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For other uses, see WrestleMania (disambiguation).

WrestleMania is the annual flagship pay-per-view (PPV) event of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), widely regarded as "The Grandaddy of them all," or "The Showcase of the Immortals". The first WrestleMania was held on March 31, 1985 in New York's Madison Square Garden by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.

WrestleMania is to WWE as the Super Bowl is to the NFL, the World Series is to MLB, the Stanley Cup Finals is to the NHL, and the NBA Finals is to the NBA in the sense that it is the most important event of the year in sports entertainment. It is the largest & longest running of all major wrestling events in the world. Participating in its main event marks the pinnacle of a professional wrestler's career, and a hugely important source of revenue to WWE. Some fans of WWE call it one of the 'Big Four', (listing it as the single biggest of the four) as it was one of the original four annual WWE PPVs, along with the Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and the Survivor Series. These four major PPVs bring together the RAW, SmackDown!, and ECW brands onto the same card, something that hasn't been true of the remaining PPVs of the year since 2003.

WrestleMania dates and venues

Facts and figures

• Since 1993, the winner of the annual Royal Rumble match receives a guaranteed main event title shot for the WWE Championship at that year's WrestleMania. Since the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship after the brand extension, the winner is now able to choose which champion they wish to face, even if they are not on the same brand.

• WrestleMania III was claimed by the World Wrestling Federation as setting an indoor attendance record of 93,173. It is the largest North American indoor crowd to witness a sporting event. (Years later, a dispute arose about this number with some critics claiming an attendance of 78,000, however, this dispute has never been fully resolved)

• Since 1993, the winner of the Royal Rumble has won the WWE Championship or the World Championship at WrestleMania every year except at WrestleMania XI, WrestleMania 13, WrestleMania XV, and WrestleMania 2000. WrestleMania X can also be included on this list because in 1994 Royal Rumble, both Bret Hart and Lex Luger were both declared winners and both received title shots against the current champion, Yokozuna. Luger lost his match, Hart won his.

• WrestleMania VI and X8 are the only WrestleManias to have been held outside of the United States, both being held at SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre), in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

• The Undertaker holds the best undefeated record: 14-0.

• Other undefeated streaks at WrestleMania include Edge at 5-0, Earthquake at 4-0, John Cena at 3-0, Rob Van Dam at 3-0 and Sable at 3-0.

• Triple H was the first heel to walk out of WrestleMania as a World Champion at WrestleMania 2000 and again at WrestleMania XIX.

• Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan are the only men to have a WWF Championship reign begin at one WrestleMania and end at another. Savage won the WWF title at WrestleMania IV by winning a tournament for the title and lost the title to Hogan at WrestleMania V. Hogan himself would go on to lose the title at WrestleMania VI to the Ultimate Warrior.

• Yokozuna is the only man to have a WWF Championship reign begin and end at the same WrestleMania. He won the title from Bret Hart and then lost it to Hulk Hogan 2 minutes 8 seconds later.

• WrestleMania IX was the only WrestleMania to be held completely outdoors. WrestleMania XIX was partially outdoors as Safeco Field's retractable roof doesn't fully enclose the stadium.

• Madison Square Garden (MSG) and the Allstate Arena have hosted the most WrestleManias. MSG hosted I, X, and XX. The Allstate Arena was one of the host venues for WrestleMania 2 and hosted WrestleManias 13 and 22.

• Only five men walked in and out of WrestleMania as World Champion: Hulk Hogan, Diesel, Triple H, Eddie Guerrero and John Cena.

• Stone Cold Steve Austin is the only man to have won the WWE Championship at two consecutive WrestleManias. At WrestleMania XIV against Shawn Michaels and at WrestleMania XV against The Rock.

• Triple H is the only man to have lost the World Heavyweight Title at two consecutive WrestleManias. At WrestleMania XX to Chris Benoit and at WrestleMania 21 to Batista. He is also one of only two men to have lost 3 consecutive WWE Championship/World Heavyweight Title matches (XX, 21, and 22) along with The Rock (XV, 2000, and X-Seven).

• WrestleMania X-Seven had the most title changes at a single WrestleMania (five): The European, Hardcore, Women's, Tag Team and WWE Championship all changed hands.

• WrestleMania I is the only WrestleMania to not hold a WWE Championship Match.

• Bret Hart competed at twelve consecutive WrestleManias - from WrestleMania 2 to WrestleMania 13, which is more than any other wrestler. He wrestled in thirteen matches during this streak (he wrestled two matches at WrestleMania X), compiling a win-loss record of 7-6.

• The only WrestleManias to feature repeated matches have been WrestleMania III/IV (both featuring a match between Hulk Hogan and André the Giant), WrestleMania IX/X (Bret Hart/Yokozuna), WrestleMania XIV/XX (Undertaker/Kane), WrestleMania 2000/X-Seven (Dudleyz/Hardyz/Edge and Christian), and WrestleMania XV/X-Seven/XIX (Stone Cold Steve Austin/The Rock). Stone Cold Steve Austin vs The Rock is the only match in WrestleMania history to be featured at three WrestleManias.

• Jerry Lawler has been on the commentary team at WrestleMania an record number of twelve times. He has called every WrestleMania since WrestleMania X, except WrestleMania X-Seven (Paul Heyman was the color commentator then).

• Rey Mysterio is the only wrestler to compete for both the Cruiserweight Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship at a WrestleMania.

• To date, only six WrestleManias have been held in stadiums (III, VI, VIII, X-Seven, X8, XIX), one outdoors (IX), and the rest have been in arenas.

• Only 8 wrestlers have won a WrestleMania match with a submission:
  • Tito Santana (WrestleMania: Figure-Four Leg Lock on The Executioner)
  • "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (WrestleMania III: Sleeper Hold on Adrian Adonis in a "Hair-Vs-Hair" Match)
  • "The Model" Rick Martel (WrestleMania VI: Boston Crab on Koko B. Ware)
  • Bret "Hitman" Hart at two separate events (WrestleMania XI: Chicken Wing Cross-Face on Bob Backlund in an "I Quit" Match; WrestleMania XIII: The Sharpshooter on "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in a "Submission" Match)
  • Steve Austin at WrestleMania XII with a Million Dollar Dream on Savio Vega
  • Chris Benoit (WrestleMania XX: Crippler Crossface on Triple H in a "Triple Threat" match also involving Shawn Michaels)
  • Kurt Angle (WrestleMania 21: Ankle Lock on Shawn Michaels)
  • John Cena (WrestleMania 22; STFU on Triple H).

• Stone Cold and Hulk Hogan have both won the WWE Championship three times at a WrestleMania.

• The longest match in WrestleMania history was the Iron man match between Bret Hart and Shawn Micheals which lasted about an hour at WrestleMania XII. The shortest was the Brawl for All match at WrestleMania XV in which Butterbean knocked out Bart Gunn in roughly half a minute into the first round.

