Posted in: The Classroom The Classroom - History Of: WrestleMania Part 1
By Sean Taylor
Jan 1, 2009 - 4:00:00 PM
Well folks, it’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted
and I know there are some people out there who have been anticipating this
column’s debut. This is a challenge I
set down for myself to kick off 2009 and really give back to those who have
read my columns and sent feedback. I
will attempt to write twenty-four columns in fourteen weeks with the subject
being WrestleMania. This was a topic
that was popularly requested and should also prove as help to build up to this
year’s spectacular on April 4th.
For those who haven’t read my History Of series before, I
put in some links at the bottom of this column. I have done two series so far – History Of: The Monday Night War
and History Of: The Territories – and these have been the backbone of my column
writing. My History Of columns are done
with no bias and no opinions. I present
only facts and tell it like it happened.
I do this for two reasons – to inform those who may not have known and
to provide a fun trip down memory lane.
In this series, I obviously can’t put too much focus on every single
match so I’ll be going over main events, significant matches, storylines,
records, and happenings. I’ll also
write about what the wrestling industry was like at the time whenever
applicable. For those who have read my
History Of series before, I’m not going to waste any more time. Let’s get to it.
WrestleMania
Date: March 31, 1985
Venue: Madison Square Garden (New York City, New York)
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse “The Body” Ventura
Attendance: 19,121
In the 1980s, Vince McMahon Jr. had taken over the reigns of
the WWE (then known as the World Wrestling Federation or WWF) and had started
to take it to a more mainstream level.
Vince was faced with the question of how to make his organization stand
out above the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) or the American Wrestling
Alliance (AWA). At the time,
pay-per-view wasn’t like what it is today.
Pay-per-view was rare in individual households and referred more to
closed circuit television (CCT). CCT
allowed bars, restaurants, and smaller arenas to broadcast the event live while
charging patrons a predetermined entry fee.
Professional wrestling had already started following in
professional boxing’s footsteps by broadcasting on CCT. Jim Crockett Promotions had been putting on
an annual event called Starrcade starting in November of 1983. At that time, Starrcade was the biggest
wrestling card in North America. Vince
McMahon wanted to put on a show that would rival and surpass what Starrcade had
done. That show was WrestleMania. Vince’s style of wrestling was seen by many
people at the time as a circus filled with over the top characters and bizarre,
unnatural storylines. But Vince thought
that there was an audience for his product and knew that if he promoted it
right, he could make WrestleMania bigger than anything the wrestling business
had ever seen.
WrestleMania was broadcasted from the epicenter of the
professional wrestling world, Madison Square Garden in New York City. For years, the WWE had been recognized as
the “big time”. New York was the
territory where a wrestler would go to make the most money possible. Ticket prices for wrestling events at
Madison Square Garden were often almost double then anywhere else. So it only made sense for Vince to hold his
biggest show ever at MSG.
The
Undercard
Back in the 1980s, a wrestling card was structured and
promoted very differently than how it is today. Only the main event and maybe a two or three other matches were
aided by storylines or titles being defended and these matches received a very
substantially large percentage of the promotion for the event. If there wasn’t a storyline going in or a
title on the line, the match was advertised in smaller print on flyers and
mentioned quickly on the organization’s television programs. It was understood by the fans that the
undercard matches happened for two reasons.
The first being that by winning the match, the wrestler or
team moved up in the rankings and stood a better chance of getting a title
shot. Secondly, since professional
wrestling started it was understood that each match was assigned a
predetermined amount of money. This
amount was called “the purse”. The
wrestler or team who won the match earned the bigger portion of the purse. Winning the bigger portion of the purse
meant the wrester had more money to feed his family, buy a better house, and
buy more expensive cars. At the time,
it was very to how the wrestlers got paid and it added meaning to matches that
otherwise would have meant nothing.
At the inaugural WrestleMania, four matches fell under this
description. WrestleMania history
started with Tito Santana defeating The Executioner (aka “Playboy” Buddy
Rose). Following that, King Kong Bundy
defeated Special Delivery Jones in a nine second rout, Ricky Steamboat defeated
Matt Borne (the future Doink the Clown), David Sammartino (managed by his
father Bruno) and Brutus Beefcake (managed by “Luscious” Johnny Valiant)
battled to a double disqualification.
