Posted in: The Classroom The Classroom - History Of: WrestleMania Part 2
By Sean Taylor
Jan 4, 2009 - 10:43:37 PM
Alright, students. Get your pens, pencils, and notebooks out. It’s time for the continuing history lesson of WrestleMania. Thanks to all of those who read my last column and a special thanks to those who responded. I received some great feedback from my last column. Please keep it coming. Obviously the subject of this lesson is WrestleMania 2. Let’s get to it.
WrestleMania 2: What The World Has Come To
Date: April 1, 1986
Venue: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (Uniondale, NY), Rosemont Horizon (Chicago, IL), Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (Los Angeles, CA)
Commentators: New York: Vince McMahon Jr. & actress Susan St. James (“Kate & Allie”). Chicago: Gorilla Monsoon, “Mean” Gene Okerlund, & actress Cathy Lee Crosby (“Wonder Woman”). Los Angeles: Jesse “The Body” Ventura, Lord Alfred Hayes, & “Mistress of the Dark” Elvira
Attendance: 40,085 (combined)
With the success of WrestleMania under his belt, Vince knew he had to follow up with something even bigger. In November of 1985, the WWE made the jump from closed circuit television to what is known today as “pay-per-view” (PPV) with a Thanksgiving Day special called The Wrestling Classic. But it was the sequel to WrestleMania that McMahon focused on.
This year’s WrestleMania had a standard to live up to. The NWA and the WWE were locked in a bitter battle for North American wrestling superiority. NWA promoter Jim Crockett had recently put on his Starrcade PPV. He broadcasted his PPV from two locations and advertised two main events per city featuring wrestlers Magnum T.A., “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, and the Four Horsemen. McMahon’s roster didn’t have the large numbers that Crockett had so McMahon came up with a different strategy. He broadcasted from three cities and filled it with appearances from more mainstream celebrities than pro wrestling had ever seen before.
Live From Long Island, It’s WrestleMania 2!
WrestleMania 2 opened in Long Island with “The Magnificent” Don Muraco (managed by Mr. Fuji) and the recently babyface-turned “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorf battling to a double countout. The crowd was not happy with this ending and started chanting “bullshit” to make their feelings known.
The next match was for the Intercontinental Championship featuring champion “Macho Man” Randy Savage taking on crowd favourite George “The Animal” Steele. In the weeks leading to WrestleMania, the simple-minded Steele had fallen in love with Savage’s manager Miss Elizabeth. He was so enamoured with Elizabeth that during Savage’s matches, Steele would walk to ringside and offer gifts to the First Lady of Professional Wrestling in the form of chocolates, flowers, and candy. Finally, Savage had enough and accepted Steele’s challenge. After using Elizabeth as a distraction, Savage was able to defeat “The Animal” and left with his manager and his title. The third match of the night was a quick squash. Newcomer Jake “The Snake” Roberts pinned George Wells. Roberts remained undefeated and dumped his yet-to-be-named python onto his opponent.
The main event in Long Island was a special boxing match between “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Mr. T. Ever since Mr. T had his hand raised at the previous year’s WrestleMania, Piper wanted revenge. Mr. T, who had an amateur background in boxing, had been appearing at WWE shows doing exhibitions. On the March 1, 1986 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, Mr. T defeated Bob Orton in a boxing match. After the match, Piper attacked Mr. T from behind. The match for WrestleMania 2 was quickly signed.
McMahon saw this boxing match as a chance to showcase some of the celebrities he was bringing in for the event. The special guest ring announcer was actress/talk show host Joan Rivers. The special judges for the fight included NBA player Darryl Dawkins, musician/entertainer Cab Calloway, and Watergate mastermind G. Gordon Liddy. The special guest timekeeper was mid-80s Burger King spokesperson “Herb the nerd”.
The match was scheduled to last ten three minute rounds and utilize the Three Knock Down rule – if a participant was knocked down three times, the fight was over. Piper stipulated before the match that if Mr. T could knock him out, he would retire from professional wrestling. Mr. T came to the ring with former heavyweight boxing champion, “Smokin” Joe Frazier. After three rounds and Mr. T leading in knock downs 2 to 1, Piper shoved the referee causing a disqualification. With an official time of thirteen minutes and fourteen seconds, this was the longest match of the night.
Wrestling In The Windy City
Chicago’s portion of WrestleMania 2 opened with the WWE Women’s Champion The Fabulous Moolah pinning challenger Velvet McIntyre in less than two minutes. Corporal Kirschner needed just over two minutes to defeat Nikolai Volkoff in a Flag Match thanks to inadvertent help from Volkoff’s manager “Classy” Freddie Blassie.
