Teal Piper Describes Touching Moment With Chyna From Her Father's Funeral
Atomic Revolutionary Wrestling stars Teal Piper and Michael Deimos recently joined Wrestling Inc. managing editor Nick Hausman on the Wrestling Inc. Daily to discuss their engagement, adapting to the pandemic, and more.
Teal, the daughter of the late WWE Hall of Famer Roddy Piper, discussed her relationship with former WWE Women's Champion and wrestling pioneer Chyna. While Teal did not get to know Chyna well, she emphasized the Ninth Wonder of the World's close relationship with her father.
"We've obviously known her for a while, my dad and her were very close," Piper said. "He reached out to her a lot, especially in later years. When my dad passed, we had this funeral out in Oregon out in the middle of nowhere. Like, you really had to want to get there. She was one of the people who made sure she showed up. She was always super supportive and super loving with me and my siblings. She was just one of the most kind-hearted people I think I've ever met. And although I didn't get a huge chance to meet her, or know her rather, because I had really met her later in her life, my take of her was that she was just a beautiful soul.
"The biggest story I really have about her is when I talked to her at my father's funeral. I think she gave me the biggest, longest hug of my entire life. Like she just wouldn't let go, and she wanted me to feel supported, and loved, and was sharing all these sweet, deep thoughts about my dad. At that time, it meant a lot to me because I could tell how much she cared."
Piper currently works for Atomic Revolutionary Wrestling, and independent promotion based out of Florida. Piper's fiance Michael Deimos, a professional wrestler as well who proposed to her in the ring at the last ARW show, praised the minds behind ARW.
"From a professional standpoint, it's refreshing to work with promoters who act like promoters, and do their job well," Deimos said. "[They do] a very good job of running a good ship. [They] book really good talent, so you get to work with people you feel safe with. I feel like it's a very well-oiled machine, especially for the independents, because it's kind of tough to find well-oiled machines down here [in Florida]."
Florida has become the unofficial capital of professional wrestling since the COVID-19 pandemic began. WWE has run all of their weekly television out of the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field and the Orlando Magic's Amway Center, while AEW has filmed Dynamite in Jacksonville's Daily's Place.
Despite the Sunshine State boasting a high volume of top-tier wrestling, Deimos emphasized that there is a distinction to be made between the big leagues and the independents.
"There's a big difference between professional, brand promotions and those who are not," Deimos said. "And you find a lot of the backyard style down here. So it kind of dilutes the crowd for us, as opposed to having professionally arranged shows with professionals on them. So it's a very big mix down here."
Speaking more about the pandemic, Piper said it's been a strange adjustment. While everyone is ready for the world to go back to normal, Piper's silver lining in all of the pandemic pandemonium has been that if it was going to happen, it came at the best time for her and her peers.
"It has been weird," Piper said. "The one blessing of the year is a whole of us had to rehab our injuries, so as far as a national shutdown goes, the timing wasn't terrible for us. Obviously it's terrible for the industry and the industry as a whole, but you know, coming to Florida and everything, it's nice because there's more places you can train. We felt it was a good place to start ramping back up. Hopefully now that there's a vaccine out, more of America will be able to open back up again."
Piper and Deimos are partners inside and out of the ring. When they step into the squared circle, they go by the 'House of Heathens,' a stable she says is focused on bringing back a throwback style.
"It's a little wrestling stable," Piper said. "We're doing tag team, and we decided real quick that we were interested in doing a tag team style together. We thought that would be something that would be really fun. To get to be into the ring with him, especially now that we're engaged is like a whole other level of excitement for me. But House of Heathens is really about bringing back that old style of wrestling, that Attitude Era. Right now it's just us, but our doors are open [for more members]."
Teal and Deimos will team for their first ever tag match together at Atomic Revolutionary Wrestling on February 19th. For more information please visit ARW on Twitter @WrestlingAtomic.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit the Wrestling Inc. Daily for both the interview and the transcription.
Teal and Deimos' full interview aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.