Today is the 31st Anniversary of the First Wrestlemania

“Welcome to Wrestlemania!” With those words, ring announcer Howard Finkel greeted a Madison Square Garden crowd of 19,121 to the World Wrestling Federation’s first ever Wrestlemania way back in 1985. Seen by over a million people on closed circuit television, Wrestlemania I was the WWF’s first ever pay per view event and solidified the WWF’s role as the premiere wrestling promotion in the United States.Headlined by a match featuring Hulk Hogan and Mr. T facing off against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff, Wrestlemania I was part spectacle and part wrestling supercard that turned the entire wrestling world upside down.

Wrestlemania was the culmination of Vince McMahon’s plan to transform the WWF into a national wrestling promotion, a massive shift from how wrestling companies typically did business.Historically, each promotion stuck to one geographic region, but McMahon wanted to his company to tour nationally and gain national recognition.After signing major talent like Hogan, Piper and Jimmy Snuka, McMahon struck a deal with MTV to promote both the WWF and Wrestlemania, a pay per view event meant to counter his rival Jim Crockett’s Starrcade event.While Starrcade featured plenty of famous wrestlers, McMahon brought in pop culture icons like Mr. T, Cyndi Laupner and Muhammad Ali to separate Wrestlemania from its rivals and make it more interesting for non-wrestling fans.

Thanks to McMahon’s inventive cross-promotion and the mainstream popularity of Hogan, Wrestlemania I was a big success.The card featured wrestling legends like Ricky Steamboat, Bruno Sammartino and Andre the Giant in various matches, leading up to the main event featuring Mr. T, Hogan, Piper and Orndorff.While the main event match wasn’t memorable for its wrestling (after all Mr. T wasn’t a wrestler), it had plenty of spectacle, with Liberace serving as the timekeeper, Muhammad Ali as the guest referee, and the Rockettes standing outside of the ring.The match ended when Bob Orton, a heel wrestler aligned with Piper and Orndorff (and also the father of current WWE wrestler Randy Orton), accidentally struck Orndorff instead of Hogan, giving Hogan an opening to pin Orndorff.

Because of the success of the first Wrestlemania, McMahon turned it into an annual event, which has since become known as the “Super Bowl” of professional wrestling.Wrestlemania also helped secure the WWF a spot on national television, transforming wrestling into part of mainstream pop culture. Two years later, Wrestlemania III became the most attended indoor sports event in US history, a record that stood until the 2010 NBA All Star Game.Hogan went on to main event the next eight Wrestlemanias, before leaving the WWF in 1993 and joining the rival promotion WCW a year later.

The WWE still builds its entire year aroundWrestlemania, with fantastic matches and at least a few memorable moments during the four hour show. While wrestling’s popularity has never reached the popularity it enjoyed in the 1980s, Wrestlemania continues to be one of the biggest annual sporting events of the years and the WWE is hoping to break its own Wrestlemania III record at this weekend’s Wrestlemania 32.Even lapsed wrestling fans and non-wrestling fans pay attention to Wrestlemania, in part because the WWE created the show as a can’t miss pop culture event thirty-one years ago.