Prior to sticking the blu ray on eBay, I decided to watch this WWE produced documentary about the history and coming together of Wrestlemania. Whilst it was obviously never going to be a frank and honest investigation into what went on, there is some interesting insight from the players involved and behind the scenes footage.
Vince McMahon, having purchased the New York wrestling territory from his father, sets about establishing the World Wrestling Federation as the first nationwide promotion. The centre piece of his plan is a new historically unprecedented large-scale wrestling event, to take place at Madison Square Garden and to match the titans of the wrestling world, with iconic figures of pop culture. As well as the capacity crowd, the plan is to show the event on closed circuit television in a number of venues across the country. The expense of the event though risks the very future of the company.
I think, having watched the documentary, is that I'd have preferred a much deeper analysis of what went into the early Wrestlemanias, rather than a bit of focus on the first one and then a scattershot approach to various bits and themes from the twenty odd that had followed, at the time this was produced. There is some talk about the regional promotion / NWA world that existed before Vince took over in the North East. There is talk that the rock and wrestling crossover was taking place, but there isn't the detail or the specificity that I'd have liked to have seen. How did they get a certain person involved? Who told them no? What venues turned them down?
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't anticipating much more than a relatively light "isn't Wrestlemania great" piece, so that just makes the odd little behind the curtains moment you get all the more frustrating. It remains though, a fun trip down memory lane and a chance to relieve a few classic moments.