WWE WrestleMania: What every main event should have been

WrestleMania

Actual main event: Hulk Hogan & Mr. T vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff

What the main event should have been: Hulk Hogan vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper

It’s crazy to think it now, but the original WrestleMania was actually a major gamble for Vince McMahon at the time. He was breaking all the unwritten rules in professional wrestling by going into other territories and he wasn’t exactly the most popular person among promoters. But Vince had a vision to go national, and the extravaganza known as WrestleMania was born. Yes, Jim Crockett Promotions had already been doing Starrcade for a couple of years, but this was something different. Vince brought in celebrities and athletes from other sports and essentially just put all of his eggs in one basket. If WrestleMania failed, WWE as we know it today probably wouldn’t exist.

Hulk Hogan had become Vince’s main attraction, and his feud with Rowdy Roddy Piper was on fire. They had wrestled on an MTV special, The War to Settle the Score, in February of 1985, which Hogan won by disqualification after “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff got involved, thus retaining his WWE Championship (yes, I’m going to say WWE the entire time because it’s easier, so just stay calm about that) and setting up the main event. Hogan needed a tag partner for the match and brought in Mr. T, who actually was a very big star at the time, and Hogan pinned Orndorff in a decent match to end the original WrestleMania.

Here’s my issue. I think that no matter what the situation, the WWE Championship (or some variation of a world title, including the Women’s Championship) should close every major pay-per-view. If we’re supposed to believe that these titles are the biggest prizes in the game, then they should be the main focus. So in my opinion, the main event of WrestleMania should have been Rowdy Roddy Piper battling Hulk Hogan for the WWE Championship. The problem is that Piper didn’t lose cleanly that much throughout his career. With Hogan being the champ, Piper would have probably had to do that, and I just don’t think that was ever going to happen. Throw in the fact that Vince wanted a celebrity in the main event to get some mainstream attention and we got what we got. Luckily, everything worked out, but I still think Hogan vs. Piper for the title should have been the main event here.