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Celebrities have a long history in professional wrestling, used to draw new viewers to different wrestling promotions and often add an extra dose of intrigue about how an actor, athlete, musician, or reality TV personality might do in the context of the squared circle. That history is especially prominent at WWE’s signature annual event WrestleMania, which has seen Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson serve in guest referee capacities, Snooki and Floyd Mayweather Jr. work matches, Lawrence Taylor close the show in the main event, and plenty of other visitors. That element of ‘Mania was baked in from the very first edition when Mr. T, around the peak of his acting fame, also worked a main event match, teaming up with Hulk Hogan against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. According to Hulk Hogan, Mr. T almost inadvertently undermined the whole show.
WrestleMania 1 Was A Big Risk For WWE And Vince McMahon
In WWE’s documentary, The True Story of WrestleMania, the company sold the narrative that, for as much momentum as they’d developed in their national expansion, they made a huge gamble when they promoted the first WrestleMania. In coordinating to broadcast across the country on closed-circuit television, not to mention coming out of the pricey Madison Square Garden venue and booking a high volume of celebrity guests, expenses were high.
Related: 10 Wrestlers From The 1st WrestleMania: Where Are They Now?While a number of critics have questioned WWE’s story that the show’s failure would have ruined its business—or at least that there was a realistic risk of it failing to that degree—it does seem that WrestleMania going poorly would have at least slowed down the company’s explosive growth.
Hulk Hogan Claims Mr. T Almost Ruined WWE WrestleMania 1
It’s one of the most infamous lines in all wrestling advertising that the “card is subject to change.” Indeed, given the physical nature of the business, there’s always a risk of someone getting injured or having their travel arrangements fall apart—not to mention occasional instances of backstage drama around contract or creative disputes, or changes to booking plans. Promoters insulate themselves against fans feeling as though they were lied to about the matches advertised by explicitly telling them that the exact line-up of bouts could vary the night of a show.
When it comes to the original WrestleMania, fans surely would have been disappointed if super over acts like Andre the Giant or Wendi Richter hadn’t reported for duty. There might have been some backlash if the viewers had missed getting to see a popular mid-card act like Tito Santana or Jake Roberts. There were only two names who absolutely had to appear, though, for the event to feel like a success. They were main eventers Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. These men were the face of the company and the huge celebrity draw WWE had promised, respectively. While their opponents, Paul Orndorff, and especially Roddy Piper were important, too, Bob Orton might have subbed in for one of them without totally ruining the affair. Hogan and T were irreplaceable for that night.
Hogan wrote in his book (h/t IMDb) that security at Madison Square Garden resisted letting Mr. T’s entourage into the building the day of the show. T was very upset by the confrontation and declared that he was just going to leave. The Hulkster, however, took credit for finding the actor and talking him down, getting him to see through the planned main event attraction.
Roddy Piper Has Also Been Critical Of Mr. T’s Work In WWE
Hulk Hogan isn’t the only person to have brought up concerns around Mr. T’s role in wrestling. Roddy Piper was a vocal critic of T for years. One of the things fans should know about the Piper-Mr. T rivalry is that Piper maintained an old school sensibility around protecting both the business and his own character—in particular not liking the idea of a non-wrestler getting the better of him in the ring. These points contribute to how not only the WrestleMania 1 main event played out—with Bob Orton’s outside interference going wrong to cost the heels the match in less than decisive fashion—but also the DQ finish to Hot Rod’s boxing match with T at WrestleMania 2, which also protected him from a knockout loss.
Related: The Storyline Buildup To WWE's First Ever WrestleMania Main Event, ExplainedPiper would go on to criticize T’s professionalism and abilities. After the Rowdy Scotsman passed, though, T publicly rewrote the narrative between them, including explaining in an interview with Wrestling Inc that all the supposed heat between them was made public knowledge by design to add heat to their storyline, but there was no bad blood in reality.
Whenever a wrestling event depends on an individual star as a major draw there are some risks around that performer showing up to work and delivering in their role. Fortunately for WWE, Mr. T ultimately did his job quite well as a celebrity visitor, working the main event of WrestleMania 1 to the best of his abilities and contributing enormously to the long term success of the whole company.
