7 WWE Angles That Felt Plucked From A Different Time

Here's an example of Vince McMahon's bubble being so thick, it took two years for this cultural reference to reach him.

For those unfamiliar: in 1994, American football player and actor OJ Simpson was charged with the murders of his estranged wife and her friend. Initially refusing to be taken into custody, Simpson and a companion hopped into his white Ford Bronco and drove down the LA freeway, except driving at a slower pace than what you would expect from a police car chase.

It was a huge media highlight for 1994, so naturally, WWE decided to strike while the iron was ice-cold. At WrestleMania XII in 1996, Goldust and Roddy Piper fought in a "Hollywood Backlot Brawl" - basically just a pre-taped brawl in a parking lot which included Goldust trying to commit vehicular manslaughter on Piper. The two then engaged in a car chase, with Roddy driving a white Ford Bronco, and the footage shown on the highway was that of OJ Simpson's chase.

So to summarize: WWE, for WrestleMania, made reference to an incident surrounding a high-profile murder suspect two years after it happened. Meaning it fell smack dab in the unhappy middle between "cutting and relevant" and "funny, obscure callback," instead winding up as just weird, arbitrary, and a little tasteless.