Putting The Gold On The
Line
WrestleMania, much like other wrestling supercards, featured
all of the promotion’s champions. Three
of the four active titles were on the line that night. The first title defense pitted
Intercontinental Champion Greg “The Hammer” Valentine against the very popular
Junkyard Dog. Greg Valentine pinned the
Junkyard Dog but had his feet on the second rope. Tito Santana returned to the ring and told the ref that he had
missed Valentine’s cheating and the ref restarted the match. But Valentine refused to get back in to the
ring and ended up getting counted out.
The second title match featured the Tag Team Champions U.S.
Express (Mike Rotundo & Barry Windham) versus The Iron Sheik and Nikolai
Volkoff. In the end, “Classy” Freddie
Blassie handed The Iron Sheik his trademark cane and Sheik broke it over the
back of Windham’s head allowing Volkoff to get the pinfall. Obviously this match would mark the first
title change in WrestleMania history.
The third and final title match was the second to last match
of the night and it was for the Women’s Championship. In the months leading up to WrestleMania, Captain Lou Albano
appeared in Cyndi Lauper’s music video for “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”. In the WWE, a storyline evolved where Albano
and Lauper began to feud. The angle was
brainstormed by Vince McMahon after he noticed the attention that Andy Kaufman
brought to the CWA in Memphis. Albano and
Lauper agreed to choose a female wrestler and have them wrestle to settle the
score. Albano chose Women’s Champion
The Fabulous Moolah and Lauper chose a young, up and comer named Wendi
Richter. At MTV’s Brawl To Settle It
All, Wendi Richter ended The Fabulous Moolah’s twenty-eight year reign as
Women’s Champion. Moolah soon found a
protégé in Leilani Kai. Moolah helped
Kai defeated Richter with outside interference. A rematch was signed for WrestleMania and the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling
Connection was born. With the
connection to Cyndi Lauper, Richter quickly became a big draw in the WWE,
especially to house shows. At one time,
Wendi’s popularity was only outdone by WWE Heavyweight Champion Hulk
Hogan. Richter regained the belt at
WrestleMania and celebrated with Lauper and Lauper’s manager in the ring.
Interesting sidenote: Richter held the title until November
25th when she faced The Spider Lady. The Spider Lady had been portrayed by many women over the course
of the year but that night it was Moolah under the mask. Richter later claimed that she wasn’t told
who was going to be portraying her opponent or if she was supposed to win or
lose. Moolah quickly attempted a
pinfall and Richter kicked out after 1 but the referee continued the fast count
and called for the bell. Richter
ignored the bell and ripped off Moolah’s mask. Richter then left the ring and the arena without changing out of
her ring gear. The incident became
known by fans as “The Original Screwjob”. Of course it wasn’t the first time a
swerve like it had been pulled but nearly twelve years later, Vince would change
the ending in a Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels title match that would be dubbed “The
Montreal Screwjob”.
The Slam Heard Around The
World
One of WrestleMania’s most anticipated matches featured Big
John Studd versus the extremely popular Andre the Giant in a $25,000 Bodyslam
Match. Studd was upset that Andre was
being referred to as the giant in the WWE and felt that honour should go to
himself – a belief that the character Studd shared with the man who played
him. So Studd challenged Andre to
bodyslam him at WrestleMania claiming Andre couldn’t do it. Studd put up $25,000 saying the money was
Andre’s if Andre could slam him. But if
Andre couldn’t, The French Giant would have to retire from professional
wrestling.
Despite having manager Bobby “The Brain” Heenan at ringside,
Studd failed in his quest as Andre scooped him up and slammed him to the
mat. The referee gave Andre a duffelbag
filled with money and the Giant starting throwing money to the audience. Heenan ran in, took the money back, and fled
toward to the dressing room.
The Main
Event
For the biggest wrestling card ever planned, McMahon knew he
had to have a match that would capture the fans’ attention and draw them into
the building and to order on closed circuit television. McMahon’s most popular wrester was WWE
Champion Hulk Hogan. Hogan was the
centerpiece of McMahon’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection movement. Hogan had appeared on the Tonight Show, on
the covers of Sports Illustrated and TV Guide, and had his own successful
Saturday morning cartoon show. All
McMahon needed was the company’s biggest heel.
And he had it in one “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.
