The History of WWE WrestleMania: VII

It's a Star-Spangled WrestleMania.....in a tiny venue....

L.A. Sports Arena - 3/24/91

The seventh installment ended up being one of the most forgettable.  What was intended to be a record-smashing supershow in front of 100,000 fans at the L.A. Coliseum was relegated to the 15,000-seat Sports Arena when ticket sales fell horribly short of expectations.  That will happen though when your main event is little more than the exploitation of a minor real-life skirmish in the Middle East.  Why the WWF thought the US vs. Iraq angle would draw big business I'm not sure, especially since the real conflict ended over a month before WrestleMania.

Sgt. Slaughter was inexplicably brought in as a turncoat and almost immediately handed the WWF Title at the Royal Rumble, all so he could face the American Hero Hulk Hogan.  Surely a Hogan vs. Warrior rematch would've drawn the numbers they wanted, so I'm still unclear why they didn't go that route.

The match was what it was.  It certainly could've been worse, but it definitely wasn't good.  It's widely considered one of, if not THE worst all-time WrestleMania main event.  Slaughter was about as unworthy a WWF Champion as there's ever been and it was a sad day indeed when Hulk Hogan is by far the better worker in a given match.  This meandering brawl lasted over 21 minutes before Hogan mercifully put an end to the proceeding with the ol' big boot-legdrop combo.  Sadly this didn't even end the feud, as it stretched on and off until SummerSlam.  Christ almighty.....

Yep.  Can't imagine why this didn't sell 100,000 tickets.

'Mania 7 was saved however by the semi-main event of Randy Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior, with the stipulation that the loser would have to retire.  This feud had been brewing for several months while Warrior was WWF Champion, but Savage was battling nagging injuries and was thus unable to compete for a while.  Though I don't consider this match nearly as great as most do, it was easily one of the WWF's best of 1991.  This match paved the way for the overuse of finishers in big matchups (see Austin vs. Rock).  Savage hit five flying elbow smashes in a row and failed to get the pin, and the Warrior finally won after three flying tackles.  Post-match Savage's manager Sherri Martel attacked him, having lost her meal ticket due to the retirement stip.  Who should come to Savage's rescue but Miss Elizabeth, much to the delight and tears of the crowd.  Savage would spend the next several months as a commentator before returning to action that November.

AEW Revolution 2026 Review: The Tragedy of Hangman Adam Page

Alright, finally watched AEW Revolution 2026 a day late (thanks Oscars!), and the short answer is, it was one of the best top-to-bottom PPVs AEW has ever done.  This show felt like the work of a super hot promotion, in a way AEW hasn't presented since early 2022 (taking nothing away from the quality of their 2023-2025 PPVs of course).  The Los Angeles crowd on this night was one of the loudest in a long time, and despite this show going a whopping five-and-a-half hours including Zero Hour, they never seemed to get tired.  On top of all that, the card featured a smorgasbord of excellent matches and a few big surprises.  And one booking decision that is sure to leave a lot of people scratching their heads until they look like MJF's back.

I guess we'll lead with the main event, since that was the biggest talking point.  MJF vs. Hangman Page in a Texas Death Match was 46 minutes of some of the most violent wrestling anyone's ever done on a North American show (MJF wore Terry Funk-inspired gear to mark the occasion).  Though I might classify Hangman-Swerve and maybe even Hangman-Mox II as slightly more grisly, this match was certainly one of AEW's most brutal offerings to date.  There are arguments to be made both ways; when you promise a Texas Death match you need to deliver one, but how far is too far, and what can you possibly do to top it next time?  Conventional wisdom says you risk turning off casual viewers with content this bloody, but then again, the Undertaker-Mankind Hell in a Cell match (among others) came during one of the WWF's most mainstream-accepted periods.  

For me the best way to judge a match like this is on its own terms.  What did it set out to accomplish, and did it succeed?  MJF and Hangman wanted to deliver an over-the-top display of wanton violence built on an emotional story with the highest imaginable stakes, and on that level it absolutely succeeded.  The live crowd was with them the whole time, in spite of the match's excessive length (I would say ten minutes could've been trimmed but it also didn't drag for me), and the finish hit hard emotionally.  These two used every weapon imaginable - chairs, tables, window glass, a syringe, kabob skewers, trash can lids, light tubes, a dog collar chain, and there was a spot through the electrical equipment table.  Both men gushed like crazy and likely have a few permanent scars now.  After withstanding everything they could do to each other, it looked like Hangman was finally getting the win with a Buckshot Lariat (the second one of the match), when MJF slipped on the diamond ring and punched him in the face with it before choking him out with the dog collar.  Hangman went unconscious, collapsed to the floor, and got counted down.  And now he can never challenge for the AEW Title again.

The History of WWE WrestleMania: VI

In my opinion the worst WrestleMania of all time.  Fight me.....

The Skydome - 4/1/90

'Mania returned to a stadium setting in 1990, with a gigantic face vs. face main event for both of the singles championships.  Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior was arguably an even bigger match than Hogan vs. Savage, in that it had never happened before and featured the company's top two babyfaces head to head.

The match itself was similar in style to the Hogan-Savage match from a year earlier, except it lacked a great wrestler to carry the workload.  Hogan and Warrior did what they could, but two mediocre wrestlers squaring off for 20+ minutes can only do so much.  While the aura surrounding the match was pretty epic, the match itself always left me rather bored, and I consider it one of the more overrated matches in WWF/E history.  It was notable however for being one of the few times Hulk Hogan ever jobbed cleanly.  This was a true passing of the torch (which unfortunately didn't really stick, but that's beside the point); a rare example of Hogan acting unselfishly and putting his stamp of approval on a would-be successor.

A titanic battle.....between two mediocre workers.

Movie Review: One Battle After Another (2025)

Plugging away at what's shaping up to be a busy fall movie season, it's time to review the latest from Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another!

Based on the 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, PTA's tenth film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor and newcomer Chase Infiniti.  Leo and Teyana are Pat Calhoun and Perfidia Beverly Hills, members of a far-left revolutionary group called the French 75, who run rescue operations for incarcerated undocumented immigrants, rob banks, and conduct after-hours bombings of financial and political offices.  The couple has a child together but Perfidia is arrested during a botched bank heist, and Pat and their daughter Charlene are forced to go into hiding.  Sixteen years later their past catches up with them when a military squad begins hunting down the remaining French 75 members.

I won't divulge more plot than that, as the trailer leaves vague all but what I mentioned above; this film is better experienced without knowing much.  Suffice to say PTA has loosely adapted this Reagan-era story for the 2020s and created a powderkeg of a film, a blend of piano-wire-taut suspense, absurdist comedy, and biting political satire.  

The History of WWE WrestleMania: V

The first WrestleMania I was able to watch live as it happened, via closed-circuit television....

Trump Plaza - 4/2/89

Oh we're still in this weird convention center, are we?  The fifth installment marked the first and only time the supercard was held in the same arena two years in a row.  'Mania 5 was also a 4-hour card and featured 14 matches.  This show succeeded where IV failed however in showcasing a mammoth featured bout, as former allies Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage collided for the WWF Title.

Hogan-Savage was the first WrestleMania main event that was actually a strong wrestling match, and also the first to exceed the fifteen minute mark.  If Savage-Steamboat was the prototypical WWF workrate clinic, Hogan-Savage was the model for how to do an epic WWF main event match.  It was full of action, reversals, drama and intrique, and until the inevitably stupid "hulk-up" comeback/no-sell in the final minute, it was one of the best matches of 1989.  It was also the 18-month culmination of one of the best story arcs in wrestling history: the formation, ascension, and eventual implosion of the MegaPowers.  This was a brilliantly executed angle from start to finish.  Unfortunately Savage's stock was pretty damaged by this feud and he spent the next couple years as just another guy.

Savage looks less than thrilled about being tossed out of the main event picture.

The WrestleMania Intercontinental Title match somewhat returned to form as the Ultimate Warrior faced Rick Rude in a near show-stealer.  Their Summerslam rematch five months later would overshadow the initial clash, but this is still a fine undercard match with a great cheap ending - Warrior went to suplex Rude from the apron into the ring when Bobby Heenan tripped Warrior and held his leg down, allowing Rude to fall on top of him for the pin.

WrestleMania V was another show that simply had too much going on (a pattern that would continue for a couple more years), and a few trims to the lineup could've made this a much stronger overall card (Did we really need Heenan vs. Red Rooster, Dino Bravo vs. Ronnie Garvin, or Jim Duggan vs. Bad News Brown?).  Still there were a lot of fun little matches.  The opener, Hercules vs. King Haku was better than it had any right to be, Mr. Perfect vs. Blue Blazer was a solid showcase of unorthodox offense, the Hart Foundation vs. Honky Tonk & Valentine was a nice tag match, and the Rockers' 'Mania debut against the Twin Towers ended up as a very enjoyable size mismatch and one of the best bouts of the night.

Shawn's first WrestleMania

Wrestling Do-Overs: WWF WrestleMania IV

What up fools?  Welcome to Wrestling Do-Overs, where I'll take a famous pro wrestling card or angle and reimagine it the way I would've booked it.

Today I'll be talking about WrestleMania IV, which took place March 27, 1988 at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City.  This show is best remembered for the first-ever WWF Title tournament which saw Randy "Macho Man" Savage win four matches to become the new Champion.  Now all that is great, but the show itself from a wrestling standpoint, well.....kinda sucked.  They tried to cram sixteen matches on a four-hour PPV, only one of which lasted more than twelve minutes (that being a terribly dull fifteen-minute draw in the first round).  There was simply too much going on and not enough time for any of the individual matches to properly deliver.

So I'm going to overhaul the card and present it the way I think it should've gone down.  Before I do though, let's look at the card the way it actually transpired:

Plus:

20-Man Battle Royal
Honky Tonk Man vs. Brutus Beefcake
Ultimate Warrior vs. Hercules
British Bulldogs/Koko B. Ware vs. Islanders/Bobby Heenan
Strike Force vs. Demolition

See what I mean?  There just wasn't enough good wrestling going on, and even the tournament final/main event was an overbooked nine-minute mess when it should've been a potential Match of the Year.

So first off, let's change the 14-man tournament to an 8-man.  Now I know what you're thinking; but Justin, Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant are supposed to get a bye into the second round!  And they still do; Hogan and Andre are automatically entered into the tournament, whereas the remaining six competitors have to win qualifying matches on WWF Superstars of Wrestling in the weeks leading up to the show. 


Tournament Qualifiers

Ted Dibiase defeats Don Muraco
Jim Duggan defeats One Man Gang
Randy Savage defeats Butch Reed
Ricky Steamboat defeats Greg Valentine
Jake Roberts defeats Dino Bravo
Rick Rude defeats Bam Bam Bigelow

So your first-round bracket looks like this:

The History of WWE WrestleMania: IV

Continuing with Enuffa.com's History of WrestleMania, today I'll be covering the one edition that featured a championship tournament.  And it ended up kind of a bloated mess....

Trump Plaza - 3/27/88

'Mania IV was assembled with the intent of giving us the biggest edition to date, with the centerpiece being the first-ever WWF World Title tournament, the result of a controversial Hulk Hogan-Andre the Giant match on NBC that saw Hogan screwed out of the Championship only for Andre to turn around and sell the belt to Ted Dibiase.  WrestleMania IV featured a huge roster and was expanded to three-and-a-half hours to accommodate the sprawling 16-match card.

Unfortunately this show suffered from simply having too much going on, not to mention some absolutely terrible booking.  The tournament involved 14 men and all by itself necessitated 11 matches.  As a result almost none of the tourney matches, including the final, were given enough time to be very memorable.  The venue is also a far cry from the Silverdome, Trump Plaza being a rather cavernous arena where the crowd consisted largely of Donald Trump's business associates who showed almost no enthusiasm for the four-hour wrestling bonanza.

