulldozer's cameras with gunfire failed as the bullets were unable to penetrate the 3-inch (7.6 cm) bulletproof plastic. At one point, undersheriff Glenn Trainor climbed atop the bulldozer and rode it "like a bronc buster, trying to figure out a way to get a bullet inside the dragon". However, he was forced to jump off to avoid being hit with debris.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: At this point, local authorities and the Colorado State Patrol feared they were running out of options in terms of firepower, and that Heemeyer would soon turn against civilians in Granby. Governor Bill Owens allegedly considered authorizing the National Guard to use either an Apache attack helicopter equipped with a Hellfire missile or a two-man fire team equipped with a Javelin anti-tank missile to destroy the bulldozer. This was quickly deemed unnecessary when Heemeyer became trapped in the basement of a Gambles hardware store.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: As late as 2011, Governor Owens's staff still vehemently denied considering such a course of action. Since then, members of the State Patrol revealed that to the contrary, the governor did consider authorizing an attack but ultimately decided against it due to the potential for collateral damage of a missile strike in the heart of Granby being significantly higher than what Heemeyer could have caused with his bulldozer.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Various problems arose as Heemeyer destroyed the Gambles hardware store. The radiator of the bulldozer had been damaged, and the engine was leaking various fluids. The bulldozer's engine failed, and Heemeyer dropped a tread into the store's basement and could not get out. About a minute later, one of the SWAT team members, who had swarmed around the machine, reported hearing a single gunshot from inside the sealed cab. It was later determined that Heemeyer had shot himself in the head with a .357-caliber handgun.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Police first used explosives in an attempt to remove the steel plates, but after the third explosion failed, they cut through them with an oxyacetylene cutting torch. Grand County Emergency Management Director Jim Holahan stated that authorities were able to access and remove Heemeyer's body at 2 a.m. on June 5.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: On April 19, 2005, the town announced plans to scrap Heemeyer's bulldozer. The plan involved dispersing individual pieces to many separate scrap yards to prevent souvenir-taking.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Although no one other than Heemeyer was killed in the incident, the modified bulldozer has occasionally been referred to as the "Killdozer". It is unclear whether this is in allusion to the 1944 short story "Killdozer!" or its 1974 film adaptation, or if this is independent coinage.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: In addition to writings that he left on the wall of his shed, Heemeyer recorded three audio tapes explaining his motivation for the attack. The tapes contained two separate recordings on each side for a total of six recordings. He mailed these to his brother in South Dakota shortly before stepping into his bulldozer.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Heemeyer's brother turned the tapes over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who in turn sent them to the Grand County Sheriff's Department. The tapes were released by the Grand County Sheriff's Office on August 31, 2004. The tapes are about 2.5 hours in length. The first recording was made on April 13, 2004. The last recording was made on May 22, thirteen days before the rampage.


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: "God built me for this job", Heemeyer said in the first recording. He also said it was God's plan that he not be married or have a family so that he could be in a position to carry out such an attack. "I think God will bless me to get the machine done, to drive it, to do the stuff that I have to do", he said. "God blessed me in advance for the task that I am about to undertake. It is my duty. God has asked me to do this. It's a cross that I am going to carry and I'm carrying it in God's name."


title: Marvin Heemeyer

text: Investigators later found Heemeyer's handwritten list of targets. According to the police, it included the buildings he destroyed, the local Catholic church (which he did not damage), and the names of various people who had sided against him in past disputes. Notes found by investigators after the incident indicated that the primary motivation for the bulldozer rampage was his plan to stop the concrete plant from being built near his shop. These notes indicated that he held grudges over the zoning approval. "I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable", he wrote. "Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things."


title: Redo of Healer

text: , also known in Japan as Kaiyari for short, is a Japanese fantasy light novel series written by Rui Tsukiyo and illustrated by Shiokonbu. It began serialization online in December 2016 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. It was later acquired by Kadokawa Shoten, who have published the series since July 2017 under their Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko imprint.


title: Redo of Healer

text: A manga adaptation with art by Sōken Haga has been serialized online via Kadokawa Shoten's "Young Ace Up" website since October 2017. An anime television series adaptation by TNK aired from January to March 2021.


title: Redo of Healer

text: Keyaru, who is exploited and sexually abused repeatedly by others due to being a healing magician, notices what lays just beyond his healing magic, and is convinced that a healing magician is the strongest class in the world. However, by the time he realizes his own potential, he is already deprived of everything. Thus, using his healing magic, enhanced by the magic enhancing properties of the Philosopher's Stone on the world itself, he goes back four years into the past, deciding to redo everything and get revenge on the ones who abused him and take down a corrupted empire.


title: Redo of Healer

text: The series was first published online in December 2016 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō by Rui Tsukiyo. It was later acquired by Kadokawa Shoten, who published the first volume as a light novel under their Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko imprint in July 2017.


title: Redo of Healer

text: On January 23, 2021, Tsukiyo tweeted in English, claiming that one overseas publisher refused to publish the series in English. They said that the situation may change if overseas publishers received enough requests. Tsukiyo also encouraged fans to check out the English version of their other light novel series, "The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat", which is licensed by Yen Press.


title: Redo of Healer

text: A manga adaptation by Sōken Haga began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's "Young Ace Up" website on October 24, 2017. Eleven volumes have been released as of August 2022.


title: Redo of Healer

text: A spin-off manga series illustrated by Ken Nagao, titled "Kaifuku Jutsushi no Omotenashi" ("Hospitality of Healer"), also began serialization in "Young Ace Up" on January 18, 2021.


title: Redo of Healer

text: An anime television series adaptation was announced by Kadokawa in November 2019. The series was animated by TNK and directed by Takuya Asaoka, with Kazuyuki Fudeyasu handling series composition, and Junji Goto designing the characters. The series aired for twelve episodes from January 13 to March 31, 2021, on Tokyo MX, KBS, AT-X, SUN, and BS11. The opening theme is performed by Minami Kuribayashi, while the ending theme is performed by ARCANA PROJECT.


title: Redo of Healer

text: There are three different versions of the anime: a censored broadcast version, a streaming-exclusive "Redo" version, and an uncensored "Complete Recovery" version. All of the stations airing the anime carried the broadcast version. In addition to airing the broadcast version at 11:30 p.m. JST, AT-X aired the "Complete Recovery" version on the same morning at 4:00 a.m. JST. The official Twitter account issued a content warning for the anime. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the anime outside Asia and German-speaking regions. Children's Playground Entertainment has licensed the series in Southeast Asia and is streaming it on Bilibili.


title: Redo of Healer

text: The light novel series has over 800,000 copies in print. Both the light novel and the manga grew in their popularity, which led to an increase in digital sales. Several volumes of the manga also ranked in the top ten of Amazon Japan's manga charts.


title: Redo of Healer

text: Since its airing, the anime adaptation of "Redo of Healer" gained higher than average percentage of female viewers and Tsukiyo expressed their surprise on Twitter.


title: Redo of Healer

text: The reviewers criticized the series for having a "generic" fantasy role-playing game inspired setting similar to popular isekai series and for "contrived" in-story justifications for its revenge plot.


