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Earlier today, I opened up this series with the first of this week's two lists, with five great battle royale/Royal Rumble matches to indulge in. But, all things considered, these are still just matches, and you've got plenty of time to fill. So, matches alone aren't going to cut it - you need the whole shebang.
With WrestleMania (technically) happening this weekend, why not take this opportunity to look back at some of the older incarnations of the event? Now, are these all of these five the greatest WrestleManias of all time? No. Not even close. But, they will all give you a snapshot of how the event has evolved over the years, and they're all entertaining, at the very least. At least, I think so, anyway.
Essentially, I'm looking at the first ten WrestleManias and picking five that you should definitely watch. If you have time, of course.
So, let's get started where most things should get started. At the beginning.
#5 WrestleMania I
Looking at this event objectively, and compared to the WrestleManias that would follow it, the very first edition, well... let's just say it doesn't hold up very well. It's not terrible by any means. It's no WrestleMania IX. However, it was obvious that the WWF was relying on the star power from outside the wrestling world to keep this event afloat.
And, hey, it worked.
Liberace was there with The Rockettes. Baseball legend Billy Martin was a ring announcer. Boxing and civil rights icon Muhammed Ali served as a ringside referee. Cyndi Lauper served as the manager for WWF Women's Champion Wendi Richter. And, of course, Hulk Hogan teamed with his Rocky III co-star Mr. T to take on Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff in the main event.
The matches themselves aren't particularly great, but that's not really the point. The first WrestleMania took place in 1985 and this entire show is about at 1985 as you can get. If you've seen it before, it may not be worth another viewing but if you've never experienced it before, do yourself a favor and watch it.
#4 WrestleMania V
Before I get into this one, a special honorable mention goes to WrestleMania IV. Which is not a good show. Again, not WrestleMania IX bad. But, still, not good. But, it saw the crowning of "Macho Man" Randy Savage as the WWF Champion and helped begin the build-up to one of the greatest stories ever told in the company's history.
Hulk Hogan's first Championship run in the WWF gets criticized a lot of being formulaic and, to an extent, that's true. But, the lead up to his most famous WrestleMania matches - Hulk vs Andre at WrestleMania III, this match at WrestleMania V, his Title vs Title bout at WrestleMania VI with The Ultimate Warrior - were all exceptionally well done.
If the entire Hogan vs Savage feud wasn't planned out all in advance, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was. The team of the two - dubbed the "Mega Powers" - started out as a solid unit, with Savage's manager (and real-life wife at the time) Miss Elizabeth now managing both wrestlers. But, it was Elizabeth that would be the reason these Mega Powers would eventually explode.
Savage, consumed with jealousy, was certain that Hogan was "lusting after" his manager. During a tag match against the Twin Towers (Big Boss Man and Akeem) on NBC's The Main Event, Elizabeth ended up injured at ringside. Hogan carried her backstage, leaving Savage to fend off the Towers on his own. Following the match, the team would break up, leading to the WrestleMania 5 main event.
The match was as epic as expected, with the "who's corner will Elizabeth be in?" angle running through until the halfway point of the match, when she was ejected from ringside.
Hogan won, by the way. Spoilers. I know.
There were other good matches on the card, as well. "Ravishing" Rick Rude challenged The Ultimate Warrior for his Intercontinental Championship and actually won, thanks to some interference from Rude's manager, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. There was also a great interview segment - a Piper's Pit, no less - featuring Roddy Piper, Brother Love, and controversial 1980s talk show host Morton Downey, Jr.
The rest of the card is perfectly serviceable, although nothing classic. Still, it's an entertaining watch all around.
#3 WrestleMania X
WrestleMania X has a lot of firsts. It's the first WrestleMania to be held in Madison Square Garden since the original. It's the first WrestleMania to have two WWF Championship matches. It's the first to not feature Hulk Hogan at all. And, it featured the very first on-camera ladder match in the promotion.
A little background: earlier in the year at the Royal Rumble, both Bret Hart and Lex Luger wound up eliminating each other, and thus named co-winners of the match. Due to this, they both earned WWE Championship matches at WrestleMania. To make things fair, however, the wrestler going into the second match that night would have to wrestle an earlier match. After all, whoever won that first match would eventually have to wrestle two matches, as well.
The order was determined by a coin toss, which Luger won. This meant that Bret would have to face his younger brother, Owen, in the first match of the night. And it was a banger of a match. It was, literally, the longest match of the night but you wouldn't know that by watching it. Both the story between the two going into the show, as well as the technical ability of each performer made this one of the most captivating WrestleMania matches of all time.
Speaking of which, the ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon for the Intercontinental Championship also holds a position on the Greatest WrestleMania Matches of All TIme list, too. Even today, it still holds up - especially when you consider that the ladder they used was the only ladder they had. Keep that in mind as you watch.
