During the latest edition of his “Something to Wrestle” podcast, Bruce Prichard commented on Roddy Piper wanting to wrestle OJ Simpson at WrestleMania 12, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the Backlot Brawl match between Roddy Piper and Goldust at WrestleMania 12: “It was done over a week before WrestleMania, and I believe we were in the Disney Studios in California. This was absolutely brutal because you had two pros in Piper and Goldust who didn’t want to smarten up the Hollywood crowd even though we walked through it and there were people there. They beat the living shit out of each other. Piper broke part of his hand in the fight, and Goldust got whacked in the head pretty good. The stunt double to do the runover scene? No, that was Roddy Piper. That Roddy saying, ‘Hey, gun it. Trust me. If I don’t make it, run me over. It’ll be great TV.’ Back in those days, we did stupid shit like that. Can you imagine having that conversation now? There was faith in Roddy that Roddy was gonna move and he would get out of the way. The car hit Roddy and hit him pretty good. So, all of that stuff, it was absolutely brutal. But in the end, I thought it looked great. It was one of those things where you didn’t know what to expect going in. Then, after you saw it, I think in some ways the audience would’ve been happy with just what they saw to that point [at WrestleMania].”
On Piper wanting to wrestle OJ Simpson and Piper chasing Goldust in a white Ford Bronco: At one point, Roddy actually wanted to fight OJ and have that as part of WrestleMania and beat the shit out of OJ. That’s what Roddy wanted. We thought about it probably for a few seconds, but I don’t think America would’ve bought that or been interested. There was enough sentiment on both sides – those that thought OJ was innocent or those that felt he was guilty and murdered two people and got away with it. Sad, sad story on every part. But the white Bronco was there, and it was Hollywood and California, so let’s have some fun with it. That scene of OJ traveling down whatever highway was so iconic that any time you saw it, you knew what people were talking about. If you were talking about ratings back in the day, holy shit, I’d love to know what the ratings were for the Bronco chase. So, the white Bronco was iconic.”
