WrestleMania 2 (still pre-roman numerals here)
This PPV took place in three separate venues and was the only WrestleMania ever to be on a Monday.
Research suggests that each venue only had the matches that make up the PPV and then the fans at each venue watched the rest of the card on the other venues via closed circuit. I can't help but think the Uniondale, NY crowd felt especially ripped off. The PPV eventually - after a long long long wait - has some decent spots but it took a long time to get there. If I never see this WrestleMania again that would be fine with me.
New York
From other reviews it seems that the Ray Charles rendition of "American the Beautiful" is one of the best things about this WrestleMania, if not the best thing. 5 stars, despite the audio feedback botch during the opening moments of the number.
Gene Okerlund sends us backstage where Roddy Piper gives a fun promo where he says he'd give up girls if Mr. T were to beat him, but he'd stick with Orton. Pretty Funny.
"The Magnificent" Don Muraco w/Mr. Fuji vs. "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff
Vince on the call here with Susan St. James. I've heard a lot about how bad the commentating is from the celebrities, so that's something worth looking forward to.
One year after getting pinned in the inaugural WrestleMania main event, Mr. Wonderful is now a face and in the opening match at Mania.
St. James reminds me of listening to my grandma watching wrestling "UH OH! OH! That's not nice!"
This match came to an abrupt halt, which would be a reoccurring theme here. Vince says he's not sure what the refs decision is in this match, and the crowd seems equally confused.
I don't really have a clue what was going on here. The ref counted to ten in about five seconds. This almost comes across as a botch. Especially when they go to a Mr. T interview before giving the result of this match. A generous .25 of a star.
George "The Animal" Steele vs. IC Champion Randy Savage w. Miss Elizabeth
I feel like this match was probably featured on the old show ESPN Cheap Seats.
Miss Elizabeth looks fantastic and we get to see Macho Man in a pre-recorded interview that was short but sweet.
St. James continuing to sound like my grandma, "He treats her like dirt! What is she doing with HIM! Come on, George, eat his leg"
To be fair my grandma that I have in mind when talking about St. James is now passed, but she was a big wrestling fan. I have fond memories of her asking me if I ordered the PPVs and what happened because she never ordered them.
Thank god the next time we see Savage in these write-ups he'll be in one of the GOAT matches. .33 of a star for Savage hiding under the ring and sneaking up behind Animal on the other side and for smacking George with a bouquet of flowers.
Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. George Wells
I think I read a little about George Wells in the Bret Hart autobiography (5 stars) because he was in Stampede Wrestling, which Hart's father owned. As I finish that sentence Vince says he's "One of the greats from Canada," so there ya go.
Canada was all over Roberts to start the match. Nice touch on Roberts putting his feet on the top rope after getting a knee lift from Wells.
Jake's whole offense includes a knee lift to Wells when he's getting back into the ring and "a maneuver" that would later be known as the DDT. After the match, Jake wraps his python - which like the DDT was not yet named - all over George Wells, which leaves Wells foaming out the mouth. I legit get the willy's while watching that.
.75 stars. Things aren't exactly starting off well.
Boxing Match - Mr T w/Haiti Kid and Joe Frazier vs. Roddy Piper w/ Bob Orton and Lou Duva
OMG, this match was scheduled for 10 rounds!
Joan Rivers (RIP) introduces the guest celebrity judges for the match. G. Gordon Liddy got a pretty big heel reaction.
I'm a huge boxing fan and actually had a chance to interview Lou Duva in about 2007, or so. He's a super nice guy so it's pretty funny he's with the heel Piper here. Duva gained the boxing world's attention when he signed Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker, and Meldrick Taylor right after they won Olympic Gold Medals in 1984. Joe Frazier with Mr T makes a little more sense, but not really.
Roddy Piper has stated that in the closing portions of this match - which took entirely too long to get to - Mr T was supposed to hit Piper with a left hand that sends Piper out of the ring. Piper had instructed T to really lay it on. Mr. T whiffs on the punch but Piper still deposits himself on to the floor.