Piper was a notorious heel who was sharp with his tongue and
vicious in the ring. On December 28,
1984, Cyndi Lauper and Hulk Hogan appeared on Piper’s Pit. Lauper was there to give Hogan an
award. After Hogan left the ring, Piper
attacked Lauper. Hogan wouldn’t let
this go unpunished. Hogan and Piper
fought at an MTV show in a match that was dubbed “The War To Settle The
Score”. With the ref knocked out, Piper
and his running partner “Cowboy” Bob Orton attacked Hogan before turning their
attention to Lauper. A saviour came to
Lauper’s aid. Mr. T was sitting at
ringside and jumped the barricade. WWE
officials, police, and arena security stormed the ring area. This led to the making of the WrestleMania
main event: Hulk Hogan and Mr. T versus Roddy Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul
Orndorff.
McMahon spent a lot of money into the promotion of this
match. Hulk Hogan became the first
wrestler to host Saturday Night Live.
Hogan and Mr. T appeared on hundreds of local and national talk shows. McMahon also hired a number of celebrities
to appear during the main event.
Flamboyant pianist Liberace was the special guest timekeeper. Controversial former New York Yankees
manager Billy Martin acted as the special guest announcer. But the crown jewel to the match was former
heavyweight boxing champion Muhammed Ali who was assigned to be the special
guest referee. Ironically, he would
later be changed into the outside referee.
When Ali arrived at the arena, Pat Patterson determined that Ali was not
mentally prepared to referee the match (due to his suffering from the early
stages of Parkinson’s Disease) so they moved him to the outside while Patterson
took over the referee duties.
With “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka and Bob Orton added as corner
men, the match was set. The success of
WrestleMania and the WWE rode on how the match played out. The McMahon family had almost every last
cent they had into the success of WrestleMania. It was a gamble (they spent a reported $900,000) that all rested
on the main event delivering what it promised.
The gamble paid off. Fans packed
Madison Square Garden, press surrounded the ring, and millions tune in across
North America. During the main event,
even Muhammed Ali got caught up in the excitement. Ali actually got angry with Piper and Orndorff and wanted to
start fighting them himself. Hulk Hogan
and Mr. T had their hands raised but it was the WWE who won that night. WrestleMania was a huge success and everyone
was excited for the new era of professional wrestling that was being ushered
in.
Well, not everybody . . .
The Event That Almost
Wasn’t
There were a lot of people hoping WrestleMania wouldn’t be a
success. The NWA had been the number
one promotion since the late 1940s.
When McMahon started crossing borders in the early eighties, he was
breaking the unwritten rule that his father had agreed to. The NWA and the AWA were run like a
mafia. If someone came into your
backyard, you took them out of it – by any means necessary.
Weeks before WrestleMania, the NWA Board of Directors met
privately during the NWA Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to discussing how to book their
upcoming cards, they also threw around ideas on how to insure McMahon’s gamble
didn’t pay off. Plans for bomb scares,
paying off WWE employees to sabotage from the inside, and even assassination
plots against Vince and his family were considered. Whether it is all tough talk or a willingness to see if
WrestleMania failed on its own, none of the threats were followed through with. But it wasn’t for lack of want. Wrestlers and promoters who weren’t in the
WWE at the time didn’t want the business to change and WrestleMania forced that
change.
WrestleMania was Vince’s biggest attempt to radically
revolutionize the wrestling industry and it worked. The WWE had drawn the line in the sand and challenged all
the other promotions to top them. But
the other promotions weren’t on Vince’s mind.
Vince only had one thing on his mind.
How to top his own creation the following year.
The answer was simple.
Three cities.
Well that about wraps up the first part of this twenty-four part series. Remember folks, we’re on a tight deadline here so keep your eyes peeled for the following columns. I have some ideas to add some audio or video components to this series as well but I haven’t quite worked out the details yet so stay tuned. I may even bring in some special guests. But for right now, here’s your HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: Send me an email or post in the feedback thread and tell me what you liked and/or didn’t like about this column. All feedback will be responded to and I openly welcome both positive and negative comments and questions. You can also tell me your favourite part of the original WrestleMania.
History Of: The
Territories Part 1Part
2Part 3Part 4Part
5
(And I promise this will be the only time, I plug/whore out
my own columns. Be sure to stop by the
Columns Forums and check out some of the best wrestling columnists on the net.)
