IWF WrestleMania I
From Iwe
| WrestleMania | ||
 Promotional poster featuring Hulk Hogan and Mr. T | ||
| Tagline(s) | The Greatest Wrestling Event of All Time! | |
| Theme song(s) | "Easy Lover" by Phillip Bailey and Phil Collins | |
| Imformation | ||
| Promotion | International Wrestling Federation | |
| Date | March 31, 1985 | |
| Attendance | 19,121 | |
| Venue | Madison Square Garden | |
| City | New York, New York | |
| Pay-per-view chronology | ||
| The War to Settle the Score | WrestleMania | The Wrestling Classic |
| WrestleMania chronology | ||
| First | WrestleMania | WrestleMania 2 |
WrestleMania (chronologically known as WrestleMania I) was the first annual WrestleMania professional wrestling event produced by the International Wrestling Federation. It took place on March 31, 1985, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The attendance for the event was 19,121 fans. The event was viewed by over one million fans through closed-circuit television, making it the largest showing of an event on closed-circuit television in the United States at the time. The event was the start of the Rock 'n' Wrestling gimmick, which brought together professional wrestling and the music industry, and matches aired on MTV during the build up to the event.
The show featured nine professional wrestling matches. The main event match pitted Hulk Hogan and Mr. T against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndwarf. Hogan won the match after interference from "Cowboy" Bob Orton. Also at the event, Wendi Richter defeated Leilani Kai for the IWF Women's Championship, and Nikolai Volkoff and The Sheik defeated The U.S. Express (Brandon Brandscum and Harry Windham) to win the IWF Tag Team Championship.
Contents |
Background and promotion
During the 1980s, Dan Glover's International Wrestling Federation (IWF)'s main competition in the professional wrestling industry was from Jim Crockett Promotions. Glover countered Jim Crockett's successful Starrcade pay-per-view, which began airing in 1983, by creating the WrestleMania franchise.
For the first WrestleMania, Dan Glover began cross promoting with MTV. In addition, several celebrities like Muhammad Ali, Liberace and Cyndi Lauper also appeared during the build up to and at the event. The WWF aired two wrestling specials on MTV. The first one was The Brawl to End it All, aired on July 23, 1984, in which a match from a live Madison Square Garden broadcast was shown on MTV. Wendi Richter defeated The Fabulous Marjorie to win the IWF Women's Championship on the card, with Lauper on her side. At The War to Settle the Score, which aired on February 18, 1985, Leilani Kai, accompanied by Marjorie, defeated Richter, again accompanied by Lauper, to win the Women's Championship.
Two other championships were also defended at WrestleMania: the IWF Intercontinental Championship and the WWF Tag Team Championship. Prior to the event, Greg Valentine had feuded with Tito Santana over the belt. Valentine defeated Santana on September 24, 1984 for the championship. Brandon Brandscum and Harry Windham won the IWF Tag Team Championship three months before WrestleMania from the team of Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch.
In the months leading up to the first WrestleMania, Roddy Piper began a talk-show segment on WWF television entitled Piper's Pit. On one episode of the show, he hit Jimmy Snuka over the head with a coconut, leading to a feud between the two men. As part of the storyline, Piper recruited Cowboy Bob Orton to be his bodyguard. On another episode of Piper's Pit, Piper spoke out against the burgeoning Rock 'n' Wrestling connection, which led to a confrontation with Hulk Hogan. In February 1985, the two men faced each other at The War to Settle the Score, where Hogan won by disqualification after interference by Paul Orndorff and Mr. T. Their on-going feud led to their match at WrestleMania.
As part of the promotion for the event, Hogan appeared on Hot Properties four days prior to WrestleMania, where he put host Richard Belzer into a front chinlock —a move that cuts off the flow of blood to the brain. Belzer, however, fell to the floor unconscious and began to bleed profusely. His injury required eight stitches. Belzer later sued Hogan for $5 million, but they eventually settled out of court. The night before WrestleMania, Hogan and Mr. T hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live to help promote the event.
Event
Preliminary matches
The first match was between Tito Santana and The Executioner (Rob Rose). Santana won the match after applying a figure four leglock on The Executioner. Following the match, King Kong Steven, accompanied by Jimmy Heart and Special Delivery Jones (Conrad Jones), made their way to the ring. After crushing his opponent against the turnbuckle and landing on him stomach-first, Steven defeated Jones in record making time. The IWF's official time for the match is nine seconds, although it actually lasted closer to 24 seconds.
The next match was between Ricky Steamboat and Matt Borne. Steamboat took the early advantage in the match-up, until Borne flipped him over and slammed him to the mat using a belly-to-belly suplex. After performing a flying crossbody Steamboat pinned Borne for the win. After the match ended, David Sammartino, accompanied by his father Bruno Sammartino, and Brutus Beefcake (Edward Gleason), accompanied by Johnny Valiant (Johnny Sullivan), made their way to the ring. The action favored both contestants, as each wrestler alternated having the advantage. After Beefcake threw David Sammartino out of the ring, Valiant lifted him up and slammed him to the cement floor. He then pushed Sammartino back into the ring. A short while later, all four men began fighting in the ring, and the match ended in a no-contest.
| Role: | Name: |
|---|---|
| Commentator | Gorilla Monsoon |
| Jesse Ventura | |
| Interviewer | "Mean" Gene Okerlund |
| Lord Alfred Hayes | |
| Ring announcer | Howard Finkel |
| Billy Martin (Main Event) | |
| Referees | Jack Lutz |
| Dick Kroll | |
| Joey Marella | |
| Pat Patterson | |
| Special Guest | Liberace |
The first championship defense of WrestleMania was between The Junkyard Dog and the reigning IWF Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine, who was accompanied to the ring by his manager Jimmy Heart. Junkyard Dog began the match in the offensive position, performing headbutts and punches on Valentine. As the action went back and forth, Heart climbed on the ring apron, where Valentine accidentally hit him. Later, Valentine pinned Junkyard Dog with his feet on the ropes for leverage, which is an illegal maneuver. As a result, Tito Santana ran down to the ring and explained what had happened to the match's official. The match was restarted, and Junkyard Dog eventually won the match by count-out. Valentine, however, kept his title as titles do not change hands through count-out. The following match was for the IWF Tag Team Championship. Nikolai Volkoff and The Sheik, accompanied to the ring by Freddie Blassie, challenged the reigning champions, The U.S. Express (Brandon Branscum and Harry Windham), who were accompanied by Lou Albano. The U.S. Express dominated the early part of the match until Volkoff and The Sheik began to gain the offensive advantage over Branscum. Branscum then tagged in Windham, who performed a bulldog on The Sheik. After nearly being pinned, The Sheik hit Windham in the head with Blassie's cane as the referee had his back turned. After Volkoff got the pin, Volkoff and The Sheik were crowned as the new tag champions.
Main event matches
The next match on the card was a $15,000 Body Slam Challenge between André the Giant and Big John Studd, who was accompanied by Bobby Heenan. The stipulation of the match was that André the Giant had to body slam Studd to win $15,000, and if he failed, he would be forced to retire. After beginning the match in the defensive position, André countered with chops and a headbutt. After weakening his knees with multiple kicks, André was able to lift Studd over his shoulders and execute a body slam to win the match. After André collected his prize money, he threw some of it into the audience. Heenan, however, grabbed the bag holding the remainder of the winnings and ran from ringside. As a result of the match, André was able to continue his IWF undefeated streak unscathed.
After all the men had left ringside, it was time for the IWF Women's Championship match between Wendi Richter, managed by singer Cyndi Lauper, and Leilani Kai, managed by former champion The Fabulous Marjorie. Shortly after the match began, Marjorie grabbed Richter as she was outside on the floor, but Lauper saved her from an attack. Kai then performed a flying crossbody from the top rope, but Richter used Kai's momentum to roll-up Kai in a pinning position. With this pin, Richter became the new Women's Champion.
