7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE WrestleMania I
Ups...
7. Never Forget Your First
The late, great (and won't those qualifiers tragically appear a lot over the course of reviewing past WrestleManias) Mean Gene Okerlund was - according to the man himself - a late replacement for a no-showing singer that night.
It was far from the most memorable rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, but was by its very nature a collectors item - Vince McMahon preferred 'America The Beautiful' anyway and made sure to include in place of the National Anthem as often as he could in the years that followed.
Affording the absentee some dignity, Okerlund never named the AWOL star - though considering how heavily the other celebrities were promoted in advance, it's very possible that the airlift story was used to cover up a charmingly cheesy start to McMahon's biggest ever undertaking.