March 31st, 1985
Madison Square Garden – New York, NY
Attendance: 19,121
(Note: The following post was written prior to the McMahon lawsuit from January 2024).
The showcase of the Immortals had to start somewhere, I suppose. And in 1985, Vince McMahon presented the inaugural Wrestlemania event to a live captive audience in Madison Square Garden and close-circuit television.
The original Wrestlemania pretty much set the standard for what others would follow – bigtime matches, celebrity starpower, and a sense of grandeur that gave the show something of an epic feel. From the perspective of someone who had never seen that first iteration previously, I could honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed watching the show, both for the card itself and for the overall historical interest. It surely shows how far the event has evolved from its rather humble beginnings.
Even for its sense of grandeur that it was invoking, Wrestlemania was still pretty low-key. I liked the pre-match interviews that take place during each match, I liked that there was less of a focus on overdone skits and more of a focus on in-ring action, and I liked that my VHS copy of the show kept in the original “Eye of The Tiger” theme that served as Hulk Hogan’s entrance music at the time, rather than redub the track with “Real American” as had been the practice in some of the more recent releases from WWE.
For the sake of history, you can’t say that this was a bad show because if it was, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Although the undercard were less-than-stellar, it wasn’t entirely horrible and the much-hyped matches sold the show itself with its appeal and intrigue if not for its in-ring work. As a whole, it’s a worthwhile viewing to see how far we’ve come and gone.
The first recorded match on Wrestlemania saw Tito Santana defeat The Executioner (a masked Buddy Rose while he was still fairly slim) in a quick little match. Nothing to write home about with this one. I do like the pre-match interview segments conducted by Mean Gene; it’s a simple way of getting you hyped up for the matches and most of all, it helps in giving someone like me who hasn’t followed this stuff some context and background as to why these matches are happening. It’s something that I wouldn’t mind seeing someone bring back, but then I think about how poorly these might turn out with today’s WWE and I go “never mind.”
King Kong Bundy (w/Jimmy Hart) defeated Special Delivery Jones in what is alleged to be nine seconds, but is more like twenty-ish seconds. The Rock would eventually shatter this record by beating one of the Wyatt boys with a single Rock Bottom much later down the road. Following up on this action is another quick match that sees Ricky Steamboat (no Dragon) defeat future Doink Matt Borne. Again, nothing to write home about with this one.
David Sammartino (w/Bruno Sammartino) fought Brutus Beefcake (w/Johnny Valiant) to a double-disqualification once the managers got involved. If this took place during today’s WWE, this would be the designated piss break match despite Wrestlemania having planned intermission periods. Brutus was not yet the Barber – he was a generic heel bully and David Sammartino is… well, he’s the son of Bruno. That’s all I got out of it.
The Junkyard Dog defeated WWF Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine (w/Jimmy Hart) by countout. The finish was weird because Valentine pinned JYD with a hand on the ropes to score the pinfall, but then Tito comes out and tells the ref of the Hammer’s misdeeds, which prompts the ref to restart the match and count Valentine out anyway when he doesn’t return to the ring… what even is this shit?
Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik (w/Freddie Blassie) defeated WWF Tag Team Champions The US Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham) (w/Lou Albano) when Sheik knocked out Windham with a cane to win the titles. Well, at least they got paid.
André the Giant defeated Big John Studd (w/Bobby Heenan) in a $15,000 Body Slam match. This was two big guys slugging each other and trying to slam each other until Andre does the dead to win the match and the money… that he starts to give away before Heenan steals the bag and runs to the back. The match ran almost six minutes, but felt like an eternity watching in real time. Not a particularly fun time.
Wendi Richter (w/Cyndi Lauper) defeated WWF Women’s Champion Leilani Kai (w/The Fabulous Moolah) with a lame roll-up to win the title. Ah, yes… the dread roll-up. A nothing move in 1985 WWF, but a feared finisher in modern wrestling. When you get past all the pomp and circumstance surrounding this match with the involvement of Cyndi Lauper and all that jazz, the match itself was a nothing happening affair. I’d imagine you’d have to be in the moment to really appreciate this match because as someone looking at this years after the fact, this didn’t really grab me. A bit of a shame, really.
Hulk Hogan and Mr. T (w/Jimmy Snuka) defeated Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff (w/Cowboy Bob Orton) (w/ Muhammad Ali as guest outside referee) in the main event tag match. This would be the only time Wrestlemania would have a tag match as a main event until Night 1 of Mania 39 and… again, this was another case of the match being nothing special if you’re not in the moment. It’s just Hogan doing most of the work and whenever Mr. T gets involved, he doesn’t do a hell of a lot. In the end, an errant blow on Orndroff from Cowboy Bob’s cast (who was aiming for Hogan) would cost the heels the match and both Piper and Orton would leave Mr. Wonderful behind, beginning a face run that would last a year or two before he’d be in a World title match against Hogan just a couple months before Mania 3.
The first Wrestlemania is noteworthy for being the beginning of a dynasty and for that alone, it’s worth watching just to see where it all began. As a wrestling show in and of itself, however, it’s not all that great. A lot of the matches are really, really short and none of them were all that great to begin with. It is very typical early-1980s wrestling fare when you have a bunch of short matches at first and then the last couple matches are only slightly longer. Again, the historical significance makes this worth sampling, but be prepared to be bored for most of it.
dtm666 