10 Things You Might Have Forgotten About WrestleMania I

Everybody probably remembers the calamitous impact that Cowboy Bob Orton had in his efforts to support his heelish team mates Roddy Piper and Bob Orndorff in the main event of the first WrestleMania. His infamous cast covering his perpetually broken arm led to a monumental backfire when it struck Orndorff inadvertently, leading to Hogan and Mr T taking the fall and winning the match in the enduring image of the show’s final moments.

In contrast, do you remember that Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka was drafted into Team Hogan to provide some semblance of assistance against the nefarious Orton? Snuka was another Madison Square Garden icon to add to the billing, with his brutal cage matches against Bob Backlund and Don Muraco etching Snuka into an incomparable position in the history of the great venue. It was clear that Vince was keen to find an additional spot for someone who had created the kind of moments at the Garden which would ultimately spawn the careers of Mick Foley and Tommy Dreamer among others.

Snuka had just returned from a stint in rehab at the backend of 1984, and adding to that the history of his bitter rivalry with Rowdy Roddy Piper from the previous summer, it was a synch that Snuka should be the one to counterbalance Cowboy Bob in support of the Hulkster and Mr T. Snuka had a sizeable contribution to the commercially viable MSG years of the early '80s, and it’s an interesting footnote that his role at the first WrestleMania is often overlooked.