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This year’s WrestleMania is almost upon us, and as usual, the hype and hyperbole is running at a fevered pitch. WWE has been building up the WrestleMania concept for so long, it’s easy to forget that the show wasn’t always the legendary showcase of the immortals. The first WrestleMania was an uncertain proposition that could have easily sunk the World Wrestling Federation if it hadn’t gone just right.
Let’s sweep aside some of WWE’s myth making and take a look at some unembellished facts about the very first WrestleMania…
1. WrestleMania was conceived on a Caribbean beach. So, when did Vince McMahon have his WrestleMania “Eureka!” moment? It must have been backstage at particularly bustling Madison Square Garden show or while pouring over his finances, looking for that one solution to his company’s problems, right?
Nope. Apparently, the WrestleMania concept was born on some white sand beach as Vince McMahon sipped Mai Tais in his Speedo. Sorry for that image. According to most of the folks in power at the time, Vince and Linda went on a Caribbean vacation in early 1985, and he returned with wild-eyed ideas about putting on a supercard packed with as many celebrities as they could get. Nobody’s ever said this, but I like to imagine that it was actually Linda who thought up the idea. I guess only that Caribbean beach will ever know.
WWE Promotional Image
That Caribbean beach and Linda, of course.
2. Vince McMahon wanted to call the show “The Colossal Tussle.” Yup, Vince McMahon originally wanted to call his supershow The Colossal Tussle. I suppose WrestleMania is almost as silly when you really think about it, but… The Colossal Tussle. That was a close freakin’ call.
3. Howard Finkel came up with the name WrestleMania. Okay, so if Vince was stuck on The Colossal Tussle as the name, who actually came up with WrestleMania? Well, that was none other than beloved WWF ring announcer, Howard Finkel. Management gathered pretty much every office employee they could to brainstorm names for the event, and Finkel just happened to be the one who blurted out WrestleMania. Beatlemania had been pretty big, so why not WrestleMania?
So, now you know why Howard Finkel is WWE’s longest running employee, even though they don’t actually seem to like him that much.
WWE
Howard Finkel, the case for never ducking out of company meetings.
4. Vince McMahon put up his house to finance the show. Vince McMahon has often said the first WrestleMania was a life-and-death proposition for the WWF, but he doesn’t often get into just how serious the situation was. WWE won’t admit to it today, but the company was running in the red before WrestleMania, and McMahon had to put up almost everything he owned to pay the asking prices of celebs like Mr. T, Cyndi Lauper and Muhammad Ali. According to those close to the situation, McMahon even put up his house, so if WrestleMania had flopped, Vince wouldn’t have just been out a wrestling company, he would have been without a home.