I still recall the hole Brawl to Settle It All and War to Settle the Score build up to the original Wrestlemania. I recognized Lou Albano in the "Girl's Just Want to Have Fun" video and had been watching early WWF tv, on All-American Wrestling, when Lauper turned up as a guest and Albano started taking credit for her success and she goes off on him. Then, the build up to the match, with Lauper picking Wendy Richter to be her wrestler. I thought it was odd, since it wasn't too long before that I saw Richter as a partner for Moolah. She seemed to be an odd babyface choice. From a looks and ringwork standpoint, I would have thought Velvet McIntyre would have been a better choice, out of Moolah's troupe...



She held the Women's Tag-Team Title with Princess Victoria (who can be seen in the Dark of the Ring episode, about moolah, as can Richter) and also swapped the singles title with Moolah, after this match took place. Moolah had actually swapped the belt a few times, unlike the revised Mcmahon history would indicate (with Bette Boucher, Yukiko Tomoe, Sue Green and Evelyn Stevens).

Mcintyre was born in Ireland and trained with Sandy varr (father of Jesse and Art Barr) in Portland, debuting there against fellow trainee Princess Victoria. She then wrestled in Vancouver's All-Star wrestling, before working in the WWF, via Moolah's bookings. She and Princess victoria defended the tag titles against Moolah and Wendy richter, which I first saw on a Madison Square Garden broadcast.

McIntyre did work for Vince Jr, wrestling Moolah and Sherri Martel. She left the WWF after they stopped booking women's matches and worked in Canada and the independent scene, before retiring in 1998, after becoming pregnant, with twins.

I never enjoyed Moolah's matches, as they were the same boring spots. McIntyre and Richter had more exciting styles, as did Martel when she emerged on the scene, a little bit later. Moolah just did the same hair-mares, buttdrops and front facelocks.

The angles heated up with Piper involved, leading to the War to Settle the Score, with Hogan, at MSG, seen on MTV. That was fun, with Mr T getting involved and then Wrestlemania. It wasn't surprising who Vince got for celebrities fr that first show: Liberace, the Rockettes and Muhammad Ali. Liberace was even more over the top than Mcmahon and would do almost anything, for the right price. The Rockettes were mostly a Macy's Thanksgiving Parade cliche, at that point (though they still did their shows) and the McMahons were involved in promoting the Ali-Inoki fight, so they had an established relationship.

You almost forget that Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda were on the card, defending the tag titles and that Wendy Richter regained the title there, from Leilani Kai (who I first saw wrestle for the Poffos, against Debbie Combs). or, that Ricky Steamboat wrestled Matt Borne, under his own name, a few years before he would be Doink the Clown.

Of course, just before the card, Hogan and Mr T hosted SNL (night before) and, a few days before appeared on richard Belzer's cable show and choked him out, with a front facelock, causing him to hit the floor and bloody his head, leading to a subsequent lawsuit and settlement (it is believed that Belzer's cocaine use was a factor in his passing out so easily and bleeding so much).

Also on the card were SD Jones, eternal jobber (losing to King Kong Bundy) and Playboy Buddy Rose (under a mask, as The Executioner) losing to Tito Santana. Really, aside fromt he main event, it was pretty much an average MSG card, aside from the celebrities (and Ali had appeared at ringside for a Gorilla Monsoon match, back in the day, to set up his fight with Inoki).



By the way, the ringside crowd is a 70s polyester nightmare!