Vince McMahon knew how to boost WWE ratings, and do whatever it takes. Therefore, he didn’t mind bringing in individuals from other industries to give the WWE Universe something to talk about.
Coming to WrestleMania 12, The Big Man wanted to bring in NFL Legend O. J. Simpson. Not only that, he also wanted Simpson to take on Rowdy Roddy Piper.
Bruce Prichard, from Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard, revealed that the idea floated around for a while.
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“The original plan was for O.J. 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 O.J. 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 O.J.’s people, I talked to Piper about it, Piper was on board.” H/t Sportscasting.
Unfortunately, the plan did not work out considering WWE received quite a lot of backlash for the idea.
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O. J. Simpson was wrapped in a controversial story
O.J.Simpson had been dealing with a personal issue when McMahon wanted him to make his WrestleMania appearance.
At that point, McMahon probably wanted to capitalize on that, but that’s unknown. However, the backlash WWE received could have been based on that.
Of course, Simpson did make an appearance at WrestleMania 12, but not with the plan that WWE had thought of in the first place.
Vince McMahon wanted to take WWE to new heights
Before Vince McMahon took over WWE, the company hadn’t reached national television.
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After he took over, McMahon ensured that WWE reached national television and reached the audience beyond a particular territory.
Unfortunately, this did not make the other promoters happy, and it actually took a bad turn. There was a time when the other promoters wanted to come together and take Vince McMahon so that WWE didn’t cross over to the audience across the nation.
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But, The Big Man made it work.. and he made it work BIG TIME!