WrestleMania

WrestleMania is a professional wrestling event held annually between mid-March and mid-April by the American company WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. Since premiering in 1985, 39 editions have been held, with its most recent 39th edition occurring at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on April 1 and 2, 2023. WrestleMania was WWE's first-ever pay-per-view (PPV) produced and is the most successful and longest-running professional wrestling event in history. The event has been shown through traditional PPV since 1985, and has been available to livestream on the WWE Network since 2014 and Peacock since 2021. WrestleMania was conceptualized by WWE executive chairman Vince McMahon and named by ring announcer and WWE Hall of Famer Howard Finkel. It is the company's flagship event and along with Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and Money in the Bank, it is referred to as one of the "Big Five", WWE's five biggest annual events of the year. The widespread success of WrestleMania helped transform professional wrestling. The annual event has facilitated the rise to stardom of several top WWE wrestlers. Celebrities such as Aretha Franklin, Cyndi Lauper, Muhammad Ali, Mr. T, Mike Tyson, Donald Trump, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Snoop Dogg, Ronda Rousey, Rob Gronkowski, Shaquille O'Neal, and Bad Bunny, among many others, have made special appearances within the events, with some participating in matches. Rousey herself later became a full-time professional wrestler and was one of three women to compete in the first women's match to headline a WrestleMania in 2019. 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, since renamed AT&T Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. In 2016, WrestleMania 32 surpassed WrestleMania III as the highest-attended professional wrestling event ever held in America, with 101,763 fans in attendance at AT&T Stadium, although the company revealed that attendance figures are manipulated for marketing purposes through investor calls.