No rating.
The fans at the Nassau Coliseum saw exactly 12:35 seconds of actual wrestling. The "boxing" match lasted 13:15
The first third of this was bad and I'm guessing people that were at this event don't tell their grand kids about it. Next year though...
We now leave the Nassau Colosseum and head to the Rosemont Horizon in Illinois.
Gorilla Monsoon and Gene Okerlund welcome us to Chicago. This is a promising pairing...oh, wait...here comes Cathy Lee Crosby. Naturally, this is the first wrestling event she's ever attended. Let's hand her a mic!
Woman's Title (c) Fabulous Moolah vs. Velvet McIntyre
Moolah is back to being champion and is in the ring after being a manager at last years WrestleMania. She looks well into her years here, which makes it even more amazing the bumps she took years later from The Dudley Boys.
This one was over in a blink. Velvet misses a splash in which she almost loses her top and Moolah gets the pin. .22 of a star for Velvet's one footed drop kicks.
WrestleMania has had 13:55 of in-ring wrestling action through one hour and five minutes. It sounds like the start of RAW.
Flag Match Corporal Kirchner vs. Nikolai Volkoff w/Blassie
Volkoff's rendition of the Russian National Anthem is cut off by "The Army Goes Rolling Along," the theme of Kirchner.
A minute into this match it appears Volkoff scratches or bites a mark out of Kirchner's head, causing him to bleed. I didn't see him blade.
Blassie tried to get his cane to Volkoff after the referee was hit by an errant fist or forearm from Kirchner. Kirchhner intercepts the pass, hits Volkoff with the cane, and pins Volkoff, which is unlike any flag match I've seen before. For his win, Kirchner gets to display the American Flag, which is exactly what he did prior to the match.
This isn't good, folks. 0 stars
The 02:05 tally on this match now gives us exactly 15 minutes of wrestling. At his rate the crowd must think the plan was to send Hulk Hogan and King Kong Bundy for at least an hour.
20 Man Battle Royal
Mean Gene announces the 20 participants in the Battle Royal after announcing the "Where's The Beef" woman and Chicago Bears great, Dick Butkus.
Bruno Sammartino was in this battle royal, once again causing me to ask why didn't he get an actual match at the first WrestleMania? You know, the one in Madison Square Garden? He only sold it out about 33420 times in his career. I totally forgot he was in this match.
Last to the ring is Andre The Giant, who is still a face here. Knowing what's coming at the next WrestleMania, he wouldn't be face for long.
Just a note while I'm waiting for this battle royal to thin out, Gorilla hadn't come into his own yet as an commentator. To be fair though, they weren't exactly pairing him with anyone which would help him succeed at these early WrestleMania's
Studd deposits Bruno onto the floor, leaving six. William "Refrigerator" Perry is obviously booked well here being in Chicago but get's tossed out by Studd in 6th. He offers Studd a handshake and pulls Studd out of the ring. Well that's certainly not a nice thing for a good guy to do.
Andre gets double droppkicked by the Hart Foundation and gets twisted in the ropes, a situation the big guy seemed to get himself in a lot over the years. After breaking out of those feisty ropes we see Andre's still moving around here pretty well, getting a big boot nearly to the face of The Animal. Hart goes to the top rope but is met by Andre, who throws Hart onto The Animal who had been eliminated only seconds before.
At 09:09 this is by far the longest fans have seen of an actual wrestling contest. Crowd seemed to dig this, though I won't rate the battle royal.
Piper rightfully calls Perry a cheater during an interview with Vince and St. James back in New York. Piper has to be considered one of the better talkers in all of wrestling in this day. I know he'd be under Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes at least. He's pretty funny here.
Tag Title Match The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid) w. Ozzy Osbourne and Cap'n Lou vs. (c) The Dream Team (Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine w/ Johnny Valiant
The champions get the already in the ring treatment, so that doesn't bode well for their chances here. However, Valentine proved that theory doesn't always hold true, as he held on to his IC title at last year's Mania despite being "already in the ring."
