Wrestle Mania propels the worldwide commercial success of the WWE through media, merchandise and shows. All of the events produced have been sold out within a short period of time, with recent editions being sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale. The first WrestleMania was held in Madison Square Garden in New York City; the 10th and 20th editions were also held there. WrestleMania III in Detroit was the highest-attended indoor sports event in the world, with 93,173 fans in attendance. The record stood until February 14, 2010 when the 2010 NBA All-Star Game broke the indoor sporting event record with an attendance of 108,713 at Cowboys Stadium. All but two editions have been hosted in U.S. cities—two having been held in Toronto, Ontario—but the show is televised across the world via pay-per-view.
Organization
While WrestleMania has mostly taken place in sports arenas in large cities, a number of them have been held in large stadiums; the most attended events include—WrestleMania III in Pontiac (93,173), WrestleMania VI (67,678) & WrestleMania X8 (68,237) in Toronto, WrestleMania VIII in Indianapolis (62,167), WrestleMania X-Seven (67,925) & WrestleMania XXV (72,744) in Houston, WrestleMania XIX in Seattle (54,097), WrestleMania 23 in Detroit (80,103), WrestleMania XXIV in Orlando (74,635), WrestleMania XXVI in Glendale (72,219), and WrestleMania XXVII in in Atlanta (71,617 people).
WrestleMania centers around the main-event matches for the WWE Championship and since WrestleMania XIX, the World Heavyweight Championship. The ECW World Championship was only defended once at WrestleMania XXIV. A select number of other championship titles are also contested, while there are several gimmick matches and personal feud matches on the card.
Since 1993, the winner of the annual Royal Rumble match has received a guaranteed WWE Championship match at that year's WrestleMania. With the introduction of the World Heavyweight Championship in 2002, the winner has the option to choose between either a WWE or World Heavyweight Title match. With the introduction of the ECW brand, the Rumble winner had the 3rd option of the ECW Championship from 2007 until it was retired in 2010, but the Rumble winner always chose a WWE or World Title Match.
WrestleMania 21 saw the introduction of a new kind of match that since has become part of WrestleMania, the Money in the Bank ladder match. This match has featured six to ten participants over the years. The participant who retrieves the briefcase suspended above the ring wins a contract, which guarantees a world title match at the time and place of the winner's choosing for up to one year, including the following year's WrestleMania.
Commentators
For five of the first six WrestleMania's, Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura served as the color commentators (the exception being WrestleMania 2, which was split among three venues and had Monsoon, Ventura, and Vince McMahon split up with guest commentators), while Bobby Heenan and others filled guest roles. For WrestleMania VII and VIII, Monsoon and Heenan were the color commentators. In the mid to late 1990s, the team was composed of Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. Since the brand separation in 2002-03, matches from the Raw brand have been called by Ross and Lawler; the SmackDown matches called by Michael Cole, Tazz, John "Bradshaw" Layfield and Jonathan Coachman and ECW matches called by Joey Styles and Tazz. At WrestleMania XXV the first three-man inter-brand commentary team since the WWE Brand Extension was used and consisted of Jim Ross, Jerry "The King" Lawler, and Michael Cole. The following year Jim Ross was replaced by Matt Striker at WrestleMania XXVI. Howard Finkel has served as the long-standing ring announcer and has appeared at every event, but since the WWE Brand Extension, Lilian Garcia, Tony Chimel, and Justin Roberts have taken over as announcers for their brand matches.
Celebrity involvement
Over the years, WrestleMania has featured many celebrity appearances with varying levels of involvement. The main event of the first WrestleMania showcased numerous celebrities along with the wrestlers. Billy Martin served as ring announcer with Liberace as timekeeper, and Muhammad Ali served as an official. Mr. T competed in the main event alongside tag team partner, Hulk Hogan. WrestleMania 2 featured a 20-man battle royal pitting several NFL players against WWF wrestlers, while Lawrence Taylor faced Bam Bam Bigelow at WrestleMania XI. Mike Tyson appeared at WrestleMania XIV as the special guest enforcer for the WWF Championship bout between Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin, while professional boxer Butterbean was challenged to a boxing match by Bart Gunn at WrestleMania XV. At WrestleManias XIV, XV and 2000, Pete Rose became involved in a short feud with Kane that became a running gag with each appearance ending with Rose receiving a Tombstone Piledriver or Chokeslam from Kane. The Big Show faced sumo wrestling champion Akebono in a sumo contest at WrestleMania 21 and fought professional welterweight boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. at WrestleMania XXIV.