Now, this was 1994, so there's still some of that early 90s cheese - Men on a Mission (two hip-hop guys with a rapping manager) took on The Quebecers (two guys in Mountie uniforms) for the Tag Team titles. It also saw the beginning of the Harvey Wippleman/Howard Finkel feud that led to Tuxedo Matches between the two and our brains are on fire just thinking about those, so sorry about that.
But, overall, this was a stellar WrestleMania - a serious upgrade from the previous year and just a fun show in general.
#2 WrestleMania VII
This one is a personal favorite of mine, as it was the very first WrestleMania I got to watch live. Well... on television, anyway. I was 13 years old at the time. Ask me about scrambled PPV signals sometime, kids.
It was 1991. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System had just been released in the United States. Iraq had just invaded Kuwait and the U.S. and its allies were on the brink of a full-on conflict. The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear was in theaters. And WrestleMania was returning to Los Angeles, CA for the first time since WrestleMania 2.
The main event saw the Immortal Real American Brother Jack Dude Hulk Hogan take on WWF Champion and Iraqi sympathizer for some reason Sgt. Slaughter. Looking back, the entire angle was kind of tasteless, considering everything that was happening in the Middle East but, at the time, it was pretty captivating. Plus, Slaughter was pretty convincing in the role and the build-up to the match was great.
Speaking of great build-up, the man who Slaughter beat for the title, The Ultimate Warrior, was taking on the man who cost him said title, Randy "Macho King" Savage, that same night in a retirement match. Savage had been trying to win the belt from Warrior for months to that point with no success, and the feud had boiled over to this point. The match between the two was epic and it's worth a number of watches. Say what you want about the Ultimate Warrior, but you can't watch this one and say that the man never had any great matches.
Plus, the post-match reunion between Savage and Elizabeth still makes me cry just thinking about it.
There's a lot of filler on this show, although the Hart Foundation/Nasty Boys Tag Team Championship match is fun. But, even the filler is entertaining. There's the blindfold match between Jake Roberts and Rick "The Model" Martel that, in a vacuum, seems weird but, if you had been following the story between the two, was a great climax to their feud.
It's a fun show and worth a watch.
#1 WrestleMania III
When we're talking classic WrestleMania shows (especially in the time frame we're working with), they don't get any more classic than the third edition of the Show of Shows. Not only was it the biggest event the WWF had put on at the time (with an attendance record - so they say - of nearly 94,000 people at the time). And, it had the biggest - almost literally - main event in pro wrestling history.
But, while Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant may have sold the tickets, but there were still some other great matches featured on the card.
WrestleMania III featured what is considered by some to be the greatest WrestleMania match - or just wrestling matches in general - of all time, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat challenging Intercontinental Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage for his title. There was also a "retirement match" for "Rowdy" Piper (now a babyface after spending the last two WrestleManias as a heel) against "Adorable" Adrian Adonis - a match that also doubled as a Hair vs Hair bout, as well. The match ended with Piper getting the win with an assist from Brutus Beefcake, who used the opportunity to transition not only into a babyface, but also into his "Barber" gimmick.
Jake "The Snake" Roberts took on The Honky Tonk Man in an undercard match that was notable for having rock music legend and Detroit native (WrestleMania III took place just outside of Detroit in Pontiac, MI) Alice Cooper in his corner. Honky had legitimately injured Roberts after hitting him in the head with an actual guitar (as opposed to one designed to break), which led to this match.
And then, we have the Main Event. The lead-up to this match is the stuff of legend. Hogan and Andre had been friends for years - Andre even celebrated with Hogan when the "Real American" won his first WWF Championship. But, eventually, resentment at not getting a shot at the championship, despite being "undefeated" for "fifteen years" (we're talking 1980s WWF math here). So, Andre - now being managed by Heenan - challenged his former friend to a title match at WrestleMania.
The confrontation was epic. Eventually, after taking a beating by the Giant in and out of the ring, he did what (WWE announcers claimed) nobody else had been able to do before - bodyslam Andre and pin him. It may quite possibly be Hulk Hogan's greatest match, outside of his WrestleMania 18 match with The Rock. But, that's for another list.
In general, WrestleMania III isn't just a great time capsule - it's a legitimately fun show. There's not a bad match on the card. I mean, there's some matches that aren't great (the King Kong Bundy/Hillbilly Jim match where they both team with little people is kind of weird), but all of them are fun.
Considering WWE is holding this year's WrestleMania with no crowd, it might just be something to watch one of the shows with one of WWE's biggest crowds ever.
What do you guys think? What are your favorite WrestleManias from the first to the tenth? I'll be back soon to get the New Generation and Attitude Era shows next week. Until then, thanks for reading and stay healthy!
