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.

...Spoiler space.....Ok, this is the very first Wrestlemania, and it is a good start to the now-venerable franchise. I gave it a "7" because most of the matches were entertaining..they could have done without Gene Ockerland singing though. Wiht Jesse Ventura and the later Gorilla Monsoon comentating, we have a very good event1st Match: Tito Santana Vs. The Executioner.OK...a former IC champ with a bum knee against soem sclub they found on a park bench...I wonder who'd win. The Executioner sure talked big, but Tito managed to dispatch this guy in less than five minutes. Tito dominates the match, and he gives a subtle thumb on the nose to Greg "The Hammer" Valentine by pinning the Executioner with a figure four leglock.2nd Match: King Kong Bundy with Jimmy Hart vs. S.D "Special Delivery" Jones.OK...a moving mountain against a bigmouthed nobody from Philly....wow..exciting...Bundy manages to pin him in 9 seconds, which was a record time that stood for over 10 years.3rd Match: Ricky Steamboat vs. Matt Bourne.The Dragon against the future Doink the Clown..oh joy. I admit I never had any respect for Dink..I mean Doink, but this was a good match. Matt Bourne showed a lot of good technical moves, but he was no match for the Dragon's superior form and karate moves. Ricky pins Bounre ala Superlfy within five-six minutes.4th Match: Brutus Beefcake with Luscious Johnny Valiant against David Sammartino with Bruno Sammartino.A slow match with a lot of leglocks and headlocks. Neither David nor Brutus truly dominated this one. The only highlight was near the end when Brutus send David out of the ring and Johnny V bodyslams David. Big Mistake...Bruno, the Living Legend starts beating the tar out of Johnny, and then throws him in the ring and it's a free for all. Both parties got disqualifed.5th Match: The Intercontineatal Title Match-Greg "The Hammer" Valentine with Jimmy Hart against The Junkyard Dog.This was the first of the title matches, and it was pretty good. The late JYD had the crowd and he had a great enterance with Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust". The momentum switched a few times in this match. Eventually, Jimmy tries to distract the ref so Greg could put a hit on JYD, but JYD deftly steps out the way, and Greg accidently clobbers his own manager. Soon after, JYD throws Greg agaisnt the ropes, and Greg rakes JYD's eyes, and pins JYD with a foot on the rope. The ref does the three count and it looks like Greg is the winner...but Tito Santana comes into the ring and alerts the ref. Meanwhile Greg is out of the ring, thinking that he won. The ref finishes the ten count and Greg is counted out of the ring. The JYD wins by decision, but unfortunely doesn't get the IC belt.6th Match: Tag Team Title Match-Nikolai Volkoff and the Iron Sheik with Classy Freddie Blaise against Mike Rotunda and Barry Wyndham with Captain Lou Albino.This was an excellent match...two strong experienced heels against two young speedsters. Volkoff totally cheesed off the crowd by singing the Soviet anthem and Rotanda and Wyndham got thunderous applause when they cma eout with Bruce Spingsteen's "Born in the U.S.A" Rotunda and Wyndham were a very organized team, but Volkoff and Sheik were smarter by cheating when they could, and eventually when the ref was paying attention to only Rotunda, the Sheik konks Wyndham with Blassie's cane. The Volkoff pins Wyndham, and the Tag Team Title changes hands. MSG was shocked that Volkoff and Sheik were the new champs.7th Match: The $15,000 Bodyslam Challenge-Big John Studd with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan against Andre the Giant.Here's the skinny: Andre has to bodyslame Studd within the time limit to win $15,000. If he fails, Andre must retire. This was a match ahead of its time and very engrossing. Andre had the advantage for most of the match as he methodically wore down Studd. After about ten good minutes, Andre slams Studd to the canvas. He briefly gets the $15,000, but the Weasel steals back the money.8th Match: Women's Title Match: Leilani Kai with the Fabolous Moolah against Wendi Richter with Cyndi Lauper.This was the most intense match of the night, and one of the best of the card. Both women were very good at tunring the tables on the other, and they looked like they wanted to put the hurt on the other in the worst way. After about 10 minutes of damn fine wrestling, Moolah tries to beat on Wendi, but Cyndi gets very physical with Moolah. A few minutes later, Leilani tires to pin Wendi by hitting off the turnbuckle, and manages to for a minute, but Wendi uses the leverage to end up pinning Leilani and smartly hold the legs, and Wendi wins the 3-count. Wendi regains her stolen belt from Leilani, and Cyndi and Wedni are ecstatic as is Madison Square Garden. A great ending to a great match.The Main Event: Rowdy Roddy Piper and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Ordinoff against Hulk Hogan and Mr. TOk..this was where the stars came out. The guest ring announcer was the late Billy Martin and he did a decent job for a Yankee. The guest timekeeper was the late Liberace, and his enterance with the Radio City Kickdnacers was to die for. The guest referees were Muhammad Ali and Pat Patterson.Both parties had over the top enterances as Piper and Ordinoff went in with a bunch of bagpipe players as Hulk and T went in with "Eye of the Tiger". Both parties clearly had a very strong animosity, and the long match was very chaotic as all six(the four plus Superfly Jimmy Snuka and Cowboy Bob Orten) were duking it out in the ring a few times. Ali did a good job of trying to maintain some order through this. Piper and Ordinoff were doing a good job on Hogan at one point, but gets his way out of it as always. The finish was great as everybody was duking it out again and Ordinoff tried to hold Hogan while Orten hit him from the top turnbuckle, but Hogan spins out, and Orten knocks out Ordinoof. Hogan then gets the easy pin, and Hulkamania is safe for another day.All in all, a good piece of entertainment....

Ya know, just because it is the first one, does not make it good! This show is pretty bad. Boring and bad matches litter the card & absolutly nothing is worth seeing on this show. If you are a die hard WWF fan & you haven't seen this yet, you should. If you are just a casual fan, stay away from this crappy card.

Say what you want about the simplistic lighting, lack of todays glitzier production values, and the couple of jobber matches, but you cannot die that this was the one that started it all, and that it is indeed PURE '80s. You also cannot die the electricity felt when watching parts. Sure it drags during the first two or three matches, but if you can honestly tell me you don't feel the excitement with the pops for JYD, Andre, Albano & The US Express, Wendi Richter and Cyndi Lauper, and of course Hogan & Mr. T, then I can tell you that you are honestly not a true wrestling fan. Is it cheesy? Yes. But wasn't that the way of the '80s? And don't even tell me "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" doesn't get stuck in your head after watching this...:-) Well worth the view.