The event has also featured live musical performances. Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Willie Nelson, Reba McEntire, Little Richard, Boyz II Men, Ashanti, Boys Choir of Harlem, Michelle Williams, John Legend, Nicole Scherzinger, Fantasia Barrino, and Keri Hilson have each renditioned the song "America the Beautiful" before the show. Robert Goulet performed "O Canada" at WrestleMania VI. Meanwhile acts such as Motörhead, Limp Bizkit, Saliva, Run–D.M.C., Salt-n-Pepa, Ice-T, Drowning Pool, P.O.D. and Kid Rock have also performed during the live entrances of competitors.
Backstage at Wrestlemania, Snoop Dogg is looking for talent to go on his tour with him. This gives us an "American Idol" type talent show. This gives us the following
-William Regal rapping "straight out of which was every bit as awesome as pretty much everything else William Regal does in the WWE.
-Great Khali and Kelly Kelly doing a duet of "Summer Lovin'" from Grease.
-Zack Ryder covering Rebecca Black's "Friday."
-Yoshi Tatsu singing "We Will Rock You" while Chris Masters. . .umm, "accompanied" him by moving his pectoral muscles in time with the beat. Yeesh.
-Hornswaggle auditions, and impresses Snoop. . .until Teddy Long tells him that Hornswaggle can't talk. After which, Long and Hornswaggle leave. . .after which Hornswaggle starts rapping, accompanied by the dancing Bella Twins.
Good comedy sketch, if only because William Regal rapping was great. That guy should have a more permanent on-camera role somehow, but unfortunately, I don't see it happening. Definitely worth finding on YouTube once it's up there.
Now we're moving on to the eight-man schmozz, which had originally been rumored to be in the "cool down" slot before the main event. See, I told you this stuff was subject to change.
WrestleMania is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced annually in late March or early April by the World Wrestling Federation, later known as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The company regards it as the flagship event of WWE, as it is the most successful and longest-running professional wrestling event in the world. WrestleMania is nicknamed "The Grandaddy of Them All," "The Grandest Stage of Them All" and "The Showcase of the Immortals." The event was first produced in 1985, and, as of 2011, 27 editions have been held consecutively since then, with WrestleMania XXVIII to be held in 2012.
Conceptualized by WWE owner Vince McMahon, WrestleMania's widespread success helped transform the professional-wrestling industry and make the WWE the most successful promotion in the world. WrestleMania has facilitated the rise to stardom of wrestlers such as The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Triple H and The Rock, amongst others. Numerous celebrities such as Cyndi Lauper, Muhammad Ali, Mr. T, Alice Cooper, Lawrence Taylor, Pamela Anderson, Mike Tyson, Donald Trump, Floyd Mayweather, Snoop Dogg and others have participated or made special appearances in the events. The WWE's television shows are tailored to reach their climax at WrestleMania, which features matches for the company's championship titles, as well as specialty and gimmick matches. Participation in a WrestleMania match, and especially the main event, is considered by many wrestlers and fans alike as one of the greatest achievements and symbols of success in professional wrestling.
Video box sets
Several VHS and DVD box sets have been released over the years:
- In 1994, a VHS set with WrestleManias 1-X was released.
- In 1997, a VHS set with WrestleManias 1-13 was released.
- In 1998, a VHS set titled "WrestleMania: The Legacy" with WrestleManias 1-XIV was released. The set was re-released in 1999, this time including XV.
- In 2005, a DVD set titled "WrestleMania: The Complete Anthology" with WrestleManias 1-21 was released; this marked the first time WrestleManias 1-XIV were released on DVD in Region 1. The set was re-released in 2006, this time including WrestleMania 22.
- In 2007, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the event, WWE released a special "Championship Edition" DVD of WrestleMania III. The two-disc set includes the event itself, another version of the event that includes pop-up facts, and pre-event interviews and extra matches from notable shows such as Saturday Night's Main Event.
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