The Year in PPV- 1986

This review is going to be brief. Absolutely brief. There is little to no significance in this year on overall quality and history for the company. It's a filler year between two of their most important years in the '80s. Everyone remembers '85 for the first Mania, and everyone knows '87 for Mania III and the beginning of the PPV expansion with the first Survivor Series. So here's the strange year in the middle that I'm sure many would be willing to skip. So I guess when I was looking at this year, I was trying to see if it was worth the efforts of skipping or if there were some matches and moments worth checking out.

So let's dive right into 1986 by heading to WrestleMania 2...


1. WrestleMania 2

The most interesting part of WrestleMania 2 is its production value. To up the ante from its predecessor, WWF thought it would be a great idea to do 3 mini Manias from different venues in the United States, each with its own set of commentators, celebrities, and main events. The first part of the event took place in the Nassau Coliseum in New York and really warmed up the show with some underwhelming midcard matches. Sure, Randy Savage made his Mania debut against George Steele, but the encounter between the Macho Man and the Animal for the Intercontinental Championship is far from a WrestleMania classic. Not to mention the main event for this portion was a worked boxing match between Mr. T and Roddy Piper. Normally, if a boxing match is physical, it's not a pretty sight, but what happens when you are choreographing a boxing match and it just falls flat on every account? Watch this match to find out.

Then we get to the second part, my personal favorite section in the show, taking place at the Rosemont Horizon in Illinois. Each of the three venues produced at least one memorable moment, but the Illinois section provided two. First, there was a 20-man battle royal that not only featured WWF superstars, but also a handful of NFL players. This match was a pretty entertaining battle royal, and led to the celebrity Hall of Fame induction of William "the Refrigerator" Perry. After that, one of the biggest Mania gems took place when the Dream Team (Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine) defended the WWF Tag Team Championships against the British Bulldogs. For my money, this is the best match of the night, and I wish more people would talk about it.

Finally, the third section of WrestleMania 2 took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in California. This section was all about the main event steel cage match between Hulk Hogan and King Kong Bundy for the WWF Championship. The match is ok, but it's your standard cage match AND your standard Hogan match. It's kind of underwhelming for a match to close your WrestleMania and really sealed how much of a disappointment Mania 2 was. It couldn't hold up to the original, and once III came into the picture, 2 looked even worse because of it.

Skip It


2. The Big Event

There's a lot of variety on this show that probably would've been a much better Mania than the Mania we got. There are tons of solid matches highlighting the colorful characters, without having to rely on a multi-venue gimmick or the promise of a celebrity's presence. On the midcard, I particularly liked the Jake Roberts/Ricky Steamboat match. These two are a pair of the biggest names of the era and have a really intense and physical clash at The Big Event. A very underrated gem worth checking out. Also, the pacing for this event on the Network is wonderful. To cram 10 matches in 2 hours might seem like a huge issue, but I actually think it plays up to this show on editing. Back then, matches didn't have to be that long, and even so many matches went to the 20 minute time limit.

The main event saw Hulk Hogan defend the WWF Championship against Paul Orndorff. It was your classic betrayal story in the name of the industry's richest prize and really elevated Orndorff's game and let's be honest, he's a much better heel than a babyface. I really wish Orndorff would've stayed in the company longer because he had some serious potential to be a mainstay player. Other than that, it's your basic Hogan match, but with a crowd THIS large, that is definitely NOT a problem with me.

Mild Recommendation


Thoughts: This year is absolutely harmless and transitional. It's the point where the company was a success due to the first WrestleMania, but not big enough of a success from WrestleMania III. It's fine to watch, but overall not too important.


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