The year was 1995, and WWE was in trouble. With Hulk Hogan not only gone but starring for a rising WCW, not to mention the experiments of pushing Lex Luger and Diesel on top flopping, the company went for an experiment.
Yes, WrestleMania 11 included a Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels world championship bout that was objectively the best match on the card. It didn’t close the show, though, as WWE instead entrusted that spot to Bam Bam Bigelow—an exceptional veteran big man—and, all the more notably, football star Lawrence Taylor.
WWE Reestablished The Importance Of Celebrities At WrestleMania
Celebrities have long been a part of WrestleMania. WrestleMania 1 featured Mr. T tag teaming with Hulk Hogan in the main event and a cavalcade of other celebrities throughout the card. While celebrities had a significant presence again at WrestleManias 2 and 3, their prominence at the show receded over the years to follow. Celebrities made cameos of varying impact, but weren’t really an integral part of the show again until WrestleMania 11.
Placing Lawrence Taylor in the main event was an enormous play to attract mainstream media attention and more casual viewers who were more invested in seeing the football star wrestle than anything WWE had cooked up angle-wise. Moreover, Taylor brought with him a host of other NFL personalities as his “team” at ringside, and Salt ‘n’ Pepa sang him to and from the ring. That’s not to mention that WWE featured Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy prominently as accessories to the WWE Championship match. In short, celebrities were back.
WrestleMania 11 Was Ahead Of Its Time For A Celebrity Working A Full-Impact, High-Profile Match
WWE has a long history of integrating celebrities into their product in different ways, but has been more selective about actually getting them in the ring, especially for meaningful performances. Floyd Mayweather worked a super provocative match with The Big Show at WrestleMania 24. Maria Menounos got surprisingly physical in her four WWE matches—most notably in tag action at WrestleMania 28. Even Snooki from The Jersey Shore demonstrated competence in her highly protected role wrestling at WrestleMania 27.
Recent years have seen Logan Paul and Bad Bunny in particular impress with high-level, intense in-ring performances that made them come across as more than celebrities WWE was leveraging, but rather like legitimate professional wrestlers. Decades before them, Lawrence Taylor set this template, leveraging his elite athletic skills from a Hall-of-Fame football career, plus the guidance of Pat Patterson who planned the action and directed traffic as referee during the match.
Lawrence Taylor Was The Right Pick At The Time, Though The Choice Hasn’t Aged Well
Lawrence Taylor’s fame as a legendary member of the New York Giants made him appealing to football fans in general, but specifically those in the New York area where he had starred for the Giants for over a decade. That kind of drawing power, combined with his legit athleticism, and the visible credibility of him as a guy who still looked like an elite football player made him just the right choice for a celebrity to headline WrestleMania 11.
It’s unfortunate LT’s real-life issues have made it difficult for WWE to celebrate the accomplishment of just how well he did at WrestleMania 11. After all, one has to assume he’d be an easy pick as a celebrity WWE Hall of Fame inductee based on what he did in the ring. However, legal issues have followed him—most notably early 2010s issues surrounding sexual misconduct and domestic violence have kept him in legal limbo and made his reputation muddy to say the least.
Bam Bam Bigelow Was The Real MVP Of WrestleMania 11
Lawrence Taylor deserves credit for stepping well outside his comfort zone and staging a more than capable in-ring performance at WrestleMania 11. Pat Patterson deserves credit for figuring out the mechanics of the match and coaching during it. Vince McMahon successfully booked the whole scenario.
At the end of the day, though, the man who probably deserves the most credit for the main event of WrestleMania 11 overachieving was Bam Bam Bigelow. The Beast from the East was a hyper-athletic super heavyweight who never quite got his just due with a sustained main event run in WWE or WCW. In 1995, though, he selflessly made LT look like a million bucks, carrying the load, selling, and ultimately putting over the non-wrestler in the ring with him.