This was goofy fun

The undercard featured a battle royal (which was fun but of little importance except as a way to turn Bret Hart babyface after he was doublecrossed by Bad News Brown), Ultimate Warrior vs. Hercules in a clash of powerhouses (which was so short as to barely warrant a mention), a British Bulldogs/Koko vs. Islanders/Bobby Heenan six-man tag, nowhere near as good as the previous year's Bulldogs-Harts match, which ended in similar fashion with the non-wrestler pinning one of the Bulldogs.  Those poor Bulldogs....

There were also two title matches - I-C Champion The Honky Tonk Man faced the wildly popular Brutus Beefcake in a brief and forgettable DQ loss, while Strike Force and Demolition was one of the few strong matches on the card, ending with Ax murdering Rick Martel with Mr. Fuji's cane in a finish very similar to the WrestleMania I Tag Title match.  Thus began Demolition's record-breaking title run.

The WWF Title tournament itself was fine in theory but very poor in execution.  Only four of the 14 participants really had a chance of leaving 'Mania as the Champion, and two of them were eliminated in their first match.  The Hogan vs. Andre quarterfinal bout marked the first time a WrestleMania featured a rematch from the previous year.  Sadly where their 1987 encounter was extremely memorable and has achieved legendary status, its 1988 threequel was little more than a throwaway designed to get both men out of the tournament (via a clumsy-as-shit double disqualification after Hogan hit Andre with a chair, then Andre hit Hogan with the same chair).  Really the only standout match in this entire tourney was the first-round match between Ricky Steamboat and Greg Valentine.  Everything else was either too short (Bam Bam Bigelow vs. One Man Gang for example, which ended when OMG refused to let Bam Bam back into the ring and the referee inexplicably counted Bigelow out), inoffensive but instantly forgettable (Dibiase vs. Don Muraco), or yawn-inducing (Jake Roberts vs. Rick Rude, which took place after their feud-inciting angle involving Jake's wife was taped, but before it aired).

AEW Revolution 2026 Preview & Predictions

It's March and you know what that means!  It's time for AEW's first PPV of 2026, Revolution.  This here is a stacked AF lineup....

Revolution is almost always one of the best PPVs of the year, no doubt partly because there's a two-plus month gap in AEW's PPV schedule beforehand.  Thus there's plenty of time to build a strong show full of meaningful matches.  As much as I tend to love AEW's PPV events, I wouldn't necessarily be sad if they cut the schedule from nine a year to eight, just to spread the April-December schedule out a bit more.  

Anyway, Revolution has ten main card matches scheduled, plus apparently a Big Boom AJ appearance (Wikipedia lists it as a match with opponent TBA, but WON's website says "appearance"), though I can't remember it ever being mentioned on Dynamite.  There are also two big pre-show matches, both for championships.  This roster is massive, isn't it?

AEW's signed another slew of excellent talent over the last few months.  Andrade (who's doing the best work of his career thus far), Gabe Kidd, Clark Connors, Lena Kross, Tommaso Ciampa, and now David Finlay (who everyone expected to go to WWE, but WWE were gonna stick him in developmental, or as it's now known, Hard Cam Academy).  It's an embarrassment of riches to be sure, and it's always dangerous to sign more wrestlers than you have room for, but man is there a fuckton of great talent in AEW right now... 

I've got a bone to pick with Tony though.  Why THE FUCK did you have to put this show head-to-head with the Oscars??  Couldn't it have been the night before?  Or during the afternoon?  I get that it's in L.A. and would have to start at like noon, but goddammit.  Looks like I'll have to wait till Monday evening to watch this, which means a 24-hour media blackout a la Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother.

Anyway let's get to the predictions...

Zero Hour AEW National Championship Blackjack Battle Royal

So is this the same as a Casino Battle Royal?  Did they change the name?  I assume it's the same rules since it's 21 guys.  Thus far the only names announced are the champion Ricochet and Tommaso Ciampa, but Mark Briscoe's gotta be a lock for it since he and Ciampa are feuding.  And Jack Perry is still chasing Ricochet so he'll be in it too.  A title change in this type of match seems weird but I could see Jack finally getting it.

Pick: Jack Perry, if he's in the match.  If not, Ric retains.

Oscar Film Journal: Lion (2016)

Welcome to another entry in the vaunted Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  When I started this project five years ago I'd seen 214 Best Pic nominees, and since that time I've viewed an additional 150.  Pretty cool, huh?

We're headed back to the mid-teens for one of the less-talked about Best Picture nominees of 2016, one that I kept putting off for whatever reason, the Garth Davis-helmed biographical drama Lion, starring Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman.  Based on actual events, Lion is the tale of a boy named Saroo from a tiny village in India, who in 1986 got separated from his family when he fell asleep on an empty train one night, waking up hundreds of miles away in a different region of the country with an entirely different language.  After months of living on the streets he was brought to the police by a concerned citizen and placed in an overcrowded orphanage, and ultimately adopted by an Australian couple.  Twenty years later as an adult, Saroo is on his way to a promising career in the hotel business, but finds himself suddenly obsessed with reconnecting with the life he'd left behind.  The problem is he never learned his mother's full name, nor the correct name of his village, and the train stop he remembers is one of hundreds in the region.

98th Academy Awards Preview & Predictions

Well it's that time again.  Man, seems like we just did this, hard to believe the Oscars are already upon us again.  This is the eleventh time Mr. Drinan and I go head-to-head in predicting the ceremony.  Let's get to it!

Glad to see Conan O'Brien is back to host again, he did a great job last year, particularly in his opening musical number "I Won't Waste Time."  Cracked me up.  Conan is one of the kings of stupid humor and I'm totally here for it.  

There are some fine films on the docket to win some gold, a few of them pretty important ones given the current state of affairs in this dump.  The world, particularly America, needs movies that make a statement perhaps more than it ever has.  So it's good to see some of these films get the recognition they deserve.  Oh, and to everyone whining about the winners making political statements in their acceptance speech?  Waaaaah.  The only reason you're crying about this is because they aren't making statements you agree with, and you know it.  Art is quite often political and it has the power to change the world.  Either come along for the ride or don't, but don't bitch about it.

Sinners has made Oscar history with a staggering SIXTEEN nominations, breaking All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land's shared record of fourteen.  Quite an historic feat, particularly for a horror film.  The last supernatural horror movie the Academy took such notice of was The Exorcist.

I cannot thank the Academy enough for passing over Avatar: Fire and Ash so I don't have to watch it.  Jeezus H. Christ, those movies are fucking boring.

We also have a brand new category this year in Best Casting.  Good to see those folks finally acknowledged.  Years ago I had friends tell me I should've been a casting director when I predicted Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Edward Norton as Bruce Banner.  Apparently I have a gift for casting characters named Bruce.

Anyway, let's get to the picks..... 

Best Picture

Bugonia

F1

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

The Secret Agent

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Train Dreams

Justin: I'm in pretty good shape going into this, having seen seven of the ten.  Hamnet is now on Peacock so I'm hoping to catch that before Sunday.  Marty Supreme will be on HBO Max but not until May it looks like, and I have no idea when The Secret Agent will be free to stream.  Anyway this looks to be another case of the Academy actually agreeing with me on what the best film of the year is, as all signs point to Paul Thomas Anderson's fourth (by my count) masterwork, One Battle After Another taking home the big one.  This film is fantastic and a much needed kick in the ass to our current status quo.  It's on HBO Max so go watch it if you haven't.

Pick: One Battle After Another

Mike: THE DRAMA STARTS EARLY FOLKS! One Battle After Another has certainly been the popular pick for this award ever since it was released, and for good reason. It’s a great film; dramatic yet hilarious, tense and ridiculous, emotional yet politically sharp. The movie has steamrolled all the pre-cursor award shows and is set up with one of the most historically impressive award winning resumes going into the Academy Awards. HOWEVER! Sinners possesses a small data point that makes this award intriguing. It won the SAG Ensemble award, ACE Award, and is probably going to win the WGA Original Screenplay. No film has had those three awards and lost the Best Picture category, with the lone exception being CODA. I loved both movies, but I felt as if I had seen films like One Battle After Another before. Sinners? I felt as if I had never seen that kind of movie before. It’s splitting hairs at this point but I have to follow my heart on this one.

Pick: Sinners

Oscar Film Journal: The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

And we're back with another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

Strap in for a trip to the 1940s, specifically the first year of that decade, for a look at John Ford's acclaimed adaptation of John Steinbeck's Pulitzer-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath.  Starring Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell and John Carradine, TGOW is the story of a family of Oklahoma sharecroppers who lose their farm to mechanization and are forced to relocate to California to find work.  Like the novel, this film is rife with sociopolitical commentary and takes a staunch pro-worker stance, depicting as its antagonists uncaring landowners, brutal deputized police, and a system that chews up and spits out the little guy.  Some classics never age.

We begin the story with Tom Joad (Fonda), one of the family's adult sons, who's just been released from prison on parole after accidentally killing a man in a bar fight.  He hitchhikes home to find his farmhouse deserted, and a neighbor informs him the wealthy landowners have run everyone off their farms to make way for new, more efficient machinery.  Tom finds the rest of his family nearby at his uncle's house, but that house is also set to be bulldozed the next day.  The family loads up their dilapidated jalopy and heads west to California, having received a handbill advertising hundreds of available farming jobs.  Of course they soon learn that thousands of those handbills were distributed, and jobs in California are now just as scarce as in Oklahoma.  

The History of WWE WrestleMania: III

The one edition that's totally critic-proof....

Pontiac Silverdome - 3/29/87

Now we're talkin'.  WrestleMania III was, and possibly still is, the biggest wrestling supercard of all time.  Arguably no single wrestling match has carried the sheer magnitude or mainstream appeal of Hogan vs. Andre.  There's a consensus among wrestling fans who grew up with this show: When it comes to WrestleMania III, star ratings need not apply.

Let's be honest, Hogan vs. Andre is a terrible, terrible match from an in-ring standpoint.  Had that been Dan Spivey vs. Big John Studd performing the exact same match, it would've been booed like X-Pac and ranked high on the all-time DUD list.  But somehow the mediocre Hogan and the damn near immobile Andre captured the imagination of everyone on that night, and delivered the best and most memorable awful match in history which climaxed with The Bodyslam Heard 'Round the World.

On the other end of the workrate spectrum lay the #2 draw of the night, Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat.  What can I say that hasn't been said already?  It's an all-time classic; a near-perfect match that has stood the test of time and then some. 'Mania 3 is remembered just as much for this match as for Hogan-Andre, and it became the prototype for the WWF-style five-star match.  Sadly Steamboat's planned long-term Intercontinental Title run was derailed when he asked for a reduced schedule to focus on his newborn son, and this would be his last great WWF match.

Goddamn this match is 17 kinds of awesome.

The History of WWE WrestleMania: 2

For the first and only time, WrestleMania emanates from multiple venues....

Nassau Coliseum/Rosemont Horizon/L.A. Sports Arena - 4/7/86

'Mania 2 was possibly the strangest of them all.  It took place from three different locations on a Monday(!) night.  The multi-venue format was clearly in response to Jim Crockett's Starrcade '85 being broadcast from two venues a few months earlier.  Three is bigger than two I guess, so Vince opted for a live one-hour card from three different time zones.  Unfortunately this made for a rather uneven show, and worse, the commentary suffered as the A-crew was split up and paired with B-level commentators and/or celebrities who knew nothing about the product.

Each hour of the show featured a main event match, preceded by three undercard matches (some of which were oddly truncated to the point that their inclusion at all is rather baffling).

The Nassau portion of the show was easily the weakest, headlined by a worked boxing match between Piper and Mr. T.  There is little in the sports-entertainment business that is less exciting to me than pretend boxing.  It simply doesn't work, especially when neither participant is particularly good at it.  Neither of them looked like legitimate fighters and the match was little more than a barrage of pulled punches.  An actual wrestling match could have been much more entertaining.

Wow, this stunk...

The first third of the show was notable for the WrestleMania debuts of Randy Savage and Jake Roberts, neither of whom really got to show what they were capable of.  The opening match on this show was probably the most disappointing, as on paper Don Muraco vs. Paul Orndorff looks pretty good.  Sadly they were only given about 4 minutes and they went to a rushed double countout.  Savage's match was by default the best of the Nassau portion, but it was little more than a comedic spectacle as his opponent George "The Animal" Steele was so uncontrollable.

