WrestleMania 2 Review

Wrestlemania 38 is almost a month away and I decided as a hype for the event why not review every Wrestlemania to date. Next up is Wrestlemania 2 which was held in three locations in Uniondale, NY , Rosemont, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California. Fun Fact: For fans in the arenas, they only got to see one hour of the show live and then they watched the rest of it on giant screens that were lowered to create a movie type atmosphere that was on a tape delay. Clearly this did not work at all as they never did it again.

Who Commentated the event?
 Vince McMahon and Susan Saint James in New York;
Gorilla Monsoon, Gene Okerlund, and Cathy Lee Crosby in Chicago
Jesse Ventura, Alfred Hayes, and Elvira in Los Angeles.

The first four matches took place at Nassau Colesium in Uniondale, NY

Match #1 Don Muraco w/Mr. Fuji vs Paul Orndorff 

Before I go on I have to say the lighting in New York was awful. I could barley see outside of the ring and it was too dim inside the rim. So Don Muraco is being accompanied by his manager Mr. Fuji. Orndorff takes control by slamming Muraco. A few moves ho through and Orndoff then puts Muraco in an armbar and my goodness the armbar was put on for way too long.

Not even halfway through the match and I can already tell how much of a disaster Susan Saint James was going to be at commentary. She has no idea what was going on and she mis pronounces the words of moves and heck doesn’t know which wrestler is who. By the way she way too many times says “uh oh” in all the matches in New York and it is so annoying to here.

So we get to the finish of the match and Muraco and Orndorff then brawl to the floor resulting in a double countout at 4:10. This was not a good match and it was way too short.

My 5 Star Rating: (1/5)

Match #2 Randy Savage w/Miss Elizabeth vs George Steele for the Intercontinental Championship

The build up to the match was good as George Steele played a gimmick of being an animal and being in love with Miss Elizabeth who was Randy Savage’s manager (and actually real life was married to each other). Randy Savage came in to the WWE as a cocky arrogant heel and was popular in that role. The match starts with Randy Savage running away from George Steele multiple times. One time Savage runs away he is not fast and gets his leg bitten by George Steele. Uhh Ref are your going to disqualify him for that? No ok lets continue as Steele gets distracted by Elizabeth and it results in macho giving him a high crossbody. Steele then throws him out of the ring and Savage crawls under the ring to attack Steele who then again bites Savage’s arm. Ref again your going to DQ?

Then came the whole flowers spot where Randy Savage and George Steeler where fighting each other with flowers. Again no DQ Ref, you know what this is clearly a comedy match. So Steele does his turnbuckle spot where eats it Which I always loved that Steele did as it made him stand out. Then he goes out to Elizabeth which allows Savage to take advantage with his ax handle off the apron. Then Macho gives his finisher the diving elbow drop and Steele kicks out. Then not to long Savage rolls him up and puts his feet on the ropes for leverage and he retains at 7:08. I think that this matchup was nonsense and too goofy.

My 5 Star Rating: (.75/5)

So a promo is going on between Big John Studd and NFL player Bill Fralic who talk trash each other before battle royal occurs.

Match #3 Jake Roberts vs George Wells

I am not going to go too long in this matchup as this was a squash match to make Jake Roberts look good. Jake Roberts is one of my favorites to ever watch wrestle in the ring, cut a promo, and with his gimmick. George Wells was a former football player who performed in this matchup and I got to say Wells did alright. He sold Jakes moves very well especially the DDT that Jake Gave him. Jake wins at 3:15. Wells did a solid job after the match selling the Snake spot as well where Jake placed a snake on him. Even though it was a squash match I really liked it and excellent work between the two.

My 5 Star Rating: (2/5)

Match #4 Mr. T vs Roddy Piper in a Boxing Match

I don’t want to go on too long with this one as I got to be honest. This matchup was a waste of time. The 1st and 2nd round were very slow. The third round got a bit better as when it ended Piper threw a stool at Mr. T. Then in the middle of the 4th round Piper gave a body slam to MR T and MR T won via Disqualification.

5 Match Rating N/A (I am not going to give this match a rating)

Now the next 4 matches took place at the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois

Match #5 The Fabulous Moolah vs Velvet McIntyre

Not much to talk about here. This was a squash match made to have the Fabulous Moolah look strong. This was sloppy match as the moves both hit were sloppily given. Especially that clothesline that Moolah gave to McIntyre. Yikes.

