Originally, the plan was for Owen Hart to win the tag team titles with Jim Neidhart. However, due to him no-showing a number of WWF live events in December 1994, Neidhart was released from the company, and Yokozuna was instead selected to be Owen's tag team-partner. Other candidates considered for the spot were "Dr. Death" Steve Williams (whose friend Jim Ross was on the WWF's booking team at the time) and Chris Benoit (who was trained by Owen's father Stu and brother Bruce, wrestled for Stampede Wrestling from 1985 to 1989, and had a brief try-out with the WWF in June 1995).
This was the only WrestleMania to feature the Smoking Gunns together as a tag team. They were supposed to be in the ten-man tag match at WrestleMania X (1994), but that got called off due to time constraints caused by the ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. The Gunns did not appear at WrestleMania XII (1996) due to injury, and broke up a few months afterward.
Prior to WrestleMania XI, the WWF held pay-per-view events every 2-3 months. After this show took place, the company would start to broadcast them on a monthly basis due to competition from WCW, who had been doing the same thing. WWF/E have done this ever since, in some cases broadcasting two per month.
Prior to their World Title match, Shawn Michaels and Diesel first met fellow Kliq member Hunter Hearst Helmsley backstage at this event.