title: Redo of Healer

text: The anime adaptation garnered controversy due to its depiction of extreme violence, gratuitous amounts of sexual content and rape, and other content such as the treatment of female characters, cannibalism, slavery, and torture, all elements often being used as a plot device, especially in the first two episodes. In Anime News Network's Winter 2021 Preview Guide, the series was panned by most of the reviewers for its recurring "rape and revenge", an aspect of the light novels that gained controversy before the anime premiere.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Roderick George Toombs (April 17, 1954 – July 31, 2015), better known as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, was a Canadian professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and actor.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In professional wrestling, Piper was best known to international audiences for his work with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) between 1984 and 2000. Although he was Canadian, because of his Scottish heritage he was billed as coming from Glasgow and was known for his signature kilt and bagpipe entrance music. Piper earned the nicknames "Rowdy" and "Hot Rod" by displaying his trademark "Scottish" short temper, spontaneity, and quick wit. According to "The Daily Telegraph", he is "considered by many to be the greatest 'heel' (or villain) wrestler ever".


title: Roddy Piper

text: One of wrestling's most recognizable stars, Piper headlined multiple PPV events, including the WWF and WCW's respective premier annual events, WrestleMania and Starrcade. He accumulated 34 championships and hosted the popular WWF/E interview segment "Piper's Pit", which facilitated numerous kayfabe feuds. In 2005, Piper was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Ric Flair, who dubbed him "the most gifted entertainer in the history of professional wrestling".


title: Roddy Piper

text: Outside of wrestling, Piper acted in dozens of films and TV shows, most notably taking the lead role of John Nada in the 1988 cult classic "They Live" and a recurring role as a deranged professional wrestler called Da' Maniac on the FX comedy series "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia".


title: Roddy Piper

text: Roderick George Toombs was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on April 17, 1954, the son of Eileen ("née" Anderson) and Stanley Baird Toombs. He was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and attended Windsor Park Collegiate. His father was an officer with the CN Rail Police (Canadian National Railway) while they lived in The Pas, Manitoba. After being expelled from junior high for having a switchblade in school and falling out with his father, Toombs left home and stayed in youth hostels. He picked up odd jobs at local gyms, running errands for several professional wrestlers. As a young man, he became proficient in playing the bagpipes, though he repeatedly stated that he was unsure exactly where he picked them up. His childhood (and lifelong) best friend was ex-NHL player Cam Connor.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper was an amateur wrestler before he started to become a professional wrestler. He claimed to have won the Golden Gloves boxing championship, though their lists of champions don't include any of his names. He was awarded a black belt in Judo from Gene LeBell. He started wrestling under the care of promoter Al Tomko in Canada, his first match involving "midget wrestlers" in front of a lumberjack audience in Churchill, Manitoba. He soon began earning money wrestling while still going to school. His first match in a famous organization was with Larry Hennig in the American Wrestling Association (AWA). Friends of his played the bagpipes during his entrance while he was handing out dandelions; meanwhile, the ring announcer had to announce something, but all he knew was that Piper's name was Roddy. Subsequently, after seeing the pipe band, he announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, here comes Roddy the piper." This gave birth to the name "Roddy Piper". From 1973 to 1975, Piper was a jobber in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), NWA Central States territory surrounding Kansas City, and Eastern Sports Association in the Maritimes. He also worked in Texas for Paul Boesch's NWA Houston Wrestling promotion, and in Dallas for Fritz Von Erich's Big Time Rasslin.


title: Roddy Piper

text: By late 1975 and early 1976, Piper was a top villain for Mike and Gene LeBell's NWA Hollywood Wrestling. In 1977–78, he also started to work for Roy Shire's NWA San Francisco Wrestling in addition to remaining with the Los Angeles office, where Piper developed his Rowdy character. During this time, he made continuous insults directed at the area's Mexican community; he later promised to repent by playing the Mexican national anthem on his bagpipes only to anger the fans further by playing "La Cucaracha" instead, which in turn caused a riot. Piper also managed a stable of wrestlers in California.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In the Los Angeles area, Piper feuded with Chavo Guerrero Sr., and his father Gory Guerrero. Piper and Chavo Guerrero faced each other in several matches for the Jules Strongbow Memorial Scientific Trophy. Piper also defeated Chavo for the Americas Heavyweight Title. During the feud, Piper lost a hair match and had his head shaved. Piper appeared in several loser leave town matches and was forced to leave the territory. He also appeared in the territory as The Masked Canadian. In his first televised match as The Masked Canadian, Piper teamed with Chavo in a match against Black Gordman and Goliath for the Americas Tag Team Championship. Piper and Guerrero lost the match and faced each other two days later, with Piper defeating Guerrero for the Americas Heavyweight Championship. Piper wrestled as The Masked Canadian for several months until he was unmasked by Hector Guerrero.


title: Roddy Piper

text: By late 1978-early 1979, Piper left the California promotions for even more fame in Don Owen's Portland-based Pacific Northwest territory. He teamed with Killer Tim Brooks and Rick Martel to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship. Piper also won the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship with victories over both Lord Jonathan Boyd and "Playboy" Buddy Rose.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In the early 1980s, Piper ventured to the Mid-Atlantic territory where he beat Jack Brisco for the Mid-Atlantic title. He also defeated Ric Flair for the US belt which turned into a feud. From 1981 to 1982, Piper served as a commentator on Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) and feuded with the likes of Bob Armstrong, Dick Slater, and Tommy Rich. During the summer of 1982, Piper became a fan favorite after knocking out Don Muraco and Ole Anderson to save broadcast partner Gordon Solie from Muraco, who had grown angry at Solie questioning his tactics. In "Wrestling to Rasslin", Gerald W. Morton and George M. O'Brien described the transformation: "the drama finally played itself out on television when one of his [Piper's] hired assassins, Don Muraco, suddenly attacked the commentator Gordon Solie. Seeing Solie hurt, Piper unleashed his Scottish fury on Muraco. In the week that followed, like Achilles avenging Patroklas, he slaughtered villain after villain... In the arenas fans chanted his name throughout his matches."


title: Roddy Piper

text: In 1982, Piper was fired because of showing up late for a match. He went to Puerto Rico for a month and was booked by Jim Barnett shortly thereafter. Piper returned to the Georgia area in the summer of 1983 to aid Tommy Rich during his rivalry with Buzz Sawyer. Eventually, Piper moved back to Jim Crockett Promotions. As a fan favorite, Piper feuded with Sgt. Slaughter, Ric Flair, and Greg Valentine. Piper's feud with Valentine culminated in a dog collar match at the first Starrcade. Valentine broke Piper's left eardrum during the match with the collar's chain, causing Piper to permanently lose 50–75% percent of his hearing. This became known as "The Year of the Ear".


