Credit: SLAM! Wrestling
Howard Finkel recently spoke about the origins of WrestleMania and how the event got named. Here is what he had to say…
“So when the idea (WrestleMania) was presented to me I was ready for it. We started in 1984, a lot of things happened. The precursor was 1983 because we started expanding. Vince had a vision to go global. So, anything that came our way, my impression was let’s go, I want to make this the best thing we can possibly do.
Back in 1984 there were many meetings going on to try and get the ship that we were painting launched. With the visions of Vince McMahon we were going to try and establish ourselves not only as a sport but in the entertainment as well. So, a meeting was held to cross the t’s and dot the I’s. When it came time to come up with a name, what could we call this event?
This was 1984, so I said 20 years ago four guys from Liverpool came across the shores to the United States and made a phenomenal impression on everybody. They called that Beatlemania. So I said, ‘There was Beatlemania. Why can’t there be WrestleMania?'”