20 More Surprising WWE Facts You Probably Didn't Know
9. Mr. T Had More Than One Boxing Match In The WWF
Not only was ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper’s infamous boxing match with Mr. T at WrestleMania 2 not the only boxing match in wrestling history (‘Gorilla’ Monsoon famously boxed Andre The Giant in a worked bout in Puerto Rico in 1977), it’s not even the only boxing match in wrestling history featuring Mr. T.
Piper’s henchman ‘Aces’ Bob Orton had recently lost the cast he’d used as a (metaphorical) crutch and become known as ‘Battlin’’ Bob Orton. In preparation for Piper’s WrestleMania bout with T (it stands for ‘Tureaud’, by the way), the man whose loins had sired a Viper only six years earlier faced the former bouncer, bodyguard and troubleshooter in the opening match of Saturday Night’s Main Event on February 15th 1986.
Naturally, the match was a bloody disaster. During the action, Orton managed to give T what Vince McMahon on commentary called “a blatant thumb to the eye” (both men were wearing boxing gloves), and the match was won by T a minute into the second round when he knocked Orton out of the ring and he wasn’t able to get back into the ring by the referee’s count (winning matches by count-out isn’t a thing in boxing).