The History of WWE WrestleMania: I

Hello and welcome to this special Enuffa.com blog, The History of WrestleMania!  This series will discuss and dissect all 36 previous installments of the annual supercard and determine what I feel were the highlights and lowlights each year.

WrestleMania season is usually one of my favorite times of the year, and I always find myself reflecting back on the storied history of this great spectacle.  I think about some of my favorite 'Mania matches, what makes a great 'Mania card, and why some shows were so successful while others really don't deserve to fall under the WrestleMania banner.  For the record, I'm writing this piece completely from memory, which should give you some idea of how sad and twisted I am.

So without further prattling on, let's get to it.

Madison Square Garden - 3/31/85

This of course was the show that started it all.  The great McMahon gamble that paid off not in spades, but truckloads of money.  This was one of the first truly mainstream wrestling events on a national scale, and the hype allowed the WWF to break into the pop culture vernacular.

Surprisingly though, the inaugural 'Mania card more resembled a house show than a true supercard.  For one thing, having a tag team match as the main event rather than a WWF Title match seems like such an odd choice.  Hulk Hogan's ongoing feud with Roddy Piper was such a draw it seems like a singles match for the belt would be the natural main event.  However the WWF put that match on MTV that February as a way to hype 'Mania.  Clearly it worked, but it made for kind of a watered-down main event for the supercard.  Hogan/Mr. T vs. Piper/Orndorff was fine for what it was, but I hardly consider it a classic.

I always dug this poster for some reason.
These two guys together would beat Rocky Balboa's ass!

This match also began the trend of celebrities getting involved in big money matches as actual competitors.  It occurs to me that the match would've been greatly improved by swapping T out for Jimmy Snuka.  But I suppose seeing T wrestle was part of the draw.  Mr. T certainly looked like he could hang in the ring with the actual wrestlers but I've always felt that having celebs wrestle damages the business somewhat.  More on that later....

The show was also not very stacked for such a marquee event.  To be fair, the WWF's roster would expand considerably after this show (Savage and Jake would arrive, the Hart Foundation and the British Bulldogs would form).  Elsewhere on the card we had Andre the Giant vs. Big John Studd in a bodyslam challenge (again, this felt watered-down since it wasn't a traditional wrestling match but ended when one man bodyslammed the other) which aside from the spectacle was just two nearly immobile guys plodding through a short match.

The first 'Mania also inexplicably featured several glorified squashes.  Tito Santana vs. The Executioner opened the show and was roughly the kind of match you'd see on Wrestling Challenge.  King Kong Bundy vs. S.D. Jones and Ricky Steamboat vs. Matt Borne also fell into that category.  Hardly worthy of the biggest show of all-time (at that point anyway).

First match in WrestleMania history

Oscar Film Journal: Sentimental Value (2025)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Seven 2025 nominees down, three to go...

Today I'm looking at Joachim Trier's latest opus, Sentimental Value, a Norwegian family drama of strained parent-child relationships starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as a father and his two adult daughters who become reacquainted after the death of the mother.  We learn via the film's engaging prologue that the parents spent a lot of time screaming at each other, severely damaging the older daughter Nora (Reinsve), who now has trouble getting close to anyone.  The father (Skarsgard) left, only occasionally reconnecting with his children over the following decades, and not very successfully.  

In the present, Nora is now an accomplished theater and television actress, her younger sister Agnes (Lilleaas) did some acting as a child, having starred in one of her father's acclaimed films, but has since left the business.  The father Gustav has enjoyed a long directorial career but hasn't made a feature in fifteen years and now wants to reclaim the family home (which technically on paper still belongs to him).  Not only that, he's written a new screenplay, the best of his career, and wants Nora to star in it.  But Nora rejects the olive branch, refusing to even read the script, and Gustav ends up instead casting famous American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), while also agreeing to several artistic compromises in order to get Netflix to finance the project.  

WWE Elimination Chamber 2026 Preview & Predictions

It's February and that means WWE is offering its annual Elimination Chamber PPV.  Elimination Chamber incidentally is what I call my toilet.  "Hold my calls, I'll be in the Elimination Chamber for the next 20-30 minutes."

Man has it been refreshing to watch WWE's own audience begin to turn on their product over social media, while behind the scenes Triple H and friends are scrambling to put together a WrestleMania lineup that will sell like the last three.  They've even, shockingly, offered discounted tickets to try to close the 18% gap below the 'Mania 41 sales at this point on the calendar, to little avail at all.  They're even cockblocking local Vegas venues from showing it on TV for their patrons to try and encourage said patrons to shell out hundreds of dollars for tickets instead.  Talk about sad desperation.  Turns out that when you put most of your eggs in the basket of a retiring 48-year-old for an entire year (and totally clusterfuck that run), your audience loses interest once he's actually gone.  Who knew?

Anyway so far we have CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns as a confirmed WrestleMania main event, plus Stephanie Vaquer vs. Liv Morgan as the one confirmed Women's Title match, so this show will fill in two more slots on the card.

Let's take a look...

Women's Intercontinental Championship: Becky Lynch vs. AJ Lee

They're in Chicago so both Punk and AJ are featured heavily.  Becky and AJ have wrestled each other in tag matches and have been feuding since September, but I believe this is the first one-on-one match of their feud.  I haven't seen any of AJ's matches post-return since I don't have ESPN Unlimited and don't plan to get it.  I assume this will be fine.  Becky as a heel still doesn't work for me.

Pick: AJ wins the belt

Oscar Film Journal: The Verdict (1982)

Still pluggin' away at these old movies, so let's do another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

The year is 1982, the director is Sidney Lumet, the genre is legal drama (coincidentally the same as the film that put Lumet on the map), the star is Paul Newman, the film is The Verdict.

