Welcome to the first edition of our WrestleMania Rewind series, written by yours truly, exclusively for everyone here at SLTD Wrestling. The aim of WrestleMania Rewind is to review every WrestleMania in roughly 2,000 words. We’ll also archive every one of these reviews, so you can read them at your leisure.
Let’s start with the inaugural “Showcase of the Immortals” then. It took place on March 31, 1985 in front of 20,000 fans at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, the unofficial “home” of the WWF/E.
The announce team are 2 of my favourites, Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse “The Body” Ventura, who’s wearing what can only be described as a spectacular pink tuxedo, complete with bandana. Howard Finkel’s taking care of things in the ring, leaving Mean Gene and Lord Alfred Hayes to deal with segues and interviews backstage.
Match 1: The Executioner vs Tito Santana
The Executioner was “undefeated” heading into this one against Santana, nursing an injury thanks to Greg “The Hammer” Valentine in a match for the Intercontinental Championship. Hey, remember when that belt actually meant something?
Tito kicks off like a house on fire dropkicking Executioner outside early doors. Executioner tries to work on Tito’s leg throughout the match, but Santana kicks him off. Santana gets the win via submission, thanks to a huge flying forearm and a figure-4 leg-lock.
Opinion: You can really see why the crowd loved Santana so much. He showed great babyface fire here, and, as always, was technically sound. The Executioner was OK, nothing special. A good way to kick-off WrestleMania.
Match 2: SD “Special Delivery” Jones vs King Kong Bundy
I’ll be honest and say that SD Jones is a relative unknown to me, whereas everybody knows the sheer magnificence that is King Kong Bundy. He tells SD pre-match that he’ll be down for 5.
Bundy asserts his power early, cinching in a bearhug. He rams Jones into the corner, and hits his “Avalanche” splash. He follows it up with another splash to get the win. Match over after 9 seconds.
Opinion: Quite the squash match really. Bundy kicked ass, then left without breaking a sweat.
Match 3: Ricky Steamboat vs Matt Borne
Ricky’s one of my favourites and this is the first time I’ve seen Borne wrestle as himself, not Doink.
Steamboat’s in control early until Borne gets back into it. Steamboat basically chops the hell out of Borne and locks in a few headlocks. Borne fights back and gets a 2-count off a suplex. They exchange chops until Steamboat rocks Borne with a right hand. Ricky gets a 2-count off a knee-drop before clinching the win with a flying crossbody from the top rope.
Opinion: A great match, even though it wasn’t too long. Both guys were able to showcase their athleticism and ability, with Steamboat just edging it.
Match 4: David Sammartino (w/Bruno Sammartino) vs Brutus Beefcake (w/Johnny Valiant)
The first thing I noticed was that there’s a touch of Davey Boy Smith about Beefcake here. On the other hand, David Sammartino looks like a stereotypical lesbian.
Brutus stalls for as long as he can before David takes him down with a toe-hold. They jockey. David escapes from a waistlock. They exchange submissions with neither man getting any real advantage. The finish comes when Brutus throws David outside and Valiant gets involved. There’s a brawl that ends in the match being a double-DQ.
Opinion: This was OK. It didn’t really show either man in a good light and it was probably just a way to get Bruno on the show. He was ridiculously over with the crowd at MSG – Bruno’s house effectively.
Match 5: Intercontinental Championship Match – Greg “The Hammer” Valentine (c) vs Junkyard Dog
JYD gets the biggest pop of the night so far, and his entrance was the first time we’d heard music on the show.
They both jockey early. JYD lands some “dog-butts”. Valentine works over JYD’s legs. JYD kicks Valentine off him. Jimmy Hart causes a distraction. Valentine comes off the ropes, Dog moves and Hart gets knocked off the apron. Dog lands some punches until Valentine rakes his eyes, rolls him up and uses the ropes for leverage to get the win.
Post-match, Tito comes out to tell the ref what happened. The ref restarts the match and Valentine walks off. JYD wins via count-out.
Opinion: I didn’t really see much of JYD during his career. He was a bit before my time. Still, he was over like crazy here and Valentine was the consummate professional here, eliciting the right reactions from the crowd. Good stuff.
