WrestleMania



WrestleMania is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event, produced annually between mid-March to early April by WWE, an American professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut. WWE first produced the event in 1985 to be its premier annual event, and has since produced thirty editions, with thirty-first being the most recent, and the thirty-second to be held in Arlington, Texas in April 2016 being the upcoming event. WWE regards WrestleMania as its flagship event due to it being the most successful and longest-running professional wrestling event in history, and accordingly schedules multiple heavily promoted matches to generate a high buyrate. It is considered to be WWE's Super Bowl equivalent. WrestleMania was conceptualized by WWE owner Vince McMahon, while long time WWE ring announcer and WWE Hall of Famer Howard Finkel is credited with coming up with the name "WrestleMania" in 1984.

WrestleMania's widespread success helped transform the professional wrestling sport and make WWE the most successful wrestling promotion in the world. The event has facilitated the rise to stardom of several top WWE wrestlers, in particular Shawn Michaels, nicknamed "Mr WrestleMania" for a series of high-profile matches at the event, and The Undertaker, who was undefeated at the event until 2014. Celebrities such as Aretha Franklin, Cyndi Lauper, Muhammad Ali, Mr. T, Alice Cooper, Lawrence Taylor, Pamela Anderson, Mike Tyson, Donald Trump, Floyd Mayweather, Pete Rose, Burt Reynolds, Mickey Rourke, Snoop Dogg, Sean Combs, Kid Rock, Fred Durst, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronda Rousey and others have participated or made special appearances within the events.

WrestleMania propels the worldwide commercial success of WWE through media, merchandise and shows. All of the events produced, except for WrestleMania 13, 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 the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan 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 editions of the event have been hosted in North American cities, with 30 in the United States and two in Canada.