Could Wrestlemania 2 have been great?

[BattleCat]

I was watching WrestleMania 2 again recently and I thought that had a few things been changed, it really could have been a great card.

This isn't a thread where I am looking for different matchups, but rather a cleaning up of what was already in place. I'll use the same matches and results. I'll just change the way the show was produced.

First, as I believe many would agree, I would have had it in one venue as opposed to three. New York had WrestleMania; so, WM2 would take place in Chicago, as I liked the idea of so many Chicago Bears being involved coming off of their very impressive season and Super Bowl win.

Second, Susan St. James and her million "Uh Oh"s, Cathy Lee Crosby, Elvira, Joan Rivers...they would be eliminated. All of the guest time keepers would also be excused. Tommy Lasorda wouldn't make sense in Chicago, so he is out too.

Try to picture this being the card and decide if you think this would have been a solid event. I am mostly interested in the opinions of those who were around back then, as I think those who learn history through edited anthologies don't get the full effect...and they also compare that era to more recent eras, which I think is silly.

Monsoon, Ventura and possibly Lord Alfred do the commentary. Vince handles the taped and live intros, while Mean Gene takes care of the backstage interviews. Ray Charles performs America the Beautiful.

I would kick things off with Steamboat vs. Hercules. I would like to use JYD/Tito vs. The Funks because Steamboat wasn't quite as popular as JYD here; but, I like the idea of starting the event with a face win, to get the crowd going the right way.

Next, I would have Jake vs. George Wells. A newcomer heel gets a win and the visual of Wells with Damian all over him afterwards would keep the crowd's attention as well.

Now, I would have the IC match. Savage/Steele had a good storyline, but the match wasn't so hot and the finish was a cheating heel win.

So, next, I would have JYD/Tito vs. The Funks to bring the crowd back. Funks win, but JYD is so over at this point, it gives the crowd new life.

I would then sneak in Adonis/Elmer before the tag title match.

Before intermission, I would have the Bulldogs beat the Dream Team for the tag belts. This ends the first half on a really high note. Great match and crowd-thrilling result!

After the break, I kick things back off with the Flag Match. Kirchner could get the crowd back into it, as they come back into the arena, with a little USA pride as he beats Volkoff.

Next, I have the boxing match. The whole crowd is now back in their seats and coming off of a fun win, so that can carry them through this less-than-impressive battle of quickly-winded Piper/T until the body slam DQ finish.

That was a bore, so I send out the Battle Royal participants here. Butkus, Covert and Perry are involved and Andre gets the win, all very much pleasing the crowd.

Those were two big matches in a row, so I calm things down a bit with Velvet/Moolah. Title match, but not a fan favorite and thankfully a quickie.

Then, I would have the Orndorff/Muraco debacle. The crowd will enjoy the wrestlers involved, but not the result. So, might as well have this before the main event, as the fans use the restroom/get their popcorn. Hate to treat Orndorff/Muraco as a popcorn match, but the bogus ending did this one in.

Obviously, I would end the night with the Hogan/Bundy steel cage match.

So, eliminating the annoying guests, having it all in one venue, spacing out the big matches and having this run as one big card...what do you think? Any better? I just think there was so much star power back then and WM2 could have and SHOULD HAVE been better. Not quite ready for the big stadium that would come a year later, but much better than the lackluster original WrestleMania card from the year before.

Thoughts?

 

[MC_Live]

I watched WrestleMania 2 last year. I absolutely despised Susan St. James. Listening to her was horrendous. I like the idea of having the show take place from three cities at once, but looking back it does't seem that it was a very good idea. So I'm pretty much in line with your changes. I also think that the main event should have been longer. I felt that the cage match was getting pretty good at the end, so I think like 5 extra minutes or so could have made it a more memorable match.

 

[BattleCat]

I watched WrestleMania 2 last year. I absolutely despised Susan St. James. Listening to her was horrendous. I like the idea of having the show take place from three cities at once, but looking back it does't seem that it was a very good idea. So I'm pretty much in line with your changes. I also think that the main event should have been longer. I felt that the cage match was getting pretty good at the end, so I think like 5 extra minutes or so could have made it a more memorable match.

That's not a bad idea. Ha! You know, I was just about to suggest them having Muraco come out and get involved--since he was involved in the breaking of Hogan's ribs, setting up the match--but he was back in NY. haha!

Well, I guess that could be another 'pro' for the one venue idea.

Good point about the cage match though!