title: Roddy Piper

text: Before entering the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) full-time in 1984, Piper wrestled five matches with the WWF under Vince McMahon Sr. in 1979 at Madison Square Garden. His first match in WWF he defeated jobber Frankie Williams on January 22. Before one match, Freddie Blassie stuffed Piper's bagpipes with toilet paper, so they would not play in front of the Garden crowd.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In 1983, WWF owner Vince McMahon contacted Piper, who insisted on serving out his contract with Jim Crockett before starting his WWF run in 1984. Piper debuted in the WWF as a manager, working with "Dr. D" David Schultz and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, but eventually Piper's run as a manager quietly ended and he started wrestling full-time. Focusing on one of his strengths as a wrestler, the microphone, he was given his own interview segment called "Piper's Pit" on "Championship Wrestling" and "Wrestling at the Chase" in 1984, starting a run of the segment that ended in 1987. During one "Piper's Pit", Piper insulted Jimmy Snuka's Polynesian heritage and attacked Snuka by smashing him over the head with a coconut. Piper also insulted Bruno Sammartino during a "Piper's Pit" segment, which led to a feud that ended in a steel cage match on February 8, 1986 at the Boston Garden which Piper lost.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper's next major storyline was with Hulk Hogan and also involved pop singer Cyndi Lauper. In 1985, MTV broadcast "The War to Settle the Score", which featured a main-event match between Piper and Hogan for the WWF championship. Hogan was accompanied to the ring by Lauper, Captain Lou Albano, and Mr. T. This event set up the very first WrestleMania, which pitted Paul Orndorff and his former manager Piper against Hogan and Mr. T. Orndorff was pinned by Hogan when Piper's bodyguard "Cowboy" Bob Orton interfered and mistakenly struck Orndorff instead of Hogan. In "Born to Controversy", Piper recalled how during the match he had to keep Mr. T busy to cover Mr. T's lack of wrestling ability from being seen by the fans. From this situation, Piper and Mr. T's real-life relationship became hostile, leading to the inevitable conclusion that they be put into a feud with one another on-screen. Piper faced Mr. T in a boxing match at WrestleMania 2 in 1986, which Piper lost by disqualification after bodyslamming Mr. T.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Following a leave of absence from the WWF, Piper returned as a face, during a TV taping of "Championship Wrestling" on August 23, 1986, against A. J. Petrucci. As part of the storyline, the returning Piper was distressed to find his "Piper's Pit" segment replaced by "The Flower Shop", a segment hosted by Adrian Adonis, who had also hired Piper's former bodyguard Orton. Piper spent weeks crashing Adonis' show and trading insults, leading to a "showdown" between the two segments that ended with Piper being assaulted and humiliated by Adonis, Orton, and Don Muraco and the destruction of the original Piper's Pit set, resulting in Piper's face turn and the construction of a more permanent Piper's Pit set. In response, Piper stormed the set of Adonis' show and destroyed it with a baseball bat. This led to their Hair vs. Hair match at WrestleMania III, which was billed as Piper's retirement match from wrestling before he left to become an actor full-time. Piper won the match.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In early 1987, Piper's Pit also served as the backdrop for Andre the Giant's heel turn and challenging Piper's old foe, Hulk Hogan, for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania III, and Hogan ultimately accepting the challenge.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In 1989, Piper returned from a two-year hiatus. Although WrestleMania V was billed as his return, he actually made his first appearance on March 19 in Denver, CO at a house show when he hosted a live "Piper's Pit" and interviewed Brother Love. Two weeks later at WrestleMania V he did make his official return with another live "Piper's Pit", where he hosed down a smoking Morton Downey Jr. with a fire extinguisher. He made his return to the ring on May 12, substituting for Jake Roberts and pinning Ted DiBiase on a house show in Los Angeles. Piper would gain several more victories against DiBiase that month, and also against Randy Savage in June.


title: Roddy Piper

text: After this, Piper co-hosted "Prime Time Wrestling" from July 17, 1989, to December 25, 1989, with Gorilla Monsoon, feuding with Bobby Heenan, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, and Brother Love, he would return to the show in 1991 as well. Piper returned to the ring when he interfered in Rude's Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship defense against The Ultimate Warrior at SummerSlam, costing Rude the title. The feud was heavily promoted on TV and Piper would face Rude in many matches throughout the house show tours, including steel cage and lumberjack matches. The feud was so prominent that a Survivor Series match was built around it which saw both men captain a team and simultaneously be eliminated by countout during their brawl, though Rude's team would go onto win the match. The feud came to a head when the stipulation stated that if Piper beat Rude, Heenan would have to dress as Santa Claus for an episode of "Prime Time". However the feud would continue until March 1990 with Piper winning the majority of their matches throughout 89-90 including a win over Bobby Heenan.


title: Roddy Piper

text: He then feuded with Bad News Brown who was upset at being eliminated by Piper at the 1990 Royal Rumble. Brown would go on to mock Piper for wearing a "skirt". At WrestleMania VI in April 1990, Piper cut a promo towards his opponent Bad News Brown before the match with half his face and body painted black, and also wrestled Bad News while painted this way. Bad News would take this display of blackface as being offensive behind the scenes. Subsequently, the match would end in a Double Count Out, with the issue between the two never being resolved despite plans to the contrary. According to a behind the scenes interview, neither man was willing to lose to the other.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In 1991, he supported Virgil in his feud against "The Million Dollar Man" (Ted DiBiase). Later in 1991 Piper was involved in a motorcycle accident, but was still present at their matches at WrestleMania VII and SummerSlam. He renewed his feud with Ric Flair and at the 1992 Royal Rumble defeated The Mountie for his first, and only, Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship. He lost it soon after to Bret Hart at WrestleMania VIII. Following his title loss to Hart, Piper made a handful of appearances at television tapings for Wrestling Challenge and WWF Superstars. Four Piper's Pit segments were recorded - two with Steve Lombardi and two with Shawn Michaels. None aired, and Piper disappeared from the WWF. He made his return playing the bagpipes at SummerSlam.


title: Roddy Piper

text: He reemerged once again in 1994 at WrestleMania X as guest referee for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship match between Bret Hart and Yokozuna. During the match, commentator Jerry "The King" Lawler remarked that he hated Piper and continued to taunt Piper on his "King's Court" segment on "Monday Night Raw", eventually culminating with Lawler bringing out a young, skinny impersonator in a Piper T-shirt and kilt and forcing him to kiss his feet. Enraged, Piper agreed to wrestle Lawler at the King of the Ring, where Piper emerged victorious. Piper wrestled as a fan favorite, and adding to the face attitude by donating part of his purse from the fight with Lawler to a children's hospital in Ontario. In spring 1994, Piper began hosting a regular weekly segment on "All-American Wrestling" called "The Bottom Line" where he commented on various happenings in the WWF, as well as on his feud with Lawler. Piper's segment aired regularly until the Summer of 1994, when Piper would disappear again.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Leaving the WWF again, he briefly returned in 1995 at WrestleMania XI, once again in a referee capacity, for the submission-only match between Hart and Bob Backlund. After this match Piper became the host for the replay editions of WWF pay-per-views for a brief period of time, commenting on the matches that had just happened, before disappearing again a few months later.


title: Roddy Piper

text: On the January 29, 1996, episode of "Monday Night RAW", Piper returned for another regular role, as he was named as interim WWF President after Gorilla Monsoon had to take a leave of absence due to an attack by Vader. On February 24 at a house show at East Rutherford, New Jersey, he made his first match appearance in almost two years. As a substitute for Razor Ramon, Piper defeated The 1-2-3 Kid after hitting him with a ring bell. He wrestled twice more against the Kid on house shows that month.


