Austin101's "WWF WrestleMania 1" Review:
-----------This marks the start of something in which I am going to try and make at least as good as My Rumble reviews, with reviews of WrestleMania (1-23). In which I'm more then sure a lot of people will argue with a lot of my ratings since Mania matches in paticular are discussed a lot on these boards frequently. But that's all good because I love discussion about the review and the PPV itself, that's the whole point. Plus I want these archived on the Star Ratings thread like the Rumble ones were.....-----------
-Live from New York City's Madison Square Garden.
Oh and if anyone was interested this event was a pretty big deal in 1985...just letting everyone know before hand if they didn't already.
Gorilla and Jesse do the play by play and color respectively. The best duo in the history of Pro-Wrestling in my books. Monsoon-Heenan comes close (even though I perfer Heenan as manager) and JR-King of the late 90's-03 do also.
Lord Alfred Hayes is doing pre match stuff, and Gene Okerlund is doing pre-match interviews (Which hillarious as it is with the guys who are clearly in the room together, must be 1985)
Onto the matches.....
1) Opening Match: (The First in Wrestlemania History) Tito Santana vs The Executioner
Wow the ropes were loose in this bout. (And I guess on the night but you could notice it most in this match.)
Funny story when I went to the theatre to watch Wrestlemania 23 with a buddy they had Wrestlemania trivia on the mic at the front before it started. If you put up your hand and answered questions correctly you won a replica title belt and if you didn't win that you won other goods such as DVD's and shirts (I won a poster, Taker's DVD, Manager DVD and Pillman's DVD) Right on right!?
I put my hand up almost every question as I knew almost every one, I was clearly the best one of the hundreds of people there, not to brag, not to brag. I'm not even a GEEK Either....wierd.
Anyways the significance of the story is one of the questions was "What was the first match in Mania history." And when I answered "Tito Santana vs The Executioner" the guy with the mic replied, "Dude how do you even know that!?" Everyone laughed and I didn't care, went up and grabbed my taker DVD proudly.
This match was decent for it's time, not so great wrestling wise but it set the flow for the night nicely and did it's job. It's historic for the reason it's the first match ever and Tito was an underrated wrestle at Mania, he appeared in quite a few and a lot of them were pretty good actually.
Tito won with the figure four leg lock at 4:43.
Oh Dear God..(that reminds me)...I nearly forgot to point out how HILLARIOUS The Executioner's promo before the match was. Go back and watch it. You must think "This is 1985 for sure." It ranks up there with Booker's promo on Hogan in WCW when he dropped the "N" bomb and Herules's at WM 3 (more on that one later) comedy wise.
* 3/4
2) King Kong Bundy (w/Jimmy Hart) vs Special Delivery Jones
Wow.
What a match this is going to be.
Here we go! Aaaaaaand it's over.
King Kong Bundy (who they clearly wanted to portray as a monster heel as he'd main event mania 2 with Hogan in the cage) pinned Jones after an avalanche and a big splash at 0:23.
The WWF announced the time of the match as 9 seconds.
WOW, who's intelligence our they insulting here....oh yeah, us.
Oh and Gorilla, King Kong Bundy is NOT 500 pounds but try again. I still love ya though. I'm sure you're not listening to me playing cards with Alfred Hayes up in the sky, give him a shot on the kisser for me.
Now that I'm done talking to dead in my review, I'll get to the much anticipated match rating...
Here it is...here it is.....
DUD (And I never have given out one yet but now I have. Who knows I may have been nice and gave it 1/4* if they didn't so clearly lie about the time the finish came)
3) Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat vs Matt Borne
Not sure if Matt Bourne has any relation to Jason. Ok, I'm joking. And it was a bad one at that....I know. I do that often. (Bad Jokes) Can you tell?
Anyways Ricky Steamboat is just tremendous..(I know the sky is blue)...but I really wish he competed in more Mania's but if he did that he wouldn't have had the classics with Flair maybe so I guess it's good in a way he didn't. This match wasn't overly special though but it's always good to see him wrestle on any occasion. One of the best in ring workers of all time without a doubt. If he was ever a heel and could cut better promo's he'd be one of the greatest wrestlers of all time no doubt.
Steamboat pinned Borne after a flying crossbody at 4:37. Pretty good match, quick and to the point and good when you compare it to some of the other matches in that era and on the night. Almost as decent as you can get in 4 and a half minutes of Wrestling action.
** 1/2
4) David Sammartino (w/Bruno Sammartino) vs Brutus Beefcake (w/Johnny Valiant)
I hate Beefcake.
I don't know much about David Sammartino outside of who is dad is.
