Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Yourfriendan Depending on what kind of wrestling fan you are, you are either going to love this event or you are going to find it pretty crappy. If you are a typical "mark" from the attitude era of Austin/Rock/HHH who's quality of a wrestling event is based on special effects, fireworks, major stunts, profanity, catchy phrases and heavy story lines than I advise you not to watch this event. However, if you are like me and grew up watching wrestling as a kid back in the 1980's during the Hulkamania Rock N' Wrestle era, or if you are a major wrestling historian, than this event is an absolute must have.First of all, this is 1985 at Madison Square Garden. There is no gigantic Titantron at the top of a stage. There is no firework display to start the show. It's just a simple wrestling ring with the lights turned down. The arena is dark. But this was the WWF back in the mid 80's. And to be honest, I miss the simplistic dark arenas which the WWF stopped using about 1987. To me, that's wrestling, the way it should be. The Raw & Smackdown set up of today makes every arena look exactly the same. This was the Madison Square Garden look for a very long time. I would really love to see the WWE do an event at MSG today with the dark arena look that it had back in 1985. No fancy set up or fireworks. Just a wrestling ring is all you need.Now onto the show itself. The interview segments are actually pretty funny. Before every match Gene Okerlund would interview one of the competitors, then he would turn and immediately interview his opponent. The WWF was concerned about breaking keyfabe back then, but didn't seem to mind having bitter enemies in the same room at the same time conducting interviews. And the interviews were very simple. Unlike today where a wrestler may spend 10 minutes putting down another wrestler and doing everything to insulting his whole life story, they would simply say I'm going to beat him because I'm the better man.As for the card itself, many of the opening matches were not that good, at least by today's standards. You had King Kong Bundy squashing S.D. Jones in 9 seconds (actually more like 25 seconds in real time.) A lot of grappling holds. The majority of the lower card matches were your typical pre-Hogan WWF style matches with just a bunch of holds and one guy wins, no real story behind it. But as you got later into the card, the entertainment part really started to come out. And the crowd really started to get into it starting with the JYD/Valentine match. The tag title match with the U.S. Express (Barry Windham & Mike Rutondo) going up against the anti-Americans (Iron Shiek vs. Mike Rutundo) drew a lot of heat. This was really the start of the ever popular storyline of a proud patriotic American babyface going against an anti-American heel. That storyline would be re-used for many years to come. The Women's match was very good for a woman's match. Okay so Wendi Richter and Leilani Kai aren't nearly as hot as Trish Stratus and Lita. But still, the crowd was way into it. And the addition of popular 80's singer Cindi Lauper made it really good. And the main event was the biggest anything had ever been up to that point in the wrestling industry. Hulk Hogan & Mr. T were both enjoying tremendous popularity from the recent Rocky III movie. And were going up against the two most hated heels at the time Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff. With the celebrity editions of Billy Martin, Muhhamad Ali, and Liberace added to the mix, it made it all that more special. Again, keep in mind that nothing like this had been done in wrestling before.Say what you want about the lack of wrestling, the interviews, or the dark arena. This was wrestling in the 1980's. This is what I grew up on. I was 8 years old when this event took place. And at the time, nothing like this had ever taken place in the wrestling industry. The importance of this event and it's place in history can't be denied. This event did the same thing to wrestling that Babe Ruth did to baseball. It gave it national recognition. This event was what put wrestling on the map. And if it wasn't for this first Wrestlemania, there might not be the WWE as you know it today. It was the first of it's kind. Call me old fashion. But if given the choice of watching this show or watching the average PPV that is put out by the WWE today, I'd choose this show.

the_kiss_army_45 This is the First Ever WrestleMania. It is recommended for real wrestling fans only. Those armchair wrestling fans won't enjoy this one bit. It is obviously much different from what wrestling is today. It had great talent that some around still around and some are not, such as, Hulk Hogan, Andre The Giant, Junkyard Dog, Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff and Big John Studd. The event was great with very entertaining and enjoyable matches. The Main event was well done even though nothing was on the line. The main event was Hulk Hogan and Mr.T v.s. Paul Orndorff and Roddy Piper. Great event over all and recommended for anyone who is a real wrestling fan.

adam6194 If it hadn't been for Wrestlemania where would wrestling be today! This event came from Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 31st 1985 Here are the matches:Match 1 Tito Santana Vs The Executioner Winner: Tito By SubmissionMatch 2 King Kong Bundy Vs S.D."Special Delivery" Jones Winner: Bundy By PinfallMatch 3 Matt Borne Vs Ricky Steamboat Winner: Ricky By PinfallMatch 4 Brutus Beefcake Vs Davis Sammartino Winner: Draw By Dbl DQMatch 5 Intercontinental Championship Champ:Greg "The Hammer" Valentine Vs Junk Yard Dog Winner: JYD By CountoutMatch 6 Tag Team Championship Champs:Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo Vs Nikolai Volkoff & Iron Sheik Winner: Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff By Pinfall - New ChampionsMatch 7 $15,000 Body Slam Match Andre The Giant Vs Big John Studd Winner: Andre By PinfallMatch 8 Women's Championship Champ: Leilani Kai Vs Wendi Richter Winner: Wendi By Pinfall - New ChampionMatch 9 MAIN EVENT Hulk Hogan & Mr T Vs "Rowdy" Roddy Piper & "Mr Wonderful" Paul Orndorff Winner: Hogan & Mr T By Pinfall

nakedsara2 A look at the first Wrestlemania:Tito Santana vs The Executioner- Worthless match, no reason to even be on the show. Basically just a squash. S.D. Jones vs King Kong Bundy- Match lasts less than 30 seconds. Ricky Steamboat vs Matt Borne- Decent, but totally useless match. No build of any kind here. David Sammartino vs Brutus Beefcake- Brutally boring effort here. Runs nearly 12 mins. Greg Valentine vs JYD- Short & weak match here with a stupid ending. Windham & Rotundo vs Sheik & Volkoff- Fun match. Only goes bout 5 mins though. Andre the Giant vs Big John Studd- Slow & plodding. Andre just beats the crap out of him. Leilani Kai vs Wendi Richter- Ugh. Crappy match as you might expect. Cyndi Lauper is in Wendi's corner. Hogan & Mr. T vs Piper & Orndorff- Longest match of the show, but was a chaotic & not very good brawl. They really should have just done Hogan vs Piper. Final Thoughts: Only real highlights on this show was the annoucing. Gorrilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura were on the top of there game, calling everything as they saw it with no bias. But no good matches make this a pass. First one or not, its not worth the look.