WrestleMania 1

WrestleMania was the inaugural WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced by the World 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.

Theme song(s): "Easy Lover" by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins

Date: 31 March 1985

Location: Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, United States

Venue: Madison Square Garden

Promotion: WWE

Attendance: 19,121

10. The Event Was Nearly Called "The Colossal Tussle"

Yes, really.

The then-WWF sure loved rhyming, or near-rhyming. Over the previous year, MTV aired WWE specials such as, "The Brawl to End it All", and "The War to Settle the Score." Those were fine for televised one-offs, but an event with higher ambition needed a bolder moniker.

Credit for the "WrestleMania" name is often given to Howard Finkel, but former booker George Scott claims to have come up with it. According to Scott, six months before WrestleMania took place, a meeting was held to determine the name. Somebody in the room said "Mania", and Scott logically put "Wrestle" in front of it. Somebody else said Colossal Tussle, and it won a hasty vote. The next day, per Scott's story, he all but cornered McMahon, and was able to sell him on the stronger "WrestleMania" name.

For what it's worth, in September 1985, a Madison Square Garden event entitled, "The Colossal Jostle" took place, with Andre the Giant headlining against King Kong Bundy.


9. Numerous WrestleMania Performers Wrestled In Atlanta The Previous Morning

If you pore through WWE results over the years, you often find that the roster tends to be idle for six or seven days before WrestleMania. These days, they work Raw at the latest, and then are given time off to rest up during 'Mania week. In the pre-Raw era, they'd finish a house show loop the Sunday before, and would be freed up until the big day.

Not in 1985. On Saturday morning, March 30, a host of performers journeyed to TBS Studios in Atlanta (the final days of McMahon owning the time slot), and taped television. The likes of Ricky Steamboat, Brutus Beefcake, Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, King Kong Bundy, Greg Valentine, and David Sammartino all took part, with WrestleMania announcer Gorilla Monsoon on the call.

It's only a two-hour flight from Atlanta to New York, but it does offer a window into how demanding life can be for a traveling wrestler.


8. Hulk Hogan And Mr. T Hosted Saturday Night Live 13 Hours Before WrestleMania

Often gone unnoted is the fact that WrestleMania I took place at 1 PM in the afternoon New York time, as though it were an early-afternoon NFL game. The call-time for WrestleMania must have been exceptionally early, as McMahon would have wanted to ensure that everything went smoothly.

As part of the media blitz for the event, Hogan and Mr. T hosted the institutional Saturday Night Live at 11:30 PM the previous night, and were there for the curtain call at 1 AM. Traditionally, the SNL host(s), guests, cast, and crew all go out and party at some New York night spot until the wee hours, and one wonders if the babyface duo partook in any capacity.

Even if Hogan and Mr. T were in bed with the lights out no later than 2 AM, they had to have been somewhat exhausted by the time they rolled into the Garden on Sunday.


7. Jesse Ventura Was A Bundle Of Nerves

"The Body" had already transitioned into color commentary, replacing retired bruiser Angelo Mosca on broadcasts of All Star Wrestling in January 1985. Nonetheless, the pressure of beaming out to a closed-circuit audience across America, where any of his flaws would be seen without the benefit of editing, apparently weighed heavily on Ventura's shoulders.

The normally-unflappable future Governor was subtly ill at ease when the afternoon telecast began.

Gorilla Monsoon claims that he had to hold Ventura up by the back of his gaudy tuxedo jacket when the pair kicked off the show, addressing the closed-circuit viewers. Before long, Ventura would confidently settle into a workable groove, but when the red lights first came on, it was a much different story.


6. It Was Tito Santana's Only WrestleMania Win

It's an oft-cited stat, but one worth mentioning here. Santana was the Sami Zayn of his time, banked on to deliver quality, workman-like performances, but existing a level or two below the headliners.

Sure enough, Santana defeated the masked Executioner (Buddy Rose) to jerk the Garden curtain, and then would go on to lose at seven straight WrestleManias. The run culminated with a loss to an on-the-rise Shawn Michaels in 1992, when Santana was on the verge of his thirty-ninth birthday.

