• OJ Simpson Almost Wrestled At WrestleMania XII
According to ‘Brother Love’ Bruce Prichard, NFL Legend OJ Simpson almost wrestled ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper in a match at WrestleMania XII in 1996.
On an episode of his weekly ‘Something To Wrestle With’ podcast, the former WWF manager revealed details about those early plans.
Here’s what Prichard said:
“The original plan was for OJ Simpson to have a match at WrestleMania against the Hot Rod. I remember calling Roddy and pitching Roddy the idea, which he was for. We had preliminary talks with OJ Simpson’s people, who, at that point, were looking for anything that had a paycheck attached to it.
We floated the idea out there; we did talk to OJ’s people, I talked to Piper about it, Piper was on board. We were bringing him back in to get involved.
If you go back, in the early time of Piper’s re-emergence, he does make comments about OJ Simpson. He makes comments about right and wrong in America and what’s going on and that he’s here to make things right in the WWF.
The end game to that was going to be the one-off and have Piper beat the sh*t out of OJ Simpson at WrestleMania in Anaheim, California.
Once that started getting out beyond the inner circle of OJ Simpson’s people, and out in Hollywood, the backlash was deafening.
The people were like, ‘If you do this, you’ll never have another sponsor.’ Just extremely, extremely negative. So, we punted.
We thought the end game of OJ getting the sh*t kicked out of him would satisfy some people. As those words come out of my mouth, you realize how ridiculous this is today. But you always have to try something on even if it sounds ridiculous.”
OJ Simpson was found ‘not guilty’ in a 1994 criminal trial for murder, but at the end of a 1997 civil lawsuit (same accusations) was unanimously found liable for wrongful death of and battery.
Imagine if the World Wrestling Federation had used him as a WrestleMania celebrity a year before that verdict?
Roddy Piper ended up wrestling Goldust in a Hollywood Backlot Brawl instead, but they did use a white 1993 Ford Bronco SUV in that match, which was the car OJ was once arrested in.
Simpson eventually went to prison for armed robbery in 2008 and was released in 2017.
Here’s a 1994 Smoky Mountain Wrestling promo, where New Jack mentioned OJ’s crimes:
That video was actually featured in the New Jack (season 2) episode of Dark Side of the Ring.
WATCH: Lana, Nia Jax & Paige’s Sexy Dance Practice:
• Old School Wrestling Legend Celebrates His Birthday
Old School Wrestling Legend Carlos Colón (Real name: Carlos Edwin Colón González Sr.) celebrates his 73rd birthday today.
Carlos Colón was a legendary wrestler & multiple time Heavyweight Champion in his home country of Puerto Rico, but also wrestled in the United States & Canada, including some matches for Vince McMahon Sr.’s World Wide Wrestling Federation during the 60s.
Most Old School Wrestling fans remember Colón as an entrant in the 1993 Royal Rumble match, where he was eliminated after 7 minutes by the eventual winner Yokozuna.
Carlos Colón is one of the founders and owners of the famous Puerto Rico territory World Wrestling Council, which exists since 1973.
In 2014, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his sons Carlito Caribbean Cool & Primo Colón, and his nephew Epico Colón.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARLOS COLÓN!
