Where it all began...WrestleMania (1985)

Hello and welcome to the most ambitious wrestling blog in the history of blogs. One that shall collapse in on itself almost immediately from the pressure of it's unrealistic ambition. An overly detailed look at the history of the WWE via each and every PPV they have put on and each and every match on those PPVs. What could go wrong? Other than me loosing interest before the end of the first match and quitting. I have faith. 

So, whats the plan? One Blog for each match from every WWE PPV in chronological order, starting with the original WrestleMania on the 31st March 1985. I'm following the order on the WWE Network so if anyone is as strange as me they can watch along. That is why I'm starting with WrestleMania despite some objecting to it not actually being a PPV. 

As we go I'm going to rank each match, not on a star rating but with endless points where every time I'm entertained I give it a point so potentially a great match can get a massive score. I'm going to keep track of all the matches in a giant ranking as well as the best wrestlers which will be decided by the points they get for their matches, as well as successful wins and defences. What else?

We are going to live in the moment. We don't talk about the future, so when it's WrestleMania in 1985 we don't talk about what's to come for each person HOWEVER I will give a detailed look at each person's career up to their match and in future PPVs we will talk about what happened between the two PPVs which in the early days is a long period of time.

I think it's a good way to relive WWE History especially as at time of writing, an extremely well developed world champ has just lost in a couple of minutes to an old man in Saudi Arabia. But we will get there in 35 years. Enough of the future. Let's head back to where it all began....

Today we aren't actually going to talk about the first match as we have some background to start off with. First a brief history of the WWE until this point.

The World Wide (an extra W at the time) Wrestling Federation, or the WWWF, was formed in 1963.

In 1979 the 2nd W was dropped and the WWWF became the Now (as in 1985) WWF.

In 1983 the Wrestling world was changed forever when the WWF left the governing body of independent wrestling promotions, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). War was about to begin. The WWF started buying syndicated TV in other wrestling promotions areas and then used the money from these TV Deals to secure talent from these other promotions. In this era, everyone respected everyone else's territory and so the WWF was committing a big No No. 

The WWF started touring nationally around the country and this would come at an expense and put them in a bad financial position, one that would be solved by a a huge leap of faith and a giant risk.....

WrestleMania

At the time, the biggest competition to the WWF was Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), a major member of the aforementioned NWA. JCP had their own PPV event named "Starrcade" which had aired in December of 1983 and 1984 and now the WWF wanted to counter this successful PPV with an event of there own...WrestleMania. The WWF's competition mocked them and at the time it was a huge risk that could of completely bankrupt the company if it had failed.

And that's where we begin. From this point on, the background basics are covered and we can start the show. I will cover from the first second of the show to the start of the first match on this blog which might sound like nothing but we have some pretty important members of the WWF to introduce before the matches can begin.

Let's start the show...

We start with some extremely generic music with a black starry background until a picture of what I'm guessing is the Empire State Building appears in one corner (the show is in New York), the classic WWF logo appears in the other corner and the words WrestleMania appear in the centre of the screen. Immediately I get the feeling this is old as hell...and it is. It aired 35 years ago :o This may take some getting used to compared to the glitz and the glamour that will eventually appear (Spoiler).

The music continues to play as still photos of each wrestler that will be on the show appears but without any commentary over the top or even text on the screen to say who each photo is. Maybe that's a limitation of the era but it's eerily silent besides the horrendous music.

We are then welcomed by Gorilla Monsoon who introduces his commentary partner Jesse Ventura before they hand over to Howard Finkel, the ring announcer. That's three legendary names to start us off. Let's start with Gorilla...

Gorilla Monsoon had been with the WWF since 1963 and was one of the promotions top bad guys (heels). He was a large man, surpassing 400 lbs but had great agility and stamina and regularly feuded with the top champions of his era whether he was a good guy (face) or a heel. On the 23rd August 1980, Monsoon lost a retirement match and retired from in ring competition a few weeks later. Monsoon converted to a backstage roll for the company before becoming an announcer in 1982 and teaming up with another recently retired wrestler in Jesse Venture by 1985.

Gorilla Monsoon on the Left, Jesse Ventura on the Right

Speaking of Jesse Ventura, he didn't join the WWF until 1980 so didn't have the lengthy WWF career that Monsoon had. He initially started in the tag team ranks before branching out on his own and earning shots at the world champion. Unfortunately in 1984 his in ring career was ended due to blood clots in his lungs which he blamed on exposure to Agent Orange during his time in the Vietnam war. He moved into a commentary position alongside Gorilla Monsoon and that's our two man commentary team for the night. Apparently Ventura was a bundle of nerves at the start of the show and had to be held up by Monsoon until he could pull himself together.

Howard Finkel debuted as a ring announcer in the WWF in 1977 and by 1979 was the lead announcer for all major events.

Fun Fact: Howard Finkel actually came up with the name WrestleMania despite the owner of the company (who for now shall remain unnamed) wanting to call the event "The Colossal Tussle"

Howard Finkel

Finkel welcomes us to WrestleMania (via a very 80s era microphone from the ceiling) before asking the crowd to rise for the National Anthem sung by Mean Gene Okerlund.

Okerlund signed with the WWF as an interviewer at the end of 1984 and as an interviewer wasn't supposed to be the person singing the anthem at WrestleMania. Apparently the scheduled singer dropped out at the last minute and the WWF haven't revealed who it was supposed to be to this day. People have said that Okerlunds singing was bad but I didn't have a problem with it. You can obviously hear his nerves as he sings but can you blame the guy?

Fun Fact: This was the only time they sand the Star Spangled Banner at WrestleMania. After this point, America the Beautiful is the opening song for WrestleMania....Spoiler Alert.

Mean Gene Okerlund

Jesse and Gorilla then pass us over to Lord Alfred Hayes who starts to explain about the upcoming match but we will continue with that in our next blog.

Lord Alfred Hayes joined with the WWF in 1982 and started as an interviewer at the tail end of 1983. He was a sidekick on a WWF chat show type program but served as an interviewer at WrestleMania.

Lord Alfred Hayes

So that's our two commentators, our ring announcer and two interviewers. We have our background to the company and the set up to the PPV which leaves one thing....the Wrestlers.

When going right back to the start like this you can definitely feel how dated it is but you have to start somewhere and it will be cool to see the evolution of the company through it's ups and downs even if it takes a million years. The world changes as well as the WWF and it will be interesting to see how that effects the company but it's going to take a long time. But now it's time to start the actual wrestling and I'm excited to get going. Who else is exited? The Hell's Angels. What? Yes...rumour has it that just before the show started, a group of Hell's Angels entered the building from the back area and that the WWF just went ahead and got them seats so they could enjoy the show. Fair Play.

So let's see who Lord Alfred is going to introduce....next time.