Ex-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon’s fury at a Hall of Famer swearing live on pay-per-view has been revealed by a former company writer.
Back in 2005 WrestleMania went Hollywood for the first time and provided a fitting stage for WWE Hall of Famer ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper to host his beloved segment Piper’s Pit.
Piper had a very special guest at WrestleMania 21 and a man who would become no stranger to talk show segments on The Grandest Stage Of Them All, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Piper and Austin went back and forth in an electric segment before being interrupted by Carlito. It will come as no surprise that Carlito found himself a victim of a Stunner before Piper and Austin shared some beer together in the ring.
In a less than jovial mood backstage, however, was now-ex WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. Former WWE Head Writer Brian Gewirtz explained on the Cheap Heat podcast how McMahon was furious with some of the choice language Roddy Piper let slip live on pay-per-view considering he had told Gewirtz beforehand to make sure that didn’t happen:
“Long story short of it is Vince [McMahon] is like, ‘Okay, I got your bullet points, it’s all good. I only ask you one thing, make sure Roddy doesn’t curse. There’s sponsors here, the world is watching us, make sure he doesn’t curse’ and, ‘I got it. I will tell him’ and so I told Roddy that. He’s like, ‘Yeah, got you kid. No problem. You can trust me’ and Roddy goes out there, he’s cutting his promo, everything’s going great.”
“I’m in Gorilla Position backstage on headset, Austin’s pacing, waiting to go out and Roddy starts doing his little improvise like, ‘Who’s the biggest rebel in WWE history?’ The whole crowd’s chanting ‘Austin’ and he goes, ‘Ah! That’s bullsh*t!’ And Vince, as soon as he saw that, it was like — I’ll date myself. The old Legion of Doom in the swamp… the device, rising slowly, rising… shows you I’m not a comic book guy. That’s how Vince’s head was slowly rising from his place in Gorilla with the headset on, screaming, ‘Did you know he was gonna say that!?’
“I’m like, ‘The man’s crazy.’ So he’s like, ‘Dammit Brian!’ Slamming the headset down, pencils flying everywhere and so yeah, the promo itself is great but I had to talk to Roddy afterwards. He goes like, ‘What’s wrong kid? You don’t look like…’”
“‘Roddy, you know how we had that talk? You kind of said you wouldn’t say bullsh*t or any curse word. Well, you kind of screamed it in the middle of the ring’ and I don’t know if he’s working me. I’m 90 percent sure he was working me but 10 percent like a little bit vague where he’s like, ‘Yeah, I guess I did say that. But is bullsh*t really a curse?’”
“‘It is top six curse, yes. 100 percent’ and he’s like, ‘All right, well, I’ll see you at the afterparty kid’ and what am I gonna do? We can’t turn back time so, yeah, I’m so thrilled I got to work and got to know Roddy as a human being.”
During the conversation, Brian Gewirtz also discussed how he was once suspended by WWE for getting into a “slap fight” with an unlikely colleague.