title: Roddy Piper

text: As president, one of Piper's first acts was to reinstate The Ultimate Warrior back into the WWF after a letter campaign written in by fans. Piper had become the object of affection for Goldust. Enraged, Piper claimed he would "make a man" out of Goldust at WrestleMania XII. The match, dubbed a "Hollywood Backlot Brawl", began in an alleyway behind the Arrowhead Pond, but Goldust jumped into his gold Cadillac and ran Piper over, ultimately escaping (allegedly) onto the highways of Anaheim. Piper pursued in his white Ford Bronco, the aerial footage shown was actually that of the O. J. Simpson "low-speed" chase from two years prior. This was made clear by Piper himself, who recalled the event on an episode of "Pipers Pit the Podcast". The two eventually returned to the arena, where Piper disrobed Goldust in the ring, effectively ending the confrontation. With Gorilla Monsoon back in control of the WWF by the end of the night, Piper once again left the company. His final appearance came the September 6, 1996, edition of "Monday Night RAW", where footage was shown of him participating with other WWF wrestlers at the CNE "Experience" in Toronto.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the fall of 1996. He made his surprise WCW debut as a fan favorite at the Halloween Havoc pay-per-view in October to insult the nWo leader and the World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan.


title: Roddy Piper

text: On the November 18 episode of "Nitro", Piper revealed that Eric Bischoff was a member of the nWo, which ended with the nWo members attacking him. on the December 9 episode of "Nitro", Piper told Flair that he didn't need the Four Horsemen's help in beating Hogan and he was going to do it on his own. Piper defeated Hogan with his signature sleeper hold in the non-title main event of the company's flagship pay-per-view Starrcade, which earned him a title shot against Hogan for the World Heavyweight Championship at SuperBrawl VII, where Piper was defeated. On the March 10, 1997, episode of Nitro, Piper and his family joined forces with Ric Flair and The Four Horsemen in their battle with the nWo. At Uncensored, Piper competed in a triangle elimination match where he captained a team of Horsemen Chris Benoit, Steve McMichael and Jeff Jarrett against the nWo and WCW's team of Lex Luger, Steiner Brothers and The Giant. His team lost the match. On the March 31 episode of "Nitro", Piper and Flair agreed to team up and stand side by side to fight. Piper moved on to feud with other members of nWo. At Slamboree, Piper, Flair and Kevin Greene defeated nWo members Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Syxx in a six-man tag team match. The following month, at The Great American Bash pay-per-view, Piper and Flair unsuccessfully challenged The Outsiders for the World Tag Team Championship. on the June 23 episode of Nitro, Flair and the Four Horsemen turned on Piper and attacked him. This led to a match between Piper and Flair at Bash at the Beach, which Piper won.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper took a hiatus from television before making his return to WCW on the September 8 episode of "Nitro", where he was appointed the new on-air Commissioner of WCW, which reduced his in-ring work. He briefly resumed his feud with Hulk Hogan, beating him in a steel cage match at Halloween Havoc. on the March 23, 1998, episode of Nitro, Piper and Randy Savage battled to a no contest. On the March 30 episode of Nitro, Piper defeated Hogan by disqualification. At the 1998 Spring Stampede pay-per-view, Piper teamed with The Giant in a loss to Hogan and Nash in a Baseball Bat on a Pole match. At Slamboree, Piper served as the special guest referee in a match between Randy Savage and Bret Hart, which Hart won but the following night on Nitro, Piper changed his decision and declared Savage as the winner by disqualification. At The Great American Bash, Piper and Savage lost to Hogan and Hart in a tag team match by submission. After the match, Piper wrestled Savage in the next match, which Piper defeated Savage by submission. On the September 7 episode of "Nitro", Piper and Diamond Dallas Page defeated Sting and Lex Luger by disqualification. Piper teamed with Diamond Dallas Page and The Warrior as Team WCW in a WarGames match at Fall Brawl for an opportunity at the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at the following month's Halloween Havoc. Page won the match for his team. On the September 14 episode of "Nitro", Piper confronted Bret Hart.


title: Roddy Piper

text: On the February 8, 1999, episode of "Nitro", Piper defeated Bret Hart to win his third United States Heavyweight Championship; the first two reigns being in JCP. Piper held the title for only two weeks as he lost the title to Scott Hall at SuperBrawl IX. At Slamboree, Piper defeated Flair by disqualification after Eric Bischoff reversed a decision that Flair was disqualified for hitting Piper with a foreign object. 8 days later on the May 17 episode of "Nitro", Piper called out Bischoff for what Bischoff did to him in 1996, before Bischoff apologised to him and WCW fans. Piper and Bischoff were interrupted by Randy Savage and his Team Madness, before Savage and Team Madness attacked him and Bischoff until Kevin Nash saved him and Bischoff. The following month later at The Great American Bash, Flair defeated Piper by disqualification for control of WCW after interference from Buff Bagwell. Upset with Bagwell getting him disqualified, Piper knocked Bagwell out and joined Flair as vice president, turning Piper heel for the first time in WCW. At Bash at the Beach, Piper competed against Bagwell in a boxing match with Mills Lane as special guest referee which he lost. In late 1999, Piper returned to WCW programming as a face, in an angle with Vince Russo, who was now portraying himself as the "Powers That Be" (an unseen power that was controlling WCW). At Starrcade, Piper was the special referee in the WCW World Heavyweight Championship match featuring Goldberg and Hart. Forced by Russo, Piper called for the bell when Hart locked in the Sharpshooter on Goldberg, when it was apparent that Goldberg had not submitted. The feud between Piper and the Powers That Be ended shortly after. Piper's last appearance in WCW was at SuperBrawl 2000 in February 2000 where he was a surprise referee in the WCW World Heavyweight Championship match between Sid Vicious, Jeff Jarrett and Scott Hall. In July 2000, WCW terminated Piper's contract.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Before going to the WWE in 2003, Piper served as the commissioner of the Xcitement Wrestling Federation (XWF). On November 5, 2002, Piper's autobiography, "In the Pit with Piper: Roddy Gets Rowdy", was released.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper returned to WWE on March 30, 2003, by conducting a surprise run in during the Hulk Hogan-Vince McMahon match at WrestleMania XIX in Seattle, Washington, where he attacked Hogan with a steel pipe to cement his heel status; Hogan nevertheless eventually won the match. Piper went on to align with Sean O'Haire; at Backlash in April, Rikishi hit Piper with Piper's own coconut, but this led to O'Haire defeating Rikishi.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In May, as Hulk Hogan had been banned in storyline from television by Vince McMahon, Hogan returned under a mask as Mr. America, and continued his feud with Piper, O'Haire and McMahon, who tried to reveal Mr. America's true identity. This storyline also saw Piper tear off the fake leg of one-legged wrestler Zach Gowen, who was playing a Hogan fan. At Judgment Day, Piper argued with Chris Jericho if "Piper's Pit" was better than Jericho's talk show "The Highlight Reel". Later at the event, Piper lost to Mr. America.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper and O'Haire then moved on to challenge Tajiri and Eddie Guerrero for the WWE Tag Team Championship, but in June 2003, WWE stopped employing Piper after a controversial interview with HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" in which Piper discussed the darker side of the wrestling industry. WWE cited that "Piper stated that he used drugs for many years while working in professional wrestling and that he does not like the person that he becomes when he actively performs as a professional wrestler", and dismissed Piper because of "inability to reach agreement on a contract and to assist Piper from engaging in any self-destructive behavior". On his 2006 DVD, Piper claimed that HBO took parts of his interviews out of context to make wrestling look bad.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper debuted for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion on December 4, 2002, at an NWA-TNA pay-per-view and started a feud with Vince Russo, cutting a promo where he blamed Russo for the death of Owen Hart. From September to December 2003, Piper gave video-tape messages and on the October 8, 2004, episode of "Impact!", Piper crashed the Impact Zone and announced his talk segment "In the Pit with Piper". In November 2004 at Victory Road, he hosted "In the Pit with Piper" and interviewed Jimmy Snuka, who refused to accede to Piper's demands of hitting Piper with a coconut. On the December 24 episode of "Impact", Piper hosted another "In The Pit with Piper" and interviewed Hector Garza but was interrupted by Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. At Final Resolution in January 2005, Piper refereed a match between Jeff Hardy and Scott Hall, helping Hardy win. This was Piper's final appearance for TNA.


title: Roddy Piper

text: On February 21, 2005, it was announced that Piper was to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Piper held an episode of "Piper's Pit" at WrestleMania 21 where he interviewed Stone Cold Steve Austin. On the July 11, 2005, episode of "Raw", Piper received a superkick from Shawn Michaels, the guest for "Piper's Pit". In October and November 2005, Piper feuded with Cowboy Bob Orton and Randy Orton, after they attacked him during a session of "Piper's Pit" with Mick Foley. While Piper defeated both Ortons in a handicap match and made Bob submit in a six-man tag match, the feud ended with Randy interfering in a singles match between Piper and Bob, disqualifying Bob, but beating down Piper.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper returned to "Raw" on September 11, 2006, for a six-man tag team match win with The Highlanders against the Spirit Squad. He also appeared on the "Raw Family Reunion", along with Money Inc. and Arn Anderson to accompany Ric Flair ringside for a match against Mitch of the Spirit Squad. On November 5, Piper would gain what would be his final championship in WWE, winning the World Tag Team Championship with Flair from The Spirit Squad at Cyber Sunday. On the November 13, 2006, episode of "Raw", Piper and Flair lost the title to Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton).


title: Roddy Piper

text: In 2007, Piper appeared in February to announce Dusty Rhodes for the WWE Hall of Fame, and also in June for "Vince McMahon Appreciation Night". In 2008, Piper made a surprise appearance in the Royal Rumble match by attacking Jimmy Snuka, but was eliminated by Kane. Piper then had a series of confrontations with Santino Marella in 2008, including on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!". At Cyber Sunday (2008), Piper was one of three choices to be Santino Marella's opponent for the Intercontinental Championship, with The Honky Tonk Man being chosen. The match ended by disqualification and after the match Piper and Goldust made their way down to the ring confronting and attacking Marella.


title: Roddy Piper

text: On the February 16, 2009 episode of "Raw", after Chris Jericho insulted WWE legends, Piper interrupted him and was attacked by Jericho for it. The feud culminated in Jericho defeating Piper, Jimmy Snuka and Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania 25 in a handicap elimination match. Piper later guest hosted "Raw" on November 16, 2009, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Piper challenged Vince McMahon to a street fight later in the evening, but Randy Orton came out to fight in McMahon's place. Kofi Kingston came out to stop Randy's assault on Piper.


title: Roddy Piper

text: He inducted Wendi Richter into the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame on March 27, 2010. He also appeared the next night on "Raw" as one of the Legend Lumberjacks in a match that involved Christian and Ted DiBiase. Two months later, Piper hired DiBiase to capture guest host Quinton Jackson so he could "gain revenge on BA", but was unsuccessful.


title: Roddy Piper

text: At WrestleMania XXVII on April 3, 2011, Piper made an appearance by hitting Zack Ryder with a coconut while the latter was being interviewed. On the June 13, 2011 episode of "Raw", The Miz and later Alex Riley were guests on "Piper's Pit"; this led to Piper defeating Miz in a match (to win $5000) because of help from Riley, the guest referee; this was Piper's last documented WWE match. John Cena was a guest for "Piper's Pit" on the November 28, 2011 episode of "Raw".


title: Roddy Piper

text: On the April 10, 2012 episode of "SmackDown", Daniel Bryan and AJ Lee were guest of "Piper's Pit". On the June 18 episode of "Raw", Piper reunited with Cyndi Lauper. At "Raw 1000", Piper and various other veterans helped Lita defeat Heath Slater. On the August 13, 2012, episode of "Raw", Chris Jericho was the guest for "Piper's Pit", but Dolph Ziggler and the Miz interrupted.


title: Roddy Piper

text: On the January 6, 2014 episode of "Raw", The Shield were guests for "Piper's Pit". On the March 31, 2014 episode of "Raw", Piper hosted "Piper's Pit" with superstars who would compete in the André the Giant 31-man memorial battle royal, which ended in a brawl with Big Show clearing the ring and Piper raising his hand. At WrestleMania XXX, the four men who wrestled in the main event of WrestleMania I—Piper, Paul Orndorff, Hulk Hogan and Mr. T—buried the hatchet in a backstage segment. On the December 22, 2014 episode of "Raw", Rusev and Lana were guests for the final edition of "Piper's Pit". At WrestleMania 31, Piper and other legends appeared in a backstage segment after Daniel Bryan won the Intercontinental Championship.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In early July 2015, Ric Flair said Piper lost his WWE Legends contract with the company because of a public feud with Steve Austin, which resulted in Piper leaving PodcastOne. Piper later apologized to Austin on July 13, only three weeks before his death.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In February 2005 at WrestleReunion, Piper teamed with Jimmy Valiant and Jimmy Snuka against Colonel DeBeers, "Cowboy" Bob Orton, and "Playboy" Buddy Rose. On January 29, 2011, Piper made his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) during the WrestleReunion 5 weekend, defeating nineteen other men, last eliminating Terry Funk, to win the Legends Battle Royal.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper's last documented match occurred on August 12, 2011, at the JCW Legends and Icons event. What was originally a match for Piper against Terry Funk was altered mid-match to a tag match between Piper and Cowboy Bob Orton against Funk and Mick Foley, which Piper's team won.<ref name="8/12 JCW Legends PPV review"></ref>


title: Roddy Piper

text: In 2012, Piper, along with Don Coss, created "Portland Wrestling Uncut", a revival of the original "Portland Wrestling", with new and old wrestlers combined. Playing prominently in the show are Piper and Coss as announcers, The Grappler (Len Denton) as a manager, guest appearances by the likes of Matt Borne (among others), rewind segments that show partial matches from the original Portland Wrestling (owned by Don and Barry Owen), and Piper's son, Colt Toombs.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In the 1980s, Piper also appeared in singer Cyndi Lauper's music video for the song "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough". Piper performed the song, "For Everybody", on "The Wrestling Album" (Columbia Records, 1985), based on the Mike Angelo & the Idols song "Fuck Everybody", but without any of the profanity heard in the original. He also appeared as a guest VJ on MTV in 1988. In 1992, he released a UK only single and music video for his song, "I'm Your Man". The single came with the B-side, "Judy Come Back".


