WrestleMania 2 was a 1986 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was the second annual WrestleMania and took place on Monday, April 7, 1986, making it the only WrestleMania that was not held on a traditional Sunday until the two-night WrestleMania 36 in April 2020. The event took place at three venues on the same day: first at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York; then at the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois; and finally at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California.

Each venue had its own card of four matches each, totaling 12 matches for the PPV broadcast shown back to back to back. The main event of WrestleMania 2, which was in Los Angeles, featured WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan defending the title against King Kong Bundy in a steel cage match. In the last match in Chicago, The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid) faced The Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) for the WWF Tag Team Championship, while the final match in Uniondale was a boxing match pitting Mr. T against Roddy Piper. The undercard in Uniondale also saw WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage defend his title against George Steele, while the card in Chicago featured a 20-man battle royal involving WWF wrestlers and National Football League players.

WrestleMania 2 received generally poor reviews, with much of the criticism being centered around holding it as three separate events across the country. Many publications rank it as amongst the worst WrestleMania events of all time.

Production

Background

Following the success of WrestleMania I in 1985, the American professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) scheduled a second WrestleMania for the following year, thus establishing WrestleMania as an annual pay-per-view (PPV) event for the company. Unlike the previous year, WrestleMania 2 was scheduled to be held at three venues on Monday, April 7, 1986: 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 location was scheduled to have its own card of four matches each, which were broadcast back-to-back-to-back, starting in Uniondale, then Chicago, and finally Los Angeles.

Broadcasters

The event featured separate commentary and announce teams in each location. The commentating teams consisted of Vince McMahon and Susan Saint James in New York; Gorilla Monsoon, Gene Okerlund, and Cathy Lee Crosby in Chicago; and Jesse Ventura, Alfred Hayes, and Elvira in Los Angeles. The ring announcers were Howard Finkel (New York), Chet Coppock (Chicago), and Lee Marshall (Los Angeles). Celebrity guests in attendance for the Chicago segment included: Clara Peller, Dick Butkus, Ed Jones, Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Fralic, Ernie Holmes, Harvey Martin, Jim Covert, Russ Francis, William Perry, and Cathy Lee Crosby. The Los Angeles segment included celebrity guests Ricky Schroder, Robert Conrad, Tommy Lasorda, and Elvira.

thumb|upright|[[Hulk Hogan faced King Kong Bundy in a Steel Cage match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania.]]

Three of the main-event feuds were set up on the March 1, 1986, Saturday Night's Main Event V. The main feud heading into WrestleMania 2 was between Hulk Hogan and King Kong Bundy, with the two battling over the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Although they had wrestled occasionally before, their first nationally televised encounter was on the November 2, 1985, Saturday Night's Main Event III where Hogan teamed up with André the Giant against André's rivals Bundy and Big John Studd. Hogan and André won the match by disqualification. On March 1, Hogan defended his WWF title against The Magnificent Muraco. Just as Hogan was about to pin Muraco, Bundy ran into the ring and—with Muraco's help—initiated a 2-on-1 assault on Hogan, repeatedly crushing him with his body weight (with a move called the "avalanche") to break his ribs. Hogan had a very serious (scripted) injury, while Bundy (gloating over his actions) challenged Hogan for the title. With revenge on his mind, Hogan decided not to heed his doctor's advice and accepted the challenge; a match was then booked between the two in a steel cage for the WWF title. who defeated them in the main event of the first-ever WrestleMania. The Piper/Mr. T feud restarted in 1986 after their real-life hatred for each other became known, prompting the WWF to turn their animosity for one another into a feud. Piper, and others in the locker room, genuinely disliked Mr. T because he was an actor and had no prior wrestling training. In response, Mr. T became a special WWF boxer and began competing in boxing matches. On the March 1 Saturday Night's Main Event V, Mr. T defeated Orton in a boxing match. The British Bulldogs challenged Beefcake and Valentine for their titles immediately after their win. They retained their titles against the Bulldogs at a house show on September 11 by getting disqualified. They again defended the titles against the Bulldogs Saturday Night's Main Event V, where they emerged victorious against them.

Event

WrestleMania 2 emanated from three arenas: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles. This controversial moment is edited out of most home video versions of the match and is edited out of the versions shown on Peacock and Netflix. Both men fought to a double count-out.

