10 WWE Battles With Fascinating Backstories
5. Mr T Vs. Roddy Piper (WrestleMania II)
In the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania card, 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper teamed with Paul Orndorff to face Mr. T and Hulk Hogan. The tag-team match must still be considered a strange starting point for the legendary pay-per-view series, but the WWF simply wanted to marry their own stars with mainstream celebrity.
The next year, things were even larger. WrestleMania II took place in three different venues, and Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper was chosen to headline the New York card. Instead of promoting a straight up wrestling bout, the company decided to have both men duke it out with boxing gloves.
According to Piper, he was never fond of Mr. T. Therefore, he warned Vince McMahon that he'd happily run riot on the celebrity, welcoming him into his world by smacking him around at 'Mania.
In Mr. T's mind, he has since realised that Piper wasn't enamoured with the idea of having a non-wrestler headline the first WrestleMania. There was resentment there from the beginning, heat that Mr. T claims was unmerited, because he was respectful to wrestling.