Goldust Talks WrestleMania Match With Roddy Piper, Vince McMahon Taking Them To The Hospital, More
As previously noted, Dustin Runnels, aka Dustin Rhodes, aka Goldust, was a guest on E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness. Among many other things, Goldust talked about working with the late great 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper and their memorable Hollywood Backlot Brawl from WrestleMania 12.
Coming off of his feud with Razor Ramon, and dealing with an opponent in Scott Hall who was against the Goldust character, Goldust was relieved to work Piper next, as 'Hot Rod' was "very cool" about their angle. Moreover, Goldust got the opportunity to get closer to Piper from working together.
"That's where I really got to know Roddy and kind of get close to him. And, man, he was gung-ho and ready to go. I didn't really find out until the TV, I think, when [WWE personnel] came up to me and said, 'you're flying to L.A. with Vince [McMahon] and Bruce [Prichard] and Roddy after our TV.' And I'm like, 'okay, what are we doing?' I don't have any idea what I'm doing, so I was going to go shoot this backlot brawl with Roddy Piper. I was like, 'wow, this is pretty awesome.' Yeah, I was just like a kid in a candy store, man and it was very cool."
Long before there was a Broken Matt or a cult compound match, shattered dreams were produced in a Hollywood backlot. While WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was against color in the Hollywood Backlot Brawl, Goldust was determined to bleed in the match, so he asked Piper to split him open hard way. Piper broke his hand on Goldust's head trying to open up 'The Bizarre One'.
"I was really wanting to get some juice back then, really badly. Vince did not want it, so I asked Roddy to open me up the hard way. And that was my way of, 'okay, Goddang it! I'm going to do bleed whether you like it or not because I want to blade. It gets you into it more. And so [Piper] slammed me up on the hood [of the car]. That's the only thing I told Roddy about this whole thing: 'please, hit me. Bust me open.' And you'd think that Roddy being in the [professional wrestling] business for has long as he had, he would know how to do that, right? So he put me on the hood, and he mounts me, and I'm ready for it, man. He's looking straight at me and he throws his fist straight down, but he hits me square in the forehead and I mean hard. It's like a brick hitting cement. And I'm just like, 'what the hell?' And still in my head, 'ah, nothing, man.' He's still beating me up. 'Do it again!' He reaches up and he drills me again and you hear a crack and it's his hand that breaks on my head."
Apparently, the brawl was to conclude with Goldust speeding away in his golden Cadillac and Piper narrowly escaping getting run down. Somehow, Goldust managed to hit Piper's knees with the car.
"I started revving up the car and I'm looking at Roddy and he's probably a good 20 feet away, so I put it in park and I start to drive. I speed up just a little bit and I'm looking dead at him and I'm thinking, 'please, dear God, move.' He doesn't move. He doesn't move and his knees hit and it just buckled the whole car. It was gross sounding."
Goldust recalled, "his knees too, man. I mean, when I watch it back, his fist on my head, you can see it and hear it. You're not really seeing it or hearing it while it's happening, but I remember his knees specifically hitting the front of that hood of the car, man, buckling. And I was like, 'ooh, man. That sounded terrible. I just killed Roddy Piper!'"
Additionally, Goldust divulged that Vince McMahon took him and Piper to the hospital after the match.
"Vince took us both to the hospital. He had his hand fixed. I had a concussion. One take. One take." Goldust added, "I went into that dumpster hard too, but I was fine. It was more Roddy's hand than anything. And Roddy's tough, man. They didn't have a cast on his hand. I don't think. I can't recall that. He just tapes. That's the way they did it back then. Those old school guys, they just tape up and go, man."
TOMMAYYY! If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness