There has never been anything in the history of pro wrestling quite like this past weekend.
Never have more fans attended more events, nor has more talent been in the same place then in Dallas.
The difference in one year was amazing. Last year, in the San Jose area, WrestleMania came to town, people came from all over the world, and events were held throughout the city in conjunction with the weekend. There was an awareness that WrestleMania was in town, but it was more a tourist event and in the city itself, the interest was nothing compared to a major sports event. There were only about 15,000 tickets sold within a 100 mile radius of Santa Clara for last year’s show, but it still broke the company’s gate and merchandise records and most of the events put on by other companies did well.
WrestleMania is the Super Bowl of wrestling, a one-day menagerie of the best and brightest (of those not injured) from this great sport. Because of its prominence, it’s also a time of year where people that never watch wrestling wander back and have no idea what’s going on. In an effort to help out those casual fans that gravitate back to wrestling every spring, here’s a quick and dirty primer for this weekend’s big event.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match: Hunter Hearst Helmsley (WWE Champion; 46; 9-10 at WrestleMania) vs. Roman Reigns (30; 2-1 at WrestleMania)
Helmsley better known as Triple H, is appearing in his 20th WrestleMania (9-10) and has risen through the ranks from getting beaten by the Ultimate Warrior in 90 seconds at WrestleMania XII to the point where he’s a real-life WWE executive and the on-screen leader of a villainous corporate stable called The Authority. Reigns is the latest good-guy character to run afoul of The Authority – following Daniel Bryan and John Cena – and was twice briefly WWE Champion last year before the Authority stacked the deck against him and Triple H won the championship from him in the Royal Rumble match.
Despite the Authority’s enmity towards him, he was able to earn another title match. They haven’t really established why either guy wants to be the champion, and the grudge between these two men seems to come from Triple H offering Reigns a spot in the Authority several months back (after Seth Rollin’s knee injury) and Reigns answering by attacking him without provocation. To the shock of few, Triple H is getting more cheers than Reigns is.
Hell in a Cell for Control of RAW: The Undertaker (51; 22-1 at WrestleMania) vs. Shane McMahon (46; 2-0 at WrestleMania)
The Undertaker is the longest-tenured member of the WWE roster, having debuted at the 1990 Survivor Series as a a spooky mortician. He’s gradually evolved into a less cartoonish character, but still retained some of the bad-ass mysticism of his character. He was undefeated at WrestleMania until two years ago, when Brock Lesnar beat him. He’s facing Shane McMahon, Vince’s son, for control of Monday Night RAW (the television show). Shane wrestled a bit as a special attraction throughout chunks of the late ’90s and mid ’00s, and was actually decent for somebody with no real training.
Why the Undertaker was roped into this match-up has never really been explained on-camera, besides “The Authority told him to.” If Shane wins and gains control of RAW, the Undertaker won’t be allowed to compete at WrestleMania ever again. Based on the tepid fan response so far, it’s unclear if the audience really buys that either of the match’s stipulations will be followed. After all, The Authority were banished forever last year and it lasted for just a few weeks.
No Holds Barred Street Fight: Dean Ambrose (30; 2-1 at WrestleMania) vs. Brock Lesnar (38; 2-3 at WrestleMania)
This match has arguably the simplest build-up on the show. Both of these guys were in a match with Roman Reigns last month for a WWE Title shot. Ambrose cost Lesnar the match, and both guys are mad at each other for blocking their path to the WWE Championship and wish to fight to prove who is the best. Lesnar is a former UFC champion and legitimately one of the toughest men in WWE history, while Ambrose has developed a “loose cannon” character since debuting as part of The Shield a few years back, and the build for this match has been around how Ambrose is too crazy to be appropriately scared of a terrifying human being like Lesnar.
Grudge Match: Chris Jericho (45; 4-7 at WrestleMania) vs. AJ Styles (38; WrestleMania debut)
Chris Jericho debuted in WWE in 1999 as the hottest free agent in pro wrestling and earned many chants and much adoration from fans. AJ Styles debuted in WWE in early 2016 as the hottest free agent in wrestling and earned many chants and much adoration from fans. These men have had a “mutual respect” feud dating back to Styles’ debut in late January and after three matches this feud has turned into full-on hatred.
Much of the build for the match has revolved around Jericho being jealous that the fans are chanting for Styles instead of him, but if you ignore how lame that sounds the feud is basically about an insecure character worried that the wrestling world is passing him by. Oh, and both guys are great in the ring so this could be the best match of the night from a technical perspective.
WWE Divas Championship Triple Threat Match: Charlotte (Divas Champion; 29; WrestleMania debut) vs. Sasha Banks (24; WrestleMania debut) vs. Becky Lynch (29; WrestleMania debut)
Charlotte is Ric Flair’s daughter, Banks is Snoop Dogg’s cousin and Lynch was trained by NXT champion Finn Balor. All three came up through NXT and had awesome matches. All three of these women debuted in July as part of the “Divas Revolution,” which changed the way women’s wrestling was perceived largely by showcasing the same women in short matches on RAW without finishes. (The concept was largely abandoned by September.) The women’s division was initially three teams which broke apart, and eventually the storytelling focused on Banks and Lynch facing off against Charlotte after she won the title and became a heel back in the fall.
Fun Fact: This is the first triple threat match with all three competitors making their WrestleMania debuts since WrestleMania 2000 (where Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle faced off).
Handicap Tag Team Match: The New Day [WWE Tag Team Champions Xavier Woods (29; WrestleMania debut), Kofi Kingston (34; 1-4 at WrestleMania) and Big E (30; 0-2 at WrestleMania)] vs. The League of Nations [Alberto del Rio (38; 1-2 at WrestleMania), King Barrett (35; 0-2 at WrestleMania), Sheamus (38; 1-3 at WrestleMania) and Rusev (30; 0-1 at WrestleMania)]
The New Day describe themselves as “unicorns,” which is a weird way of describing them. They’re a trio of positive wrestlers who are over the top with their enthusiasm, which has led to them gradually becoming fan favourites because they’re so ridiculous that it’s tough to hate them. The League of Nations are four bad-guy wrestlers from foreign countries, with all three men lacking direction with their characters beyond being tough and mean and foreign. The New Day have been tag team champions for much of the last year, though the titles are not on the line.
Fun Fact: This is the first handicap tag team match at WrestleMania since WrestleMania XX’s Evolution vs. Rock & Sock Connection 3-on-2 match.
WWE Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Kevin Owens (Intercontinental Champion; 31; WrestleMania debut) vs. Sami Zayn (31; WrestleMania debut) vs. Sin Cara (38; WrestleMania debut) vs. The Miz (35; 3-1 at WrestleMania) vs. Stardust (30; 1-4 at WrestleMania) vs. Dolph Ziggler (35; 1-5 at WrestleMania) vs. Zack Ryder (30; 0-2 at WrestleMania)
The primary recent feuds for the Intercontinental Title have been between Owens and his old NXT (and independent circuit) rival Zayn, and him and Ziggler (who has been perpetually in the mix for the Intercontinental and United States Titles). Literally everybody else was thrown into this match at the last minute, after Stephanie McMahon (a heel) berated Owens (a heel) for trying to engineer an easy title defense at WrestleMania. The winner is the first person to climb a ladder and retrieve the title belt.
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Announced participants include Health Slater (32), Curtis Axel (36), Adam Rose (36), Bo Dallas (25), The Big Show (44), Kane (48), Tyler Breeze (28), Goldust (46), R-Truth (44), Darren Young (32), Mark Henry (44), Konnor (36), Viktor (35), Jack Swagger (34), Fandango (34) and Damien Sandow (33) in a 20-man over-the-top-rope battle royal. The last man standing gets the Andre the Giant trophy, which is basically a statue of the Hall of Fame wrestler who was renowned for his success in battle royals. It helps that he was quite large and really hard to move. Cesaro and The Big Show have won the last two battle royals and it hasn’t done their careers much good, sadly.
This Sunday at Wrestlemania, WWE Divas Champion Charlotte will face Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks in a three-way title match that would have served as the logical narrative bookend to the concept that was the Divas Revolution. The payoff of these three facing off against one another on the biggest stage in professional wrestling, having climbed from humble beginnings and overcome negative stigmatization in a male-dominated industry to achieve at the highest level imaginable, would have been both the ultimate testament to the success of the Divas Revolution as a long-term storyline and the proper punctuation on the statement that WWE had reached a new era in the presentation of its female talent.
Or at least it would have been were it not for the countless fatal decisions made along the way that ultimately lead to its failure. Had WWE’s faith in branding and hashtagging been enough to sustain through incomprehensible storytelling, numerous dreadful on-screen segments (including no fewer than two disastrous episodes of Miz TV), far too many unexplained and illogical changes in the heel-face dynamic, an overwhelming sense of purposelessness, and the tasteless invoking of Reid Fliehr’s name for the sole purpose of cheap heat, the Divas Revolution concept may very well have survived to see Wrestlemania.
But because so many mistakes made it revolting more often than revolutionary, and because WWE’s commitment to the concept seemed to run only as deep as seeing a buzzword trend worldwide on Twitter a few nights a week, the #DivasRevolution is long dead.
When Charlotte, Sasha, and Becky step into the ring on Sunday, they will represent all that remains of that misbegotten, in-name-only revolution. Fortunately, they were the only components of it that ever mattered at all.
The title match at Wrestlemania this Sunday is not at all about the Divas Revolution, despite any possible attempts from WWE commentators to inform the audience otherwise. Rather, it will be above all else the crowning moment for three of the major players of the very real sea change that has been going on for far longer than a hashtag-revolution. It will be a career-defining highlight for Charlotte, Sasha, and Becky, whose work in NXT between 2013-2015 with each other and the likes of Bayley, Natalya, Paige, and Emma was a major catalyst for an actual change in that audience’s perception of women’s wrestling.
Given their immense collective and individual potential, this should be far from the last big moment these three women will experience at a Wrestlemania.
What this match could ultimately prove to be is one that may help direct the course of women’s wrestling in WWE for years to come, and one that could help pave the way for other women to enjoy their own much-deserved moments in the spotlight at that level. Someone like Bayley, for example, who has a very real potential to become one of the company’s top money-makers, full stop. The response of the live crowd, and the social response of the worldwide viewing audience, could create enough tangible evidence to convince those who may still believe otherwise that the future of WWE’s female performers is in emphasizing in-ring prowess and performance over aesthetics and sex appeal.
If rumors of a new WWE Women’s Championship being revealed on the Raw following Wrestlemania prove true and result in the long overdue abandonment of the obnoxious “Divas” brand, then the match between Charlotte, Becky, and Sasha may just be the final, decisive nail in a coffin that they have all worked so hard to seal.
Or, perhaps, it won’t prove to be that at all. Perhaps the notion of sweeping change in WWE’s philosophy regarding women taking place in just eight months’ time is as ill-fated as thinking that CM Punk’s 434-day championship reign or Daniel Bryan’s Wrestlemania triumph would turn back decades of big-man fetishism. Even today, with Charlotte, Sasha, and Becky on the precipice of taking their well-earned Wrestlemania moments, the company still seems adamant to draw blood from the stone that is Eva Marie, someone who epitomizes what WWE thinks of when it uses the malapropos term “Diva.”
The fact that the expectation was that she would be cheered when she appeared on Raw (in Brooklyn, of all places) reinforces the idea of a considerable disconnect between WWE’s beliefs and reality. Slotting Eva in as the surprise 10th participant in the pre-show tag match doesn’t quite portend that she would one day be given a run with the championship (though her reemergence on the main roster certainly makes it seem no less plausible), but it also doesn’t dissuade from the idea that there are still those in the company who see a woman’s primary contribution to the product as being her ability to look good in as little clothing as possible.
Regardless of what the match means or doesn’t mean for the big picture of WWE today and moving forward, it can be said with a fair degree of certainty what it means to the three performers involved: quite simply, everything.
Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks will be culmination of years of tireless effort and struggle; in one instant, together in front of the largest audience WWE has ever drawn, everything that they have sacrificed along the way will have been worth it. For as much as the concept of the Wrestlemania moment has become another in WWE’s arsenal of trite branding terms, it will be just that for the three, and it will be a moment well deserved.
Perhaps given the uncertainty of seemingly all things creative in WWE at present, it is simply the best course of action to not worry about whether this match can atone for the failures of the Divas Revolution or set the table for the future of the women’s division. It is unlikely that Charlotte, Sasha, or Becky will be thinking in such lofty terms this Sunday or in the days leading up to it. They will probably not be concerning themselves with starting a movement, causing a revolution, or sparking long-term change.
Instead, they are much more likely to be focused on a single moment. On appreciating it, and on seizing it. On doing their utmost to steal the show, just as they have in NXT so many times before. With their talent and drive, there is no reason to believe that they cannot deliver on that promise once again, despite the amplified lens. Given their history of pulling off show-stealing performances, it is unlikely that most fans will leave their seats until the finish if only so that they, too, can share in that moment with them. That, in and of itself, speaks to the level of change they have helped affect.
Before the #DivasRevolution hashtag, there was #GiveDivasAChance. It sprung directly from indignation at women being given so little to work with compared to their male counterparts, rooted in the idea that female wrestlers deserve, at the least, an equal opportunity to show the world what they could do in the ring. This Sunday at Wrestlemania, Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Becky will presumably be empowered and enabled to go out in front of 85,000 fans — many of whom will be invested in the match to at least some extent – and tell a story.
They should, and likely will, be given every tool available to put on a blow-away match in front of millions of people around the globe. It is fair to say that, despite WWE doing seemingly everything it could to get in its way, women’s wrestling is being given its chance at long last. It would be more appropriate, however, to say that it is an opportunity well earned.
St. Joseph, Missouri: – Orville Brown beat Lee Wyckoff – Sailor Fred Blassie beat Wild Red Berry by dq – Al Getz and Mike Ryan drew Carlos Rodriquez and Jack Nasworthy
1959
Kansas City, Kansas: – NWA World Heavyweight Champion Pat O’Connor beat Dick Hutton in 2 out of 3 falls by dq – Hans Herman and Otto Von Krupp beat Dino Bravo and Bobby Bruns 2 out of 3 falls – Farmer Don Marlin beat Lee Henning by dq – Lorraine Johnson and Laura Martinez
1972
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: – The Sheik beat Pampero Firpo by countout – Tony Parisi beat Hells Angel – Johnny Valentine beat Mighty Ursus – Fabulous Kangaroos (Al Costello/Don Kent) beat Ivan Kalmikoff/Tex McKenzie – Love Brothers (Reginald Love/Hartford Love) beat Sweet Daddy Siki/Lou Klein – Lee Henning/Chris Colt drew Tony Marino/Bob Harmon – Mighty Igor/Ben Justice drew Mike Loren/Man Mountain Cannon – Bill Miller/Dan Miller drew Gino Brito/Tony Baillargeon – Jacques Rougeau beat Masked Marvel 1
1989
Clash of the Champions VI: New Orleans, Lousiana: – Mike Rotunda & Steve Williams defeated The Road Warriors to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship – NWA World Champion Ricky Steamboat defeated Ric Flair in a 2 out of three falls match to retain the title – The Samoan Swat Team defeated The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane) – The Junkyard Dog defeated Butch Reed – The Great Muta defeated Steve Casey
Wrestlemania V: Atlantic City, New Jersey: – Hulk Hogan defeated Randy Savage to win the WWF World Title – Hercules defeated King Haku – Big Bossman & Akeem defeated Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty – Brutus Beefcake vs. Ted DiBiase ended in a double countout – The Bushwackers defeated Jacques & Raymond Rougeau – Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig defeated The Blue Blazer – WWF World Tag Team Champions defeated The Powers Of Pain & Mr. Fuji in a handicap match – Dino Bravo defeated Ronnie Garvin – Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard defeated Tito Santana & Rick Martel – Jake Roberts defeated Andre The Giant via DQ – Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart defeated Honky Tonk Man & Greg Valentine – Rick Rude defeated The Ultimate Warrior to win the WWF Intercontinental Title – Hacksaw Duggan vs. Bad News Brown ended in a double DQ – The Red Rooster defeated Bobby Heenan
1995
Wrestlemania XI: Hartford, Connecticut: – Owen Hart & Yokozuna defeated The Smoking Gunns to win the WWF World Tag Team Titles – Bret Hart defeated Bob Backlund in an I Quit match – WWF World Champion Diesel defeated Shawn Michaels – Lex Luger & Davey Boy Smith defeated Jacob & Eli Blu – Razor Ramon defeated WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett via DQ – The Undertaker defeated King Kong Bundy – Lawrence Taylor defeated Bam Bam Bigelow
2000
Wrestlemania 2000: Anaheim, California: – Edge & Christian defeated The Hardys and The Dudleys in a ladder match to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship – Chris Benoit won the Intercontinental Title and Chris Jericho won the European Title in a two fall match with Kurt Angle (Angle entered the match holding both titles) – Triple H defeated The Rock, Mick Foley and The Big Show in a Four Way Elimination Match to retain the WWF World Title – Big Bossman & Bull Buchanan defeated The Godfather & D’Lo Brown – Hardcore Holly won a 15-minute Hardcore Battle Royal to win the WWF Hardcore Title – Chyna & Too Cool defeated Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko – Kane & Riskihi defeated X-Pac & Road Dogg
2006
Wrestlemania 22: Chicago, Illinois: – WWE Champion John Cena defeated Triple H – Rob Van Dam won the Money In The Bank Match – JBL defeated Chris Benoit to win the United States Title – WWE Tag Team Champions Kane & Big Show defeated Carlito & Chris Masters – Mickie James defeated Trish Stratus to win the Women’s Title – The Undertaker defeated Mark Henry – Shawn Michaels defeated Vince McMahon in a No Holds Barred match
2011
ROH Takes Center Stage 2: Atlanta, Georgia: – Kings Of Wrestling defeated Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly – Tommaso Ciampa defeated Homicide – SHIMMER Tag Team Title Match: Daizee Haze & Tomoka Nakagawa defeated Hiroyo Matsumoto & Ayumi Kurihara to retain titles – Christopher Daniels defeated Michael Elgin – Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated All Night Express – El Generico defeated Roderick Strong – ROH World Tag Team Champions Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin beat American Wolves to retain titles
2015
New Japan Road To Invasion Attack: Tokyo, Japan: – Alex Shelley, KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Jay White, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV – Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Cody Hall, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows (Bullet Club) – Tama Tonga & Kenny Omega (Bullet Club) defeated Captain New Japan & Mascara Dorada – Hirooki Goto, Tomoaki Honma, Katsuyori Shibata, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe defeated YOSHI-HASHI, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba – The Young Bucks & Bad Luck Fale (Bullet Club) defeated Beretta, Rocky Romero & Kazuchika Okada (CHAOS) – AJ Styles & Yujiro Takahashi (Bullet Club) defeated Tetsuya Naito & Kota Ibushi
Wrestling Observer Live with Mike Sempervive is back today with tons to discuss! WrestleMania’s match order is reportedly set, how Mike sees the two main events, news and results from around Dallas, adventures in phone calls, tweets and more!
I just would like to personally thank everyone I came in contact with the past few days here, particularly those at our banquet yesterday at the Texas de Brazil steakhouse. All the nice things said are really appreciated and to be able to meet people from all over the world. I want to mention that this website, the newsletters, and the audio aren’t just a product of us, but also of everyone. If you see shows or great matches from around the world, we’re always up for reports and links.
Again, it was just wonderful to see so many people who share a common passion and just how nice everyone was. I will be heading home today because for my job, WrestleMania really has to be viewed on TV. But for everyone I met at the banquet, thanks so much. e all work so hard and it’s days like the last two that really make it feel like it’s worth it.
To the news and notes:
– NXT was a great show last night. Bobby Roode and Kota Ibushi were surprise announcements and in both cases, they makes sense. When Ibushi announced he wasn’t staying with DDT and New Japan, WWE made sense as the next step, particularly with cruiserweight tournament. For Roode, once he left TNA, it made sense for both sides for him to be in WWE. It looks like NXT, and they can use a veteran in the ring.
– The big questions coming out of last night’s TakeOver show is what’s next for Nakamura, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe. We already know what’s next for Sami Zayn. It wouldn’t shock me at all to see him win the title tomorrow although WWE has a ton of different ways to go. But Zayn and Kevin Owens seem like the only logical picks. Zayn could use the big boost and the story of Owens complaining that he lost the title, how Zayn never beat him and how he hurt Zayn before makes sense. But there are really a lot of directions because A.J. Styles needs to be in a top program. I could see a big blow off with Chris Jericho in a month or so, at that point there are new things needed for both.
– I have to watch the NXT show when I get back to get the feel of it from a TV perspective. Live, it was a great show, well placed. I didn’t leave thinking it was the greatest show of the year or anything like that, but I know people who saw it did. Nakamura and Joe should be main roster main eventers. Joe should be in the mix with people like Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. In watching the match last night, and the aura he had, it really felt like Lesnar vs. Joe should have been built for nine months for Mania this year more than the original plans for Bray Wyatt or Dean Ambrose.
– We only saw some of ROH with the big news at the show being Colt Cabana’s return to face Jay Lethal. All the key shows were packed.
– Evolve’s business was through the roof as compared to their normal standards or last year’s Mania. They were expecting close to 1,500 for the noon show today with Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet. I didn’t see Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre Jr. from yesterday but last night there were people who saw that and Zayn vs. Nakamura and said the former was better. But aside from NXT, that match as the talk of the weekend so far.
– The dark matches at NXT last night were Manny Andrade over Chris Girard which was said to be good but short, and Apollo Crews over Elias Sampson, which was originally scheduled for the special. They are taping TV at Fan Axxess from 1-5 p.m.
– Last night I was at the Kaiju Big Battel show. Not a lot of say about it. A show ending at 3 a.m. would be the second latest time I think I’ve ever been to a wrestling show at. Kota Ibushi wrestled a stuffed animal. It was actually pretty impressive how he did it. He made an entertaining spectacle, out of it and did some cool things without taking any actual risks.
– Regarding the UFC situation with Daniel Cormier pulling out of the title match with Jon Jones, the real question is how badly hurt is Cormier. If he’s hurt enough that he would need surgery, it’s one thing. If he can go by July, and be healthy at that point, they should take their lumps on 4/23 and it’ll just make UFC 200 even bigger with that fight added.
If he can’t, things get tricky.
Rumble Johnson would be the obvious replacement, and is also the most dangerous fighter as far as an opponent for Jones because he’s got the most power. Jones has been training for an entirely different type of fighter and if he were to pull out or just say he wants to wait until June or July for Rumble, I can understand it. At the same time, it may be the best thing for Jones to face Rumble in a short notice fight because he’ll be facing his most dangerous foe when not at his best. Really, if he were to lose to Jones on a short notice fight and Jones ends up as champion, he’s got far more at risk. Jones is going to be a superstar either way. For Rumble, the Jones match, when it happens, is a career and life changer for him if he wins, and a loss, even though he won’t be at his peak conditioning wise and people should know it, it will hurt him.
It’s Wrestlemania weekend and there are so many options for wrestling fans this weekend that you almost can’t keep track of it all! Les and Vic start this edition of Wrestling Weekly talking about how great it is to have so many options, then move into discussing Daniel Bryan (8:16) being removed from all WWE related appearances and his request for time off. Perhaps the new documentary on Bryan airing on WWE Network has a clue or two as to why he made that request. Vic has a theory he’ll float about a combination of circumstances that might have been the cause. From there, we’ll discuss recent comments from both Drew Galloway and Mick Foley (23:34) regarding WWE creative and speaking up about what you’re given. They’re not talking about exactly the same things, but there might be an interesting parallel or two there. The New Day are inducting the Freebirds into the HOF, which got Les and a friend talking about why Kevin Von Erich wasn’t asked and that conversation left Les feeling like he needed to vent a bit (37:18). We’ll wrap the show with our Wrestlemania predictions (47:13). Hope you enjoy all the great wrestling this weekend and thanks for listening~!
WrestleMania 32 on 4/3 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas is far from the strongest WrestleMania lineup in history, and is likely not to be remembered as the biggest, but it caps off what looks to be the biggest weekend of shows in one location in history.
At press time, WrestleMania had 85,000 tickets out for $13.5 million, both records. There have been virtually no primary outlet sales in the last week because almost no tickets are left. There may be some seats released at the last minute after production is moved in and seats are opened, but the real attendance figure won’t be much above this figure.
The final Raw before WrestleMania did 3.77 million viewers, an 11 percent increase from near historical lows for non-football season posted for the show on 3/21 from Philadelphia.
A show that advertised every major character from WrestleMania appearing, including Vince McMahon, Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and Shane McMahon, from the Barclays Center, was down 10 percent from the WrestleMania go-home show last year which did a 3.03 rating and 4.19 million viewers. The 2014 go-home show did a 3.18 rating and 4.38 million viewers.
The ratings pattern was in line with the daylight savings time season, where the peak was in the second hour. There was a third hour drop, but it wasn’t as pronounced as many weeks, even though the only thing pushed for the end of the show was a segment involving HHH and Roman Reigns, who had already done two segments earlier in the show.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 3.82 million viewers 9 p.m. 3.85 million viewers 10 p.m. 3.64 million viewers
Next week’s show is likely to be the highest rated Raw of the year, as that is the usual pattern for the day after WrestleMania. It is usually about two weeks after WrestleMania where the ratings settle into what ends up being the usual spring levels.
The WWE’s final two honorees for the Hall of Fame ceremony will be Snoop Dogg and Joan Lunden.
Snoop Dogg, who is related to Sasha Banks and has been on WWE television a few times over the years, will be the celebrity inductee. It had been rumored within wrestling for weeks and reported in past Wrestling Observer Newsletters that they were talking, and in wrestling circles, the belief was that it was a done deal.
Also reported at the time was Lunden, who will receive the Warrior award.
While the Snoop Dogg announcement was made via email, John Cena made the announcement on Lunden Monday morning on The Today Show. Lunden will be presented with the award on Saturday night by Dana, the widow of the Ultimate Warrior. Lunden, best known for her hosting Good Morning America was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, and very publicly battled through chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
“It is truly humbling to be honored by WWE and receive this year’s Warrior Award at the 2016 Hall of Fame induction ceremony,” said Lunden to WWE.com. “After being diagnosed with cancer, my first thought was to survive, but soon after, I changed my focus from my cancer to the fight against cancer, and my life took on a whole new purpose. WWE has welcomed me into their family, offering me warmth and support, as have so many of the WWE fans from around the world. It is a privilege to receive this honor.”
The ceremony will air live on the WWE Network with an edited verson airing on post-Mania Thursday after Smackdown on USA.
