100 Greatest WWE WrestleMania Moments
85. A “Hollywood Backlot Brawl” Shocks (WrestleMania XII)
WWF boss Vince McMahon nixed a planned 'Miami Street Fight' between Razor Ramon and Goldust when the former made it known he didn't want to work with the latter. They'd already clashed at Royal Rumble, but Ramon didn't fancy another PPV vs. Dustin Rhodes' controversial character. So, McMahon changed course and Roddy Piper stepped in at the last minute to reframe the bout as a 'Hollywood Backlot Brawl'.
One with topical footage of O.J Simpson being pursued by police in between fight scenes, because eh...why not?
Things peaked when Piper stripped Goldust down to his lingerie, gave him a low blow and Rhodes ran away. That was hardly the most satisfying conclusion to such a heated scrap, but the fed can't be blamed for trying to protect Goldust. Piper presumably didn't want to do the J.O.B either because he was a stand in doing McMahon a favour. Controversy and the O.J nods were the most important things for the WWF anyway.
Fans didn't really get to see anything like this on WWF telly back in '96. Months prior, Bret Hart had been sent tumbling through a table at Survivor Series, which was about as daring as the product got. Now, here was Goldust trying to run Roddy over in a car before flopping around the place in his frillies. It was a shocking visual for the time period.
Piper and Goldust deserve immense credit for pulling this together as quickly as they did. According to Bruce Prichard, Piper pitched beating the heck out of O.J live on air, but the promotion didn't want to touch something that was being debated in real life courtrooms. Imagine!