WWE WrestleMania: What it’s really like for wrestling fans to attend the Showcase of the Immortals

FOR ANY WWE fan, attending WrestleMania live and experiencing the spectacle and pageantry is the ultimate dream.

Tens of thousands of fans. Dazzling light displays and ear-splitting pyrotechnics.

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And WWE’s top superstars battling it out not just for championships but a chance at wrestling immortality by getting their own “WrestleMania moment” – a triumphant win or iconic visual that will be replayed for years to come with Hollywood-like grandeur.

As WWE will tell you, this isn’t just wrestling, it’s “sports-entertainment”.

Now in its 35th year, WWE’s annual flagship super show has become a true pop culture phenomenon and ranks alongside other events such as the Super Bowl as one of the world’s biggest sports brands.

WrestleMania has also grown from its humble beginnings as a two-hour wrestling show to a weeklong wrestling festival.

A FAN’S VIEW

As well as Mania itself, there’s the now-traditional NXT TakeOver event, Hall of Fame Ceremony, Raw, SmackDown, fan conventions, and indie shows.

But what’s it like actually attending WrestleMania?

With this year’s events staged across New York and New Jersey, Sun Sport traveled out there to experience the “Showcase of the Immortals” firsthand.

Arriving in New York days before the festivities kicked off, there was already excitement in the air around Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Banners of top WWE superstars’ faces lined the streets of 3rd Avenue and fans in wrestling t-shirts were on every street corner.

Outside the Brooklyn Barclays Center – the venue hosting TakeOver, the Hall of Fame, Raw, and SmackDown – NXT wrestler Matt Riddle wandered around and greeted fans.

On the Friday before the big show, we travelled to the Hard Rock Café in Times Square to interview some of WWE’s top superstars.

The IIconics, The Revival, Alexa Bliss, Roderick Strong, The Bar, Matt Hardy, and Bobby Lashley walked around, talking with journalists and taking pictures.

BIG MATCH TALK

The big talk around WrestleMania 35 is the women’s triple threat main event – Becky Lynch v Charlotte Flair v Ronda Rousey – and what the match means to WWE.

It’s the first time women have headlined the show in its 35-year history and the latest development in WWE’s much-publicised “women’s evolution.”

Former women’s champ and this year’s Mania host Alexa Bliss said: “From day one we’ve said the women should main event WrestleMania.

“It started way before this era, back when our women were putting in the work but not necessarily getting the recognition for it.

“This opportunity has put our women at the forefront of sports-entertainment and has shown we can do what the guys can do.

“This is the biggest payoff we’ve had in the women’s division.”

Australian wrestlers Billie Kay and Peyton Royce – lifelong friends who now wrestle as The IIconics – were getting ready to compete at their first WrestleMania, challenging for the Women’s Tag Team Championships.

Peyton Royce said: “Everybody works their whole careers for a WrestleMania moment. This is our first WrestleMania together and it’s going to be really special.

“We get to compete for the women’s tag titles. Which has been our number one goal our whole life.

Up close, you understand what it really takes to be a WWE superstar – not just physical skills but boundless energy and charisma.

They all talk openly about their dedication to the business and what it means to compete at Mania – but as soon as they’re asked about their opponents or storylines, the superstars switch straight into character mode.

EXPLOSIVE START

That night was the first major wrestling event of the week – NXT TakeOver: New York. Before the event, the atmosphere around and inside the Barclays Center was electric.

For the serious-minded wrestling fans, this is arguably the highlight of WrestleMania week –a show that puts the emphasis on athleticism and the artform of pro wrestling over the theatrics and storyline-driven farce of WWE’s main roster.

The opening match – tag champs The War Raiders v Aleister Black and Ricochet – was an exciting, high-paced contest that ended with an emotional farewell from Black and Ricochet, with both men now bound for permanent spots on the main roster.

For British fans – who make up a huge portion of the diehard crowd across the WrestleMania festivities – the most anticipated match was Pete Dunne’s UK title defence against Walter.

But Dunne lost the belt to the Austrian powerhouse, ending Dunne’s historic 685-day reign.

The real highlight came in the main event – a 2-out-of-3-falls match between Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole for the vacant NXT Championship.

It was an absolute thriller and the final minutes had the entire crowd of 15,000-plus on its feet.

Cole’s Undisputed Era buddies tried to interfere but Gargano fought them all off and locked Cole in the Gargano Escape. The place erupted as Gargano finally became NXT Champion.

The next day we ventured to Axxess, WWE’s annual WrestleMania fan convention.

Inside there were displays of memorabilia from WrestleMania history – costumes worn by legendary superstars, props, posters, even a chair from the landmark WrestleMania III event back in 1987.

There were statues of classic wrestlers Andre the Giant, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, and Ric Flair, and a real ring you could climb inside for a photo op.

Other attractions included a commentary booth, where fans could announce a favourite match, and a mock-up stage to recreate superstar entrances.

There was also a mini arena set up, with matches from the NXT and 205 Live brands happening live.

Fans strutted around in wrestler costumes and wore replica championship belts ($400 each in the gargantuan Axxess merchandise superstore).

Superstars signed autographs and took pictures, but were hidden out of sight by hundreds upon hundreds of fans, all queuing to meet their heroes.

On the Saturday night WWE hosted its annual Hall of Fame ceremony. In past years it’s been an old windbag of an event, bloated by overlong speeches from bottom-of-the-barrel inductees.

Last year, Hillbilly Jim, a perennial mid-card wrestler from the cartoon era of Hulk Hogan, prattled on for 35 minutes – probably longer than he ever spent wrestling on WWE pay-per-views.

This year lots of fans choose to ditch the Hall of Fame and attend the rival New Japan-Ring of Honor show happening at WWE’s once hallowed ground of Madison Square Garden.

One of the most asked questions between fans is: “Are you bothering to attend the boring old Hall of Fame this year?”

But the Hall of Fame had a redesign and replaced old host Jerry Lawler with the younger, hipper Corey Graves and Renee Young. The speeches were also shorter and the format of the show more entertaining.

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And there were dramatic scenes when an intruder charged the stage and tackled 61-year-old wrestling legend Bret Hart to the ground mid-speech.

Stood just 25 feet from the incident, it was a chaotic, frightening scene to witness.

Wrestlers leaped into the ring to restrain the attacker. UFC fighter Travis Browne, husband of women’s champ Ronda Rousey, jumped in and pounded him with hard strikes.

Tag team champion Dash Wilder – who was mild-mannered and quietly humble during interviews at the Hard Rock Café just the day before – cracked the intruder with a devastating right hook.

The fans booed the attacker heavily and cheered on Bret Hart as he continued his speech.

Amidst the uncomfortable violence, the incident brought out a strange camaraderie between the wrestlers and fans.

D-Generation X headlined the show with a hilarious and heartfelt induction – rounding off what was easily the best Hall of Fame ceremony WWE has ever staged.

Fans who attended the rival New Japan-Ring of Honor show must have regretted missing it.

PRE-SHOW TAILGATES

The next day was WrestleMania itself – a seven-plus hour extravaganza of matches and OTT spectacle.

Arriving at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, there was a feverish vibe that was somewhere between a frat party and music festival.

Fans packed out the stadium car park, holding barbecue and beer tailgate parties and dressed up as their favourite wrestlers.

A gang dressed up as The Rock, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, The Million Dollar Man, and Ric Flair invited us to stop for beers.

Another Ric Flair cosplayer arrived and the two Flairs have face-to-face showdown, which turned into a contest of them spouting Flair’s classic catchphrases.

REAL AMERICAN

Inside the stadium, the show began with a surprise appearance from Hulk Hogan.

He’s now the embarrassing granddad of wrestling, but Hogan’s iconic persona – and the opening guitar chords of his “Real American” theme tune – are still enough to get a ground-shaking roar from the crowd of 82,265.

The atmosphere crackled with electricity as the show began. The set, a giant video wall and screens set all around the stadium, mesmerised fans with 20ft graphics and video packages that hyping up the matches.

Firework displays blasted into the air and jets of smoke shot up from the stage.

The crowd moved and sounded like one giant living organism – an overwhelming sea of humanity, united by the tune of their chanting, or thunderous cheers and boos.

Back across the bridge in Manhattan, images promoting the main event matchups were beamed onto the Empire State Building.

GRAND ENTRANCE

As ever, WrestleMania was as much about the spectacle of the wrestler entrances than the matches themselves.

The biggest entrances this year belonged to Batista – who arrived in a giant SUV flanked by security guards – and his opponent Triple H, who tore down the ramp on a Mad Max-inspired motorbike.

There were big, skin-prickling reactions in the stadium for several moments throughout the event.

Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar in a short but hard-hitting match when he nailed The Beast with a low-blow and three stomps.

The IIconics winning the Women’s Tag Team Championship was an unexpected feel-good moment.

Cesaro swung around Ricochet for almost a minute during the surprisingly excellent fatal 4-way for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.

CENA SPECIAL

And John Cena made a return as his “Doctor of Thuganomics” gimmick – a rapper character he played in the mind-2000s.

He interrupted Elias’ much-hyped concert and rapped a few bars, before hitting Elias with the “FU” (which these days Cena calls the Attitude Adjustment).

Say what you will about Cena, he still provokes a crowd reaction like nobody else.

But the biggest moment came when Kofi Kingston challenged Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship.

Kofi’s journey to becoming the WWE Champion has been dubbed “Kofi Mania” and the match was a masterful piece of good guy vs bad guy storytelling.

The crowd was gripped by every move, flying kick, and tension-ratcheting submission hold.

Kofi eventually landed his Trouble in Paradise finisher to get the pin and become new WWE Champion.

The stadium exploded and turned into a wild party as Kofi celebrated in the ring with The New Day and his children.

Afterwards, the show began to sag – not helped by a dull Roman Reigns v Drew McIntyre match and disappointing Kurt Angle retirement match against Baron Corbin.

But the energy picked back up for the women’s main event – Ronda Rousey v Becky Lynch v Charlotte Flair in a “winner takes all” match for both the Raw and SmackDown women’s titles.

Arguably, the match didn’t quite live up to the hype – partly because after seven hours of wrestling action, the crowd was exhausted.

(WWE had the same problem at the last Mania too – the company needs to reassess the running time and hopefully scale things back next year.)

Becky won the match with a crucifix pinfall that abruptly came out of nowhere to win both titles.

On paper, it was smart storytelling – Ronda has been badmouthing wrestling as “fake” but Becky beat her with a wrestling move.

In reality, it was messy spot and Ronda’s shoulders were clearly off the mat. Not quite the triumphant finale fans had hoped for.

RAW AFTER MANIA

The last hurrah for WrestleMania week came at the Raw after Mania – always the biggest edition of Raw for the year.

Overall, it was excellent show, with returns from The Undertaker and Sami Zayn and the debut of Lars Sullivan.

The crowd – always the loudest and most controversial of the year – was especially hyped up for a Kofi Kingston v Seth Rollins title for title match.

But the fans turned nasty in the final minutes when the Kofi v Seth match was interrupted by Sheamus and Cesaro and it turned into a poorly-booked tag match.

To be amongst a crowd like that is an experience unlike anything else in wrestling.

It’s a reminder of how passionate and powerful the wrestling fanbase is and that it’s just like following the same football team – but instead of seeing goals they want to see the best possible matches and storylines for their favourite superstars.

But WWE wons the fans over with one final emotional sucker punch, when Dean Ambrose joined Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns in the ring for a final Shield reunion before Ambrose leaves WWE.

Fans in attendance couldn’t help but be moved by the scenes – the final moment of what had undoubtedly been an epic WrestleMania experience.

Watch WrestleMania 35 on the WWE Network.

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