10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (Jan 5)

3. The Rock Turned Down A Roddy Piper Skit In 2003

Roddy Piper Smile
WWE.com

As luck would have it, both WWE and The Rock happened to be in the same place one Monday and Tuesday evening in 2003. Looking to capitalise, the company invited Rocky to Raw in Florida for a one-off appearance. He obliged, but wasn't so keen on doing the same thing 24 hours later on SmackDown.

Bruce Prichard told this story on his Something To Wrestle With podcast, and said that The Rock didn't fancy working with Roddy Piper either. Truthfully, it wasn't Piper that Dwayne Johnson had a problem with, it was Sean O'Haire. Prichard said Rock didn't believe O'Haire was ready for a segment with him and turned the idea down flat.

Seeing The Rock and Roddy Piper interact would have been great back then. To Bruce, it was less about O'Haire and more about Johnson not feeling like a SmackDown appearance was necessary after showing up on Raw.

Shame.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.