PPV Review Wrestlemania 1

From : Reader The Antichrist


Wrestlemania I:"Beginning A Tradition Of Excitment & Glamour

Card=Tito Santana beat The Executioner in a pretty average match but the
crowd was well into it. Perhaps it would have been better if The
Executioner was not the overweight grappler Buddy Rose! Santana and the
crowd carried this one to "watchable" status. 4.5/10-Average-ish match to
start the show. King Kong Bundy beat Special Delivery Jones in an abysmal
squash
that Gorilla and Jesse claimed lasted 9 seconds when it clearly lasted alot
longer! Something like 20 seconds longer-1/10(that 1 point is for the
hilarious OTT interview SD Jones gives before the match LOL). Ricky
Steamboat beat Matt Bourne in a decent match that would have been a better
choice to open the show than the earlier Tito/Executioner match-6/10.
Brutus Beefcake and David
Sammartino fought to a double countout, in an acceptable bout that had some
good mat wrestling moments from Bruno's son David but the match eventually
started to drag and was
proberbly abit overlong too-4/10 (Body Slam Match)Andre The Giant beat Big
John Studd and the match was as poor as expected-1/10 (I-C Title Match)Greg
Valentine beat Junkyard Dog in a disgrace to the I-C Titles history
2/10-Valentine obviously deserved a better opponant and one can only wish
that Vince had
put him against Steamboat or Santana here-two men Valentine had some
classic I-C Title matches with! (Womens Title Match)Wendi Richter beat
Lelani Kai in a very poor encounter-2/10. The match featured quirky popstar
Cyndi
Lauper in Wendi's corner and the "ancient even then" Fabulous Moolah in
Lelani's corner. (WWF Tag Team Title Match)The Iron Sheik & Nokolai Volkoff
beat Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo in the show stealer of the night.
7.5/10-A solid tag team match with great crowd responses
throughout. Hulk Hogan & Mr T beat Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff and
surprisingly
this was not a bad match at all. Everyone involved did a great job here and
Mr T was proberbly the best "celebrity/wrestler" experiment ever. 7/10-Not
a great wrestlng match but a very entertaining tag team bout with plenty of
crowd pleasing moments.

Overall=5/10-Ok it wasn't the "greatest wrestling extravaganza of alltime"
but back in the mid 80's it proberbly seemed like it was to the folks who
watched it. No "must see" matches but quite a few solid
bouts(Rotundo/Windham/Shiek/Volkoff, Hogan/T/Piper/Orndorff,
Steamboat/Bourne) and a few clunkers(Bundy/Jones, Richter/Kai), but even
they don't feel out of place here since this was 1985 after all! Best
Match=Rotundo/Windham vs Volkoff/Shiek.
Worst Match=Bundy/Jones.

My WM-I card=(WWF Title/Cage Match)Hogan(with Mr T & Sunka in his corner)
vs Orndorff(with Piper & Orton in his corner).(Hogan and Orndorff had a
great feud in the mid 80's that actually produced some quality matches,
most notably a cage match which ranks as one of the best of Hogans career.
It would have been a perfect Wrestlemania main event!) [I-C
Title/Submission Match]Valentine vs Santana(figure 4 vs figure 4!)
(WWF Tag Titles)Rotundo & Windham vs Shiek & Volkoff(match was fine as it
was). (Womens Title) Wendi Richter vs Lelani Kai(let them actually wrestle
though!). Ricky Steamboat vs Matt Bourne(match was fine, but have it as the
opener instead!). Roddy Piper & Bob Orton vs Jimmy Sunka & Mr T. A 20 man
battle royal featuring Andre, Studd, Bundy and others(Andre would obviously
win). Hart Foundation vs British Bulldogs(number 1 contenders
match-Potential classic!).