Goldust and Roddy Piper beating the hell out of each other around a parking lot at WrestleMania XII looked completely insane on television, but the real story behind the match might be even crazier. Dustin Rhodes says Piper wasn’t even supposed to be involved until WWE’s original plan suddenly blew up just two weeks before the show.
During a conversation with Inside The Ropes, Rhodes went deep on the legendary Backlot Brawl and immediately dropped the detail that changes the entire story. Before Piper was chasing Goldust with a baseball bat and smashing up cars, Razor Ramon was supposed to be standing across from him instead. Rhodes said the original WrestleMania plan was Goldust against Razor Ramon, and WWE had something totally different in mind for how it would play out.
“Well, you know that was supposed to be me and Razor alone first though, right? And then Razor ended up leaving. We were supposed to have a Miami Street Fight via satellite from Miami while WrestleMania is going on in Los Angeles, California.”
So forget the Backlot Brawl for a second. WWE was apparently preparing to beam in a Goldust vs. Razor Ramon street fight from Miami while WrestleMania XII was taking place all the way across the country in California. That plan went straight into the trash when Razor left, and suddenly WWE had a major hole to fill with almost no time left.
According to Dustin, things moved fast from there. He was at television when Vince McMahon walked up and basically told him to pack a bag because he was getting on a plane with Vince, Bruce Prichard and Roddy Piper.
“But he left two weeks before we’re shooting TVs and stuff. And Vince walks up to me and he says, ‘Hey, I need you on a plane with me, Bruce Prichard, and Rody Piper tomorrow morning at so-and-so time.’ I said, ‘Yes, sir. No problem.’”
Dustin didn’t even know what the hell was happening. He said nobody had really explained the new plan before they got on the plane, leaving him to slowly piece together the fact that WWE was rebuilding one of his biggest WrestleMania matches on the fly.
“This is when Vince would fly commercial still. So, it’s way back like 90 years ago. Sorry guys, I’m old as— and we get on the plane and I’m like, I don’t know what’s going on. Nobody’s like really told me what’s happening. And they start to kind of tell me, you know, what we’re going to be doing out there.”
Once they reached Los Angeles, the emergency rewrite apparently got serious over dinner. Dustin found himself sitting at a table with McMahon, Piper and Prichard discussing how they were going to pull off an entirely different WrestleMania attraction with barely two weeks to make it happen.
“And we stop in LA and we go eat at this really fancy restaurant that Vince knew, the Wolfgang Puck’s or something, you know, Vince knew the owners and all kinds of food. And I’m sitting there at the table with Vince McMahon, Rody, and Bruce Prichard. And we start talking about what we’re going to do here. And this is two weeks before WrestleMania 12.”
That last-minute meeting eventually led them to the Universal Studios backlot, where WWE threw together one of the most ridiculous spectacles of the entire Attitude Era before the Attitude Era technically even arrived. Piper smashed windows, Dustin took a legitimate beating, cars were flying around, and the whole thing became much more memorable than a standard wrestling match ever would have been.
Rhodes has spoken about the abandoned Razor Ramon plan before, with Ringside News previously covering his revelation that Razor was originally supposed to face Goldust before Piper was brought into the picture.
The match ended up becoming such a huge part of Dustin’s career that he later named the WrestleMania XII spectacle among his favorite matches. That’s pretty wild considering the entire thing basically existed because WWE’s first idea crashed and burned right before the biggest show of the year.
WWE lost Razor Ramon, scrapped a Miami Street Fight and had about two weeks to figure out what the hell Goldust was going to do at WrestleMania. Somehow, that panic created Roddy Piper chasing Dustin Rhodes around Los Angeles in a white Bronco — and wrestling history got a hell of a lot weirder because of it.
What do you think about WWE’s original Goldust vs. Razor Ramon plan falling apart right before WrestleMania XII? Would the Miami Street Fight have topped what Dustin Rhodes and Roddy Piper eventually pulled off? Leave your feedback in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
