The first WrestleMania took place in 1985 and helped launch the one-time Northeast promotion to the highest of highs. With WrestleMania, the company went global and never looked back. The Rock and Wrestling Connection helped lead the way, and several guest stars, from Muhammad Ali to Liberace to Cyndi Lauper, made sure fans had to tune in.
RELATED: 10 Tag Teams With The Best Claim To Be On A Wrestling Mount Rushmore
While the show was a major event for WWE, the matches were average at best, with some of them lackluster by WrestleMania standards to this day. With the stars of 1985 trying to show their talents to the world to help WWE gain a larger fanbase, they all cemented their place in history.
10 Tito Santana
Tito Santana was not yet the Intercontinental Champion, and it was years before he became a long-running tag team star. However, Santana was still a top name, and he goes down in history as one-half of the first WrestleMania match in history.
Santana beat The Executioner, who was Playboy Buddy Rose in a mask. Rose died in 2009 at the age of 56. Tito Santana is now a middle school teacher, but he still makes appearances at wrestling shows at the age of 67.
9 Ricky Steamboat
Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat has a place in history with one of the best matches of all-time at WrestleMania III. However, two years before, he worked in the third match on the show. This was a short four-minute victory over the late Matt Borne, who later in his career worked as Doink the Clown.
At the age of 67, Steamboat still makes occasional appearances in WWE and has worked with some younger stars in special classes at the WWE Performance Center over the years.
8 Brutus Beefcake
Brutus Beefcake had a rough life throughout his wrestling career. At the first WrestleMania, Beefcake was a singles star with Johnny Valiant as his manager and fought Bruno Sammartino's son to a double disqualification finish.
Beefcake ended up in a tag team with Greg Valentine the next year and then became The Barber. After an accident parasailing, he ended up following Hulk Hogan to WCW for a few stints. In 2019, Beefcake was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
7 Greg Valentine
Greg "The Hammer" Valentine was a major star before he came to WWE, as he was one of the NWA's top talents. However, when WrestleMania aired, he was the Intercontinental Champion, managed at the time by The Mouth of the South Jimmy Hart. He lost to the late Junkyard Dog by countout but kept his title.
RELATED: 10 Women With The Best Claim To Be On A Wrestling Mount Rushmore
Valentine was actually seen recently when Cody Rhodes and Brodie Lee battled in a dog collar match. The most infamous dog collar match was between Valentine and Roddy Piper. Valentine was invited to watch this new one and checked it out from the stands.
6 The Iron Sheik
The Iron Sheik and the late Nikolai Volkoff were among the most hated tag teams in WWE when WrestleMania aired. Volkoff would demand that fans stand for the Russian National Anthem, and then Sheik would spit at America in general.
At a PPV that was mostly one where babyfaces won, the biggest shock came when Sheik and Volkoff won the tag titles from the U.S. Express. Sheik is still very visible as he has one of the most entertaining Twitter accounts in the world today.
5 Mike Rotunda
Mike Rotunda was one of the most hated stars in WWE in the late '80s and early '90s when he worked as IRS. However, at the first WrestleMania, he was one of the biggest babyfaces in the company.
He worked in the U.S. Express with Barry Windham, and they came into the event as champions before losing the titles to Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff. Rotunda worked as a road agent in WWE until they furloughed him during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
4 Barry Windham
Barry Windham was one of WCW's top stars in the '80s and '90s, but he had a moment where he was a big star in WWE as well. While most fans know him only from his days in WCW, it might be a surprise to know he was a champion at the first WrestleMania.
RELATED: The 10 Best War Games Matches, Ranked
Windham and Mike Rotunda came in as the Tag Team Champions, The U.S. Express but lost the titles to Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff. Windham was last seen when he accepted the WWE Hall of Fame induction with the Four Horsemen, but he is still around for conventions and shoot interviews.
3 Wendi Richter
Wendi Richter was a major star heading into WrestleMania. She was challenging for the WWE Women's Championship against champion Leilani Kai. It was a high-profile match, with pop star Cyndi Lauper working as her manager and Fabulous Moolah with Kai. Richter won the match and the title.
Most recently, Richter was part of an interview segment on the Dark Side of the Ring series in the Fabulous Moolah episode and the 2019 documentary Circle of Champions: The History of Women's Pro Wrestling.
2 Hulk Hogan
The biggest star in the world heading into WrestleMania was Hulk Hogan. He was the WWE World Champion and was in the main event, teaming with Mr. T to battle the late Roddy Piper and Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff.
It has been easy to keep track of Hulk Hogan since the event, as he remained a top star in wrestling for years and still pops up here and there whenever WWE needs to bring out the legends, as well as when he finds new ways to keep his face in the public eye.
1 Paul Orndorff
Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff was one of WWE's top stars in the '80s. He was an enemy of Hulk Hogan at the first WrestleMania and teamed with the late Rowdy Roddy Piper to lose to Hogan and Mr. T.
After the match, Orndorff turned babyface and then heel again before leaving WWE for good. He ended up back in WWE under a legends deal years later and has appeared here and there in special guest roles, such as one honoring Hulk Hogan in 2014.
NEXT: 5 2nd Generation Wrestlers Who Were Too Much Like Their Parents (& 5 Who Were Different)