title: Roddy Piper

text: "Deadline Hollywood" wrote, "During and after his wrestling days, Piper racked up dozens of film and TV credits, starring in numerous action B-movies and later doing voice work". The most famous of Piper's acting exploits was in the 1988 science fiction film "They Live", directed by John Carpenter, which spawned the catchphrase Piper came up with—"I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubble gum."—as well as the long fight scene over sunglasses against Keith David which took three weeks to rehearse. The line and the fight scene have since been parodied in "Duke Nukem", "South Park" and "Adventure Time". "Entertainment Weekly" wrote that Piper's role in "They Live" made him a "cult icon" and "some kind of legend". "Rolling Stone" wrote that Piper "had a memorable career as a cult actor", citing "They Live" and the 1987 film "Hell Comes to Frogtown".


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper was a guest on a 1985 "Saturday Night Live" episode, tormenting hosts Hulk Hogan and Mr. T, and appeared as a special guest on "MADtv" along with Bret Hart. In the early 1990s, Piper made guest-star appearances on two episodes of "The New Zorro" on The Family Channel. Piper had a role in a fourth season episode of the "Superboy" television series as an immortal Alchemist stealing the youth from his gym patrons. In 1991, Piper and Jesse "The Body" Ventura starred in "Tag Team", a television film about two ex-professional wrestlers turned police officers. Piper appeared as a wrestler loosely based on himself in an episode called "Crusader" from "Walker, Texas Ranger". Piper also appeared in an episode of "The Outer Limits" series.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper appeared in "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" as professional wrestler named "Da' Maniac" during season 5 and reprised this role in season 9. Although the character was a parody of Mickey Rourke's role in "The Wrestler", Piper had previously endorsed "The Wrestler" and Rourke's performance during an appearance with Rourke on "Jimmy Kimmel Live". He appeared as Mr. Thurgood in the low-budget film "The Mystical Adventures of Billy Owens" in 2008 and its sequel "Billy Owens and the Secret of the Runes" in 2010. On March 14, 2010, Piper appeared in "One Fall", an episode in CBS's "Cold Case", playing a wrestler named Sweet Sil. In September 2010, Piper appeared in a FunnyorDie.com video, fighting against childhood obesity in a PSA parody. The clip included him using wrestling moves on children eating junk food and the parents who feed junk food to their kids.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In 2012, Piper appeared on a Season 4 episode of "Celebrity Ghost Stories", in which he conveyed a story of being visited by the ghost of Adrian Adonis. In May 2013, Piper appeared in "Barry's Angels"— episode 12 of the fourth season of the A&E reality show, "Storage Wars —"in which he appraised a set of Scottish kilts purchased by Barry Weiss. In June 2013, Piper appeared on "Celebrity Wife Swap", where he swapped wives with Ric Flair.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper appeared as himself in the video game "Saints Row IV". He also played himself as the protagonist in the 2013 film "Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies". In April 2014, Piper appeared as a regular cast member on the WWE Network original reality show "Legends' House". He also started a podcast; "Piper's Pit with Roddy Piper", in association with PodcastOne.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In 2006, Roddy Piper ventured into the realm of voice acting, providing the voice of himself in "Metal Militia"—an episode of Cartoon Network's animated series "Robot Chicken"—and the voice of The Pyro Messiah in the "Night Traveler" multimedia adventure series produced by Lunar Moth Entertainment. He provided the voice of Bolphunga in "", and the voice of Don John in the "Adventure Time" episode "The Red Throne". He also voiced his own likeness in the 2013 video game "Saints Row IV".


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper is one of several real people to be immortalized with a "G.I. Joe" action figure of himself, as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, the Iron Grenadier Trainer. The figure was released as an exclusive for the 2007 International G.I. Joe Convention from the Official G.I. Joe Collectors' Club. Piper appeared at the convention to sign autographs.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper is a playable character in 14 wrestling video games. He made his first appearance in "". He later appeared in "WCW/nWo Revenge", "WCW/nWo Thunder", "Legends of Wrestling II", "WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain", "", "WWE Day of Reckoning", "WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw", "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007", "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008" and "WWE All Stars" as a "legend". He also appeared in "WWE 2K14" as a hidden character in the "Superstar Head Creation" mode. He was later included in "WWE 2K16" as DLC. He also appears in "WWE 2K19" as DLC in the game's Ric Flair-themed "Wooooo!" Edition, as well as in "WWE 2K20", "WWE 2K Battlegrounds", and "WWE 2K22".


title: Roddy Piper

text: Outside of wrestling games, Piper voices a fictionalized version of himself in 2013's "Saints Row IV". In the story, Piper helps the player rescue Keith David from a simulation by recreating their fight scene from "They Live", and can be recruited as an ally during missions. Piper also made a cameo appearance in "Abobo's Big Adventure".


title: Roddy Piper

text: Toombs and his wife Kitty Jo Dittrich were married from 1982 until his death in 2015. They had four children. His daughter Teal Piper made her professional wrestling debut for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in August 2019 at the All Out pay-per-view. Shortly after that announcement, it was revealed that she had signed a contract with Women of Wrestling (WOW).


title: Roddy Piper

text: On November 27, 2006, it was announced on WWE.com that Toombs had Hodgkin's lymphoma; he finished radiation therapy on January 15, 2007. This was also confirmed on Toombs' official website, where he posted messages of thanks to all his fans and stated that, had the fans not chosen him as Ric Flair's partner at Cyber Sunday, he would not have been taken to the hospital and diagnosed as having his disease in time.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In November 2008, a video spread around the internet showing Toombs smoking marijuana and taking a hit from a bong in front of a cheering crowd at the annual Gathering of the Juggalos, although he later acknowledged his use of medicinal marijuana "to alleviate the symptoms associated with cancer". This was reiterated on a blog from Jim Ross.


title: Roddy Piper

text: In his autobiography, Toombs claimed to be a cousin of Bret Hart, which would make him a relative of the Hart wrestling family. This fact was once used as a trivia question on "Raw". Hart also revealed that Toombs was the only wrestler to visit him in the hospital after his stroke. Bruce Hart has stated that they were second cousins.


title: Roddy Piper

text: On July 24, 2015, Piper appeared as a guest on "The Rich Eisen Show". He had trouble collecting his thoughts and staying focused, often rambling and not answering Eisen's questions.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Seven days later on July 31, 2015, Piper died in his sleep at the age of 61 at his summer residence in Hollywood, California. His death certificate cites a cardiopulmonary arrest caused by hypertension, listing a pulmonary embolism as a contributing factor; "TMZ" reported this as a heart attack caused by the embolism. Piper's long-time friend Bruce Prichard revealed on his podcast that he received a voicemail from Piper the night of his death. In the message, Piper indicated that he had not been feeling well and that he would be going to sleep it off. Hulk Hogan later revealed that Piper had left him a voice mail that he discovered following his death in which Piper said that he was "walking with Jesus".


