Original subtitles

- WrestleMania, be there or be square.

- We gonna be there.

- WWE is known for its pomp, its pageantry,

its dramatic storylines and larger-than-life characters.

- How about getting your foot off my shoulder?

- It's not up-

- So, it's no wonder that celebrities feel

right at home here.

- I got myself a second career.

I'll be a wrestling manager.

- From rock legends, and sports icons-

- Former champion of the world.

- -to silver screen stars and soulful crooners.

- Ms. Aretha Franklin.

- WWE is a place that pop culture A-listers

can step into the ring and revel

in the spectacle of Sports Entertainment.

- I'm back in the world series again.

- Today we roll out the red carpet, count down

the most dazzling celebrity appearances from the 1980s.

This is WWE's Greatest Moments.

- Acknowledge me.

- My God.

- Stone Cold with the beer bath.

- Ooh.

- This is surreal.

- Look at this.

- He slammed him.

- Welcome, everyone, to WWE's Greatest Moments.

A celebration of those core memories

from Sports Entertainment's vast incredible history.

I'm Michael Cole, and on this edition,

we count down the greatest celebrity moments

in WWE from the 1980s.

The first WrestleMania was notable for being

the ultimate showcase of Sports Entertainment.

The marriage between WWE and pop culture.

And in 1985 Liberace, one of the most colorful and flamboyant

entertainers in all of show business, joined in on the fun.

- The official timekeeper for WrestleMania

this Sunday afternoon at 1:00 PM.

We are high above the streets of New York

with Liberace.

- When you ask what it takes to make WrestleMania 1 a success,

it's so many different factors, and so many different people.

- Hi.

- It is going gonna be something else this Sunday.

- Oh, it's gonna be so excited.

- That first WrestleMania card having the rock and wrestling,

the celebrities involved.

I-it seemed like something different.

It seemed like something bigger.

- The guest timekeeper, truly one of the greatest performers

in show business today, the incomparable Liberace.

- Yeah, we had Liberace and the Rockettes, you know,

people that-that particular interest.

- Everybody wants to be a part of it.

Well, there's something going on here.

I gotta see what it is.

I gotta check it out.

- A happening presented by the World Wrestling --,

WrestleMania.

Look at this, the Rockettes from Radio City.

Oh, I love it.

Look at this, Jess.

- This wrestling thing is great, but if we sprinkle in some

Liberace, before you know it, you have a spectacle.

- Look at this.

Fans loving it.

They're on their feet.

New York, New York.

- Our number nine moment comes courtesy of the former

Philadelphia Phillies standout,

and WWE Hall of Famer, Bob Uecker.

- Mr. Baseball, Bob Uecker.

- Bob Uecker famous in the world

of broadcasting for baseball,

but was so good, it took him into the world of-of film.

- Vaughn into the windup of his first offering.

Just a bit outside.

- Bob Uecker certainly is worthy

of being the guest ring announcer.

- I got the best seat in the house.

One of my greatest friends is gonna be there, Andre the Giant.

And then when the Giant walked in,

you can't appreciate how big these guys

are until you're standing next to them.

Hi, Andre.

Hey, my good buddy.

- Go away, Bob, fan, or you get me.

You get The Giant.

- We hit it off right away.

I had fun with him.

How about getting your foot off my shoulder?

- It's not up, okay?

Hey.

- "[imitates Andre]

Hey."

I don't know what he was trying to say there,

but that's what he said.

- Andre the Giant.

The guy's my best friend.

I can't wait to see this guy.

I-I-- I can't believe how big his hand is.

Then I looked at him, this guy is enormous.

People loved him.

They loved being around him, and I got along great with him.

I-I had fun with him.

I really did.

[laughing]

- Our number eight moment takes up back to 1987

when rock legend, and Detroit native, Alice Cooper,

made an appearance at WrestleMania 3.

- Jake "The Snake" Roberts

with Damien and Alice Cooper.

- Let me tell you, Alice Cooper, if you think you're gonna

put your hands on a colonel, you'll never get a chance

because The Honky Tonk Man is gonna take care

of Jake "The Snake".

- I can't wait, and I tell you,

school's almost out for these jerks.

- You know something?

The difference between you two and us is you're tail shakers

and we've always been bone breakers, you see?

Alice Cooper, I mean, I-I idolized as a kid.

You know?

The music and everything and then going into the ring

with him to 94,000 people,

I mean, it was the most incredible feeling.

- These guys have pulled out all the stops in this one.

It's a vendetta as far as

Jake "The Snake" Roberts is concerned.

Oh, rammed, oh, right into the steel post.

- Here comes Alice to the rescue.

- With a helping hand.

- The oddballs that Alice Cooper brought in, you know,

he was hot off MTV, his album was gold already.

- Uh-oh.

- Got him right in the corner.

Oh, look at that.

- Look at Hart.

- Give me a break.

That's gotta be a disqualification.

- Three, he got it.

[bell rings]

- He got it.

The Honky Tonk wins it.

- Well, Honky Tonk Man won,

which was something that happened a lot back in the day,

but just because they won didn't mean they won the war.

- And Alice Cooper is inside.

Damien.

- Referee, get in there and stop this.

- Damien got him.

- There was no more venomous combination

than Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Alice Cooper,

and they proved that at WrestleMania 3.

- Look at them running for their lives.

- Talk about excitement.

This guy created a lot of it.

- The WWE and NFL have enjoyed a longstanding history,

a crossover that has seen many a players make cameos inside

the squared circle, but in 1986, at WrestleMania 2, a handful of

standout pro-football players, including Super Bowl hero,

William "The Refrigerator" Perry,

got in on the action for a 20-man Battle Royal.

- All right, ladies and gentlemen,

it's time for the 20-man over -the-top rope Battle Royal.

- At WrestleMania 2, in Chicago, the WWE pulled off

one of the most unconventional Battle Royale's

that pitted WWE Superstars

against some of the greatest NFL players of the day.

- And now, ladies and gentlemen, here are the participants.

Jimbo Covert, The Iron Sheik, Harvey Martin, Big John Studd,

Bill Fralic, Bret "The Hitman" Hart,

and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart,

"The Refrigerator" William Perry,

and last but certainly not least, Andre the Giant.

[crowd cheers]

[bell rings]

- This Battle Royal is underway.

The only way you can be eliminated is over the top rope.

- When you get these NFL guys in the ring,

you start to realize how big they really are.

- Mayhem as these guys weighed in a total combined weight,

5,612 pounds.

- When I was a kid, I'm thinking,

"There's a guy named Refrigerator?

Hell yeah."

- Look here, they're trying to get Refrigerator out.

- Four or five of them going to work on the Refrigerator.

- He was such a force to be reckoned with

back in those days.

- Refrigerator has got Big John Studd held up in the corner,

and going after him tooth and nail.

- Studd met him with a big elbow,

and there goes Refrigerator.

- Oh, no, he's out.

- I really think he could've quit football

and gone into wrestling the next day.

- The match is over, as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, look at that.

He pulled Big John right out of there.

- As always, the wrestlers always come out on top.

- Andre the Giant the winner here.

Unbelievable.

- We leap ahead now to WrestleMania 5

for our number six moment of the countable.

This one featuring the famed chain-smoking lightning rod

of a talk show host from the 1980s.

- Chain smoke in my face.

- Morton Downey Jr. who came face to face with The Hot Rod.

- And now, here's the man who can match anyone

mouth to mouth,

Morton Downey Jr.

- Morton Downey Jr. at that time

in America was different.

He was smoking cigarettes.

He was yelling.

He was nasty.

He was controversial.

The perfect antagonist for "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.

- I'm running the show here.

- You ain't running nothing, fat boy, with a belly like that.

- Who's the biggest mouth in the business?

Well, I am.

There is one bigger.

- The one, the only "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.

- We've had a lot of great performers over the years

that have captured the audience.

But Roddy Piper almost had them hypnotized in a way.

- You used to have all these nasty warts all over your face.

- You could tell he just did not like Morton Downey Jr.

- What happened to the warts?

- I gave them to a homeless warthog.

- I didn't know your girlfriend was homeless.

- Morton Downey Jr. thought that he could use some of the tricks

that he did on his show on the Piper's Pit.