Booooooooooooring.
Some decent wrestling though.
Did I mention this was boring? And long..
Funny when Jesse says a loss could put either man back a year. Wow how times have changed when wins and losses in the wrestling world actually meant something.
"The living legend" Bruno Sammartino got a huge pop after the match as expected when he interefered. David Sammartino and Beefcake wrestled to a double disqualification when Johnny Valiant attacked David Sammartino outside the ring, prompting Bruno Sammarino to respond, ending with all four men brawling in the ring at 12:43.
* 1/4
5) Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (w/Jimmy Hart) vs The Junkyard Dog for the WWF Intercontinental Championionship
Another average single's match on the card, Valentine is so underrated and underappreciated though....just thought I'd point that out. Thank god the WWF doesen't underrate him and put him in the Hall of Fame in 2004.
Greg Valentine originally pinned The JYD with a roll-up while holding onto the ropes for leverage. Displeased with the result, Tito Santana came out and told the referee about Valentine's illegal victory causing the match to restart. Boy they don't do that these days. The Hammer Valentine walked out of the match in typical heel fashion, giving JYD the win by countout at 7:05. However, Valentine retained the Intercontinental Championship of course.
** 1/4
6) Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik (w/Freddie Blassie) vs The US Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham) (w/Lou Albano) for the WWF Tag Team Championship
Not the best tag team match but Volkoff and the Sheik were so good at getting real life heat back then and did a great job in the ring with two guys 90's fans will know as The Stalker and IRS. Although both of them would probably perfer you remember them as there 80's persona's.
Just a guess.
The match had a good flow and wasn't to long (although appeared long for some reason) which is rare in matches with a good flow.
Volkoff pinned Windham after Sheik hit Windham with Blassie's cane to win the WWF tag titles for him and the Sheik at 6:55.
** 1/2
7) André the Giant defeated Big John Studd (w/Bobby Heenan) in a $15,000 Body Slam match
This match is as boring as piss.
Skip it. It's slow. Although not as bad as Andre's match with Jake at WM 5.
Only reason I'm giving it a star is for historical reasons (A theme that runs wild on this event, and I'll try and be a little better as I continue the early WM's in that aspect but it'll be difficult.)
André the Giant body slammed the "unslammable" Big John Studd to win the match at 5:53. After the match, André began to throw the money into the crowd to Heenan's dismay, who eventually got the bag back. You see a memorable shot of Andrew with his arm in the air here. (as seen in many WWF Wrestlemania packages)
The stipulations of the match were that if André had failed to slam Studd, that he would be forced to retire from wrestling. Even though "Retire from Wrestling" always meant very little in Pro-Wrestling back then and still does to this day.
*
8) Wendi Richter (w/Cyndi Lauper)[1] vs Leilani Kai (w/The Fabulous Moolah) for the WWF Ladie's Championship
Richter has a pretty nice ass. Yeah I said it, sue me.....No for real though these two put on a solid contest that was placed just before the main event, good booking.
Richter defeated Kai after reversing Kai's flying bodypress into a pin at 6:12 to win the WWF Ladies title (as they called it here)
A very good match and every fan in attendance had a smile on there face. You really felt like you were watching something special when this was happening and "Girls just wanna have fun" was playing on the speakers. Such a classic time, Lauper did a lot for the WWF.
***
9) Main Event- Hulk Hogan and Mr. T (w/Jimmy Snuka) vs "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff (w/Cowboy Bob Orton) (w/ Muhammad Ali as guest outside referee)
The spectacle is illustrated when a lot of celebs come out including Libberaci and Ali.
Hogan gets a huge pop as expected in the birth place of Hulkamania.
A lot of slow spots in the match but it was still intense. Overall a very solid tag match for back then.
Hogan pinned Orndorff after Orton accidentally hit Orndorff with his cast at 13:13. Hulkamania's momentum would go on to be very good at Wrestlemania in the main event as I will illustrate from this point on.....(unless he's in Sky Dome) This match was good in a way if you don't expect it to be the way it was in a certain way. Confused. You should be. Overall great and highly significant which boosts it's rating up quite a bit for me.
*** 1/4
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Final PPV Rating for Wrestlemania 1 = 6/10
This event gets a full two points on the significance of it. It was the original in front of a great crowd and it kick started the 80's boom and the WWF in paticular as well as the phenomonen itself known as Mania. It deserves it even though the wrestling itself wasn't anything special. A lot of celebs and press, and a lot of memories but it can't get a rating over
6, I'm being nice.
Feedback if you like to discuss as always.....
Up Next From
Austin101: WWF Wrestlemania 2
(Stay tuned.....)
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