Moolah picks up the victory in 59 secounds.

My 5 Star Rating: (1/5)

Match #6 Corporal Kirchner vs Nikolai Volkoff w/Freddie Blasse in a Flag Match

So if you don’t know what a flag match is well it is a match where flags were placed on the corners of the ring. The Flags are basically the country that they are representing with Corpral Kirchner representing the United States of America while Nikolai Volkoff represented the Soviet Union (Russia). Anyone can win the match either via pin or claiming the flag. This match was way too short at 1:40 as what happened was the ref got taken ut by accident. Then Freddie Blassie threw his cane to Volkoff so Volkoff cound cheat to win. Kirchner actually took the cane and hit Nikolai with it and intercepted it and he hit Volkoff with it and Corpral Kirchner won the match. This was a throwaway match.

My 5 Star Rating: (1/5)

Match #7 The Battle Royal

This is a 20 Man over the top battle royal. Particpants of this battle royal are
1. Jimbo Covert (Played for Chicago Bears)
2. Harvey Martin (Played for Dallas Cowboys)
3. Ernie Holmes (Played for Pittsburgh Steelers)
4. Russ Francis (Played for San Francisco 49ers)
5. Bill Fralic (Played for Atlanta Falcons)
6. William “Refrigerator” Perry (Played for Chicago Bears)
7. Ted Arcidi (strongest man in the world)
8. Tony Atlas
9. Hillbilly Jim
10. B. Brian Blair
11. Jim Brunzell,
12 Pedro Morales
13 Dan Spivey
14. King Tonga
15. Iron Sheik
16. Big John Studd
17. Bret Hart
18. Bruno Sammartino
19 Jim Neidhart
20 Andre The Giant

Im reading these participants and of course I sarcastically am saying, Guess who’s winning? Its not somebody who is participating in this match is nicknamed as The King of the Battle Royal. Of Course Andre was nicknamed this in his career. He was going to win this matchup no question. By the way Andre the Giant just does not look right wearing gold trunks and boots to the ring. I am not going to go too much into detail for all of the eliminations. But Overall solid performance for William Perry in this matchup and I love the way he and Big John Studd eliminated in this matchup. So we get to the final four where it is Andre The Giant, Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Russ Francis of the San Francisco 49ers). Hart Foundation eliminated Francis and Andre would eliminate both Hart and Neidhart to win the match in 9:13. Overall not a bad battle royal but it was boring.

My 5 Star Rating: (1.5/5)

Match #8 The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid) w/Ozzy Osbourne & Captan Lou Albano vs The Dream Team (Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine) w/Johnny V for the tag team championships

The match starts with both Greg Valentine and Davey Boy Smith in the middle of the ring where both are battling to get a suplex. Davey Boy Smith wins and suplexes him. Dynamite kid comes in and he goes right to work on Valentine in the corner of the ring. Then Dynamite hits a beautiful snap suplex. In fact throughout this match Dynamite does a fantastic job with his suplex’s and you can tell he was a huge influence on many future wrestlers (Chris Benoit, Especially). Back and forth goes both teams here and Valentine hits a piledriver on Dynamite. Davey later on gets the tag into the match and hits a powerslam to Valentine for another quick 2 fall. Beefcake gets tagged and and they go to work on Davey Boy Smith’s arm and he and Valentine keep working on it until Davey Counters. Now we get to the finish of the match so Dynamite gets to the middle rope and sticks his head out and Davey Boy Smith irish whipped Greg Valentine into Dynamite’s head. Dynamite took a nasty bump to the floor and Davey pinned Greg Valentine to win the match and the tag team championships. This to me this is the match of the night. The British Bulldogs were fantastic in this matchup especially the Dynamite Kid. Excellent tag team match to put over the British Bulldogs in a big way.

My 5 Star Rating: (3.75/5)

Now the next 4 matches took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California

Match #9 Ricky Steamboat vs Hercules Hernandez

So now we get to Los Angeles and the starter here is this match between Steamboat and Hernandez. So the match starts with Hercules attacking Ricky from behind. Steamboat then comes back with a few chops, armdrags, and into an armbar. Hercules tan counters with a clothesline and then he does a gorilla press with Steam Boat. He tries to hit a splash and Steamboat counters. By the way commentating by Elvira is terrible. Not as bad as Susan Saint James but my goodness was it not good the entire night. So the finish of the match is when Steamboat hits a flying crossbody and pins Hercules Hernandez in 7:27. This was another throwaway match that focused on Power vs Speed. It was not an awful match but just meh.