He took out his cigarette

and blew smoke in Roddy Piper's face.

- Don't blow no more smoke in my face.

Do you understand that?

- Roddy taking exception to that.

"All right.

Well, I know how to put this fire out."

- Give me that smoke, would you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

[crowd cheers]

- Take a look at that, Jess.

- There was perhaps no sports icon in the world

quite like Muhammad Ali.

Ali's boxing skill was matched only by his charisma

and showmanship.

- One of the greatest heavyweight boxing champions

of all time.

- Muhammad Ali.

- Often when you talk about Muhammad Ali,

you'll hear people say The Greatest.

- I'm the lord of the ring.

Not only the wrestling ring but the boxing ring.

- The reason I love Muhammad Ali is because he was a rebel.

He was punk rock without being labeled punk rock.

Muhammad Ali is a trailblazer.

[crowd chants "Ali"]

- Muhammad Ali is not just the most famous boxer and probably

best boxer that ever lived, he's an American icon.

And that star power was unbelievably high right around

the same time that WrestleMania 1 came to Madison Square Garden.

- The biggest wrestling extravaganza of all time.

Special guest referee, former heavyweight boxing champion,

Muhammad Ali.

- WrestleMania had to be something that everybody around

the world would tune into that would get so much publicity.

So that's when they pulled out all the stops.

From the boxing world, Muhammad Ali.

- "The Greatest" Muhammad Ali looking tremendous.

- And look at chaos five minutes into the match, Gino Monsoon.

- Ali stepped right in there.

Oh, look at Ali, he took a shot at Piper.

- The former champion of the world.

- Muhammad Ali as the outside official is maintaining order.

- Muhammad Ali validated the mere presence of WrestleMania.

Think about what Muhammad Ali meant to that ring,

meant to that venue, to the world.

It's just top-shelf stuff.

- The people's champ truly transcended

sports and entertainment.

Onto a transcendent performance of another kind

in our number four moment

featuring "The Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin.

- Here to sing America the Beautiful,

"The Queen of Soul" Ms. Aretha Franklin.

[crowd cheers]

[piano playing]

♪ O beautiful for spacious skies ♪

- Being in your home city

and being from Detroit, Aretha Franklin goes without saying.

You're talking about Motown.

You're talking about a city that has so much history of soul.

So, having her coming out to perform just blew my mind

as a kid.

♪ For purple mountain majesties ♪

- Aretha Franklin in there just belting it out.

I can hear it in my head right now.

♪ Above the fruited plain

- She had moments that touched people, that touched the world.

Just her performance, it gives me goosebumps.

♪ America

- I think for anybody who wasn't taking wrestling

or WrestleMania seriously,

suddenly they were paying attention.

Aretha Franklin, she transcended the industry.

And suddenly, you have her in her hometown

performing at WrestleMania.

All eyes were on the spectacle.

[singing]

[crowd cheers]

- Take a look.

It's unreal.

A happening.

History will be made here this afternoon

at the Pontiac Silverdome.

- This next moment created a nationwide buzz fueled

by an unmatched commitment to character.

- Is that how you talk to me from Tennessee, Mr. Lawler?

- Featuring the legendary Andy Kaufman.

- You, Mr. Lawler, you challenged me

to a wrestling match.

I think you bit off a little more than you can chew.

- Jerry Lawler as the King of Memphis,

and then you have Andy Kaufman come down talk about the South,

and that he's gonna show him how to use soap.

- This is a bar of soap.

Not sowp, not sewp, it's soap.

- I've wrestled every wrestler you can think of,

but my greatest match was not with a wrestler,

it was with a 150 pound comedian.

- Andy, he doesn't want any part of it.

- Kaufman did a hell of a job.

He had more heat than probably anybody in that building.

- When Jerry Lawler piledrive him,

he spent a weekend in the hospital.

- And that got a lot of attention.

Suddenly, we'd get called by The David Letterman Show.

- Tonight, for the first time on network television, they meet

face-to-face, here are Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler.

- I had to spend three days in the hospital in traction,

and I was given this neck brace in the hospital.

This is a very real neck brace.

I could have been killed-

- Well--

- -and I could have been--had my neck broken.

- To get the buzz that they got for that moment speaks

to Andy Kaufman's genius.

