Konterr Brilliant and touching

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

amanwhorocks Tito Santana Vs. The Executioner 6/10King Kong Bundy Vs. Special Delivery Jones 6,5/10 A few seconds funny match.Ricky Steamboat Vs. Matt Bone 6/10David Sammartino Vs. Brutus Beefcake 5/10Junkyard Dog vs: Greg Valentine 5/10WWF Tag Team Championship: Nikolai Volkoff/Iron Sheik Vs. Champions: The U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham) 6,5/10$15,000/Retire Body Slam Challenge: André the Giant Vs. Big John Studd 4/10WWF Women's Championship: Wendi Richter Vs. Champion: Leilani Kai 5/10Hulk Hogan/Mr. T Vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper/Paul Orndorff 5/10 Maybe little overbooked match. But far decent despite wrestling skills of these main competitors.Overall, I'll give 5/10.

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....

Steve Dorsett Well this was it, the grandaddy of them all, the original Wrestlemania. This was not much of an event by today's standards, but in 1985, there had never been anything like it. I'm going to try and give you a taste of the event with a brief run down of the matches. Anyway let the festivities begin.An opening introduction from Vince McMahon (Jesus, he looks young) kicks us off, followed by some truly god awful 80's muzak, the national anthem, as sung by Mean Gene, we've got Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse "The Body" Ventura on commentry and we're off.Tito Santana vs The Executioner Right, former InterContinental Champion vs Mr. Nobody Jobber. If you have never seen a Wrestling match in your life, you can guess who is going to win this one. Not bad action from both sides mind and Tito was pretty special considering it was 1985. We see the flying forearm and the figure-four, not a bad way to kick things off. Imagine though if Tito had been against someone like the newly signed heel Bret Hart, hell that would have been an opener.King Kong Bundy with Jimmy Hart vs S.D.Jones 450 pound madman vs Mr. Nobody. A 9 second (actually more like 20) squash. Next...Ricky Steamboat vs Matt Borne Hey it's the Dragon vs Doink (wonderful future gimmicks there). Solid match here. I love watching Steamboat and that arm drag. Technical well paced match. Not bad though says I.David Sammartino with Bruno Sammartino vs Brutus Beefcake with Luscious Johnny V. Dull dull dull. This match goes on for ever with a lot of chinlocks too. Epitome of boring 80's wrestling, and awfully cheap finish as well. Especially cheap considering this is the greatest event of all time.Intercontinental Title Match : Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (Champion) with Jimmy Hart vs The Junkyard Dog I have to admit, I was never able to get in to the JYD, although the MSG crowd pops huge for him. Again, pretty dull match, not good for the IC division. However, the title would soon become the possesion of a young Mr. R. Savage, and things would get much better.Tag Team Titles Match : The US Express (Champions) vs Nikolai Volkoff & The Iron Sheik with Classy Freddie Blassie I like this one, two speedsters vs two huge monsters. Loads of extra-curricular activities on the part of Blassie and the heels and some great moves from the Express make ths one a goodie.$15,000 Bodyslam Challenge : Andre the Giant vs Big John Studd with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan The stipulation here was thet if Andre could slam Studd within the time limit, then he would win $15,000 from Studd and Heenan. If he couldn't however, he would be fired from the WWF (pretty ahead of it's time). This isn't great wrestling, but it's good fun. It's always great to watch Andre in his face days - the gentle giant. With Heenan as well in full weasel mode this one is a favourite.Women's Title Match : Leilani Kai (Champion) with The Fabulous Moolah vs Wendi Richter with Cyndi Lauper Okay, big time MTV Rock n Wrestling crossover going on here. The croed pops huge for Lauper. Anyway not a bad match, a few of the moves a blatantly botched, but better that 60% of women's matches today.Hulk Hogan (WWF Champion) & Mr. T with Superfly Jimmy Snuka vs Rowdy Roddy Piper & Mr Wonderful Paul Orndorff with Cowboy Bob Orton Guest Referee : Muhammad Ali Guest Ring Announcer : Billy Martin Guest Timekeeper : Liberace Now this is the Main Event. A star studded arena, MSG jumping and the mighty Hulkster teaming with BA himself, Mr. T. This is a pretty good main event, all 4 men primarily brawling, but damn Hogan and Piper know how to work the crowd. When they are in together the crowd is hot. This is good fun, although I feel that this should have been Hogan and Piper one on one. This IS Wrestlemania after all.So there you go, the tradition is born. If you're not a wrestling fan, you probably won't get much out of this. However, if you love this theatre of the absurd we call wrestling this is where it all began and you owe it to yourself to check it out.

JWLJN 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.