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STRAIGHT SHOOT RETRO is back! And this Wednesday, March 19 at 9pmET/6pmPT, The World’s Smartest Rasslin Talk Show is taking on The Grandaddy of the Grandaddy of Them All: The very first-ever WrestleMania!

As always, co-host Jeff Schiller & I will show up with a stack of notes ready to discuss the event. All you need to do is watch WrestleMania I before Wednesday at 9pmET/6pmPT, so you know what the hell we’re talking about. Then, tune into the live show and enjoy!

STRAIGHT SHOOT is completely free for you to enjoy, but in the face of rising podcast hosting costs, we need your support! Here are three easy ways to do it:

• Sign up for a FREE audiobook and 30-day membership with Audible, where you can listen to more than 150,000 audiobooks.
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• If all that sounds like too much work, consider donating via Paypal.

Ways to watch/listen are below. Scroll down for more information on WrestleMania I.

• Right here, on this very page, live or after-the-fact, through the embedded YouTube video right up above
• Over at the official Google Hangout event page, where you can watch live and even ask questions for me and my special guest.
• On my official YouTube channel, where you can check out the video after the fact and of course SUBSCRIBE.
• The morning after, via audio-only podcast versions of the show embedded above or on iTunes, Stitcher and PodOmatic.

If you consider yourself a wrestling fan, chances are you don’t need the significance of WrestleMania I drilled into you. While commonly acknowledged to be…not that great of a card, it’s significant because of its copious celebrity appearances, being a turning point in the WWF’s national expansion and a clear mission statement of where Vince McMahon planned on taking the genre.

But while WrestleMania gets all the ink in the history books, it was actually a direct outgrowth of two earlier events: The Brawl to End it All and The War to Settle the Score. Both were done in conjunction with MTV, with their main events shown on the fledgeling music channel, and as such, formed the cornerstones of the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection that formed the basis of WWF’s transformation from a wrestling promotion to an entertainment powerhouse.

The glitz, glamor and heavy celebrity focus on WrestleMania I can and should be contrasted with the first two Starrcade events, which were much more focused on cultivating the appearance of a legitimate competition. This will likely be a major talking point for us on STRAIGHT SHOOT RETRO this week, but we’ll also be covering the rest of the card, as seen below:

• Tito Santana vs. The Executioner
• Special Delivery Jones vs. King Kong Bundy
• Ricky Steamboat vs. Matt Borne
• David Sammartino vs. Brutus Beefcake
• Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine vs. The Junkyard Dog
• Tag Team Champions The U.S. Express vs. Nikolai Volkoff & The Iron Sheik
• Andre the Giant vs. Big John Studd
• Women’s Champion Leilani Kai vs. Wendi Richter
• Hulk Hogan & Mr. T vs. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper & “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff