Grading WrestleMania I

[RI Richmark]

Now that we are on The Road to WrestleMania XXVIII (stops and points to the logo), I thought it might be a good time to look back at the 27 previous WrestleManias and see what the FANdom thinks of each one.

Every day I'll bring up a WrestleMania and you give it a grade from 1 (the lowest score) to 5 (the highest).

So let's start at the beginning.



For me, other than the fact that it's the first, there's not much that stands out good or bad about WrestleMania I. In fairness I started watching the WWF shortly before WrestleMania III so I didn't experience the buildup to this firsthand.

The main event was good especially the antics of Piper and company and Mr. T did a good job for a non-wrestler. And about the only negative thing I can think of (and it's nitpicking) was the WWF claiming that King Kong Bundy v. SD Jones went 9 seconds and hoping no one had a stopwatch.

Obviously, WrestleMania I did it's job and then some seeing that WrestleMania is approaching it's third decade but to me it felt more what an average PPV would be a few years later rather than the biggest card of the year. I watch it every year around this time but only for the historical value.

My grade: 3

[bob]

5 just from a historical perspective

[Loki-A-Go-Go!]

2

Andre the Giant vs. Big John Studd is the only match I like.

[Drillbit Taylor]

Its a fun little show. It is nothing TOO special from a WWF TV show at the time. But it has its charm, and its place in History.

[Big Bad Brad]

I voted Has it's ups and downs

At the time it was a good show and if it failed the WWF would of went out of business cause Vince put EVERYTHING into that show.

Having said that I don't think it stood the test of time to good I don't think it could hold a candle to any WWE show currently and I am a big old school fan so that is hard to say about most old school shows but really compared to all the Wrestlemanias after it none of the matches on Wrestlemania 1 would make a list of the all time greatest matches and really none of the moments would make a top wrestlemania moments list. Not saying WM1 didn't have its moments it did but almost all the Wrestlemania's of the past has surpassed it except for Wrestlemania IX and maybe some other terrible Wrestlemania.

[Big Bad Brad]

I do like this idea of grading each Wrestlemania but I think I'm going to take it one step further everyday when you post the current wrestlemania I'm going to give my review for each one.

For my reviews I'm going to go through the show and pick out what I like and what I didn't like about each Mainia.

Things I didn't like about Wrestlemania I

-Squash matches - Bundy VS S.D. Jones was nothing more than a big squash match. Wrestlemania is special I don't think an event as special as Wrestlemania should have squash matches.

-More than one match ended with out a decisive winner. David Sammartino & Brutus Beefcake fought to a Double DQ. Greg Valentine defended the IC Championship against Junkyard Dog, Dog won by Count Out. I'm not a fan of matches, especially big shows, ending in DQ or Count Out, I can understand the IC title match ending that way because they didn't want to beat Dog and they didn't want Valentine to lose the title but regardless I don't like matches ending that way there should be decisive winners and losers by pinfall or submission.

- The WWF World Title not being on the line. Seriously I hate to see big shows like this were the title is not on the line, I can understand the feud was bigger than the title but instead of having a tag match I think they would of sold just as good if they had Hogan with Mr. T in his corner VS Piper with Bob Orton in his corner maybe make it a No DQ or Steel Cage or something and also so Orndorff and Snuka could have something to do throw them two in a match which I could see being a good match. The match wasn't bad but not having the title on the line is a pet peeve of mine.

Things I liked

- Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik winning the tag titles, I mean no one expected them to win so having the heels take the titles was a smart move to show that anything could happen in the WWF.

- The Body Slam match because Andre's career was on the line so that was a huge selling point for Wrestlemania and after he won tossing the money to the crowd until Bobby Heenan grabbed the bag and ran.

- Wendi Richter winning the Women's title. Now this maybe hard to believe for some people but what I heard was her popularity rivals Hogans. The pop she got for winning was about as big as Hogan's and Tony Atlas even said on his Youshoot that he went to an autograph signing and Richter's line was longer than Hogans. So to see a woman in wrestling this popular and get the pop she got for winning was unreal.

Rankings
Wrestlemania I

Everyday I'll add each mania to the list and we'll see where they all rank in my opinion.

[Deleted]

Gave it a 4. A lot of the matches were nothing special, but the night certainly was.