Next was a WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship match between Randy Savage and George Steele, where Savage was seconded by his real-life wife Miss Elizabeth. Late in the match, Steele became the first man to ever kick out of Savage's signature elbow drop from the top turnbuckle. Savage pinned Steele with a roll-up and put both of his feet on the ropes for leverage. As a result, Savage retained the Intercontinental Heavyweight Title.

The third match was between Jake Roberts and George Wells. Roberts hit a DDT on Wells and pinned him to win the match. After the match, Roberts allowed his snake Damian to slither over Wells, who foamed from the mouth.

The last match was a boxing match between Mr. T and Roddy Piper. T was seconded by boxer Joe Frazier, while Piper was seconded by boxing trainer Lou Duva. Piper was disqualified for bodyslamming T at 1:15 in the fourth round.

{| class=wikitable style="font-size:90%; margin: 0.5em 0 0.5em 1em; float: right; clear: right;"

|+Other on-screen personnel

|-

!Role:

!Name:

|-

|rowspan=5|Commentator

|Vince McMahon

|-

|Gorilla Monsoon

|-

|Gene Okerlund

|-

|Jesse Ventura

|-

|Lord Alfred Hayes

|-

|rowspan=5|Ring announcer

|Howard Finkel

|-

|Chet Coppock

|-

|Lee Marshall

|-

|Joan Rivers

|-

|Tommy Lasorda

|-

|rowspan=3|Referees

|Dick Kroll

|-

|Jack Lotz

|-

|Dave Hebner

|-

|rowspan=3|Special Guest Referees

|Dick Butkus

|-

|Ed "Too Tall" Jones

|-

|Robert Conrad

|-

|rowspan=1|Special Guest Commentator

|Susan Saint James

|-

|rowspan=3|Special Guest Announcer

|Cathy Lee Crosby

|-

|Ernie Ladd

|-

|Elvira

|-

|rowspan=3|Special Guest Timekeepers

|Herb

|-

|Clara Peller

|-

|Ricky Schroder

|-

||Special Guest Vocalist

|Ray Charles

|}

Chicago

The first match from the Chicago portion of WrestleMania 2 was a WWF Women's Championship match between The Fabulous Moolah and Velvet McIntyre. McIntyre attempted a splash on Moolah from the second turnbuckle, but Moolah sidestepped and McIntyre missed the move. Moolah took advantage and pinned McIntyre to retain her title.

The second match was a flag match between Corporal Kirchner and Nikolai Volkoff. Freddie Blassie seconded Volkoff. Blassie threw his cane to Volkoff, but Kirchner caught it and hit Volkoff with it, pinning him for the victory.

The third match was a 20-man battle royal involving WWF wrestlers and National Football League players including: Jimbo Covert, Bill Fralic, Russ Francis, Ernie Holmes, Harvey Martin and William "The Refrigerator" Perry. The WWF stars included: André the Giant, Ted Arcidi, Tony Atlas, The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), The Killer Bees (B. Brian Blair and Jim Brunzell), Hillbilly Jim, The Iron Sheik, King Tonga, Pedro Morales, Bruno Sammartino, Danny Spivey and Big John Studd. In the end of the match, André the Giant and both members of the Hart Foundation were the final three participants. André first eliminated Neidhart and then Hart to win the battle royal. After the match, Hogan caught Bobby Heenan inside the cage; as Bundy was reeling from the match, Hogan rammed Heenan's head into the cage before atomic dropping him outside.

Reception

<!--Locations-->

Critical response to the show was poor, with the decision to host the show in three locations being highly criticized. John Canton, of TJRwrestling.net said: "I'm sure that the idea of doing this show from three different venues sounded like a good idea on paper to Vince McMahon, but it was not effective in terms of producing a quality program." Voices of Wrestlings Bryan Rose commented that he could "see why WWE went with just one arena from this point forward". Jason Powell of Prowrestling.net was also happy to learn that subsequent WrestleManias would not be held in three arenas, saying "Overall, WrestleMania 2 was excessive. The idea of running the show in three separate markets was an ill-conceived cash grab and I'm happy they never went down that road again."