An overview of professional wrestling's WrestleMania including Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, and more.
On April 1, World Wrestling Entertainment hosts their annual version of the Superbowl. The event called WrestleMania returns to Detroit after a twenty year absence, but how has this event changed since its last stop there in 1987? Why is WrestleMania the one show wrestling fans dream of attending? How has WrestleMania made the WWE a household name? In this first article of an extensive series on WrestleMania’s history, we explore these questions and more by analyzing the different nuances of WrestleMania’s past. Each subsequent article thereafter will feature a specific WrestleMania and cover all the different celebrities, venues, dates, crowds, superstars, and most importantly each article will include the full results.
Understanding something as large and vast as WrestleMania would be like trying to understand why men sit around watching SportsCenter all morning when the same episode repeats every hour. Having said that, the best way to describe WrestleMania would be by uncovering the basic knowledge surrounding the Five W’s: who, what, when, where, and why.
A quick scan of WrestleMania’s historic talent roster would include the names of every well known superstar from the past twenty-five years. Wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Randy Savage, and Steve Austin have all applied their trade during one of WrestleMania’s many main events. These four men won the World Championship at WrestleMania, but merely participating in this prestigious event marks one of the greatest moments in any wrestler’s career. In addition to the aforementioned “who,” wrestling greats Andre the Giant, Ted Dibiase, and The Rock have all graced the WrestleMania ring, but to get a complete feel for the people involved with the event’s entire production you have to consider the celebrities. Beginning the evening’s festivities usually includes the singing of America the Beautiful by some pop culture icon like Reba McEntire, Aretha Franklin, or Ray Charles (all of whom have actually performed at WrestleMania). Celebrities also have a tendency to fill roles like special guest referee (Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali,) special guest ring announcer (Bob Uecker and Burt Reynolds,) and special guest time keeper (Vanna White). Many other celebrities from sports, music, and TV have shown up to fill various other roles or to just sit ringside (Chuck Norris, Alex Trebek, Regis Philbin, Pete Rose and others).
In answering the “when and where,” WrestleMania always falls between March and April and takes place in a number of different locations. Almost every major city in the United States from New York and Chicago to Los Angeles and Seattle has hosted WrestleMania, but only on two occasions has the event actually taken place outside the US borders with both of those events taking place in Toronto. In 1986, WrestleMania 2 actually took place in three different locations: New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Thankfully the content of WrestleMania is far too great to list in just one article, but for the purposes of completely addressing the questions of “who, what, when, where and why” a commentary on this year’s matches should be included to fulfill our “what” portion. Although many matches have yet to be announced, wrestling fans already know about two big world title matches featuring some of today’s youngest stars (John Cena and Batista) taking on some veterans that made names for themselves back in the 1990’s (Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker). In addition, fans anxiously await the WrestleMania match debut of Donald Trump. The self made billionaire will not exactly compete in a match, but he has put his expensive golden locks on the line against the dark grey locks of WWE promoter, Vincent K. McMahon.
The only question left to address is “why.” Why do wrestling fans continue to fly in from all over the globe to see WrestleMania? Why does the WWE continue to hold WrestleMania? Why do you care? The answer to all of these can be summed up in a few words: money, entertainment, and passion.
List of Matches for WrestleMania 23 as of 3/4/2007
WWE Championship Match – Champion John Cena vs. Challenger Shawn Michaels
World Championship Match – Champion Batista vs. Challenger The Undertaker
Hair vs. Hair Match – Mr. McMahon’s Representative (Umaga) vs. Donald Trump’s Representative (Bobby Lashley)
Money In the Bank Ladder Match – CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy vs. Mr. Kennedy vs. Finlay vs. King Booker vs. Edge vs. (a wrestler to be named)
Next - The Original WWE WrestleMania
