Both WWE and WCW Reportedly Wanted To Work With OJ Simpson After Murder Acquittal

In a new article for Sporting News, Kevin Eck revealed that both WWE (then WWF) and WCW wanted to work with OJ Simpson following his murder acquittal in 1995.

The article mentions that Bruce Prichard said on his “Something to Wrestle” podcast that a match between Simpson and Roddy Piper was planned for Wrestlemania 12 in 1996. Piper fought Goldust instead in a Hollywood Backlot Brawl, which included a parody of the Ford Bronco chase. Prichard said the reason it didn’t happen was due to the negative backlash when plans were leaked.

He added: “The backlash was deafening. The people were like, ‘If you do this, you’ll never have another sponsor.’ … So we punted. We thought the end game of O.J. getting the s— 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.”

Here are highlights from the rest of the article, including Vince Russo’s idea for WCW:

On Russo’s idea to bring Simpson into WCW: “What I do know for a fact is that when I was the editor of WCW Magazine in 2000 and Russo was the head of creative at WCW, he pushed for the company to pay Simpson millions of dollars to take a lie detector test live on a WCW pay-per-view. Russo’s suggestion was based on the fact that Simpson said he would take a polygraph test on pay-per-view for $3 million, which would go toward a reward to catch the “real” killer. Simpson later said he would keep the money for himself.”

On why Russo wanted Simpson: “During a company meeting, Russo acknowledged that the ratings for “Monday Nitro” weren’t good, but he said it certainly wasn’t his fault. He put over how great the creative content was but claimed the ratings weren’t reflecting it because viewers had tuned out and therefore they didn’t know how great the show was. He stressed that WCW needed a publicity stunt. That’s when he pitched the Simpson idea.”

On the idea failing: “Paying millions to a guy many believed was a murderer was on a whole other level. “Tasteless” and “desperate” were the two words that immediately came to mind when he suggested it. I was relieved when his pitch fell on deaf ears from the suits.”