The Best and Worst Moment of WrestleMania 2
Based on the success of the original WrestleMania, WrestleMania 2 saw WWE experiment with airing the show from three separate venues, spread across its biggest east coast, Midwest, and west coast audiences in the New York metropolitan area, outside Chicago, and in Los Angeles. The presentation went reasonably well, and was particularly successful for the technological limitations of the time, even if the wrestling doesn’t hold up particularly well by today’s standards.
This article takes a look back at the best and worst of WrestleMania 2.
Best Moment: Andre the Giant wins the battle royal
One of the signature elements of Andre the Giant’s identity was that he was a beast in the battle royal setting. Too big to get thrown out by other men, and powerful enough to impose his will on others, this style of match became the definitive way to showcase Andre as a spectacle.
WrestleMania 2 captured one of the few performances of this ilk to survive history. So many of Andre’s battle royal performances came in house shows or events largely lost to the sands of time in different territories, but here he was doing his thing under the banner of WrestleMania and in a special battle royal for it featuring not only fellow WWE Superstars, but a cast of NFL stars, the calibre of which WWE could probably never recreate in this kind of context.
Andre winning was enough to contend with the top moment of WrestleMania 2. That the Giant did so via a creative spot that Bret Hart takes credit in his book for pitching, helps elevate it. Andre countered a Hart Foundation double team and ultimately tossed Hart not only out of the ring, but onto Jim Neidhart for a fun finish.
The Andre the Giant memorial battle royal is a testament to what Andre managed to achieve in these bouts and this was a mark out moment for the WWE universe in attendance.
Worst Moment: Roddy Piper body slams Mr. T
Most of WrestleMania 2 didn’t offer much for fans to write home about, but two out of three of the main event matches delivered to a reasonable degree. The one that did not was Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T in an awkwardly situated worked boxing match.
T’s inexperience in wrestling and the fact that these two men didn’t get along in real life didn’t help matters for a joyless slog of a match. The match might have been better with a decisive, KO finish—either the face Mr. T giving the heel Piper his comeuppance, or the shock of Hot Rod laying out the celebrity visitor.
The non-finish if Piper getting disqualified for using a body slam fell flat, and came across all the worse because there wasn’t necessarily a clear provocation for him to break the boxing rules, but it rather came across as the match had reached its allotted time so he went home.
Despite the starpower on display, the WWE did not get any brownie points for the fixture as the finish was panned by critics. The WWE did not learn their lessons here and have also showcased other such cross-promotional 'dud' matches involving the Big Show against Akebono and Floyd Mayweather respectively.
The Wrestlemania 2 bout also marked the end of Piper as a heel as he took a hiatus and returned to the ring as a babyface, having some memorable storylines along the way.