With the sad news of the death of King Kong Bundy reverberating through the wrestling world, I decided I’d have a look at possibly his most famous match, where he entered the main event of WrestleMania 2 against reigning WWF Champion Hulk Hogan.
The set up for this match had seen Bundy crush Hogan in the corner with his dreaded “Avalanche” splash, injuring the champ’s ribs in the process. Bundy also switched managers from Jimmy Hart to Bobby Heenan as well, due to Heenan’s camp of wrestlers being Hogan’s main rivals at the time.
Hogan came into the match with a taped mid-section and designs on revenge, whilst Bundy was looking to end Hogan’s over two year reign as champion. As was usually the case with the WWF, this match is about escaping the cage itself, rather than winning by pin fall or submission.
So, without further ado, let’s set the way back machine to 1986 for the main event of the 2nd WrestleMania!
The match is emanating from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles (duh), California
Calling the action are Lord Alfred Hayes, Jesse Ventura and Elvira
WWF Championship
Steel Cage Match
Champion: Hulk Hogan Vs King Kong Bundy w/ Bobby “The Brain” Heenan
Seriously, give Bundy a trench coat and some roller blades and he could have had one heck of a role on the table if they ever wanted to make a movie version of Metal Gear Solid 2. The manager of the LA Dodgers Tommy Lasorda is doing the ring introductions, although he seems to get a fair amount of boos. Must be lots of San Francisco Giants fans in the crowd tonight (I hope that reference is correct. My knowledge on baseball extends about as far as the episode of The Simpsons with Daryl Strawberry)
Robert Conrad is the referee, whilst pink scrubs himself Ricky Schroder is the timekeeper. A referee seems quite redundant in an escape rules cage match to be honest. Hogan comes out to Real American here, although I don’t know if that was actually his theme song yet or they just dubbed it over on the The Network. Hogan hammers away on Bundy to start, showing no mercy, but Bundy doesn’t fall down and eventually targets the ribs with some kicks and stomps.
Bundy slams Hogan and then stands on his head, just to be a jerk, before making a quick break for the exit. Hogan manages to stop that, so Bundy clubs him down and starts removing the protective tape from Hogan’s mid-section. Do you think DDP watched this match quite a lot and took some notes? Bundy actually tapes Hogan to the ropes and makes another break for it, but Hogan is able to stop him again and pulls him back into the cage by his face.
Hogan punches away and sends Bundy face first into the cage, busting him open in the process. Hogan works the cut in vicious style, as the blood thirsty crowd cheers along. Hogan actually climbs the cage and stomps on Bundy’s head as payback for Bundy doing it to him earlier, but makes the mistake of going for a body slam and Bundy falls on top of him. Bundy crawls for the door, but Hogan doesn’t stay down for long and stops him again.
Bundy shrugs that off however and hits the Avalanche in the corner, before getting a big splash on the mat for good measure. Bundy tries crawling out again, but Hogan desperately holds onto his ankle to stop him and no sells another Avalanche. Hogan gets a nice looking power slam onto Bundy and then drops the leg to a big reaction from the crowd. Hogan tries to climb out, but Bundy gets back to his feet and climbs up to meet him, only for Hogan to kick him back down to the mat.
Heenan tries to stop Hogan climbing out, but Hogan fends him off and climbs down to the floor to win. Heenan climbs into the cage to get away from Hogan, but Hogan corners him and puts a beating on him to complete his revenge. Hogan celebrates in the cage with his title as a bloody Bundy retreats to the back.
WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: HULK HOGAN
RATING: **1/2
This was almost too short actually, as Bundy didn’t really get much of a heat segment and the match was mostly Hogan battering him to get his revenge. Rather than have Bundy get a prolonged heat segment with the idea of him snuffing out Hogan’s career, he mostly just went for quick escape attempts.
It’s a perfectly sound match structure for a heel to try and do that in a title match, but Bundy was presented as a monster heel in the build up to the match and didn’t really work the match like that. He kind of just worked it as a normal heel, but one with a bit of extra timber on his frame. Outside of Hogan not managing to get the slam and Bundy not bumping, this really didn’t feel like a Face Vs Monster Heel match at all.
You could have done the same match with someone like Rick Rude for instance, with the only really difference being that Rude would have bumped around a bit more. The actual structure of the match wouldn’t have been that different, which is weird because normally when you’re booking someone like a monster you give them the majority of the match and focus mostly on the babyface making sporadic comebacks. Hogan took about half the match here, if not more.
As a match it was fine, with Hogan triumphing and even getting to bloody up his heel opponent along the way for added measure. It wasn’t an especially epic main event, but it was a perfectly watchable one that gave the fans what they wanted to see and sent them home happy. Bundy was fine in his role as challenger, even if he didn’t look like much of a monster. It had the feel of a slightly rushed house show main event actually, probably because it took so long to set up the cage.
In Conclusion
I enjoyed going back to watch that actually. I’d obviously like to extend my condolences to Bundy’s friends and family at this very sad time. If WWE put a Bundy playlist up on The Network I’ll try and give it a look, especially as he had runs in places like World Class that they could use footage from.
I’ll be back tomorrow with more ECW Hardcore TV from 1999
Until then, take care till next time, and don’t forget that BundyMania is running wild!
