Date: April 7th, 1986
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum – Uniondale, New York
Rosemont Horizon – Rosemont, Illinois
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena – Los Angeles, California
Combined Attendance: 40,085
(Note: The following post was written prior to the McMahon lawsuit from January 2024).
Wrestlemania proved to be such a big hit that for the following year’s event, WWF wanted to make it even bigger than before. Sadly, they hadn’t reached the point of filling entire stadiums… because Shea Stadium doesn’t count, I guess… so rather than hold the show at any ol’ arena, they’d broadcast the show from THREE different arenas, each with their own unique cards. They wouldn’t attempt something like this at this scale ever again and it’s probably for the best because the end result was one of the more uneven shows I’ve seen.
The original Wrestlemania event wasn’t necessarily a showcase of immortals, but it was a showcase of the sports-entertainment style that Vince McMahon was pushing to make the WWF the premier brand of the industry. The wrestling on the show wasn’t up to snuff, but it had a hot main event that people paid money to see and would be the start of a long-running extravaganza the likes of which no other wrestling event – not even the NWA’s own Starracade supershows – would ever achieve at the time.
But while Wrestlemania I was the showcase of sports-entertainment at its best, Wrestlemania II was a show case of… of… well, I’m actually not quite sure, actually.Apparently, this was the sequel so massive that they needed three arenas to produce it. I honestly don’t know what they were trying to achieve with this (apparently Jim Crockett attempted something similar before and it bombed) but you’d think that with three venues to book, they’d give each arena equal care, but that didn’t seem to be the case, since the WWF/WWE never attempted something like this since…
The opening Long Island match between Paul Orndorff and The Magnificent Muraco ended in a double countout when, after four minutes of “action”, both men tumbled out of the ring and were counted out. I’m not sure if this was better or worse than Tito vs. The Executioner. On the VHS release, they kept the BULLSHIT chants that broke out as a result of that finish. Not sure if that was edited off the Network, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
Intercontinental Champion Randy Savage (w/Miss Elizabeth) defeated George “The Animal” Steele to retain the title. Steele, for those who don’t recall, was a highly intelligent man whose wrestling gimmick was that he was a savage and ate turnbuckle stuffing. This was an intimidating fellow as a kid and then I hear the man talk in interviews and I end up digging the man behind the monster more than the monster itself. Quite a weird thing, actually. The match was pretty fun; The Animal is a monster in love with Liz that the dastardly Macho Man has to outwit since the Animal is too strong. And in the end, he pins the man with help from the ropes. Short and sweet.
Jake “The Snake” Roberts defeated some dude named George Wells in a short match and then dumps Damien the snake on top of the fallen Wells, who starts to foam at the mouth because… ew.
And in the Long Island main event, Mr. T (seconded by boxing legend Joe Frazier) defeated Rowdy Roddy Piper (seconded by Cowboy Bob) via DQ in the xxth round when Piper, after getting outboxed by Mr. T,
CHICAGO
WWF Women’s Champion the Fabulous Moolah defeated Velvet McIntyre in a short match (if you want to call it that) to retain the title. And then Corporal Kirschner defeated Nikolai Volkoff (w/ Classy Freddie Blassie) in what was announced as a flag match that barely lasted two minutes – really, Blassie tossed in his cane that was caught by Kirshner and used on the Russian for the win. Holy cow did these Chicago fans get boned early on. And then we had a 20-man battle royal that was won by Andre The Giant and this lasted about ten minutes. Apparently, the draw of this battle royal was that it featured both WWF wrestlers and some football players… not that it really mattered because they were all fodder for Andre anyway.
The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid) (w/Ozzy Osbourne and Lou Albano) defeated WWF Tag-Team Champions The Dream Team (Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake) (w/Johnny V.) to win the titles. This wasn’t too bad as far as tag matches go. I’d go so far to say that it was perfectly acceptable tag team wrestling fare and by default, that makes it the best match of the Chicago show… someone alert Al Snow that Joe Schmoe thought that the last match on a wrestling card was the best match; I’m sure he’d be pleased to hear that.
Unfortunately, there’s still the Los Angeles show… not even Jesse Ventura as the main play-by-play guy could save this show. Neither could Elvira, now that I think about it.
Ricky Steamboat defeated Hercules with a bodypress while Adrian Adonis did most of the bumping and hit a flying splash on Uncle Elmer for a quick win in their match. Terry and Hoss Funk (a.k.a. Dory Funk Jr… don’t ask me why they renamed him Hoss; I haven’t a fucking clue) defeated the Junkyard Dog and Tito Santana in a perfectly acceptable tag-match… and in the main event, WWF Champion
Hulk Hogan defeated King Kong Bundy (w/Bobby Heenan) in a steel cage match to retain the title. Your typical Hulk Hogan vs. Monster Heel match. Eh, whatever.
Wrestlemania 2 isn’t a particularly good show. I could forgive the first Mania because it was the first and for what it’s worth, I’ll give them credit for trying to make this second iteration a much bigger deal… it just wasn’t the best way to go about it. The only way you could really enjoy this show is mostly out of nostalgia because, as someone who didn’t grow up watching wrestling during the 80s, a lot of the show was nothing happening, things that happened, meh-caliber stuff. This could easily have been mistaken for a WWF compilation tape and honestly, it almost came off as one.
That said, the two tag matches aren’t too bad and are probably the only real highlights, but that’s about all I could say about the show in any positive light.
dtm666 