March 31st, 1985
Location: New York City
Venue: Madison Square Garden
Attendance: 19,121
In 1985, Vince McMahon decided to take his career's biggest gamble up to that point by putting on the WWF's biggest show in history.
With the help of ring announcer Howard Finkel, the name "WrestleMania" was born.
It was made available on closed-circuit television. WrestleMania would be WWF’s flagship event, much like Starrcade was for Jim Crocket Promotions.
McMahon began working closely with MTV to gain mainstream media attention, creating the “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection” in 1984. Additionally, the WWF had several celebrities agree to appear at Madison Square Garden for the first Wrestlemania.
In terms of wrestling, you may have missed much of the undercard, as most matches went about seven minutes. Despite the slow pace of wrestling, matches ended rather quickly, contrasting heavily from the style fans are used to today.
Tito Santana, King Kong Bundy, and Ricky Steamboat left the Garden with wins.
In terms of titles, Greg 'The Hammer' Valentine held on to his Intercontinental Championship while Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik became tag team champions.
Andre the Giant avoided retirement by body-slamming Big John Studd and winning $15,000 in the process in a feel-good moment for the crowd.
Although WrestleMania featured capable talent, the matches did not particularly stand out. Instead, their full focus was on the celebrity crossover to attract a larger audience.
For starters, Cyndi Lauper was in the corner of Wendi Richter in her match for the Women's Championship against champion Leilani Kai.
The match saw Lauper have an encounter with Fabulous Moolah, who was in Kai's corner.
As soon as Richter won the title, Lauper immediately stepped into the ring to celebrate and start dancing around with her, a scene that has been replayed multiple times by the WWE in WrestleMania highlight videos.
All this brings me to the main event, which was a grand ceremony itself.
With 5-time World Series winner and New York Yankees legend Billy Martin as the special ring announcer, Liberace as the guest timekeeper, and boxing great Mohammad Ali as the guest referee, McMahon pulled out all the stops for the world to tune in.
An entourage of bagpipes soon came out to welcome in 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper and 'Mr. Wonderful' Paul Orndoff to the ring. Then, finally, the crowd erupted for their hero's entrance. WWF legend Hulk Hogan came out with his tag team partner, "The A-Team" actor Mr. T, the final celebrity of the evening.
As Liberace rang the bell, the match had everything you could think of, with fans in the arena making their excitement heard. Not to mention, Ali made sure the match had no funny business.
Following a traditional formula, Hogan and Mr. T's babyface team sent the fans home happy with a victory over the heel team. While Piper and Orndorff picked up the loss, it certainly felt as if everybody left MSG as winners.
The first WrestleMania proved to be a massive success. Over one million viewers saw WrestleMania through closed-circuit television, which was the largest wrestling event in the United States at the time.
While the event as a whole wasn't one of the best WrestleManias that I've seen, its legacy is monumental, setting a precedent for years to come. What originally was a gamble for the WWF turned into one of the great success stories in wrestling history.
Results
- Tito Santana def. The Execution (via submission)
- King Kong Bundy def. Special Delivery Jones
- Ricky Steamboat def. Matt Borne
- Brutus Beefcake vs. David Sammartino ended in a double disqualification
- Junkyard Dog def. Greg Valentine (c) (via countout) - WWF Intercontinental Championship (Valentine retained)
- The Iron Shiek & Nikolai Volkoff def. The U.S. Express (Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo) (c) - WWF Tag Team Championship
- Andre the Giant def. Big John Studd - Body Slam Challenge for $15,000
- Wendi Richter def. Leilani Kai (c) - WWF Women's Championship
- Hulk Hogan & Mr. T def. Paul Orndorff & Roddy Piper
Rating: B-
Thanks for reading. Look out tomorrow when I take a look at WrestleMania 2.
34 days away until WrestleMania 35
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