My 5 Star Rating: (2/5)

Match #10 Adrian Adonis  w/Jimmy Hart vs Uncle Elmer

Oh boy we get to this match. So this match was a quick one but if felt as if it took forever. Uncle Elmer attacks to start and sends Adrian to the floor with a single forearm. Adonis sells well and bumped out of the ring. Adonis took off his wardrobe and Elmer hit a big splash in the corner and a leg drop that missed. The end happened when Adonis hit a splash from the top rope that looked botched and won the match via pinfall. This match felt like a bathroom break match. I hate this match very much easily the worst one of the night. I am glad this one was a short one at 3 minutes.
My 5 Star Rating: (0.25/5)

Match #11 Hoss Funk and Terry Funk w/Jimmy Hart vs The Junkyard Dog and Tito Santana

I want to get this out of the way now but Why Dory Funk Jr was called Hoss Funk? It never made any sense to me. So the match starts with the Junkyard Dog and Hoss Funk in the ring and immedietly starts to slam both Terry and Hoss in the ring. So both funks go out of the ring to regroup and Junkyard Dog tags in Tito. So Terry and Tito are in the ring they lock up. Tito then clotheslines Terry out of the ring and dropkicks Hoss out as well. Both regroup and come back into the ring. Later in the match The Funks take over and in the middle of a suplex spot Elvira on commentary makes the weird comment about the trunks of wrestlers being “strong”. So later in the match the Junkyard Dog slams Terry onto a table that does not break which absolutely had to hurt. Terry took a lot of bumps in this match especially on the floor that was not padded in LA. So then we get to the ending where Jimmy Hart gives Terry Funk a Megaphone and hits Junkyard dog in the head and Terry pins Funk to win the match in 11:42. I like this match as well but I did not think it was as good as the British Bulldogs matchup. The commentary was a bit weird especially from Elvira but overall I give it a Thumbs up.

My 5 Star Rating: (3/5)

Match #12 Hulk Hogan vs King Kong Bundy w/Bobby Heenan in a Steel Cage Match

Hogan entering this matchup with his ribs heavily taped as he kayfabed injured his ribs due to an assault by King Kong Bundy. So the match starts and King Kong Bundy immediately goes after the ribs and removes the tapes that was wrapped around it. Which was very smart of him to do as a heel. Bundy then slams Hogan and even rams him into the cage. Again we get another awful commentary line from Elvira where she states that “He can’t do that can he?”. The problem is that it is a No DQ match and he is allowed to do it. So Hogan gets back into the match and sends Bundy into the cage face first which resulted in him getting busted open. Hogan tries for the slam but he falls back. Hogan gets hit with a few splashes from Bundy in the ribs. Hogan than hulks up and gives Bundy a slam then his finishing leg drop. Hogan than escapes the cage winning the match in 10:15.

At the end of the match Hulk Hogan goes after Bobby Heenan and he gets trapped in the cage where Hogan beats him up, throws him into the cage, and atomic drops him out of the ring.

Speaking of Bobby Heenan did you know that days before WrestleMania 2, it was discovered that Heenan had two fractured vertebrae and needed emergency surgery. He was contacted by the WWE who told him while hospitalized that if he missed his scheduled appearance in Los Angeles at WrestleMania, then he would be fired. I mean it is crazy that this actually happened and that Bobby Heenan still took bumps in this matchup. Kudos for him doing that and it shows how legendary he is in the wrestling business.

As for the match in general it was kind of a disappointment to me. It did not feel like a mania main event but at the time Bundy vs Hogan was a hot feud. Elvira’s commentary was terrible in this match. Again Kudos for Bobby Heenan in this match with him dealing with his injury and being here.

My 5 Star Rating: (1.5/5)

Final Review of Wrestlemania 2

This Wrestlemania 2 in my opinion was one of the Worst Wrestlemania’s of all time. The three locations for Wrestlemania was a disaster and I feel bad for the New York fans who attended as not only did they watch terrible live wrestling but had to watch the entire event on screen that was on a tape delay. I did not mind Cathy Lee Crosby on commentary but both Susan Saint James and Elvira were terrible. The main event was a disappointment. The only positives for Wrestlemania was the tag team matches and the Jake Roberts Squash match was good.

I am going to give Wrestlemania 2 a D