10 Things You Might Have Forgotten About WrestleMania I

It’s easy to forget how spoiled we are as wrestling fans these days, what with the advent of the WWE Network and high-definition cameras capturing every moment in and out of the ring in stunning, immaculate detail on modern episodes of RAW, SmackDown and live special events. Going back to 1985, things were much less perfect to say the least.

While the darkly lit Madison Square Garden is evocative and a nostalgic trip back to how wrestling used to be presented before WWE’s colossal budget and relentless homogenising of the on-air product, it is clear that the learning curve of brandishing a live extravaganza the size of WrestleMania is steep, with timing issues and production missteps littering the broadcast throughout.

This is most obvious in the promo segments of the show between matches. After each contest, the broadcast team of Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura will invariably throw to Lord Alfred Hayes to set up the next section of the show. The problem with this is that Hayes is stationed at the top of the entrance aisle way, and charged with compering between matches, while the wrestlers who have just competed have to awkwardly excuse themselves past the cameras without disrupting Hayes.

There’s a moment after the Ricky Steamboat-Matt Borne match where Borne clearly almost walks right across the camera shot – there’s nothing that makes a wrestler look more regular than having to meekly change direction en route to the dressing room to avoid ruining the camera shot and likely being yelled at by the boss! Add into the mix a couple of promos that probably needed to have a second take before seeing the light of day (looking at The Executioner & Brutus Beefcake in particular), and you appreciate the quality of the modern presentation all the more.