WWF Wrestlemania I

Date: 03/31/1985

Location: MSG in NYC

Announcers: Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura

The Setup

This is it – The first Mania. How much more needs to be said? Hogan teamed with a legit pop culture star at the time, Mr. T, against the perfect heel tag team in Orndorff and Piper. Regarding pop culture stars, Cyndi Lauper worked her magic in Wendi Richter’s corner. Andre and Studd had worked several slam matches for cash at various house shows, and we got another here. It was a clever way to do a match without one of the giants having to job.

The Business 

Prowrestlinghistory.com has a sellout of 22,000 fans paying $502,000. The inflation calculator shows that $1.52 million is the equivalent in today’s money. The key was closed-circuit TV, which sold 398,000 tickets nationwide for an additional $3.8 million. That’s $11.48 million in today’s money. Who knows if Vince’s story of the company going under if Mania wasn’t successful is true, but there’s no arguing that the success was tremendous. 

Results/Ratings

-Tito Santana def. The Executioner in 4:49 **1/4 

-King Kong Bundy def. SD Jones in 0:37 NR

-Ricky Steamboat def. Matt Borne in 4:37 **

-David Sammartino DDQ Brutus Beefcake in 11:44 * 

-IC Title Match: Junkyard Dog def. Greg Valentine (C) by CO in 6:55 1/2*

-World Tag Team Title Match: Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff def. Barry Windham & Mike Rotunda (C) in 6:56 **3/4 

-$15,000 Slam Match: Andre the Giant def. Big John Studd in 5:54 DUD

-Women’s Title Match: Wendi Richter def. Leilani Kai in 6:12 *1/2 

-Hulk Hogan & Mr. T def. Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff in 13:33 **1/2 

Snap Bumps: 

-The main event wasn’t a classic wrestling match by any stretch of the imagination, but it had nuclear heat, and Mr. T worked very well in his role. 

-The finish to the main set up the Orndorff babyface turn, which people forget did put him on a run where he was headlining with Hogan in tags and B shows with Piper. Then, the turn on Hogan was record-setting company house show business. It’s too bad Orndorff got the biceps injury that affected the rest of his career. He may have still been able to be a money player. Imagine a heel Orndorff against a babyface Randy Savage as a world title program in 1988. 

-It’s interesting how different Vince was in his approach to Mania from Jim Crockett Jr. with Starrcade. Crockett built up and blew off multiple stories, while Mania seemed like a more random collection of matches. 

-Muhammad Ali was really good in his role as special ref on the outside, including a spot where he almost decked Orndorff. Apparently, that wasn’t planned and Orndorff almost snapped, but the crowd loved it.

-The Andre/Studd match was just fucking abysmal, complete with Andre leg kicks because it’s as high as he could get his leg, and the winning bodyslam came after a long bearhug. 

-The first few matches were okay, but giving Santana/Rose and Steamboat/Borne an additional five minutes each would have changed the wrestling level on this show by a wide margin. 

-Speaking of Rose and Borne, this was after the real locker room Matt Borne beatdown of Rose related to Buddy marrying Matt’s sister. A pay day is a pay day. 

The Bundy match was announced as over in nine seconds and as a company record. That angle worked. People remembered it forever, and Bundy was working with Hogan at the next Mania. 

-The tag title match was good, particularly with Sneik on the heels side. Everyone worked around ol’ Nikolai. 

-Valentine’s in-ring was wasted with JYD. He had a match with Steamboat at the next MSG show that was absolutely fucking incredible. He was one of the best in the world at this time.  

-This was the big climax for the Wendi Richter/Cyndi Lauper stuff. That stuff might not have been classic pro rasslin’, but it was super fun and Richter was way fucking over as a result. Moolah playing the second and old fuddy-duddy foil for Lauper was perfect casting. 

-The David Sammartino match was set up to do Bruno/David vs. Beefcake/Johnny V at MSG at the next show. 

-Mean Gene singing the national anthem was…oof.

The Verdict: Thumbs Up  

The first Wrestlemania was a glorified MSG show with a supped-up celebrity main event. Besides the main, for some fucking reason, David Sammartino and Brutus Beecake got the second most time behind the main event (as in the match that drew the fuckng house!) in an inexplicable decision. Steamboat, Valentine, and Santana were three of the best workers in the country at the time and put in positions where they couldn’t show it. The tag title switch was the best match because Shieky was still effective, but match quality wasn’t a thought in anyone’s head here. Usually, I think workrate nerds can be incredibly short-sighted. Still, being a variable in your collective thought process is okay, especially when you know a stinker like Andre vs. Studd is on the show as an attraction. 

With all that being said, it was a show built around the main event, and as far as a celebrity wrestling match, T probably doesn’t get brought up enough anymore. He was perfect in his role here, and the crowd was everything you’d want and more. Wendi Richter regained the women’s title and danced with Cyndi Lauper to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Andre the Giant avoided retirement, bodyslammed his most significant threat, then threw money out to the marks. It was a show full of spectacle and feel-good moments, two of the company’s most important factors in their success. Listen to the crowd. Did it sound like anyone took the subway home and talked about how disappointed they were? For those reasons alone, I’ll go thumbs very slightly up, even if it’s not full of good wrestling.