Bruce Prichard recently looked back at WrestleMania 12 and recalled an idea pitched to bring OJ Simpson in for the show. WrestleMania 12 took place in 1996, less than six months after Simpson was acquitted on charges of murdering his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. On the latest Something to Wrestle With, Prichard recalled how there was an idea pitched by Vince Russo to have someone beat up Simpson on the show, which was rejected for being in poor taste but did lead in a roundabout way to Roddy Piper coming in for his Backlot Brawl with Goldust. You can see highlights below:
On having an idea to bring Simpson in for the show: “So we were going to — WrestleMania 12, is where we ended up with the Backstreet or Backlot Brawl with Golddust. The idea was one of, you know, looking at what could we stunt, what could we do. And I think it was actually Vince Russo who came up with the idea of, ‘What if you know somebody beat the s**t out of OJ Simpson?
“OJ Simpson had recently been acquitted of — well obviously he was acquitted from murdering his wife. But I think that the sentiment in America, and all over the world for that matter, felt that maybe OJ was was not all that innocent. So the feeling was, a lot of people wanted to beat the s**t out of OJ. And looking for someone in that realm — because it was Hollywood, and OJ, all that happened in Hollywood. Maybe there was someone who could beat the s**t out of OJ. And the more we talked about it, the more that was in extremely poor taste and didn’t want to do it.”
On contacting Piper to come in: “I’d contacted Roddy about, ‘Hey, would you do this [with OJ]?’ And he said, ‘Only if it were a shoot. I said, ‘Okay well, probably not going to do that. But how you doing?’ Roddy and I started talking about other things, and then Gorilla Monsoon’s health was not the best. And we thought, ‘Well, we could use Roddy here to be a interim president.’ And a colorful character, but have him on the TV show and he use for him every week.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.