Match 6: Tag-Team Championship Match: Mike Rotunda & Barry Windham (w/Captain Lou Albano) vs Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff (w/Classy Freddie Blassie)
Pre-match, Sheikie baby cuts one of his epic promos. “Iran Number 1, Russia Number 1, America (spits)”. Heel gold from Sheik. Volkoff also generously gives us a rendition of the Russian anthem. You can guess where this is going. Yup. NUCLEAR heat on the heels and HUGE USA chants when the champs come out.
Good babyface fire early until the heels get control. Rotunda makes the hot-tag to Windham, who cleans house. They brawl until the ref gets distracted. Sheikie baby nails Windham in the back with Blassie’s cane, and Volkoff gets the pin.
Opinion: Great work from both teams in a relatively quick match. Like I said, nuclear heat on the heels here. Sheikie baby number 1!
Match 7: $15,000 Bodyslam Match: Big John Studd vs Andre The Giant
The premise of the match is that if Andre wins, he gets $15,000. If Studd wins, Andre retires. I guess we all know which way this is going huh?
Andre is just totally dominant, with chops, kicks, right hands and bearhugs. He slams Studd and gets the win fairly quickly. As Andre celebrates with the cash, Heenan tea-leafs (that’s thieves for our friends who aren’t from the UK) the bag and runs off with it.
Opinion: Make no mistake. These 2 men are absolutely massive. Andre dwarfs Studd, who’s damn near 7 feet tall himself. Crowd LOVES Andre. He tries to cut a promo backstage after the match, but he gets cut off by those at ringside.
Match 8: Women’s Championship Match: Leilani Kai (c) (w/Fabulous Moolah) vs Wendi Richter (w/Cyndi Lauper)
Richter gets in control with a hammerlock early. Kai replies with a wristlock. Kai chokes Richter, who gets a leg-scissors in at the same time. Richter gets a 2-count off a driver-type manoeuvre. The champ replies with a 2-count of her own from a set of double knees and a backbreaker. Kai goes up top and lands a crossbody, but Richter rolls through to get the win and become the new champ.
Post-match, Moolah tries to get into the ring and trips over the middle rope, which made me chuckle.
Opinion: Going by today’s standards, this would be a 4-star Divas match. Both well-established characters, with enough outside involvement to keep the fans entertained.
Match 9: Rowdy Roddy Piper & “Mr 1Derful” Paul Orndorff (w/Cowboy Bob Orton) vs WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and Mr T (w/Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka)
There’s a ton of heat on Piper, Orndorff and Orton as they head to the ring, whereas the crowd explodes at the site of Hogan, T and Snuka. Loud “T” chants as the bell rings. Piper’s facials are excellent, especially when T gets in the ring. Good, old-fashioned sneers.
The start’s chaotic, but the heels get in control once things settle down. Pat Patterson, the ref, tries to keep a tight rein on things, but he fails. There’s several brawls, especially at the end of the match, which comes when Orndorff has Hogan by the waist. Orton flies off the top rope and Hogan squirms out of the way, leaving Orndorff to get nailed with the cast and Hogan to get the win.
Opinion: It’s a decent main-event, designed to keep T’s involvement to a minimum – quick flurries of offense before he tags Hogan. I’d forgotten the heat on Piper leading into this. It was insane. Good way to end the show and send the crowd home happy.
Summary: We got 9 matches on the card and none of them, aside from the main-event, went over about 10 minutes. Some of the production values were a bit shoddy, but considering it was the mid-80’s, it wasn’t bad. You could see the wrestlers walking to and from the ring when Alfred Hayes was trying to do his links, which was a bit hokey. Surely they could’ve positioned him elsewhere.
Just looking at this show as a one-off event, you’d have got long odds on WrestleMania becoming what it has today. There’s just no indication of that here. All in all, it was a very decent show with something for everyone. Only thing missing was a WWF Championship match, but that’s understandable given what the main-event was.
Hopefully you enjoyed that quick look back at WrestleMania 1. Leave your comments/feedback via the usual channels, and join me again tomorrow to revisit WrestleMania 2!
SLTD Wrestling's resident Scottish Nightmare. Some of my content may not be suitable for younger readers or those who are easily offended!
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