Based on a 1980 Barry Reed novel and adapted by vaunted playwright-turned-screenwriter David Mamet, The Verdict tells the story of deadbeat ambulance chaser Frank Galvin, who once had a promising career as an attorney but lost that and his marriage to the bottle.  He now scours the Boston Globe obituary section looking for opportunities to convince the bereaved to pursue wrongful death suits.  When we first meet Frank, this strategy is going very badly for him and he is kicked out of a funeral home for attempting to solicit work.  He spends most of his waking hours at a local Irish bar, pounding shots of whiskey and occasionally hitting on women (one of whom, played by Charlotte Rampling actually succumbs to his charms, but isn't quite what she seems).  One day his former partner Mickey (Jack Warden) sends him a medical malpractice case involving a woman admitted to a Catholic hospital during labor, who was seemingly administered the wrong form of anesthesia, leaving her in a coma and on life support.  The woman's sister and brother-in-law have filed suit against the church and the doctor in charge, hoping to land a significant settlement, of which Frank stands to retain one third.  

Oscar Film Journal: Erin Brockovich (2000)

Welcome to Oscar Film Journal entry #138, I think.

Time to take a trip back to the year 2000.  Hey remember when we all thought the year 2000 was gonna be this super-futuristic era with flying cars and no racism?  Good times.  

Anyway we're looking at Best Picture nominee Erin Brockovich, the remarkable true story of an ordinary single mom of three who used her natural savvy, tenacity and charisma to become a high-powered paralegal and activist.  Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film stars Julia Roberts as the title character, in an Oscar-winning tour-de-force.  I was skeptical going into this about whether Roberts' performance would be anywhere near the level of say, Ellen Burstyn's harrowing turn that year in Requiem for a Dream, and while I still think Burstyn's was the superior performance, Roberts' work here is definitely Oscar-worthy.  In fact she's so captivating she more than makes up for the film's script shortcomings.  The structure is pretty standard "scrappy unlikely hero makes good" fare, the dialogue is sometimes hamfisted, and certain relationships are underwritten, but Roberts is so much fun to watch and so squarely the focus of the story that the films works quite well overall.

Oscar Film Journal: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Welcome to another entry in our Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Still chippin' away at the 1970s and a film against which I've long had a bit of a grudge simply because it beat out the timeless masterpiece that is Apocalypse Now in the Best Picture category that year.  I'm talking about Kramer vs. Kramer, written and directed by Robert Benton (based on Avery Corman's novel) and starring Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, and in a performance that made him the youngest Oscar nominee of all time at age eight, Justin Henry.  

Kramer vs. Kramer is a domestic drama about a couple going through a divorce and the effect this change has on their young son.  Ted Kramer is a work-obsessed NYC marketing exec, so detached from his home life he doesn't even know what grade his son Billy is in, and so emotionally distant from his wife Joanna that she decides one day to pack up and leave them.  Ted is so wrapped up in his own stuff he at first thinks she's joking and then barely reacts once she actually exits.  The next morning he haphazardly makes Billy breakfast and just barely gets him to school on time, and we really get a sense of how ill-equipped he is at parenting.  But over the next year he and Billy become very close, and with a little help from the Kramers' neighbor Margaret, Ted develops the skills he needs as a father (illustrated perfectly by a later scene where Ted is making Billy the same breakfast, calmly and adeptly).  Suddenly though, Joanna returns after a year in Los Angeles and asks for custody, and an ugly legal battle ensues.

Oscar Film Journal: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Welcome to another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!  Strap into the DeLorean and let's head back to the 1970s, specifically to the year of my birth (in fact this film had its NYC premiere the day before I was born)....

Today's subject is the Best Picture winner for 1975, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Jack Nicholson in a role that won him his first Oscar and helped define his storied career.  Directed by Milos Forman and based on Ken Kesey's novel, Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a psychiatric ward in Oregon, where a multi-time petty criminal named Randle McMurphy has finagled a transfer out of the prison system to avoid hard labor.  The administrator suspects McMurphy is faking mental illness but reluctantly agrees to keep him on a trial basis.  McMurphy quickly finds himself in a power struggle with the ward's icy, domineering head nurse Mildred Ratched, ultimately inciting a rebellion among the other patients.

This film was in development hell for over a decade, originally set to star Kirk Douglas, and eventually the property found its way into his son Michael's hands instead.  After thirteen long years of development (and a successful Broadway adaptation), the film was finally made in early '75 and became an instant sensation, finishing second at the box office that year, garnering nine Oscar nominations, and going on to be the second of three films ever to win the five major awards - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best (Adapted) Screenplay.  In pop culture it's been referenced countless times, for example inspiring Metallica's "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" and Stone Cold Steve Austin's iconic match ending moment at WrestleMania 13 where he fought Bret Hart's inescapable Sharpshooter before ultimately passing out (Austin cited Nicholson's attempt to lift an impossibly heavy water fountain as his impetus for that match finish).   

Top Ten Things: Megadeth Albums, Ranked

Welcome to a special extended edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com, where I rank stuff.

Today it's the 40-plus-year album catalog of speed metal titans Megadeth!  That's right, I'll be ranking all seventeen albums released by the former Metallica founding member and his revolving door of backing musicians - of the Big Four thrash bands, Megadeth has been the most prolific, despite their colleagues having a two-year head start.  Man, back in high school and college I lived for Megadeth, holding them higher even than Metallica for several years.  I got my first taste of the band in early 1990 with the purchase of Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? and from then I was hooked (in mouth).  Dave Mustaine was my guitar (and hair) hero, and I spent way too much time copying his playing style (my voice at the time was more suited to Hetfield's so I became a wannabe amalgam of the two).  The release of a new Megadeth album became a long-awaited event every couple years and it was a common occurrence for me to purchase the album and give it multiple listens on the first day.  Sadly as with all 80s metal bands, the mid-to-late 90s were not kind, and Megadeth lost a lot of their cool factor around this time.  They experimented heavily with different sounds and styles with varying results, before returning to a traditional metal timbre in the early aughts.  But while most Megadeth fans fully welcomed the band's thrashy 21st century output, I found myself quite underwhelmed by most of it; to me it sounded like a copycat band trying to recreate Megadeth's signature sound rather than Megadeth returning to form.  So be warned, the bottom half of this list is heavily skewed toward Megadeth's recent work.  But enough blathering on, let's get after it....

