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.
Continue reading “Ramblemania Rewind 01 – WWF Wrestlemania (1985)”
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