title: Roddy Piper

text: News of his death broke minutes before the Hall of Heroes dinner to cap off the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Legends FanFest in Charlotte, North Carolina, where about 600 current and former wrestling personalities and fans had gathered. He received a ten-bell salute after the planned salute to fellow former professional wrestler Dusty Rhodes, who had died the previous month. Another ten-bell salute was given at the beginning of the August 3, 2015, episode of "Raw".


title: Roddy Piper

text: WWE CEO Vince McMahon said, "Roddy Piper was one of the most entertaining, controversial and bombastic performers ever in WWE, beloved by millions of fans around the world. I extend my deepest condolences to his family." Film director John Carpenter said, "Devastated to hear the news of my friend Roddy Piper's passing today. He was a great wrestler, a masterful entertainer and a good friend."


title: Roddy Piper

text: In an HBO "Real Sports" interview conducted by Piper in 2003, he had predicted that he was "not going to make 65" because of his poor health, and that he made his 2003 return to WWE because he could not access his pension fund until reaching the age of 65.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Piper is considered one of the greatest talkers and heels in wrestling history. "Piper's Pit" interview segments were considered innovative, especially in an atmosphere where only the people like the world champion got to talk, and the wrestlers were the interviewees—never the interviewers. According to Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, he could just leave Piper in a room and return twenty minutes later with Piper having done a class-A promo. WWE named him the greatest villain in wrestling history.


title: Roddy Piper

text: Dave Meltzer of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" described Piper as "one of the key figures in the growth of WWF. In particular, he helped power the success of the first WrestleMania: the most important show in company history".


title: Roddy Piper

text: Mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey was nicknamed "Rowdy" by her friends, however she initially rejected using it professionally, feeling it would be disrespectful to Piper. After being introduced to him through Gene LeBell, Piper gave her his approval to use the nickname. On the day of his death, she dedicated her next day's UFC 190 title match with Bethe Correia to him. After quickly winning it, she noted him first in her post-fight interview. In 2018, when Rousey made her full-time WWE debut, she wore the jacket that Piper wore, which was given to her by his son.She also used a move called "Piper's Pit," a reference to the talkshow he held during the WWF.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 42 million people in Africa, are a few hundred thousand outside the continent, and bear further representation among members of the African diaspora. The vast majority of the Yoruba population is today within the country of Nigeria, where they make up 21% of the country's population according to CIA estimations, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers.


title: Yoruba people

text: In Africa, the Yoruba are contiguous with the Yoruboid Itsekiri to the south-east in the northwest Niger Delta, Bariba to the northwest in Benin and Nigeria, the Nupe to the north, and the Ebira to the northeast in central Nigeria. To the east are the Edo, Ẹsan, and Afemai groups in mid-western Nigeria. To the northeast and adjacent to the Ebira and northern Edo, groups are the related Igala people on the left bank of the Niger River. To the south are the Gbe-speaking Mahi, Gun, Fon, and Ewe who border Yoruba communities in Benin and Togo, to the west they are bordered by the Kwa-speaking Akebu, Kposo of Togo, and to the northwest, by the Kwa-speaking Anii, and the Gur speaking Kabiye, Yom-Lokpa and Tem people of Togo. Significantly Yoruba populations in other West African countries can also be found in Ghana, Benin, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone.


title: Yoruba people

text: Outside Africa, the Yoruba diaspora consists of two main groupings; the first being that of the Yorubas taken as slaves to the New World between the 16th to 19th centuries, notably to the Caribbean (especially in Cuba) and Brazil, and the second consisting of a wave of relatively recent migrants, the majority of whom began to migrate to the United Kingdom and the United States following some of the major economic and political changes encountered in Africa in the 1960s to 1980s.


title: Yoruba people

text: The oldest known textual reference to the name Yoruba is found in an essay (titled – "Mi‘rāj al-Ṣu‘ūd") from a manuscript written by the Berber jurist, Ahmed Baba in the year 1614. The original manuscript is preserved in the Ahmed Baba Institute of the Mamma Haidara Library, while a digital copy is at the World Digital Library. "Mi‘rāj al-Ṣu‘ūd" provides one of the earliest known ideas about the ethnic composition of the West African interior. The relevant section of the essay which lists the Yoruba group alongside nine others in the region as translated by John Hunwick and Fatima Harrak for the Institute of African Studies Rabat, reads:


title: Yoruba people

text: We will add another rule for you, that is that whoever now comes to you from among the group called Mossi, or Gurma, or Bussa, or Borgu, or Dagomba, or Kotokoli, or Yoruba, or Tombo, or Bobo, or K.rmu – all of these are unbelievers remaining in their unbelief until now. Similarly kumbe except for a few people of Hombori


title: Yoruba people

text: This early 1600's reference implies that the name Yoruba was already in popular demotic use as far back as at least the 1500s. Regarding the source and derivation of this name, guesses were posited by various foreign sociologists of external sources. These include; Ya'rub (son of Canaanite, Joktan) by Mohammed Bello, "Goru Ba" by T.J Bowen, or "Yolla Ba" (Mande word for the Niger River) etc.


title: Yoruba people

text: These guesses suffer a lack of support by many locals for being alien to (and unfounded in) the traditions of the Yorubas themselves. In his work, "Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains" c.1863, the English ethnologist Richard F. Burton reports of a Yoruba account in 1861, noting that the name "Yoruba" derives from "Ori Obba", i.e. -The "Head King". Based on oral and written sources, this name existed before the 1500s. It was applied ex-situ originally in reference to the Yoruba sociolinguistic group as a whole. Centuries later however, it evolved to be applied exclusively to the Ọ̀yọ́ subgroup when this subgroup rose to attain imperial status, particularly at its apogee (c.1650 — c.1750) until in the mid-1800s when this trend was reversed back to the original context.


title: Yoruba people

text: As an ethnic description, the word "Yoruba" has roots in a term borrowed by Europeans in the earlier part of the 19th century and incorporated into usage in reference to the Oyo Empire of the time. In his book, Hugh Clapperton began to subject the word to early changes in its evolution from the existing Hausa exonym Yaraba, to "Yourriba" as was his customary way of addressing the King of Oyo. Further evolution of the ethnic description to the larger ethnolinguistic group of which Oyo is a part is the subsequent work of 19th century missionaries who categorized all members of the ethnolinguistic group by "Yoruba" and helped incorporate it into the language of the Oyo people as their own self-definition. Competing terms such as Nago, Lucumi, and Aku, used in identifying Oyo's ethnolinguistic family, have not reached the same level of popular usage as the term "Yoruba" though widely used in areas where ethnic sub-populations themselves can be found.


title: Yoruba people

text: In comparison, The phrase of intraethnolinguistic origin used by the Yoruba people is "Ọmọ Káàárọ̀-oòjíire", literally meaning, "The People who ask ‘Good morning, did you wake up well?" This is in reference to the culture of greetings identifiable within the Yoruba culture. Through parts of coastal West Africa, where Yorubas have been found, they have carried their culture of lauding one another with greetings of different forms, applicable in different situations, along with them. Another term used is, "Ọmọ Oòduà", meaning "The Children of Oduduwa", referencing the semi-legendary king who is believed to be the founder and ancestor of the modern Yoruba people. The Yorubas are also called Alaata in some Akan-speaking communities.


