The Roddy Piper And Kevin Nash Match That Culminated In A Backstage Brawl
The wrestling industry is no stranger to backstage brawls, whether in the relatively distant past or in the modern era. Over the years, a long list of performers have come to blows, but one fight between two major stars seems to have slipped under the radar of many fans.
While it's common knowledge that the backstage environment in the waning years of WCW wasn't exactly pleasant, things weren't always great even when business was good. One fateful night in June of 1997, tensions ran high between two of the company's biggest stars during a taping of "WCW Nitro." In the main event of that night's show, the Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) were scheduled to face off against the tag team of Ric Flair and Roddy Piper. According to Nash, the four men sat down before the match and agreed that they would get things off to a slow start to begin the feud, as they needed to give themselves room to heat things up as they approached their upcoming pay-per-view match.
However, it seems whatever was agreed upon between the two sides did not actually come to pass. Nash says that as soon as the match got started, Piper went in hard, doing the opposite of what the men had discussed, and even refused to sell Nash's offense throughout the bout.
Tensions boil over between Piper and Nash
If that wasn't chaotic enough, the situation truly boiled over when the four men got backstage. While accounts of what actually occurred differ between the two sides, what has been agreed on is that Piper and Nash got into a physical altercation. From Nash's point of view, he went in to confront Piper about what happened in the ring and Piper immediately squared up as if the two were going to fight. Nash says he slapped Piper across the face and knocked him down, and that was the end of it.
For Piper's side of the story, we only have secondhand accounts to rely on, as Piper's podcast is no longer archived online. Reportedly, Piper said that Nash came into the locker room screaming at him, causing Piper to charge and take Nash down before things were broken up. Each side of the story places the one telling it in a positive light while making the other wrestler look foolish, making it difficult to discern what actually occurred.
Whatever truly happened, it took a long time before the two men were able to put their differences aside. However, it has been said that, before Piper died, he and Nash were able to talk things out and make peace with each other.