One of the more memorable matches was next. It was a 20 Man NFL Invitational Battle Royal. The NFL participants were Jimbo Covert (Chicago Bears), Harvey Martin (Dallas Cowboys), Ernie Holmes (Pittsburgh Steelers), Bill Fralic (Atlanta Falcons), Russ Francis (San Francisco 49ers), and hometown hero “The Refrigerator” William Perry. The WWE wrestlers included Pedro Morales, Tony Atlas, Ted Arcidi, Dan Spivey (aka Waylon Mercy), Hillbilly Jim, King Tonga (aka Haku/Meng), The Iron Sheik, Big John Studd, The Killer Bees (B. Brian Blair/Jim Brunzell), The Hart Foundation (Jim “The Anvil Neidhart/Bret “Hitman” Hart), Bruno Sammartino, and perennial favourite Andre the Giant. Former football player/wrestler “The Big Cat” Ernie Ladd joined the commentating crew and watched as Andre kept his battle royal winning streak in tact.
The main event in Chicago was a Britannia Rules Match for the WWE Tag Team Championships. The champions The Dream Team (Greg Valentine/Brutus Beefcake) and the British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith/Dynamite Kid) had been feuding for the majority of the previous year. Despite wins via count out and disqualification, the Bulldogs were unable to capture the gold. Britannia Rules stated that there was to be two referees assigned to the match. One on the inside and one on the outside. This was due to the managers for both teams (Johnny Valiant and Capt Lou Albano) were constantly getting involved in the title defenses. To aid them, the Bulldogs brought Black Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne to the ring as a corner man.
At the end of the match, Smith whipped Valentine into his corner where Dynamite was waiting with a head butt. Valentine fell backwards allowing Smith to make the cover and gain the pinfall. Dynamite, however, fell off the turnbuckle and nastily bumped his head on the concrete floor. This bump could have been a factor in the severe injuries subsequent substance abuse problems that would plague Dynamite Kid later in his life.
Fight On Figueroa Street
The final portion of WrestleMania 2 emanated from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. It started off with Ricky Steamboat defeating Hercules. Following that, the effeminate “Adorable” Adrian Adonis made quick work of Hillbilly Jim’s Uncle Elmer and Terry and Hoss Funk (Hoss was the ring name of Dory Funk Jr.) beat the tag team combination of Tito Santana and The Junkyard Dog.
But the focus of the Los Angeles crowd was poised on one match - The Cage Match for the WWE Heavyweight Championship. For most of 1985 and 1986, charismatic manager Bobby “The Brain” Heenan was on a mission to dethrone Hulk Hogan. He had built a stable of wrestlers (dubbed “The Heenan Family”) in an attempt to take the championship from around Hogan’s waist. On the March 1, 1985 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, Hogan defended his title against “The Magnificent” Don Muraco. King Kong Bundy attacked Hogan during the match and he and Muraco continued the assault. Muraco held Hogan in the corner while Bundy hit the champion with Bundy’s patented Avalanche. Hogan fell to the mat as Bundy, Muraco, and Heenan left having accomplished their goal.
Bundy later challenged Hogan for a cage match at WrestleMania. Despite the doctor’s analysis of broken ribs, Hogan accepted and began a rigorous recovery and training program to prepare. At WrestleMania 2, Hogan still had his ribs taped and his trainer advised him not to wrestle as it could risk a career-ending injury. Undeterred Hogan went to the ring and squared off against the 400-pound Bundy. Actor Robert Conrad (“Wild Wild West”) performed referee duties and watched alongside teenage actor Ricky Schroder (timekeeper) and L.A. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda (ring announcer) as Hogan dropped from the outside of the cage and won the match. Hogan celebrated his victory as Vince McMahon and Susan St. James thanked everyone for watching WrestleMania 2.
Rolling The Dice . . . Again
Much like the first WrestleMania, WrestleMania 2 was a huge gamble on the part of Vince McMahon. Had it not been a success, the WWE would have gone bankrupt and the wrestling landscape of today might be very different. However, despite being a success in every measurable business category, it still didn’t achieve Vince’s number one goal of solidifying the WWE as the biggest wrestling company in the world. The American Wrestling Alliance (AWA) was beginning its final downfall but the The National Wrestling Association (NWA) was still keeping pace.
There were another group of people who didn’t think WrestleMania 2 was as great of a success as the numbers indicated. Those were the live audience. WrestleMania 2 advertised twelve matches with three main events. But if you attended the event, you only got to see four matches live and eight on big screens. Certainly they saw some of the biggest stars in the business at the time, but watching two-thirds of the event on a screen wasn’t something that sat well with them.
But overall WrestleMania started the ball rolling for the WWE and WrestleMania 2 sped up the pace. The WWE was signing more and more big name talent and running more and bigger shows across North America. The next year’s WrestleMania would be bigger and better. It would be headlined by two friends ripped apart by greed. A flag-waving American hero . . .
. . . and an unstoppable giant.
Well, that about wraps up Part 2 and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, I appreciate and welcome any and all feedback both positive and negative. So email me at this address or post in the feedback forum and let me know what you liked and didn’t like. All feedback will be responded to. The next column will naturally feature WrestleMania III and should be out in a few days. And keep your eyes peeled for the Columns Forum Feature. It’s written by Skaos and is a great story about a man living his dream.