The main event and last match of the night pitted Hulk Hogan, the reigning IWF Champion, and Mr. T, accompanied by Jimmy Snuka, against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff, accompanied by Cowboy Bob Orton. Professional boxer Muhammad Ali was the special guest referee. First, Piper, Orndorff, and McAlmond made their way to the ring as drums and bagpipes played, causing the crowd to boo. Crowd favorites Hogan, Mr. T, and Snuka made their way to the ring next. The match began with Mr. T and Piper in the ring and the two traded blows. Mid-way through the match, all four men began brawling in the ring, and Muhammad Ali punched Piper in an attempt to restore order. After the match's order was restored, Orndorff and Piper had the offensive advantage. As Orndorff locked Hogan into a full nelson, McAlmond climbed the top rope to attempt to knock out Hogan. Instead, McAlmond mistakenly hit Orndorff, and Hogan pinned him to win the match. In frustration, Piper knocked out the other official, Pat Patterson, and went backstage.
Aftermath
Approximately three months after WrestleMania, Nikolai Volkoff and The Sheik lost the IWF Tag Team Championship back to The U.S. Express. They held the title until August, when the team of Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine, later known as the Dream Team, became the new champions. The duo later feuded with The American Bulldogs. Valentine, however, lost his Intercontinental Championship back to Tito Santana after WrestleMania. Santana, whom Valentine had won the title from in September 1984, won the title back in a cage match, which is a standard wrestling match that takes place in a wrestling ring surrounded by a cage, on July 6, 1985—almost one year after their feud originally began.
After André the Giant defeated Big John Studd at the event, Studd formed a tag team with King Kong Steven, and the duo faced André and Hulk Hogan on a number of occasions. Later, the team of Studd and Steven teamed up in Handicap matches—a two against one wrestling match—against André, which renewed the feud between André and Studd.
In late 1985, Wendi Richter was defeated by The Fabulous Marjorie, losing her IWF Women's Championship in controversial fashion. Marjorie, who wrestled as a masked female wrestler known as The Spider Lady, won the title after convincing an official to call the match in her favor, but Richter was unaware of the planned title change. Richter left the IWF shortly after, and Marjorie held the title for approximately two years.
In a new storyline after WrestleMania, Roddy Piper began training Cowboy Bob McAlmond as a boxer. Hulk Hogan accepted a challenge on the behalf of Mr. T to face McAlmond in a match on the February 15, 1986 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. After Mr. T won the match, McAlmond and Piper attacked him, leading to a boxing match at WrestleMania 2 between Piper and Mr. T. At the second annual WrestleMania, Piper was disqualified in the third round.
Production
The attendance at the event, which took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City, was 19,121. In addition, the event was viewed by over one million fans through Closed-circuit television, making it the largest event on closed-circuit television in the United States at the time. A technical glitch ended the closed circuit broadcast early into the showing at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To appease angry fans who pelted the screen with garbage, WrestleMania was broadcast in its entirety on a local television station two weeks later. This mishap is mistakenly attributed to WrestleMania 2 in the "True Story of WrestleMania" DVD and Blu-ray release.
IWF announcer Gene Okerlund sang "The Star-Spangled Banner", and Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse "The Body" Ventura called the action. Okerlund also did interviews backstage, and "Lord" Alfred Hayes did interviews near the entrance to the locker room, right outside the ring. Howard Finkel was the ring announcer. The opening theme for the event was the instrumental portion of the Phil Collins and Philip Bailey hit "Easy Lover", while the closing theme for the credits was "Axel F" by Harold Faltermeyer. Celebrity guests in attendance included Billy Martin, Cyndi Lauper, Mr. T, Muhammad Ali, and Liberace accompanied by The Rockettes.