Gene and Gorilla suggest that this match was signed just prior to WrestleMania and based on what I've read about this other match on other write-ups and how this Mania has gone so far, thank god for that. It appears that Gene Mean and Gorilla may have been lying to us because looking back at the history of the feud it seems that they had wrestled at least twice on TV in recent months, with The Dream Team getting wins in both instances. The Wiki read like this was a last chance for The Bulldogs, which makes it weird that Gorilla didn't speak much of their past at all. Sort of an important part of the build-up to skip out on.
Davey Boy hits a perfect-plex on Beefcake which is cool to see a few years before it becomes popular by one Curt Hennig.
If I've learned anything through these first two write-ups is that Valentine and Beefcake were a little better than I ever gave them credit for. Keeping up with The Bulldogs didn't appear to be any easy task.
The action in this match seems a lot more organic than in a lot of tag matches today. If the guys were close to their partners, face or heel, they made the tag. It didn't seem to revolve around "hot tags" as much. At least in this match. The action is truly back-and forth.
This ending came abruptly. After landing a shoulder breaker, Valentine lifted The Kid off the canvas after the count of two. However, it wasn't really believable that it was a move that would have caused Kid to be pinned. Right after that cocky move, Kid slams Valentine's head into the head of Davey Boy (Davey had started to climb the ropes for some reason), causing Hammer to fall back unto the canvas dazed enough for Kid to get the win.
Well that was a much needed breath of fresh air. It's easy to maybe rate this higher because it was far and away better than anything on the card to this point. I was curious and see Meltzer gave this 4 stars. I think that's a little too much, but it was very good. 3.5 stars.
Onto Los Angeles with Jesse, Lord Alfred, and Elvira. Poor Jesse paired with two of the worst commentators of all-time. However, one of those two kept the job for a long time.
Hercules vs. Ricky Steamboat
Hercules doesn't have his chain here yet, instead wearing a real life Hercules costume into the ring.
Lord Hayes tells us that both of these guys are in the running for an IC title match, giving this match a little extra meaning, which is always nice. A lot of these early WrestleMania matches didn't seem to have any rhyme or reason for it.
You can really tell Ricky is talking Herc through this match. There's the tiniest of botches by Hercules early on, but that's nitpicking a bit.
Hercules lands a pretty stiff clothesline, cutting Ricky's comeback short. Hercules then goes for a splash but is met by Steamboat's knees. Steamboat to the top for his finisher, a flying crossbody, and that's that. Not many people can pull off a crossbody as a finishing move, but Steamboat certainly could.
Fun little match. 2.5 stars.
This event better settle down, it's almost starting to confuse itself as an actually wrestling event after back-to-back good matches.
Adrian Adonis w/Jimmy Hart vs. Uncle Elmer
Is Uncle Elmer the most randomly over (at least with this crowd) wrestler ever? Uncle Elmer did seem to get a lot of airtime on the early editions of Saturday Night Main Events, even including a wedding. Weddings are pretty over, so why not Elmer?
As a kid I never knew what to make of Adonis, and I'm sort of in that same boat now. Although I'm told he's in a better match next year with Piper. He does get the win here in what I'll call a .25 of a star match.
The Funk Brothers (Hoss(Dory) and Terry) vs. Junkyard Dog and Tito Santana
I've been looking forward to this one based on other reviews of the match. Prior to reading about it on here I had forgotten about it, though I think I'd seen it before. Hart doesn't really work here with the Funk Brothers in my opinion but because every heel had a manager, why not Hart?
What I remember about JYD's career isn't much. To me it seemed he was always in some sort of comedy match or squash match. This is the longest I've ever seen him in a match.
"Chico" Santana really moved around well here. Leapfrogs, flying forearms, armdrags, all executed beautifully.
