30 Week Journey: Wrestlemania (1985)

Let us at The Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast be the first to say … The Road to Wrestlemania 31 starts now!

That’s right. The first week of September.

That’s because for the next – count em – 30 weeks, Lapsed Fan hosts Jack Encarnacao and JP Sarro will embark on a quixotic journey through each and every Wrestlemania, in order, in their signature fashion. They begin, of course, with the Wrestlemania 1, March 31, 1985, in Madison Square Garden, a momentous night to say the least.

And the table is expertly set by the expert himself, as Wrestling Observer newsletter editor Dave Meltzer chimes in to talk about living through Wrestlemania 1 and, over the next several months, reporting on wrestling as each Wrestlemania dawned, including never-before-told stories.

Journey this week with Jack and JP through the short-lived, but incredibly successful, Rock n Wrestling connection, including:

- Which superstar Gene Okerlund – with a straight face – said on MTV weeks before the show “combines compassion, brute strength, intuition, and the latest in wrestling science.”

- The story behind the very first WM match, The Executioner v. Tito Santana

- Who the real main attraction was in the building that night, and how it foreshadowed a blueprint Vince McMahon would use over the years to spark interest in his product

- The true MVP of this show. Hint: Roddy Piper.

- The Gorilla Monsoon “It’s a happening!” Wrestlemania 1 drinking game

- Richard Belszer desperately tries to convey the Hulk Hogan choke-out incident wasn’t a work

- Andy Warhol desperately tries to convey that wrestling is a work, ironically of course

- Andre the Giant’s leg kicking game

- An incredibly nervous Al Hayes

- The historical curiosity that is Wendi Richter

All that, and so … much … more. Get Lapsed across the face with the damnedest Wrestlemania 1 review you’ve ever heard, with 29 more coming your way. It’s exhaustive. It’s exhausting. It’s worth it.