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Gazmission
Welcome to the 6th edition of
Gazmission written for Wrestling Envy by Gary
Griffiths.
WrestleMania, The granddaddy of em
all, The Superbowl of Professional Wrestling, The
Showcase of the immortals. These are all terms to
describe without a doubt the biggest event on a
WWF’s fans calendar. WrestleMania has for 17
years now captivated the mind of fans every where.
It is THE show, where the best matches take
place, the best rivalries end, and usually the
heroic baby face rules supreme. So without
further waiting, I give to you, the HISTORY OF
WRESTLEMANIA……
WrestleMania I
A tradition rich in history and glory was born on
March 31st 1986 when the first WrestleMania was
aired from Madison Square Garden, New York. The
WWF had previously held great events in front of
huge audiences around the US of A, but nothing
comapred to WrestleMania. The main Event pitted
the Immortal Hulk Hogan and Mr T (The number One
member of the ‘Where are they now club’)
against Paul Orndoff and Roddy Piper. Although
the actual Wrestling on this card left a lot to
be desired, for it’s time the show was a
very impressive one, And the guest stars were
every where, from Ali to Mr T, they were all here
to welcome in WrestleMania.
Rating – 7/10
WrestleMania II
Nothing like this had been attempted before, one
event staged in three different arenas. The
Rosemont Horizon, the Los Angeles Sports Arena,
and the Nassau Coliseum were the hosts for this
Historic event. To be critical though, this was a
poor event, an amazing crowd saved the dire Hulk
– King Kong Bundy cage matchh from
collapsing. George the Animal Steel V.s Macho Man
wasn’t to bad, and the final main event was
an exciting battle royal, won buy the late Andre
The Giant.
Rating – 5/10
WrestleMania III
In front of 93,000 + fans at the Pontiac Silver
Dome, the WWF produced easily the biggest
WrestleMania of all time. Vinnie Mac announced
this show at the start with an unintentionally
hilrious speech. It wasn’t what he said, it
was how he said it. It went a little something
like this….
“Weeeeeeeeeelcome to WREEEEEEEEEESTLEMANIA
THREEEEEEEEEEEEEE”
……Vince then went on to welcome the……
“Queeeeeeeeeeennn of soul, Missssss
Areeeeeeeeeeeeeethla Fraaaaaaaanklinnnnn”
The card depended on one match and one match only
to draw the crowd, and that was the undefeated
Andre The Giant V.s Hulk Hogan. This was billed
the battle of the titans, and both men battled in
a, to be honest dreadful encounter, but in all
fairness with Andres condition that can only be
expected. In the end, Andre showed the ultimate
sign of professionalism and laid down for the
Hulkster. But the match that stole the show was
between Ricky Steamboat and Macho Man for the IC
Title, this scientific/High Flying masterpiece
was talked about for many years to come.
Rating – 7/10
WretleMania IV
To keep the inovations for WrestleMania going the
WWF decided to hold a Tournament for the vacant
title at WrestleMania 4. Although the venue for
this event was horrible, the Tournament provided
quite good entertainment. Macho Man eventually
won this tournament, with help from Hogan. The
event though was a very long one, and if you buy
the video, it is in fact a two part tape. When of
the least exciting WrestleManias ever. And not
even Hulks step onto the dark side could save it,
(Ohhhhhh don’t pick up that chair Hulk, that
things dangerous…..Hulk…..Hulk….What
are you doing Hulk, don’t hit that nice rich
man with the chair…..Huuuuuuulk) Why Hulk,
why did you break the hearts of millions of 10
year olds world wide, what kinda of damn role
model are you….Really Mr Hogan, using a
chair…tut tut tut.
Rating – 5/10
WrestleMania V
Held in the same arena as the previous year, this
event produced some good matches, and the main
event was full of thrills. Hogan – Macho Man
produced the good, and there were some other
entertainemtns spots to. But nothing to
spectacular. Not much else to say about this
event, apart from it being the last appreance of
Big John Studd who refereed the match between
Andre and Jake the Snake Roberts.