Ventura tells us there's no love loss between Terry Funk and JYD, which may be alluding to them fighting in other federations. JYD throws Funk onto the concrete which seems "extreme" in these times but would be nothing compared to what we see from Terry later in his career.
As Funk is on the ground outside of the ring someone screams to Terry, "GO BACK TO THE NWA!"
Tito gets most of the ring action here, and rightfully so. JYD eventually gets the hot tag. Punches and clothelines for everyone before backdropping Terry onto the floor and slamming him onto a ringside table.
As an aside, Ric Flair said when Funk piledrived him onto a table in the NWA a couple years after this match, that he was scared to death as nobody was doing things like that back then. No one but Funk, that is.
JYD eventually gets hit with Hart's microphone, giving The Funk's a win in a very fun match. I'll give the edge of best match to The Bulldogs win earlier on the card, but this was good. 3 Stars.
While the card has picked up, I am more than glad we have finally reached the main event.
Heavyweight Championship Cage Match Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy w/Heenan
While the classic blue cage is being built (BRING IT BACK! BRING IT BACK!) we see the build up to the match. A doctor - with a Hulkamania t-shirt on (Did a lot of doctors back then where Hulkamania shirts? I'm going to pretend they did) - tells us that he has advised Hulk against wrestling at WM2 because of the rib and back damage Bundy gave him 5 weeks prior, where he landed multiple avalanches. Hogan sells the injury by doing chin-ups with a 100 pound dumbbell hanging from his neck by a chain, naturally.
Hogan controls the action early on with punches and chops and even choking Bundy with his own singlet.
Bundy gains control with a short to Hogan's hurt ribs and slamming Hogan against the cage. We get to see a short glimpse of the Hogan shake, meaning he must have been really really hurt.
Watching Bundy's attempts of trying to leave the cage via the door are pretty humorous, but then again trying to figure out the timing of these matches has seemed to be a problem for most competitors in a cage match over the year.
Hogan takes over and slams Bundy into the bars where Bundy very clearly blades the heck out of himself for about ten seconds, before handing the blade to Heenan through the ropes. Hogan did his job by posing on the other side of the ring so the crowd would focus on him but the camera inexplicable stayed on Bundy the whole time he was doing the slicing of his forehead.
Hogan punched Bundy in the open cut and audibly asks Bundy if he's ok. Bundy spit out a little blood that had ran down his face and into his mouth and answers in the affirmative.
Bundy regains control and lands an avalanche splash on Hogan, giving Hogan the full body shakes. However the shakes are short lived as Hogan has to rush to make sure Bundy doesn't leave the ring via the door. Bundy attempts a corner avalanche which lands, but Hogan is suddenly impervious to pain and slams Bundy. After dealing with an attempt by Heenan to impede his path, Hogan makes it to the floor to regain his title.
Hogan beats up Heenan a little bit, throwing him against the cage and giving him an atomic drop. Hogan poses for a while, and that's that.
Wiki tells me this match went 11:00 but it didn't feel that long. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. 2 Stars.
Final thoughts - It's going to be hard for a WrestleMania to take this one out of my bottom slot. From other reviews I see some are going to be in the running, but most of this was a chore to get through. To be fair, the final 3rd of the show was decent.
In this day and age everything leads to WrestleMania. At the time of WrestleMania 2 it sort of seemed it was just another show, as it wasn't expected to be the culmination of every feud, like it is now. That's hard to fully believe though because the first WrestleMania was important in the sense that it gave Vince enough money to continue his acquiring of territories. I'll have to think about this aspect of it all more and do more research.
I'm glad that the Heavyweight belt was defended at this WrestleMania, as it should have been at the first one.However, it seems the particular feud between Bundy and Hogan escalated to a cage match. Traditionally in these days it seemed that a cage was brought in after the combatants had been able to take care of their problems after a series of other matches. As far as I see this was the only time these two wrestled on television, PPV or otherwise. Not a big complaint, but one nonetheless.
First to Worst
WrestleMania 1
WrestleMania 2
