Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

PlayPADZ From Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, on Sunday March 31st, 1985, it's WWF WrestleMania! Ringside announcers are Gorilla 'Holy mackerel, it is a happening' Monsoon and Jesse 'Woodstock was to Rock 'n' Roll what WrestleMania is to wrestling' Ventura. Backstage announcers are Mean Gene 'Sings better than Robert Goulet' Okerlund and Lord Alfred 'Good gracious, or good luck, something like that' Hayes. "Welcome to WrestleMania!"MATCH 1 - Singles Match: The Executioner vs. Tito Santana An average, but solid, singles match to kick things off. Tito gets a firm start with some basic grappling moves before The Executioner counters and begins to strategically work on Tito's leg, before he is launched out of the ring. Both guys trade the advantage a couple more times, before Tito hits the Flying Jalapeno and locks on the figure-4 leg lock, as a means of sending a message to Intercontinental Champion, Greg Valentine (who had taken the title from Santana six months prior). Executioner gives in, and the very first WrestleMania match is won via submission. ** MATCH 2 - Singles Match: King Kong Bundy vs. S.D. Jones Merely a 23-second squash match that Bundy used as a platform to announce his intent to dominate the WWF roster. A bearhug, Avalanche and body splash is all it takes to putones away. Otherwise forgettable, but kicked off a good run for Bundy that would eventually earn him the honour of challenging Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 2, a little over a year later. 1/4* MATCH 3 - Singles Match: Matt Borne vs. Ricky Steamboat A good catch-as-catch-can contest that begins with Steamboat grounding Bourne with an atomic drop and a headlock, before Borne retaliates. Steamboat retains the pace and continues to wear Borne down with restholds and martial arts strikes. After some more standard back-and-forth action, Steamboat wins it with a cross-body from the top rope. **1/2MATCH 4 - Singles Match: Brutus Beefcake vs. David Sammartino Debatable whether this was to showcase young David's ability, or just to give the crowd a glimpse of the living legend Bruno Sammartino, who accompanied his son to the ring. The contest itself is a very generic bout that leans toward the Greco-roman style, with neither competitor gaining the upper hand. Unfortunately very little excitement and a disappointing finish of a double-DQ when the managers get involved. *1/2MATCH 5 - Singles Match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship: Greg Valentine (C) vs. Junkyard Dog A match that doesn't really do the I-C title any justice; Valentine sticks to a small range of boring moves and despite the JYD looking the better man and staying on the front foot for the majority of the match, the Hammer pins him with assistance from the middle rope. Suddenly, Chico appears to explain what happened to the referee, and the bout is immediately restarted and ended again, with the Dog winning by countout, but a rather pointless finish as the title stays with Valentine. *MATCH 6 - Tag Team Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: Nikolai Volkoff & The Iron Sheik vs. Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo (C) A high-tempo start between Rotundo and Sheik, before Windham tags in and continues to work on the Iranian. The challengers claw their way back into the bout with some good teamwork of their own. The champs look to have it settled when Windham takes Volkoff down with a Bulldog, but all hell breaks loose, with the Sheik smashing Fred Blassie's cane over Windham's head in the middle of the confusion. Volkoff gets the pin, and wins the Tag Titles for his team. Good match with a decent, if a little tainted, finish. **1/2MATCH 7 - $15,000 Body Slam Challenge Match: Big John Studd vs. Andre the Giant A very slow-paced and boring match with too many restholds and poorly executed strikes. Andre eventually gets the win following a body slam, before Bobby Heenan steals the bag of money from him! A disappointing match and finish. -*MATCH 8 - Singles Match for the WWF Women's Championship: Leilani Kai (C) vs. Wendi Richter Rather amusing start as Kai oversells a punch to the chest, before both ladies stick with mostly takedowns, arm drags, and restholds. Execution is a little messy at times, with Cyndi and Moolah getting in the mix halfway through. A good display of power from Richter, and a good finish as she reverses a cross-body from Kai to pin her with her own momentum to capture the Women's title for the second time. *1/2 "He got him!" - Monsoon as Richter gets the 3-count.MATCH 9 - Tag Team Match: "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff & Rowdy Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T & Hulk Hogan The main event is classic, but more for the occasion rather than the match quality itself. However, there is good chemistry going into the match: the heel team of Piper, Orndorff and their manager Cowboy Bob Orton getting heat from the MSG crowd, and huge pops for he face team of Hogan and Mr. T, accompanied by "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka. Mr. T actually gives a fair account of himself with Greco-roman sitouts with both Piper and Orndorff, an overhead slam on Piper and even dropping Orndorff with a beautifully-executed hip toss. What the match lacks in pure wrestling quality, it makes up in entertainment factor. After it begins to erupt into chaos, Orton knocks Orndorff out by accidentally hitting him with his arm cast, allowing Hogan to get the pin. *** Overall, a slightly above-average show. Some good wrestling, and some memorable moments, but very different to the WWE product of today. For wrestling enthusiasts, this is definitely worth a watch at least once, but you're not going to see any all-time classic matches in terms of pure wrestling. This aside, a very solid show and worth owning for collections.-- Ryan

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.

RepoManRules WrestleMania was denifitely a great way to start out for the WWF(Oops excuse me...WWE). Star ratings wise, it really was not a great card. The WWF would be in trouble for making P.P.V. cards that bad. But, the magic was there.The MOTN(Match of the night) of course, was Hogan/T vs. Piper/Orndorf. Alot of junk was in it too like the King Kong Bundy match that was really 24 seconds but kayfabe says 9 seconds.All in all. Easy recommendation.BTW, if you want to chat about the good old days of wrestling just drop me an e-mail!

roxstar ...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....