[1993-04-04-WWF-Wrestlemania IX] Wrestlemania opening ceremony

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[El-P]

Or, how to make Jim Ross look like an idiot on his first day. Savage's entrance was awesome though, and he had a great outfit. It's too bad Savage was stuck to be in the booth at this time.

[Loss]

Jim Ross debuts in the WWF wearing a toga. All these entrances are so ridiculous but funny, but the highlight is Heenan coming in backwards on a camel. This must have been rehearsed multiple times, because Jim Ross is mouthing almost everything both guys are saying.

[shoe]

This was schlocky good stuff. I find it funny how JR was so opossed to wearing a cowboy hat, yet he wears a toga his 1st night in. Plus the smile came across as fake. i loved Heenan's schtick though.

[BackToBionic]

I would point out how much money McMahon must have wasted with all this pageantry but it's not even in his top 50 biggest wastes of money so not much point...

[Kevin Ridge]

Going to say my least favorite WrestleMania. Jim Ross debuts as announcer with the biggest mic ever. Monsoon's run as lead announcer ends after the first eight WrestleManias. It is outdoors and they tried to give the show a whole Roman period gimmick but it does not feel like WrestleMania.

[PeteF3]

Ross showing up in the WWF was almost as much of a jawdropper as Lawler, and again--college students of today have no direct knowledge of it being any other way.

 

I really liked the atmosphere of this show, as goofy and outdated as the toga party stuff was. Too bad the booking and particularly the finishes were almost uniformly awful. Ross drops some historical knowledge from a Caesar's Palace pamphlet he probably got from the hotel desk. Heenan, bless him, is utterly shameless--taking a swing at the ostrich and doing about 3 pratfalls in getting off the attack camel.

 

I doubt this cost the WWF much in the way of money--Caesar's probably came to them to hold this event, just as Trump Plaza did, and this probably all stuff they had lying around in storage (elephant, ostrich, and camel included).

[flyonthewall2983]

I remember being a little shocked by JR's arrival, I didn't really notice that he left WCW at all.

[JaymeFuture]

For whatever reason, the shot of Savage pulling up Heenan's toga while giving the camera the thumbs up is one of the funnier forgotten random visuals in WWF history. Right up there with Jesse Ventura carrying Matilda off in the ring cart at Mania 3.

[WingedEagle]

Gorilla introduces Jim Ross in his WWF debut, in a toga. I guess its just their version of rookie hazing. Double main event of Hart vs. Yoko and Hogan & Beefcake vs. Money Inc. Caesar & Cleopatra ride into the arena. Savage carried out next. Then Heenan out backwards on a camel for comedy.

[soup23]

Savage pulling up Hennan's toga is amazing. This is a ton of great fun with the theme being implemented. I can appreciate that in the day and age where every PPV set looks the same.

[garretta]

I was so busy watching Heenan that I never even saw Savage doing anything with his toga.

 

Anyone who didn't get at least one chuckle out of this probably shouldn't call themselves a wrestling fan. I'd rather have Bobby riding backwards on a camel and giving the watching world a free look at his swimming trunks than listen to Tony and Jesse bicker at each other over on the other channel, and I'd absolutely rather hear JR quoting the hotel brochure at Caesar's Palace than Corey Maclin doing anything whatsoever. Say what you want to about the in-ring product, but the WWF's overall television shows (by which I mean announcing and production values as well as matches) can't be topped, or even approached, by anyone in the world at this time. JR's addition just adds to their lead.

 

The one I feel bad for is Gino. Yes, he's gone downhill pretty far and pretty fast, but to go from play-by-play at the Rumble to a twenty-second cameo, if that, at Mania is a pretty big step down. If he hadn't been one of the McMahon family inner circle, he'd have probably been better off going to WCW or even ECW, considering that he lived in the Philly suburbs. He'd have brought instant credibility to a new promotion that needed some, and even at half of his former abilities he'd have been better than Jay Sulli. Could you imagine a lead announce team of Gino and Terry Funk? I think they'd have been a riot together.

 

Savage and his babble may be okay on Superstars, but he needs to bring more to the table than "Do the thing, YEAH!" if he's going to be tolerable on pay-per-views, even alongside pros like JR and Heenan.

 

Heenan branding the camel he was riding on an "attack camel" might be a Line of the Year candidate. It's hard to imagine that he'll be out of the WWF by the end of this year.

[The Russian Daydream]

This was really silly but it was harmless good fun which made the show stand out as something different and special.

I actually really liked how this show was set up to feel unique. Being outdoors with the Roman theme, and the black-gold-black ropes were a nice feature too as I don't think they'd used anything other than red-White-blue for the best part of a decade.

This wasn't a great show but it was the booking mainly and to some extent the wrestling which let it down. The theme stuff was good fun.