WrestleMania 2
WrestleMania 2 was the second annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE).[a] The event took place on April 7, 1986 (a Monday), making it the only WrestleMania that was not held on the traditional Sunday until the two-night WrestleMania 36 in April 2020. The event took place at three venues simultaneously: the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, the Rosemont Horizon in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois, and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California.
Each venue had its own card of four matches each, totaling 12 matches for WrestleMania 2. The main event in Uniondale was a boxing match pitting Mr. T against "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. In Chicago, the main event saw The British Bulldogs challenge The Dream Team for the Tag Team Championship. The main event in Los Angeles featured WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan defending his title against King Kong Bundy in a steel cage match. The undercard in Uniondale also saw WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage defend his title against George "The Animal" Steele, while the event in Chicago featured a 20-man battle royal involving WWF wrestlers and National Football League players.
Aftermath[edit]
Macho Man Randy Savage and George The Animal Steele continued their feud with each other throughout 1986. This led to two rematches for the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship on Saturday Night's Main Event IX in early 1987, both times with the Intercontinental title on the line and the second time with the management services of Elizabeth on the line; Steele lost both times.[32][33] Savage also feuded intensely with Hogan, but was unsuccessful in winning the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from him.[32]
The new WWF Tag Team Champions The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid) prepared to face challenging tag teams. On October 4, 1986, Saturday Night's Main Event VII, they defeated former champions Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) in a two out of three falls match to retain the titles.[34]
Hulk Hogan continued his WWF World Heavyweight Championship reign. In addition to Savage, his top competition during 1986 included "Adorable Adrian" Adonis, Hercules Hernandez, Kamala and, in his biggest feud of the year, Paul Orndorff. A storyline was developed focusing on the friendship between Hogan and Orndorff with Adrian Adonis eventually starting trouble between the two causing Orndorff to turn against Hogan. Bundy, meanwhile, would team with Big John Studd on occasion (and begin his feud with The Machines). He would also challenge Hogan on-and-off for the World Heavyweight Championship during the next year and a half, until leaving the WWF in early 1988.[32]
Following his battle royal win, André the Giant's career was at a crossroads. Not yet evident to fans, he was beginning to suffer the health effects of his terminal illness known as acromegaly, a syndrome resulting from an excessive production of growth hormone that led to his gigantic size. Because of his health, a planned tour of Japan and accepted a starring role in the movie The Princess Bride, André took a brief hiatus from the ring. To explain his absence, a storyline was devised to have André no-show for a tag team match pitting him and a partner of his choosing against long-time rivals Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy. André would then be suspended at the insistence of manager Bobby Heenan. André would return but compete under a mask as part of a new team called The Machines. Studd and Bundy insisted—but were never able to prove—that André and "The Giant Machine" were the same person.[32]
WrestleMania 2 marked the last major pay-per-view appearance for Roddy Piper during his initial heel run. Shortly before the event, he taped four weeks worth of Piper's Pit segments that would air on the WWF's syndicated programs in April, and then took a four-month hiatus from the ring.[35]
When Piper returned to the WWF in August, he became a face and began a violent feud with Adonis, who had in the meantime started his own Piper's Pit-type talk show called The Flower Shop. Jesse "the Body" Ventura also took a leave of absence after WrestleMania 2; like Piper, he filmed several weeks worth of his talk show segment, The Body Shop, to air in the coming weeks.[35] Afterward, The Magnificent Muraco would be the fill-in host of the segment until the final installment, aired August 30, 1986. In late August, Ventura returned for television tapings of the first WWF Superstars of Wrestling, continuing his role as a heel-favoring color commentator.[32]
WrestleMania 2 was seen as a financial success from a pay-per-view purchase standpoint, earning an estimated $5 million, leading Cable Television Business Magazine to compliment the event stating "If anything, we learned from (WrestleMania), it's that the right promotion makes an event successful". The magazine also described how Cablevision saw an increase in 5,300 subscribers the week of the pay-per-view alone compared to new subscriber numbers on average of 300 to 400 while stating it was the third-most purchased pay-per-view event ever to that point. [36] WrestleMania 2 would air in reruns on Showtime in July 1986[37] even after some of the storylines that were started at the event had concluded.