 

[FromGlasgow]

It wasn't the best Wrestlemania of all time but I enjoyed it and I would quite like to see the 3 venue idea again at a future Wrestlemania, Not every year but just a one more time type event from 3 venues, Maybe hold first part of one in UK for time wise and have someone like Sheumus vs Wade Barrett for like the intercontintel title headlining the UK part, As its getting pretty unlikely the UK will ever hold a Wrestlemania on its own but being part 1 of 3 I think the UK would have a good shot at it.

 

[I Heart Cena]

It wasn't the best Wrestlemania of all time but I enjoyed it and I would quite like to see the 3 venue idea again at a future Wrestlemania, Not every year but just a one more time type event from 3 venues, Maybe hold first part of one in UK for time wise and have someone like Sheumus vs Wade Barrett for like the intercontintel title headlining the UK part, As its getting pretty unlikely the UK will ever hold a Wrestlemania on its own but being part 1 of 3 I think the UK would have a good shot at it.

I proposed this on this board 14 year ago. Have a WM from London and New York. The 1st 2 hours from the o2 arena. in the 1st match, have Sandow vs Miz, where they immediately start brawling towards the Gorilla position, then to the outside of the arena where an open limo awaits them, and they keep brawling as they accidentally fall into the limo.

The card continues in the arena, with updates on the 2 blokes, as the limo takes them to a Concorde waiting on a runway. Kinda like Piper vs Goldust. Anyway, the limo arrives, and the 2 guys keep fighting each other out of the limo, and up the stairs into the airplane. Then the airplane takes off.

When the 2 hours are up, it's time to continue WM at MSG in NY. The card continues there. Then towards the end, we watch as the Concorde lands at JFK airport, with the wrestlers coming out, still brawling! The fight makes its way to MSG, and ends there right before the main event, or at the end if the flight takes too long.

Anyway, I loved WM2, people shouldn't complain about it. It was piff. The celebrities were fine, and the event was just awesome. People who hate it weren't alive back then, I was. I enjoyed the runup to it, I was a wide eyed kid 100% into wrestling for the 1st time. Then the event came, which I didn't see until the next day when my dad brought me a tape. I watched that tape like 100x, no joke. WM2 means a lot to me.

 

[dd23beatlesfan1]

I was born in 1984 and wasn't watching wrestling full time until 1991, so I guess you could say Wrestlemania 2 was before my time, but even so, I still don't really enjoy it at all. Especially compared to the other early Manias. I love WM 3, 4, and 6. WM 5 and even 1 were good. I don't even think the three different venues was really what made the show suck. I was the card, and I don't mean the placements of the matches, or booking. I mean the lineup of matches were not so good. A lot of them made sense for their time, but they were still lacking for the most part.

I think the biggest reason for this is the roster. This might not be popular to say, maybe it is, but even though wrestling was more "hip and cool" from 1985-1987, compared to 1988-1991, but when it comes to the roster of talent, 88-91 was 10X better than the roster of 85-87. That shows in how Wrestlemanias 4, 5, 6, and 7 were 10X better even though their booking format was similar.

WM back then was 1-2 big matches, and the rest mostly filler featuring the undercard and midcard. Rarely did you have well built feuds to go behind the matches not in the main event or for the titles. You had tons of filler matches. That was the format for Wrestlemania back then, and that's why current fans look down on the majority of the Wrestlemania events before Wrestlemania X, when WWE started to change the format to feature more big matches and feuds behind most matches. But even the filler matches on 4, 5, 6, and 7, were 10X better and more interesting than what was on Wrestlemania 2.

Even though some of the lesser matches served their purpose, like Jake Roberts and George Wells, it was still an unmemorable match that could've been better with a better opponent. Even at that point, jobbers weren't really supposed to be on the WM card, and yet you had a guy no one had heard of or since facing Jake Roberts. Roberts obviously needed an opening match to get his name value up, and he wasn't going to face a top-tier opponent like a Randy Savage or Tito Santana, obviously. But someone like Lanny Poffo would've made a more interesting match and given Jake a more credible victory.

It just wasn't a good card that was severely lacking in great matches, or well built matches, or potentially good matches that didn't live up to the hype (like Roddy Piper/Mr. T and Paul Orndorff and Don Muraco). The only really memorable matches were Hogan/Bundy, the 20 Man Battle Royal and the Bulldogs/Dream Team.


The celebrities also ruined the show big time. If you made a list of the top 20 worst celebrities ever at WM, I guarantee half the list would be all of the celebrities at WM 2 (with the exception of Ray Charles who was outstanding like he was at anything he ever did). It was a mess of a show with lackluster matches, even for that time period, and that's why it's widely considered one of the worst WM's of all-time.

The only way to save it was the change the match lineups or improve the matches they had (Orndorff/Muraco could've been a show-stealer).