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Piper leading parade of familiar wrestling faces

Posted: Mar 20th 2010 By: mikeiles

There's going to be a few familiar faces in town on Saturday night at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center.

World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Famer "Rowdy" Roddy Piper headlines a card featuring world-renowned wrestlers as Northeast Wrestling presents "WrestleFest XIV" at 7:30 in the arena on Market Street.

Also scheduled to appear is Tommy Dreamer, who has wrestled in the Civic Center for both WWE and the now-defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling. Jerry "The King" Lawler, Booker T and Arlington High School graduates Rob Begley and Dale Chapman, who wrestle as The NOW ? Vik Dalishus and Hale Collins ? will also be featured.

For Piper, who will host a "Piper's Pit" interview segment at the Civic Center, this is the first time he's appeared at the venue since Aug. 5, 1986. The arena used to host "Superstars of Wrestling" television tapings in the 1980s, including those that built to the first WrestleMania.

"I love Poughkeepsie," said the 55-year-old Piper, whose real name is Roderick Toombs. "It's one of the roots for the very first WrestleMania. Just before WrestleMania, it was a very crazy time. In craziness, there's a lot of humor and devastation. And a lot of memories."

Piper said he wasn't exactly sure what his Piper's Pit segment would entail on Saturday, mainly because he likes these things to be somewhat spontaneous.

"Anything can happen," Piper said. "Usually, there's somebody who wants to try me. I have my son, Colt Toombs, with me, a (mixed-martial-arts) fighter from Team Quest. I might drag him to the ring. Lord knows what will happen from there."

Colt, 20, fights in MMA at 145 pounds and has a professional record of four wins and no losses.

"I don't like seeing him fighting, but I sure love him and support him 100 percent," Piper said. "He's good at what he does."

Saturday's show is a homecoming of sorts for Dreamer, 38, a Yonkers native. Dreamer, whose real name is Tom Laughlin, attended Iona Prep in New Rochelle and lives in Eastchester. In addition to wrestling, he worked behind the scenes in ECW, so he knows how important the Civic Center is.

"This building was one of the closer venues to my home, living in Yonkers," said Dreamer, who quit WWE in January. "I had to come up here when I was a kid. To me, it's a great venue for wrestling. Not just because of the people, who are always very, very into it. The setup and the stage area. Those high bleachers. I love that building."

Dreamer's most vivid memory of the Civic Center was on May 16, 1999. ECW hosted their second-ever pay-per-view, Hardcore Heaven, and he faced Lance Storm.

"I broke my back in this very same building," Dreamer said. "I was wrestling for three months with a broken neck and I didn't know I had a broken neck. On pay-per-view, on my mother's birthday ... I was wrestling Lance Storm ... He pinned me and I couldn't get up. I found out I broke my back."

Dreamer, who is wrestling Lawler at WrestleFest, said getting into the Civic Center was important for ECW when they were expanding. ECW ran from 1992 until they declared bankruptcy in 2001. Their assets were eventually acquired by WWE, the largest promotion in North America.

"It was huge," Dreamer said. "Even though it wasn't that far, this was one of our first buildings in New York to ever run. We would do Queens, but this was one of the first bigger buildings that would have us. We got thrown out of a lot of buildings, too. We always had great crowds. It's a great wrestling town. There's not a lot of places like that anymore. There's not a lot of places that just embrace wrestling like it does. It's really, really cool."

Dreamer said fans can expect from him what they always get.

"I broke my back in that building, working my tail off," Dreamer said. "If I had to break my back again, I would still go out and do that. It doesn't matter if there are TV cameras there. I just go out there and give it 100 percent all I can. That's the only way. If not, I wouldn't do it anymore. That's kind of the way I always go about it."

Piper said fans can expect to be entertained. "You'll laugh. You'll yell. You'll scream. You'll boo. You'll cry," Piper said. "You can't beat it for family entertainment all the way around. A lot of great memories and some memories to be made."

Tags: WWE, Roddy Piper, ECW, Jerry Lawler