17. Endgame

This album got a lot of praise on its release (and ever since) but I think it's probably the band's worst album.  Yes it's heavy and yes it's full of thrashy riff shredding, but Dave apparently had somehow lost the ability to write a vocal melody in the mid-2000s, as nearly all of his vocal parts on this album involve shoehorning lyrics obviously written without a clear melody in mind.  And rather than hone them it sounds like he just slapped on whatever meandering melodic idea would fit the number of syllables.  Aside from the choruses of "1320'," "Head Crusher," "How the Story Ends," and "The Right to Go Insane," there isn't a strong vocal idea on this album, and Dave's range here is nonexistent; when did he lose his upper register?  Couple that with technically impressive but joyless instrumentals (I feel like nearly every lead guitarist/drummer combination since Friedman and Menza has been largely devoid of personality in their playing), and Endgame is a chore to sit through, like a tribute band trying to approximate a Megadeth album.  4.5/10

Key Tracks: "1320'," "Head Crusher," "How the Story Ends"

16. Dystopia

Megadeth's 2016 album may be technically really impressive and convey a bit more enthusiasm than the handful of records before it, but aside from "The Emperor" and "Post-American World" there isn't a memorable song in earshot.  The songwriting is simply not there, nor is Dave's voice up to the task of matching the music's aggression and complexity.  I was into just about every song until his vocals came up.  Also at a certain point the whole "Everything's going to hell," conspiracy-minded right-wing subject matter feels disingenuous coming from a guy who's been rich and famous for the last thirty-five years - what exactly are you rebelling against at this point?  Lyrical gripes aside, if I want to hear a recent metal album that's both aggressive and bursting with technical wizardry I'll pop in Haken's Vector, not this.  5/10

Key Tracks: "The Emperor," "Dystopia," "Conquer or Die!"

 

Movie Review: Frankenstein (2025)

Here's a film I've been rabidly anticipating for a long time.  Guillermo Del Toro's long-planned adaptation of Mary Shelley's iconic novel Frankenstein has hit theaters for a limited run before its Netflix debut on November 7th.  Starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, and Mia Goth, the film is a stylish, tragic epic about ambition, ego, forgiveness, and accountability.  As expected it includes outlandish GDT visual hallmarks, big performances, and lavish production values, and like his 2022 Pinocchio adaptation it is closely inspired by the source material while also veering significantly from it.

Upon the first viewing I had very mixed feelings about this version.  As a decades-long devotee of Shelley's original novel (which I've read four or five times) I've been salivating at the prospect of a film version that faithfully brings her near-perfect story to life, and for some reason no film adaptation thus far has really done that.  Even the 1994 Kenneth Branagh-directed version took unnecessary narrative liberties that distracted from the story rather than enhancing it (not to mention that film is just a hot mess of an exercise in schlocky melodrama).  But when I first saw the trailers for this version it looked like GDT was going to hew very closely to the book.  And in some aspects he's done that, but in others he strayed so far I once again found myself asking "Now why'd he go and change that?" instead of being immersed in this new take on the story.

Oscar Film Journal: Nebraska (2013)

And we're back with yet another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

I'm circling back to the 2010s, to a film I meant to watch at the time but never got around to, it's Alexander Payne's comedy-drama Nebraska, starring Bruce Dern and Will Forte.  Nebraska is a road movie of sorts, about a crotchety septuagenarian named Woody who's convinced he's won a million dollars through the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes and insists on traveling from his home in Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect the winnings.  Initially he thinks he can make the trek on foot, but the police pick him up wandering down the freeway, and despite numerous attempts by his two sons (Forte and Bob Odenkirk) and his hilariously fed up wife Kate (a brilliantly cast June Squibb) to convince him it's all a scam, he refuses to let it go.  Thus his younger son David agrees to drive him to the company's headquarters and find out for sure (Woody doesn't trust the mail system so that's a non-starter).  David knows there's nothing at the end of this particular rainbow but sees the trip as a chance to spend quality time with his emotionally distant father.  Woody quickly lets his drinking get the better of him, falling and hitting his head, and the pair decide to hole up for a few days in Hawthorne, NE, with Woody's brother Ray.  While in Hawthorne they run afoul of Woody's ex-business partner-turned nemesis Ed (a slimy Stacy Keach, recalling his turn in American History X), who upon learning of Woody's alleged newfound wealth attempts to extort David out of some cash (For that matter, so do several of Woody's relatives).

Oscar Film Journal: Casablanca (1943)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

We're looking at the 1940s today, specifically the year 1943 and the Best Pic winner from that year, one of the most beloved films of all time, Casablanca.  Directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, plus Claude Rains, Peter Lorre and Conrad Veidt, Casablanca is based on an unproduced play called Everybody Comes to Rick's and set against the backdrop of World War II, in Nazi-occupied Morocco.  The film's macguffin is a pair of transit authorization letters hidden in Rick's Cafe Americain, brought to Rick by an acquaintance, a petty crook named Ugarte (Lorre), who is quickly arrested after unloading the letters (Said letters allow their bearers passage to Portugal and freedom from German occupation).  Rick is of course Bogart's character, who spends his nights running the most popular nightclub in town and drinking heavily.  One night an old flame visits the club, Ingrid Bergman's character Ilsa, accompanied by her resistance leader husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Heinreid), and this chance meeting dredges up all the old feelings, including Rick's reluctant sense of moral duty, despite claiming he has no dog in the WWII fight.

Oscar Film Journal: Rain Man (1988)

Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!  Heading back to my early teen years, the late 1980s.....

Today's subject was the first Best Picture winner I ever saw prior to its coronation; I went to see it with my parents in the theater at age 13, coincidentally on the same day I shaved for the first time (using an electric razor on my developing sideburns).  Don't ask me why I remember tidbits like that, but I guess it's an apt coincidence considering the film in question.  I'm talking about Rain Man, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, in one of his most famous performances.

