WrestleMania rearranged the pro wrestling landscape as it grew. It catapulted WWE to dominance of the business, helped kick-start the red-hot Attitude Era and eventually became the centerpiece of a weekend that is a celebration of the squared circle.
Vince McMahon created the concept and relied on celebrities to make sure the world had his attention, but it was the stars of the squared circle who transformed WrestleMania into the must-see moneymaker that is today.
Hulk Hogan served as the event's foundation early on. Shawn Michaels made it his personal stage as he earned the nickname "Mr. WrestleMania" with a series of stellar performances. Steve Austin energized and elevated WrestleMania. John Cena has since taken the baton from those men.
Pro wrestling's Super Bowl will deliver its 32nd edition on April 3. Arlington, Texas' AT&T Stadium will host what is expected to be a record crowd.
This massive event will be the continuation of a vision that McMahon had back when the wrestling industry was not yet a kingdom under his rule.
The Genesis
When McMahon took over for his father as head of the World Wrestling Federation in 1982, the territory system ruled. Promoters like Eddie Graham and Fritz Von Erich ran the regional promotions that dotted the United States.
Wrestling companies didn't push across the accepted boundaries that divided up the country.
McMahon refused to accept that structure. He wanted to make his company a national powerhouse, even if it meant pissing off the Grahams and Von Erichs of the world.
The first step in taking his New York-based promotion to a national level was to acquire marquee talent. McMahon plucked Hogan from the AWA, Roddy Piper from Jim Crockett Promotions and Junkyard Dog from Mid-South Wrestling.
Aggressively acquiring star wrestlers made the next step in McMahon's plan possible: a "supershow."
McMahon wanted to showcase WWE's best in an event broadcast on closed-circuit TV. This would allow him to outdo what the National Wrestling Alliance was doing with Starrcade, which was still shown regionally. Why stick to airing a show to a single region, though, when one could take in cash from a whole nation?
The trouble was that the technology was new, and going this route required a heavy upfront investment.
Risks or not, McMahon banked on WrestleMania's success. He slid a sizable stack of chips toward the center of the table.
As Denny Burkholder detailed for CBS Sports, Brutus Beefcake (who wrestled Bruno Sammartino's son David at the first WrestleMania) said, "I don't think it was a real well-known fact how far leveraged Vince was to do this first WrestleMania. I don't think we would have closed our doors, but it could have made a whole difference in the direction the company went."
For that gamble to pay off, McMahon had to expand wrestling's fanbase. The niche industry had its passionate fans but wasn't yet part of the pop culture fabric. And so McMahon enlisted the power of celebrity, especially from the world of rock music.
Enter Cyndi Lauper.
Thanks to a connection between her and wrestling manager Captain Lou Albano (who appeared in one of her videos), the pop star was willing to be a part of the wrestling circus McMahon was leading.
Lauper and Albano began an onscreen feud that led to a wrestling match between proxies. Lauper had emerging star Wendi Richter fight in her place. Albano chose incumbent wrestling queen The Fabulous Moolah. That bout headlined The Brawl to End it All in the summer of 1984.
MTV aired the action, and its success spawned a second special.
This time, a confrontation at Madison Square Garden was the catalyst. Roddy Piper smashed an award over Lauper's producer's head. This inspired The War to Settle the Score, where Piper took on Hulk Hogan. More importantly, it was the starting point for a feud between Piper and Hogan that would lead to WrestleMania's first main event.
Mr. T would team with Hogan to face Paul Orndorff and Piper.
In addition to Mr. T and Lauper, McMahon brought in Muhammad Ali and Liberace to play smaller WrestleMania roles, guest referee and timekeeper, respectively. The Rockettes and former New York Yankee Billy Martin joined the fray, too.
These names from other worlds helped get wrestling noticed by new eyes. It gave it an air of pop culture legitimacy. And it sparked interest in McMahon's baby.
Mr. T and Hogan went on Saturday Night Live and mixed it up with Billy Crystal. The tag team appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.
All that added up to an electricity surrounding WrestleMania that other wrestling events could not boast.
When McMahon's band of wrestlers descended on Madison Square Garden on March 31, 1985, a flood of people tuned in. The marketing, the build and the lure of the main event all worked.
Shaun Assael and Mike Mooneyham wrote of the situation in Sex, Lies, and Headlocks, "Enough fans watched the show for Vinnie to gross $4 million, a figure that no one in the wrestling world had thought was possible for one night."
Early Growth, Expansion
Hogan remained WrestleMania's centerpiece in subsequent years. He was WWE's ultimate hero, a bulking, vitamin-eating patriot who took down whatever monster rose up the ranks.
