20 Days That Changed WWE Forever
17. 31 March 1985 - WrestleMania
By 1985, Vince McMahon Sr. had passed away and his influence was fading. Vince Jr. had spent the past few years making the WWF into the largest wrestling promotion in the country, buying out other organisations and stealing their talent - breaking many of the verbal pacts that his father had considered sacrosanct.
Still, money doesn't grow on trees, and McMahon was spending a lot. As the WWF got more popular - and as pay-per-view wasn't a viable method of revenue yet - the WWF chairman realized that he could score a major payday by promoting a wrestling supercard on closed-circuit television to movie theaters across the country. While the tactic had been tried before, this one would be grander than any of its predecessors, with Hollywood glitz and glamour thrown into the mix.
It was a gamble - had WrestleMania failed, McMahon likely would have gone down in wrestling history as a would-be megalomaniac whose grasp far exceeded his reach. Instead, WrestleMania was a massive success - thanks in no small part to Mr. T, star of the popular A-Team. Mr. T brought a ton of eyes over to the product, drove sales for the event, and saved WWF in the process.