Cruise plays hotshot independent car dealer Charlie Babbitt, whose business is in trouble because he's imported four Lamborghinis but is struggling to get them approved by the EPA so he can sell them.  Charlie learns that his estranged but wealthy father has just died, and he travels to his old home in Cincinnati for the funeral.  Much to his chagrin he learns his father only left him some prized rosebushes and an antique car, while the rest of the $3 million estate has been left to a trust.  After doing some digging he discovers the executor of the estate is a doctor at a nearby psychiatric hospital, a close friend of the father's.  He also learns, even more shockingly, that he has a much older long-lost brother named Raymond, a patient at the hospital who will end up being the sole beneficiary.  Raymond is autistic with incredible savant abilities, such as total recall of baseball stats and airline accidents, and the ability to instantly solve complex mathematical problems.  Charlie decides to effectively kidnap Raymond and take him back to Los Angeles to try and gain custody of him, thus giving him bargaining power over the inheritance.  But of course the two brothers form a much deeper bond during their road trip across the country.

AEW Grand Slam Australia 2026 Preview & Predictions

We're just a couple days away from AEW's latest PPV-quality free TV show, Grand Slam Australia 2026!

Holy shitballs, this lineup.  Last year's GSA was an excellent show but it wasn't stacked like this one.  AEW Title match, Continental Title match, TNT Title match, Women's Tag Title match, #1 Contender's match, Hair vs. Hair match.  This thing is more loaded than Trump's diaper.  Speaking of that turd, supposedly WBD executives shied away from featuring anything having to with Brody King on this week's Dynamite, lest the crowd once again chant "Fuck ICE" (which they did a little bit anyway).  WBD denies it of course, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true.

Anyway enough of that shit, let's talk about this lineup.  This is Clash of the Champions 1 quality stuff.

Hair vs. Hair: Toni Storm & Orange Cassidy vs. Marina Shafir & Wheeler Yuta

Toni and OC have incredible chemistry together and I love that they're running with what was supposed to just be a one-off pairing.  Great things have historically happened in wrestling based on unexpected hits, and it's always nice to see a promotion pay attention to that.  The build for this has been quite enjoyable, with both Toni and OC expressing some buyer's remorse about the possibility they could lose their prized locks.  But of course all signs point to Wheeler getting the shave, and there's no better chickenshit heel to fill that role.  The crowd will go bananas when the Death Riders' answer to Tully Blanchard gets humiliated.

Pick: Toni and Orange

Oscar Film Journal: Midnight Express (1978)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

We're taking a trip to the late 70s to look at a harrowing film that was controversial for its less than truthful version of real-world events but nonetheless considered an effective prison drama, Alan Parker's Midnight Express, starring Brad Davis, John Hurt and Randy Quaid.  Based on Billy Hayes' 1977 memoir about his experiences in, and escape from, a Turkish prison, the screenplay was written by the ever-sensationalistic Oliver Stone, winning him his first Oscar. 

In 1970, Billy Hayes attempts to smuggle a couple kilos of hashish out of Turkey, gets caught, gets convicted and sentenced to four years, and stays on his best behavior under the assumption he'll get out in three.  But the Turkish courts, under pressure by the Nixon administration, come down exceptionally hard on drug smugglers and Billy's original sentence gets thrown out in favor of a thirty-year stint.  His objective now becomes taking the "midnight express," or escaping prison.

First the positives.  The film is gorgeously photographed by Michael Seresin, who provided the signature Alan Parker backlit look, similar to that of Ridley and Tony Scott, lending weight and atmosphere to the bleak storytelling.  A later passage in particular when Billy is transferred to the wing for the criminally insane is bathed in shadows and diffused light, immersing us in his hopelessness.  Shot in actual locations in Malta, this movie feels quite authentic and we feel very much out of our element.  

Oscar Film Journal: F1 (2025)

Alright I'm six for ten of the 2025 Best Picture nominees, so let's dive back into the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Movie #6 is the Joseph Kosinski-helmed car racing action-drama F1, starring Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, and Kerry Condon.  Pitt's character Sonny Hayes is an aging car racer who blew his big chance at superstardom thirty years ago in a fiery crash, and now bounces from circuit to circuit just to satisfy his love of driving, while living in a van (down by the river?).  His old friend and teammate Ruben (Javier Bardem in a odd bit of wasted casting) shows up one day to recruit him for his F1 team - it's late in the season and they're doing so poorly Ruben is in danger of losing team ownership.  The team's top driver is a cocky young fella named Joshua Pearce, who has talent but lacks the experience to exploit the rules of the track and eke out some wins.  The cars designed by technical director Kate McKenna (Condon, in an overachieving performance) are also less than ideal and aren't getting the top speeds necessary to win.  Sonny shakes things up and despite initially butting heads with the crew, earns their trust and builds a rapport with both Joshua and Kate, and the assignment provides him with one last shot at glory.  Plus there's a whole lot of car racing.

NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka 2026 Preview & Predictions

It's a new year and a new era, and that means it's time for a New Beginning in Osaka, courtesy of New Japan Pro Wrestling!

The first PPV of the Yota Tsuji era is just a couple days away, and there are some fresh matchups on tap, plus a sendoff for one of the company's biggest-ever Jr. Heavyweight stars.  There's also a really odd choice of main event that seems to be a real sink-or-swim test for the company's new Ace.  Undercard-wise this show looks much stronger than WrestleKingdom.  Main event-wise not so much.

Hiromu Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori vs. United Empire

We're starting things off with Hiromu's final match as a member of the NJPW roster.  Where he's headed we don't know yet, but like his former LIJ stablemates Naito, Sanada, Evil and Bushi, the Time Bomb is moving on.  Wild times.  Anyway I imagine Takahashi will be doing the honors on his way out.  Makes the most sense to me.  Give Francesco Akira and Jakob Austin Young the win.

Pick: United Empire

Shingo Takagi & Drilla Moloney vs. Great-O-Khan & Henare

This is a match of meat warfare.  Shingo works great with both UE guys, Drilla is becoming one of the better slugfest wrestlers on the roster.  Should be a lot of fun if it gets adequate time.  I'll go with Shingo and Drilla.

Pick: War Dragons