"Hulkamania" was running wild going into 1986 as Hulk Hogan had been WWF Champion for two years and was still the company's top draw. One person who wanted to put a stop to "Hulkamania" was manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Heenan and his stable of wrestlers known as The Heenan Family were hellbent on destroying Hogan.
In early 1986, Heenan enlisted the services of 450 + lb. King Kong Bundy to take out Hogan. On an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, Bundy ambushed Hogan during his match with the Magnificent Muraco as he constantly gave Hogan a barrage of avalanches and big splashes, story line breaking Hogan's ribs and putting his career in jeopardy.
For the second year in a row, WrestleMania was the big show card and for the first time it was broadcast live on pay-per-view, a practice that still remains to this very day. WrestleMania 2 was held on April 7, 1986, but there was a catch.
This year, WrestleMania was held at three different venues: Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, NY, the Rosemont Horizon from Rosemont, Illinois, and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena from Los Angeles, CA. Each venue would hold a bunch of matches and each featured a main event. When one city was done, they showed the next and then the final city.
In Long Island, the main event was Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T in a Boxing Match, which Mr. T won by disqualification when Piper could not control himself and performed wrestling moves and bodyslammed Mr. T.
In Rosemont (near Chicago), the main event was a match for the WWF Tag Team Championship between the champions The Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) against The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid) with rocker Ozzie Osbourne, where the Bulldogs defeated The Dream Team to win the titles.
The final main event was held at Los Angeles and it was Hulk Hogan, taped ribs and all, defending the WWF Championship against King Kong Bundy in a Steel Cage match. Bundy hit Hogan with an avalanche and a big splash, but Hogan "no sold" the move and began to "Hulk Up,"
Hogan then gave Bundy a Powerslam and then the leg drop and began to climb out of the cage. He was caught by Bundy as he grabbed his leg, but Hogan managed to kick him off and climbed out of the cage to win the match and retain the title. Hogan then grabbed Bobby Heenan and threw him into the cage where he proceeded to attack him.
There were a couple of other big matches on the card as "Macho Man" Randy Savage defended his Intercontinental Championship against George "The Animal" Steele in Long Island, which Savage defended the title by having his feet on the ropes, which is illegal, while pinning Steele.
The other really big match was a 20-man battle royal in Chicago that featured many WWF wrestlers and NFL players, including Chicago Bears' own William "Refrigerator" Perry. Andre the Giant won the battle royal when he threw both members of The Hart Foundation (Bret "Hitman" Hart and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart) over the top rope.
Andre took some time off after the event as he was filming the movie "The Princess Bride" as well as needing some time off for health reasons as he was beginning to feel the affects to the terminal known as acromegaly, which caused his abnormally gigantic size.
Hulk Hogan would have a new rival as his ally Paul Orndorff turned on Hogan during a match as he clotheslined him and gave him a piledriver. To make matters worse, Orndorff joined forces with Bobby Heenan. Hogan defended the title against Orndorff for the rest of 1986, which ended in a Steel Cage match on the January 3, 1987 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which took place on December 14, 1986.
Both Hogan and Orndorff climbed over the top of the cage and touched the floor at the same time, resulting in a draw. The match was ordered to restart as Hogan gave Orndorff the leg drop and easily escaped the cage to win the match and retain the title and ending their feud.
"Macho Man" Randy Savage made a big splash in 1986 as he defeated Tito Santana to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship on February 8, 1986 from the Boston Garden. Savage came into the WWF in 1985 as he was proclaimed to be the "hottest free agent" in professional wrestling as many of the top managers tried to become Savage's manager.
Savage turned them all down. Instead, he chose to bring in his then-real life wife Elizabeth Hulette to be his valet as she was simply known as "Miss Elizabeth." Elizabeth was the most beautiful woman in the industry as many of the fans, wrestlers, and even announcers would be drooling over Elizabeth. I'm not going to sugar coat this, she was hot back then watching the old clips.
Savage was a jealous and over-bearing heel who was overprotective of Elizabeth and threatened anyone who even dared to look at her. He mistreated her and many were upset at Savage for doing so. Savage's story line jealousy of Elizabeth was not much different than in real life as he was jealous of all the wrestlers who eyed her in the back and this friction eventually led to their divorce in later years.
Savage drew plenty of attention with his wild and colorful outfits and high-flying wrestling style. Savage's in-ring performance and out of the ring charisma eventually made him a main event superstar. He made the Intercontinental Championship, which was secondary to the WWF Championship, a big time title due to his style and caliber of matches he had.
Savage had a feud for most of 1986 with George "The Animal" Steele over Steele's love for Elizabeth. Steele was big, bald-headed, hairy bodied weirdo who could not speak words and had a green-tongue and even ate the turnbuckle padding. Savage defeated Steele in his first WrestleMania match and would feud with him over Elizabeth into 1987.
Another newcomer into 1986 made headlines and would be one of the promotion's top draws and that man was Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Roberts defeated former CFL football player George Wells at WrestleMania 2 in his WrestleMania debut when he gave Wells his patented DDT finisher (front face lock where he drops his opponent on his face and head).
After the match, Roberts took out his giant python snake Damien and wrapped him around Wells' head and made Wells foam from the mouth. Roberts usually did this by defeating an opponent with the DDT and then putting Damien around an opponent's head and neck and making him foam from the mouth.
No question about it, Roberts was one of if not the top heel in the industry. His first high profile feud was with the squeaky clean Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. During a match between the two on an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event in May, Roberts gave Steamboat the DDT onto the concrete floor outside the ring, knocking Steamboat out and legitimately giving him a concussion.
Just before he gave him the DDT, Roberts pointed to Steamboat's wife Cheryl, who was sitting at ringside to watch her husband get slammed headfirst into the concrete. He even put Damien in Steamboat's mouth. Steamboat retaliated by unveiling a Komodo Dragon and Steamboat won the majority of the matches.
Roberts even began hosting a talk segment on WWF TV called "The Snake Pit", where he tried to push heel wrestlers and managers and demean the face ones. Although his tacts made him a heel, Roberts began to see a surge in popularity due to his character being so amazing.
Roberts took on Randy Savage for the Intercontinental Championship on an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event late in 1986. Both men were heels, but announcers Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura predicted the crowd would back Savage. However, the fans were firmly behind Roberts as the match ended in a double disqualification.
Roberts was set to have a feud with WWF Champion Hulk Hogan. However, after he gave Hogan the DDT during an episode of the Snake Pit, the fans cheered Roberts and McMahon scrapped the plans for this and eventually turned him into a babyface.
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