title: Yoruba people

text: As of the seventh century BCE the African peoples who lived in Yorubaland were not initially known as the Yoruba, although they shared a common ethnicity and language group. By the 8th century, a powerful kingdom already existed in Ile-Ife, one of the earliest in Africa. It is said to be "Ile-gbo" (capital of the realm of humanity, based on the oldest pre-dynastic traditions of its being associated with Oba Tala, Oro-gbo (Sango) and Otete (Oduduwa) ).


title: Yoruba people

text: The historical Yoruba develop "in ṣitu", out of earlier Mesolithic Volta-Niger populations, by the 1st millennium BCE. Oral history recorded under the Oyo Empire derives the Yoruba as an ethnic group from the population of the older kingdom of Ile-Ife. The Yoruba were the dominant cultural force in southern and Northern, Eastern Nigeria as far back as the 11th century.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba are among the most urbanized people in Africa. For centuries before the arrival of the British colonial administration most Yoruba already lived in well structured urban centres organized around powerful city-states ("Ìlú") centred around the residence of the Oba (king). In ancient times, most of these cities were fortresses, with high walls and gates. Yoruba cities have always been among the most populous in Africa. Archaeological findings indicate that Òyó-Ilé or Katunga, capital of the Yoruba empire of Oyo (fl. between the 11th and 19th centuries CE), had a population of over 100,000 people. For a long time also, Ibadan, one of the major Yoruba cities and founded in the 1800s, was the largest city in the whole of Sub Saharan Africa. Today, Lagos (), another major Yoruba city, with a population of over twenty million, remains the largest on the African continent.


title: Yoruba people

text: Archaeologically, the settlement of Ile-Ife showed features of urbanism in the 12th–14th century era. In the period around 1300 CE the artists at Ile-Ife developed a refined and naturalistic sculptural tradition in terracotta, stone and copper alloy – copper, brass, and bronze many of which appear to have been created under the patronage of King Obalufon II, the man who today is identified as the Yoruba patron deity of brass casting, weaving and regalia. The dynasty of kings at Ile-Ife, which is regarded by the Yoruba as the place of origin of human civilization, remains intact to this day. The urban phase of Ile-Ife before the rise of Oyo, c. 1100–1600, a significant peak of political centralization in the 12th century, is commonly described as a "golden age" of Ile-Ife. The oba or ruler of Ile-Ife is referred to as the Ooni of Ife.


title: Yoruba people

text: Ife continues to be seen as the "Spiritual Homeland" of the Yoruba. The city was surpassed by the Oyo Empire as the dominant Yoruba military and political power in the 11th century.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Oyo Empire under its oba, known as the Alaafin of Oyo, was active in the African slave trade during the 18th century. The Yoruba often demanded slaves as a form of tribute of subject populations, who in turn sometimes made war on other peoples to capture the required slaves. Part of the slaves sold by the Oyo Empire entered the Atlantic slave trade.


title: Yoruba people

text: Most of the city states were controlled by Obas (or royal sovereigns with various individual titles) and councils made up of Oloye, recognized leaders of royal, noble and, often, even common descent, who joined them in ruling over the kingdoms through a series of guilds and cults. Different states saw differing ratios of power between the kingships and the chiefs' councils. Some, such as Oyo, had powerful, autocratic monarchs with almost total control, while in others such as the Ijebu city-states, the senatorial councils held more influence and the power of the ruler or "Ọba", referred to as the Awujale of Ijebu land, was more limited.


title: Yoruba people

text: In more recent decades, Lagos has risen to be the most prominent city of the Yoruba people and Yoruba cultural and economic influence. Noteworthy among the developments of Lagos were uniquely styled architecture introduced by returning Yoruba communities from Brazil and Cuba known as Amaros/Agudas.


title: Yoruba people

text: Yoruba settlements are often described as primarily one or more of the main social groupings called "generations":


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruba culture was originally an oral tradition, and the majority of Yoruba people are native speakers of the Yoruba language. The number of speakers is estimated at 30 million in 2010. Yoruba is classified within the Edekiri languages, and together with the isolate Igala, form the Yoruboid group of languages within what we now have as West Africa. Igala and Yoruba have important historical and cultural relationships. The languages of the two ethnic groups bear such a close resemblance that researchers such as Forde (1951) and Westermann and Bryan (1952) regarded Igala as a dialect of Yoruba.


title: Yoruba people

text: The Yoruboid languages are assumed to have developed out of an undifferentiated Volta-Niger group by the first millennium BCE. There are three major dialect areas: Northwest, Central, and Southeast. As the North-West Yoruba dialects show more linguistic innovation, combined with the fact that Southeast and Central Yoruba areas generally have older settlements, suggests a later date of immigration into Northwestern Yoruba territory. The area where North-West Yoruba (NWY) is spoken corresponds to the historical Oyo Empire. South-East Yoruba (SEY) was closely associated with the expansion of the Benin Empire after c. 1450. Central Yoruba forms a transitional area in that the lexicon has much in common with NWY, whereas it shares many ethnographical features with SEY.


title: Yoruba people

text: Literary Yoruba is the standard variety taught in schools and spoken by newsreaders on the radio. It is mostly entirely based on northwestern Yoruba dialects of the Oyos and the Egbas, and has its origins in two sources; The work of Yoruba Christian missionaries based mostly in the Egba hinterland at Abeokuta, and the Yoruba grammar compiled in the 1850s by Bishop Crowther, who himself was a Sierra Leonean Recaptive of Oyo origin. This was exemplified by the following remark by Adetugbọ (1967), as cited in Fagborun (1994): "While the orthography agreed upon by the missionaries represented to a very large degree the phonemes of the Abẹokuta dialect, the morpho-syntax reflected the Ọyọ-Ibadan dialects"


title: Yoruba people

text: Yoruba people form their sense of group identity around a number of cultural references and practices recognizable by members of the group both within and outside their region of influence. Prominent among these references, is the tracing of the entire Yoruba body to roots formed in Ile-Ife, an ancient city near the left bank of the Niger River projecting upward from the Bight of Benin and linked to the Atlantic. Following from the Yoruba linkage to this ancient city of Ife, exists among most Yorubas, the acknowledgment of a crowned King Oduduwa, a traveler/king, nominally considered to be the father of the Yoruba people and who is said to have made his way into the region and established himself there according to oral traditions. Beyond the historical accounts surrounding Ife and its ancient rulership, more factors which serve the Yoruba people as practices contributing to a unique sense of self-belonging among its members include the almost global recognition of a number of chief gods. These once household characters, vast in their region of application, were once venerated as spirit mediators between the people and Olorun, the Ultimate and Sky God, and include now well-known personalities such as Shango, Ogun, Osun and Yemoja which are recognizable in the New World as deities brought over by people of Yoruba descent and, there, equally serve as a means of recreating group identity among people of Yoruba-speaking descent. Examples of such new world practices are Santeria, Candomble, and Lucumi, which are not only religious societies, but actual ethnic societies for those who sought to maintain their unique heritages over time.