We are on the road to Las Vegas, the city of angels and the host city for Wrestlemania 41. I thought it would be fun to look back on the last 40 years of the show’s history and rebook them all.
After all, the Showcase of the Immortals is far from a perfect show each year, there is usually always room for improvement. Today, we start where it all began. 1985 at the famous Madison Square Garden in New York City. As a brief reminder, here is the card we had on the night:
- Tito Santana vs The Executioner
- King Kong Bundy vs Special Delivery Jones
- Ricky Steamboat vs Matt Borne
- Brutus Beefcake vs David Sammartino
- Greg Valentine (c) vs Junkyard Dog, IC Championship
- The US Express (c) vs Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff, Tag Championships
- Andre the Giant vs Big John Studd, $15,000 Body Slam Challenge
- Leilani Kai (c) vs Wendi Richter, Women’s Championship
- Hulk Hogan & Mr T vs Paul Orndorff & Roddy Piper
It’s a different kind of beast rebooking these older Wrestlemania shows because of how different the audience was back then. I have to keep in mind when I make changes, I’m looking for something that would be entertaining 40 years ago but still holds up now. I’ll give it a college try though. WWE, this is how its done.
The planned singer of the American national anthem failed to appear which meant Gene Okerlund ended up singing the rendition. It’s not Top of the Pops worthy, but I’ll keep it in because it was very endearing.
The opening match of the first ever Wrestlemania is a number 1 contender match to determine a challenger for Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine’s IC Championship, later on the same night. It will be Tito Santana vs Ricky Steamboat. Tito is the former champion, losing the belt in September and clamoring for revenge. Steamboat doesn’t have anything going on in particular. These two are capable of having a very hot opening match. Competitive face vs face action, Steamboat just manages to steal a flash pinfall. Both men shake hands after the bell, a wholesome conclusion to an undoubtably good match.
Next up, I would keep King Kong Bundy vs SD Jones but only change one detail. DON’T LIE ABOUT HOW LONG THE MATCH IS! Don’t say it was 9 seconds when it was 24, just make it 9 seconds! Jones is hyping the crowd in the corner when the bell rings, he turns around and is splashed immediately by KKB for the quickest win in Wrestlemania history which would last for over 30 years.
Following that we have a bit of a random match here because we need better workers so why not make use of the recent purchase of Stampede Wrestling. A showcase match of 4 new talents recently hired by the WWF. The British Bulldogs, Davey Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid, teaming up against Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart. Bret & Jim wouldn’t form the Hart Foundation for another 4 months, however, they’re already both heels and would be a good pairing to face the British boys. Give these lads 10 minutes, have the Harts really heel it up and they’ll make a name for themselves. I’d put over the Bulldogs since they’re the more experienced team. History for these two teams begins tonight.
Let’s talk about the Sammartino’s. Truth is, David was never really any good. He was fine, but he lacked in almost every category that made his father Bruno such an awe-inspiring legend. The fans did not care about David, however, they came unglued for Bruno getting involved. Bruno & David worked as a father-son tag team after this show, so why not do it here?
For the first time in 4 years, we will see Bruno Sammartino wrestle inside the squared circle, taking on Brutus Beefcake and his manager Jimmy Valiant. This probably won’t raise the quality of the match by too much, but at least Bruno (the only actual draw here) gets a better feature alongside his son. He and David double-team Valiant as Beefcake hightails it out of there. The father-son duo with a huge victory which should pop the crowd.
Greg Valentine defends his IC title against Ricky Steamboat. Give them 10 minutes and we’ll have a fun technical battle for the gold. Steamboat channels his babyface fire but he is too fatigued to counter every heel move. Valentine manages to steal a pinfall over Ricky. A post-match attack is prevented by Santana who runs out to Steamboat’s aid.
The final match before the main event trilogy is unchanged. The Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff winning the tag titles was the best match on the original show so it deserves to stay. Huge heel heat for the foreigners getting the win over the Americans. I love it.
Another unchanged match is the Body Slam challenge. Yes, it wasn’t too great in-ring, but Andre is a huge draw, plus I liked the moment of Andre throwing money into the crowd because it was unscripted and it pissed off backstage people.
Wendi Richter is still gunning for revenge, trying to win back her title from Leilani Kai. She has Cyndi Lauper in her corner. This match was pretty bad, so I’m going to change the booking of this a bit. During the road to Wrestlemania, Leilani should build up that she was mentored by the greatest woman ever, the Fabulous Moolah. With her training, she will reign as champion forever and Wendi isn’t worth the same oxygen they breathe.
Anytime Richter tries to force a confrontation, Kai runs away and hides behind Moolah. So, come match time, that is what Kai does again. She runs and hides but this time Cyndi is there to help. With the referee distracted Cyndi flails her arms at Moolah, temporarily stunning her. Kai grabs at Cyndi, but Richter is there to roll her up for a 1-2-3. It’s still not going to be a great match but hopefully, the segment is more engaging with a more prevalent story.
So, main event time. Same match, slightly different outcome. Hulk Hogan & Mr T are still flanked by Jimmy Snuka. Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff are with Bob Orton. It is quite an aggressive brawl. We get the spot where Bob Orton jumps from the top with his cast on his arm as a weapon, however, instead this time it is Mr. T in the ring and Bob Orton lands it. Piper slides in for the 1-2-3 and is about to ring the bell until special ring enforcer Muhammed Ali steps up.
He explains to the referee Pat Patterson what happened, he gets up in Orton’s face and a huge argument/brawl breaks out. Ali steps in and KOs Orton with a punch and sends Roddy Piper out with a punch too. Orndorff has the full Nelson on Hogan, but Mr T runs in with a huge punch and Hogan pins Orndorff to win the big main event. You can have the usual promos from everyone after the match. I would include a promo from an irate Roddy Piper who says he was cheated out of the match, threatening to beat up Mohammed Ali.
There you have it, the inaugural Wrestlemania recast and rebooked. Here is the final card:
| Tito Santana vs Ricky Steamboat to earn the right to challenge for IC Championship |
| King Kong Bundy w/Jimmy vs Special Delivery Jones |
| British Bulldogs vs Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart w/Jimmy Hart |
| David & Bruno Sammartino vs Brutus Beefcake & Jimmy Valiant |
| Greg Valentine (c) w/Jimmy Hart vs Ricky Steamboat, IC Championship |
| US Express (c) vs Iron Sheik & Nikolai Vokoff w/Freddie Blassie, Tag Championships |
| Andre the Giant vs Big John Studd w/Bobby Heenan, $15,000 Body Slam Challenge |
| Leilani Kai (c) w/Fabulous Moolah vs Wendi Richter w/Cyndi Lauper |
| WWF Champion Hulk Hogan & Mr T w/Jimmy Snuka vs Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff w/Cowboy Bob Orton |
Thanks for reading! You can check out the Top 10 WrestleMania matches here. Join us next time for our retro booking of WrestleMania 2.
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