Roddy Piper Talks Steve Austin Controversy, Why He Is Not With Podcast One, More
Roddy Piper addressed his recent issues with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin on his latest podcast that dropped today, which you can check out at iTunes. As noted, Piper recently suggested that "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was upset with a recent episode of his podcast and caused it to be pulled.
After WrestleMania in April, Piper had comedian Will Sasso on his podcast, who impersonated Austin. Piper's podcast returned last week after a month long hiatus, albeit not on Podcast One. Piper stated that the Sasso podcast was pulled after six hours, and claimed to have been threatened to be fired by Podcast One.
On his podcast today, Piper talked about having Will Sasso on the show on April 3rd, and said that Sasso was doing great impersonations of Austin, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. Piper asked Sasso to do the Austin impersonation when "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan called in and have him rip into him. While impersonating Austin on the podcast, Sasso and Piper joked about Austin's heat with Vince McMahon, as well as Austin having one friend [his dog, Hershey], Austin quitting WWE a lot and more. Piper also joked that Austin "based his whole career on three damn words." ("What?" and "Hell Yeah!").
"There was a lot of love in it [the podcast], but I guess not for you," Piper said while addressing Austin. "That's my mistake then. Come Monday, when the episode aired, the company had taken down not only the podcast, but all of my podcasts and took me off the air because Steve, you were upset and you went and talked to them. OK, got it."
On Austin's podcast last week, Austin admitted that he didn't like the Sasso episode, noting that it "had some business of a personal nature that I didn't care to have floating around there being downloaded in cyberspace, so I had it removed from rotation." He said that following that podcast they both went on to continue podcasting and that rumors of him getting Piper fired "couldn't be farther from the truth."
Piper said that he talked to the head of Podcast One, who told Piper that his podcasts were taken down and that Piper couldn't talk about Austin. He also said that he was going to fire him, but changed his mind. Piper said that after thinking about it, he felt like he was being censored and couldn't work under those conditions. Piper continued to record some shows until he found a new home, noting that he needed the fan base to stay because "regular is what makes these things work." He said that there was a three week period where there were no new shows.
"I needed the audience to find me, so I put up the one [the Sasso episode] that you took down," Piper stated.
"I didn't mean to offend you in any way, and I still don't see it," Piper said to Austin. "However, I don't need to. If you got offended by it, then I am sorry for whatever... I didn't get it I guess, so I got out. It's that simple. So for you, I've got all the respect in the world for what you've done. I hope you do all the things that you want to, and Hershey the Wonder Dog [laughs]. I don't want to deal with it anymore. So I'm done with it, I didn't lie about anything, and my heart's in the right place in my life, and I've got my family on my side."
Piper finished his comments by saying that he was "done with it," and wouldn't be speaking about the situation anymore.