King Kong Bundy threatened to break him in half at WrestleMania II. Andre the Giant clashed with him at WrestleMania III. The Hulkster wrestled in the first three WrestleMania main events and played a key role in the title match at WrestleMania IV.
In total, Hogan main evented six WrestleManias.
With Hogan as the foundation, McMahon looked to expand the event, never satisfied. In WrestleMania's second year, WWE added pay-per-view as a viewing option. In a bold move, McMahon decided to have three cities each host one third of the show—New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
And not content with a single celebrity stepping between the ropes, McMahon featured a whole host of NFL players in a Battle Royal where the gridiron stalwarts met grapplers.
Pro Bowl NFL tackle Jimbo Covert and The Iron Sheik battled in the same ring, as did the emerging Bret Hart and William "Refrigerator" Perry of the Chicago Bears. Perry was the sentimental favorite, his fame upping the cultural significance of the match.
The next year, the chase to make WrestleMania bigger each time made McMahon chose Michigan's Pontiac Silverdome as WrestleMania III's host. The massive venue led to WWE breaking the indoor attendance record with an purported 93,173 fans in attendance.
Critics have since debated how legit those numbers are, but there was certainly a mind-blowing collection of fans in the crowd that night. There was no denying at this point that wrestling, and WrestleMania in particular, had become an event larger than anything promoters would have thought possible in the past.
To fill that stadium, McMahon relied on a clash of superpowers, as Hogan and Andre the Giant battled.
This become an iconic match for the company, one that every fan has seen clips of, one that is forever a part of WWE's lore. It was the first true superfight on a show that would become famous for them.
Before those titans tore at each other, another kind of match made its mark. Randy Savage battled Ricky Steamboat with the Intercontinental Championship on the line. It was a faster, more artistic display than the kind of contest Andre, Hogan and the powerhouses like them could pull off.
And so WrestleMania III also started the tradition of WrestleMania being the home of classics. As Stu Saks of Pro Wrestling Illustrated noted in The True Story of WrestleMania, Steamboat vs. Savage "changed the way we looked at WrestleMania."
The following year would see the first flashes of what would later become the WrestleMania Axxess experience.
Donald Trump worked with McMahon to bring WrestleMania IV to Atlantic City. For the first time, fans experienced more than a show. A WrestleMania brunch and meet-and-greet session accompanied the event.
WWE would expand this into a full fan festival in 1994.
WrestleMania IV's success inspired Trump to take on WWE's marquee event again in the following year. A sold-out Trump Plaza showcased a tournament for the vacant WWE world title.
Trump would later be a part of WrestleMania finding new levels of success, as a part of the show rather than just the man hosting it. The trend of celebrities working alongside the stars of the squared circle contributed to the continued evolution of the event.
Star Power
When the Rock 'n' Wrestling era faded and Hogan transported Hulkamania to rival WCW, WWE hit a lull, both creatively and financially. WCW provided stiff competition. Bret Hart and The Heartbreak Kid did what they could, but the roster lacked depth.
A savior with a shaved head soon arrived, though. It was "Stone Cold" Steve Austin who spearheaded what would become the Attitude Era, and one of the key catalysts for his rise came at WrestleMania.
Austin vs. Hart at WrestleMania 13 was a star-making match.
The Hitman grew more vicious as the match went on, signaling his move toward heel status. Austin, meanwhile, went from villain to hero by being the gutsy warrior who refused to give up, even when locked in Hart's patented Sharpshooter, even with his forehead smeared his blood.
That image and his babyface turn that night kick-started Stone Cold, and in doing so, kick-started WWE's hottest period.
Chris Jericho said in The True Story of WrestleMania, "As much as Hogan built WrestleMania, I think that Austin rescued WrestleMania."
It was an outsider who truly allowed Austin to do that: Mike Tyson signed on to be a part of WrestleMania XIV.
At the time, Tyson was still a major pop culture figure, still seen as a whirlwind, dominant force in the ring. Bringing aboard a transcendent star like him generated publicity and buzz that the WWE wrestlers couldn't have created on their own.
During the WrestleMania main event, special enforcer Tyson aided Austin in taking down Michaels, signifying a passing of the proverbial torch. And having Tyson be right there during Austin's coronation amplified the magnitude of it all.
In The Squared Circle: Life, Death and Professional Wrestling, David Shoemaker called it "the most commercially successful moment of the Attitude Era."
Austin became to WrestleMania in the late '90s and early '00s what Hogan was to the event in its early years: the franchise cornerstone. After taking down Michaels in the closing bout in 1998, he headlined WrestleMania XV and X-Seven.
At WrestleMania X8, WWE put on the kind of massive match the event has become famous for when a nearly 50-year-old Hogan battled The Rock.