- I could have sued you for everything you're worth.

- Well I didn't because I'm not that kind of a guy.

- Yeah.

You know what--

- What kind of a guy are you?

[laughing]

[crowd awes]

- The slap was part of the show.

Letterman was going to commercial.

Kaufman goes on that profanity-laced tirade.

- Andy, are you coming in here again, or?

- I'm sick of this [bleep].

You're full of [bleep], my friend.

I will sue you for everything you have.

I will sue your ass.

You're a [bleep] as far as I'm concerned.

You hear me?

[bleep] you.

[bleep] you.

I will get you for this.

- That show that night, it made Andy and I famous,

and it made celebrity involvement in wrestling famous.

- I think you can use some of those words on TV.

I'm not--

[laughing]

[applause]

- In 1985, a charismatic, beloved, and mohawk star

of the 80s was about to help the WWE launch

an epic new venture called WrestleMania.

That's right, fool.

It's Mr. T.

And in the run-up to competing on the grandest stage

of them all, Mr. T prepared by training

with none other than Hulk Hogan, brother.

A true A-team.

- Mr. T, if I could have your attention.

T?

- What you want, fool?

- Mr. T was one of the biggest draws in the 80s.

- You're dead meat.

And I pity you, fool.

- The show The A-Team was such a cultural phenomenon.

- From the name, to his look, to his demeanor, to his charisma,

wrestlers could learn from Mr. T.

- The entire plan all along was get to the first WrestleMania,

uh, with Mr. T involved.

But without a great antagonist, your protagonist means nothing.

And Roddy Piper was the greatest antagonist

you could possibly have.

- The children of America today must be sick

to look at some of--

[yelling]

- They said they'd could be in the-- Wherever they at,

I'm going to be there, and I'm going to find them.

- Welcome, everyone, as the World Wrestling --

presents WrestleMania.

- Everything was on the line that night at WrestleMania.

And I knew we better put on the best show we could

and tear the roof off The Garden.

- Mr. T giving a welcome here to the multitudes.

- Hulk was moving around, so first,

then the crowd started hollering T, T.

- The fans are chanting, "T, T, T."

- Then he tagged me in, "Ah, now I got him."

You know?

- Oh, slap across the face, and a return slap by Mr. T.

- Oh.

- WrestleMania wouldn't have been WrestleMania

without Mr. T involved.

I think pro wrestling owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. T.

- A slam by Mr. T, as Piper goes down.

- Oh.

- It was just perfect.

- Mr. T, wow.

He got him.

They got him.

- I can't think of a person that brought so much to the table

in the very beginning to really

making this mainstream entertainment.

- I will never forget it.

It was something.

It was something.

- Our next celebrity was one girl

who just wanted to have some fun.

That's right, the incomparable music legend

and 80s pop culture icon, Cyndi Lauper,

in this number one moment.

- A lot of people said to me, "Cyndi, what about acting?"

And I said, "No.

I know, I'll be a wrestling manager."

- This is a badass woman who was putting a spotlight

on the women's championship by managing Wendi Richter.

- This is a powerful woman and I'm a powerful manager now

because I was taught by "Captain" Lou Albano

just how to manage.

- Cyndi was focused on managing Wendi Richter at WrestleMania 1.

- And The Fabulous Moolah has got Wendi Richter by the hair.

And here comes Cyndi Lauper,

and we've got a melee on the floor, Gino.

We got the mangers on the floor going at it.

- A new champion.

[bell rings]

- Wendi Richter regains the championship.

- It brought in a whole wider audience and put WWE

at the forefront of pop culture with this icon.

- Wrestling kinda played a very big part in my career,

and I in wrestling.

- History made here at WrestleMania.

- We taught them the bad principle.

Beaten, annihilated and destroyed.

- Whoo.

- Cyndi Lauper's true colors certainly shined through on what

was a magical night at Madison Square Garden,

helping make the event a huge success and laying the blueprint

for all celebrity collaboration to come.

Well, that'll do it for this addition

of WWE's Greatest Moments.

Hope you've enjoyed this look back

at the celebrity appearances that have helped make the WWE

the best in the world for Sports Entertainment.