Celebrity involvement

• Celebrities such as Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jennie Garth, Cyndi Lauper, Mr. T, Aretha Franklin, Donald Trump, Vanna White, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Chuck Norris, Ray Charles, Mary Tyler Moore, Burt Reynolds, Pete Rose, Alice Cooper, Billy Martin, Muhammad Ali, Ozzy Osbourne, Elvira, Joan Rivers, Cab Calloway, Bob Uecker, Mary Hart, Gladys Knight, 'Suger' Ray Leonard, Robin Leach, Morton Downey Jr., Steve Allen, Robert Goulet, Rona Barrett, Regis Philbin, Alex Trebek, Willie Nelson, Henry Winkler, George Steinbrenner, Paul Maguire, Marla Maples, Lou Ferrigno, Reba McEntire, Ray Combs, Natalie Cole, Little Richard, Gennifer Flowers, Marvin Hagler, Vinny Paz, Chuck Wepner, Issac Hayes, Big Pun, Ice-T, Martin Short, Michael Clarke Duncan, Dustin Diamond, French Stewart, Jeff Bagwell, Moises Alou, Ashanti, Kitana Baker, Tanya Ballinger, David Arquette, Billy Gibbons, The Black Eyed Peas, Billy Corgan, Anthony Kiedis, Ice Cube, Carmen Electra, Sylvester Stallone, Marg Helgenberger, Will Sasso, Michelle Williams, Joe Theisman, Liberace, Mike Tyson, The Rockettes, William Perry, Jim Covert, Harvey Martin, Bill Fralic, Lawrence Taylor, Pamela Anderson, Butterbean, Akebono and many others have been involved with WrestleMania.
• Bands including Motörhead, Limp Bizkit, Saliva, The DX Band, Boyz II Men, Run DMC and Drowning Pool have performed live during WrestleMania, with Motörhead playing Triple H to the ring at two events. P.O.D. also performed Rey Mysterio's theme song at WrestleMania 22.
• Mike Tyson appeared in WrestleMania XIV as the special guest enforcer for the WWF Championship match between Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Tyson also was the one to make the three count, and thus wound up awarding the title to Austin.
• The main event of the first WrestleMania was littered with celebrities. The ring announcer was former Yankees manager Billy Martin, the timekeeper was the famous entertainer Liberace who was accompanied by The Rockettes, and the special enforcer was Muhammad Ali.
• One of the three main events at WrestleMania II was a 20 man over the top battle royal featuring several NFL superstars. William 'Refrigerator' Perry, Russ Francis, Jim Covert, Harvey Martin, Ernie Holmes, & Bill Fralic all tried their hands against the wrestling superstars. In the end, André the Giant emerged victorious. Many years later Perry was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by John Cena for his performance.
• Lawrence Taylor and Mr. T are the only celebrities to have competed in singles or tag matches at WrestleMania. Taylor faced Bam Bam Bigelow in a singles match and won after a forearm off the second rope. Mr. T competed in the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden in 1985. He teamed with Hulk Hogan with Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka in their corner to take on "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper with "Cowboy" Bob Orton in their corner. Mr. T and Hulk Hogan won after Bob Orton accidentally hit Mr. Wonderful with a cast from the top rope behind the back of referee Pat Patterson. Mr. T then faced Roddy Piper in a Boxing match at WrestleMania 2, he won the fight after Piper was disqualified for Bodyslamming Mr. T.
• At WrestleMania XI, Diesel and Shawn Michaels were accompanied by Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy respectively during their match.
• Butterbean (professional boxer) has also participated in a match at WrestleMania, however he did not partake in a professional wrestling match. Butterbean was challenged to a Brawl for All Boxing match by Bart Gunn at WrestleMania XV. Butterbean knocked Gunn out in about 30 seconds.(The match was completely shoot.)
• Akebono (famous Japanese sumo wrestler) faced The Big Show in a worked sumo wrestling contest at WrestleMania 21. He successfully defeated The Big Show in about 2 minutes.

Video box sets

4 VHS box sets and 1 DVD box set have been released.

• 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.
• In 1999, a VHS set with the same title as the 1998 set was released, 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. It should be noted that some of the wrestlers themes have been overdubbed, with Howard Finkle's voice being a key giveaway. This is more noticeable in the earlier WrestleManias. Such incidents include:
• Dusty Rhodes (WrestleMania VI). His music at the time was "American Dream".
• Demoliton (WrestleMania IV, V, and VI). They didn't get their new instrumental music until after WrestleMania VI.
• The Twin Towers a.k.a. The Big Boss Man and Akeem (WrestleMania V). More notably their manager Slick's song "Jive Soul Bro" was the theme that they used.
• Junkyard Dog (WrestleMania I). The Junkyard Dog didn't use the song "Grab Them Cakes", until Wrestlemania III. It wasn't released until after WrestleMania I. His original theme was "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen.
• Hulk Hogan (WrestleMania I). Hulk Hogan didn't have the "Real American" theme for the same reason as Junkyard Dog. Also that song at the time was reserved for the U.S. Express (Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda) as noted during the Wrestling Album. The music he originally used was "Eye Of The Tiger" by Survivor.
• Koko B. Ware started using "Bird, Bird, Bird" as his theme song in 1989. On the Wrestlemania VI DVD, it is overdubbed with his old entrance music, "Piledriver".

See also

• List of WWE pay-per-view events

External links

• The official WrestleMania website
• The official website of WrestleMania history

Template:WrestleMania

• 1985 establishments
• WrestleMania