Rating – 6/10
WrestleMania VI
Now is one of my favourite WrestleMania’s
ever, it was the first WM to be held outside the
USA, and the main event was a fanatstic macth up
between Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior. Both
pafrticipants cut promos before the match, and
with Warriors like usual, you couldn’t
understand what he was saying, and the words you
could work out were meanigless. In the match
these men produced all that was expected and then
some, but in the end Warrior was the victor after
Hulk missed his leg drop. Many thought this was
the passing of the torch but only a year later,
the torched had been passed back. But maybe the
only reason this macth was good was that these to
superstars had been rehearsing this match weeks
in advance, I guess that means practice does make
perfect.
Rating – 8/10
WrestleMania VII
Never has there been such passion surrounding a
WrestleMania main event than this one. In a
brilliant move by the WWF, they incorporated
Americas problems into there story lines. SGT
Slaughter had turned heel and joined forces with
the Iraqi team. And in real life America was at
war with Iraq. Hulk being, the bald American hero
that he was stood up for his country and
fulfilled the dream of Hulkamaniacs world wide by
defeating the Iraqi team, and winning he World
Title. Not much else happened on this card, few
god matches, a few terrible matches. Incidently,
at this time you could tell the WWF was moving
towards its bad run, as the originally scheduled
arena didn’t sell enough tickets so they
moved the show to a different venue. The WWF
excuse for this was ; That the security risk was
to high……Ummm, Ok?
Rating – 7/10
WrestleMania VIII
“WREEEEEEEEEEEESSSTTTLLLLEEEEEMANIA 8, An
unprecedented Douuuuuuuble Maaaaain Event”
Yes folks, that was the advertisement promo for
1992 annual WrestleMania, which was once again
performed byVince (does this man have an tonsels?).
And indeed it was a double main event, Sid v.s
Hogan in Hulks * ahem * retirment match, Now
where have I heard that before?
The other main event pitted Macho Man Vs Flair
for the title. Now this match was a good one that
was eventually won by Savage. By the way, if you
own this tape, look out for one of the security
man holding Elizebeth back, Yes that’s
right, it’s none other than boy wonder
himself, Shano Mac!
The crowd throughout this show was very hot,
probably one of the loudest Mania crowds ever,
and when The Ultimate Warrior made his surprise
return at Main Event two (Hulks Ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha Retirment match) the roof blew of the Hoosier
Dome. The match of the night goes to Piper v.s
Bret Hart though, this scientific marvel, made
the wrestling world take notice to the amazing
skills of the Hitman.
Rating – 7/10
WrestleMania IX
Now many people consider this to be the single
worst WWF PPV of all time, but believe me, it
wasn’t that bad. Ok I admit, the ending was
pathetic, there were no outstanding matches, and
the arena killed a lot of the atmosphere, but
comapred to other PPV’s I’ve seen (*ahem*
WCW *ahem*) it certainly isn’t top of the
list or the worst. This WrestleMania was the last
to feature Hulk Hogan who fittingly was World
Champion at the end of the night, even if it was
in bad fashion. Now if you aren’t familiar
of how his unexpected reign came about, let me
take you through it in no detail.
Bret Hart v.s Yokozuna main event, Hart gets salt
tossed in his eye, loses match. Hogan comes out
to help his “friend”, but Fuji ends up
offering him a shot at the belt, Hogan duly
accepts (some friend eh?) and ends up winning the
belt.
Rating – 5/10
WrestleMania X
Ten years on from WrestleMania I, The WWF was
doin it’s best to promote a decade of
WrestleMania's, but no one was listening. In
honour of it’s 10 year run, Vince and Co
decided to stage the event at the exact same
venue as the innaugral Mania 10 years back. The
show was a good one, but that was on the basis of
one match. The ladder match was not very often
used in the WWF back in the mid 90’s. Maybe
the odd Colliseum ladder match took place, but
never on PPV. So Shawn Michaels and Razor decided
to change that. In an epic battle, both men used
the ladder in innovative way’s to wear down
there opponents. In the end the vicotr was Razor
when HBK got caught up in the ropes.
Also this night Bret Hart time came when he
defeated Yokozuna to lift the Gold.
Rating – 7/10
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disagree, or generally want to talk about
this column, please get in touch with
Gary Griffiths by clicking HERE.
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