In sports, dream matches like this are often not possible. Pro wrestling, though, can shape reality to fit its narrative. It can make an aging Hogan hang in there with The Brahma Bull.
WWE is also able to infuse stars from other worlds to aid itself.
And it has done that time and time again at WrestleMania. At WrestleMania XI, NFL legend Lawrence Taylor wrestled Bam Bam Bigelow in the headline bout. For WrestleMania XXIV, the company brought in champion boxer Floyd Mayweather.
Mayweather's brashness and penchant for trash talk made him a perfect fit for pro wrestling. His name recognition outside of that world, though, was his real value. Media outlets were more likely to cover the event as a result, and more curious eyes drifted toward WrestleMania.
One need not be an athlete to play the role Taylor and Mayweather did, however.
Trump helped ramp up interest in WrestleMania 23, as he and McMahon engaged in the Battle of the Billionaires. Inside Detroit's Ford Field, Trump had powerhouse Bobby Lashley play his proxy. Umaga fought the battle for Mr. McMahon.
The one whose wrestler lost would be forced to shave his head.
Trump's famous coif being on the line certainly added intrigue that night. Geno Mrosko noted on Cageside Seats that the event pulled in a record 1.25 million pay-per-view buys.
An Ever-Evolving Extravaganza
The first WrestleMania packed Madison Square Garden with close to 20,000 fans. Today, venues like the Garden are simply not big enough. WWE chooses football stadiums each year to house its premier event.
As a result, The Showcase of the Immortals has surpassed the 75,000 mark in attendance in the past three years, per WWE's corporate website.
After Chicago's Allstate Arena hosted WrestleMania 22, WWE strictly stuck to stadiums. How it manages to fill those every year regardless of which stars comprise the card is a result of the growth of the WrestleMania brand itself.
Turning the event into more than just a wrestling show is a part of that. The entire WrestleMania weekend has become a celebration of all things wrestling.
Starting with WrestleMania XX in 2004, WWE began hosting the Hall of Fame ceremony on the night before WrestleMania. That has allowed stars from the past to be involved with the event, further enticing fans to make travel plans to see it all.
For the past 10 years, other wrestling companies have descended on the WrestleMania host city and put on shows during the days leading up to The Show of Shows. Everything from Ring of Honor to Kaiju Big Battel has been on display. WrestleCon hosts meet-and-greets, speaking events and wrestling matches.
WWE itself makes WrestleMania a holiday destination by putting on WrestleMania Axxess, a multi-day event filled with autograph signings, memorabilia displays and various interactive activities.
In the ring, the company added incentives to tune in.
The Money in the Bank ladder match was a WrestleMania-only event from 2005 to 2009. A briefcase containing a world title contract hung above the ring as a collection of grapplers fought to climb the ladder first and retrieve it.
Inevitably, the match was a thriller.
The Undertaker offered his own annual attraction. WWE began touting his undefeated streak at the event. By WrestleMania XIV, he was 7-0. A decade later, he knocked off Michaels to move to 17-0.
The battle to be the first man to pin a loss on him became a marquee match with even more significance than any of the title contests. History and immortality was on the line, not just gold.
Michaels earned the nickname Mr. WrestleMania by delivering a series of classic performances at the event. While Undertaker compelled fans to watch to see if he could stave off defeat, The Heartbreak Kid had them tuning in to see if he would deliver another masterpiece.
His ladder match against Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X, his title match against Cena at WrestleMania 23 and his two battles with Undertaker to close out his career are among the best matches in the history of The Showcase of the Immortals.
Even with Michaels retired, fans know they are getting something special every year. Through the years, WWE has welcomed back The Rock, featured Ric Flair's swansong and featured Sting's first WWE match at WrestleMania.
That formula has worked.
WrestleMania made the list of most valuable sports brands on Forbes in 2014, ranking higher than the Daytona 500 and the Kentucky Derby. In 2015, it made the list again, this time topping the NCAA Men's Final Four and UEFA Champions League.
The event now brings in a flood of money for the host city. According to WWE, WrestleMania XXX generated $142 million in economic impact for New Orleans. The number for WrestleMania 31 was $139 million generated for San Jose, California.
The numbers for ticket sales, attendance and viewership all remain high. And McMahon appears never to be satisfied with the status quo. Just as he pushed to get bigger venues or move to three cities in 1986, he continues to swing his hammer, trying to break the next record.
When WrestleMania 32 hits the AT&T Stadium this April, WWE will likely pass the record it set at WrestleMania III.
Shane McMahon is coming back for his first match since 2009. Actor Stephen Amell seems poised to continue his feud with Stardust at The Show of Shows. The Superstars-plus-nostalgia-plus-celebrity equation is still very much in use.
And it will be for years to come, as WrestleMania's expansion rolls on.