3. OJ Simpson vs. Roddy Piper At WrestleMania XII?
Despite the failed experiment of football player Lawrence Taylor wrestling in the main event of WrestleMania XI, the WWF were not put off by the idea of putting celebrities in the ring to square off with their wrestlers again. In early 1996, Bruce Prichard (him again) pitched one of the most out-there ideas in company history: OJ Simpson versus Roddy Piper at WrestleMania XII. While Simpson like Taylor originally made his name playing football, he was far more renowned for being accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and waiter Ronald Lyle Goldman. For a while in 1995 the court case was the most talked-about thing in the entire world, and it would not be a stretch to say that for one year, Simpson was the most (in)famous man on the planet. Prichard wanted to capitalise on Simpsons notoriety by putting him in the ring with company icon Piper, which he figured would make WrestleMania XII the most watched pay-per-view event of all time. Evidently Vince McMahon agreed and authorised his team to enter negotiations with Simpsons representatives. They talked, briefly, but no agreement materialised, leaving Piper without an opponent. As luck would have it, Scott Hall flunked a drug test and was out of WrestleMania, so the WWF inserted Piper in his place for a bout with resident androgyne Goldust. Piper beat the snot out of him at Mania in a Hollywood Backlot Brawl, during which the WWF cut to footage of the OJ Simpson car chase and claimed Piper and Goldust were behind the wheel of the vehicles. No doubt, they would have done something similar had the real OJ wrestled on the show, because in the world of the WWF, nothing is off limits.
The author of the highly acclaimed 'Titan' book series, James Dixon has been involved in the wrestling business for 25 years as a fan, wrestler, promoter, agent, and writer. James spent several years wrestling on the British independent circuit, but now prefers to write about the bumps and bruises rather than take any of them. His past in-ring experience does however give a uniquely more "insider" perspective on things, though he readily admits to still being a "mark" at heart.
James is the Chief Editor and writer at historyofwrestling.co.uk and is responsible for the best-selling titles Titan Sinking, Titan Shattered, and Titan Screwed, as well as the Complete WWF Video Guide series, and the Raw Files series.
