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Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper Coming Back To Fishkill Area

Posted: Sep 19th 2012 By: CMBurnham

Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper will appear at Fishkill?s Dutchess Stadium on Saturday and the old rivals are both cautiously looking forward to it.

Hogan vs. Piper was possibly the biggest feud in pro wrestling in the 1980s. Hogan said he and Piper, despite their real-life competitive rivalry in the past, get along nowadays. Both Hogan and Piper will appear at a meet-and-greet at 3:30 p.m. and will address the crowd during the card that starts at 7 p.m.

?It?s a scary thought right out of the chute. We had some serious wars. Roddy and I buried the hatchet over the years,? said Hogan, 59, who was promoting Northeast Wrestling?s Wrestling Under the Stars in his only print interview for the show. ?I?d definitely want to be on his side rather than against him nowadays.?

Regarding the deaths of many of their contemporaries, Hogan said, ?We kind of realized as the herd was thinning out, we needed to band together for survival. The room was full, and now it?s me, him and Ric Flair left. We didn?t have much of a choice.?

Tickets are still available for the event at www.northeastwrestling.com and start at $25. Ringside and general admission seats are sold out, but other seats will remain available the day of the show.

Much of the buildup to the first WrestleMania in 1985 happened on television tapings that occurred at Poughkeepsie?s Mid-Hudson Civic Center, about 15 miles north of their appearance on Saturday. In the 1985 main event, Hogan and Mr. T defeated Piper and ?Mr. Wonderful? Paul Orndorff. The show?s success helped boost the then-World Wrestling Federation from a local promotion to the global industry leader it is today as WWE.

?We were the ones that started the whole thing and it was pretty dicey back then,? said Piper, now 58. ?I hope (Hogan) and his family are great. I don?t hold any animosity. The funny thing is when you get into that atmosphere, things change. I would hope it could be a historic event kind of like Ali and Frazier finally getting together, but in the wrestling business.

Hogan first wrestled in Poughkeepsie for Vince McMahon Sr. in the early 1980s. He has not appeared in Dutchess County in at least 26 years.

?I remember the Mid-Hudson Civic Center like the back of my hand. I could probably find the dressing rooms and the bathrooms and the entrance to the ring with my eyes closed,? Hogan said. ?I remember how these fans launched me before I had my feet underneath me; before I knew who and what the Hulk Hogan gimmick was. These people let me know really verbally what I was doing right and wrong. They gave me a good gauge of what the Hulk Hogan character is supposed to be like ? hulking up, the shirt ripping off. The craziness fed off the crowds in the Poughkeepsie area.?

Piper said Northeast Wrestling, run by New Windsor?s Michael Lombardi, deserves an event like Saturday?s, which also features wrestlers Matt Hardy, Goldust and Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

?I?ve known Michael for many years. I think he deserves this,? Piper said. ?He?s been a really solid independent promoter for a long time. Michael is one of the ones that has it together.?

While Hogan admitted it was tough to not wrestle anymore, he said he looked forward to meeting local fans this weekend.

?It?s tough for me to sit back and watch the young guys tear it down,? Hogan said. ?But the fans have been so loyal to me and stuck with me through thick and thin. They accept me like I?m still the world heavyweight champion and that?s really cool.

?At the autograph session during the day, I want to see them personally and thank them for that and the great career they let me have. Then, I?ll be able to walk out in front of the crowd and maybe get a little crazy, Hulk Hogan-style, even though I?m not a spring chicken like when I won the belt.?