While Santana did defeat Papa Shango in the dark match of WrestleMania 9 the year after that, dark matches don't really count in the records. No matter what fibs WWE officials feed the pre-show performers (i.e. last year), pre-show isn't WrestleMania.


5. SD Jones Missed His Cue On The "Nine Second" Finish (Possibly Deliberately)

Certainly, it was the longest nine seconds in wrestling history. Glorified enhancement talent Special Delivery Jones was to do the honors for the monstrous King Kong Bundy, and a nine-second squash would cast the gargantuan as a legitimate threat.

Of course, anyone who can read a watch knows that the match was closer to 24 seconds. Poor Howard Finkel was forced to declare that was only nine seconds in the post-match proclamation.

In later interviews, Bundy would say that Jones was at fault for the foul-up, claiming Jones wouldn't go to the mat when he was supposed to, where Bundy could hit the finishing splash. Bundy has also added that Jones didn't like the idea of losing in a quickie, hinting that Jones' delay was an intentional screw-you toward the designed finish.


4. Ricky Steamboat Only Debuted Four Weeks Before The Show

In early 1985, Steamboat parted ways with his long-time home territory of Jim Crockett Promotions, reportedly after differences with creative head Dusty Rhodes. "The Dragon" would quickly resurface in New York, the sort of popular and multi-faceted performer that was crucial for the "McMahonifest Destiny" that WWE was carving out.

It's not too common for wrestlers to make it to the WrestleMania main show without a firmly-rooted presence on company programming, but Steamboat was certainly an exception. For his WWE debut, he took part in a set of Atlanta tapings dated March 2, 1985, defeating veteran Tony Russo.

From there, Steamboat joined McMahon's touring circus, and made it to WrestleMania, where he was given a quick win over journeyman Matt Borne.


3. Don Muraco Was Kept Off The Show Due To Future Plans

Numerous recognizable performers were omitted from the WrestleMania card for one reason or another, and perhaps none was more conspicuous than "Magnificent" Muraco. The dry-witted powerhouse, and two-time former Intercontinental Champion, had returned from a hiatus of several months in early 1985, now managed by Mr. Fuji. He took up a full schedule again, so his absence from the maiden WrestleMania feels a bit odd.

Muraco would later claim in a shoot interview that he was being saved to work a series of WWE Championship bouts with Hulk Hogan post-Mania. Sure enough, the two worked at the Garden three times between April and June 1985, culminating with Hogan thwarting him a steel cage match. Still, couldn't Muraco have squashed someone like Rocky Johnson or Barry O on the show, to build him up more?


2. Mr. T Nearly Walked Out The Day Of WrestleMania

The problems between Mr. T and Rowdy Roddy Piper are common knowledge. Piper wasn't the only wrestler from that old guard that resented having to work with an outsider, one that hadn't put in the miles that they had. Paul Orndorff also has stated his dislike of the A-Team star, while Brutus Beefcake would note in a 2015 interview that Hogan had to essentially babysit a mentally-frazzled Mr. T.

The day of the show, apparently fearing that Piper and Orndorff would shoot on him, Mr. T reportedly gave thought to walking out. Mr. T was also upset that his entourage wasn't allowed backstage, and Hogan had to smooth things over with security, admitting his partner's friends to keep peace. Fortunately, the main event went smoothly, with Piper and Mr. T cooperating on a number of entertaining spots.


1. McMahon Openly Told His Wrestlers That It Was Make-Or-Break

Indeed, WrestleMania was apparently a life-and-death proposition, a high-consequence gamble on the part of McMahon. He'd personally invested so much in the closed-circuit venture and the bold move to take a wrestling territory national. If the show had failed, so too would the World Wrestling Federation, and McMahon would have been ruined.

Tito Santana claims that McMahon openly admitted as much, saying in a 2015 interview, "[Vince McMahon] told us that he put all the marbles in one basket. He said tonight, we're either gonna make it or we're gonna go broke."

Hogan added, “I don’t know who had skin in the game other than Vince — he may have had investors — but I do know that everything he owned and loved and cared about, he put up on the auction block.”

With 19,000 strong in the Garden, and more than 400,000 fans across the country that bought into the closed-circuit airings, WrestleMania was a success, and WWE would live to see many more days.