On April 10 and 11, WWE put on their biggest show of the year: WrestleMania. What made the event even better was the return of the fans in attendance. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the last time WWE had fans attend one of their events was the March 9, 2020 episode of Raw. The return of the fans was amazing not only for the attendees themselves, but also the performers, who thrive off of entertaining the crowd while telling stories in the ring.
WrestleMania 37 was held in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, the original sight of last year’s WrestleMania before the pandemic. To ensure the safety of those in attendance, WWE limited the number of tickets. According to the Wrestling Observer, around 11,000 fans attending Night 1 and 15,000 fans attending Night 2. Oddly, WWE announced an attendance of 25,675 fans for each night. The rest of the seats were filled with cardboard cut outs.
It seems like WrestleMania wasn’t a super spreader, with only one fan reportedly testing positive after attending. Compared to Super Bowl 2021 also held in the Raymond James Stadium earlier this year, only 57 cases were linked to the Super Bowl, with the spread being unofficial events like bars, family gatherings, and house parties.
As for the biggest show of the year, it was an event to remember not only for the fans, but also for the historic event itself. WrestleMania was the first full pay-per-view (PPV) to be shown on Peacock, NBC’s new streaming service.
When WrestleMania started, fans saw WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and all of the wrestlers on stage to welcome everyone to WrestleMania in a passionate promo. Though, the opening WWE Championship match between Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre had to be delayed due to storms, halting the event for a little bit. In the meantime, viewers were shown impromptu promos by many of the wrestlers backstage, including the odd pair of WrestleMania hosts Hulk Hogan and Titus O’Neil.
WrestleMania this year included a number of celebrity appearances. First, artist Bebe Rexha performed “America the Beautiful” with Korean musician JinJoo Lee on guitar. WrestleMania also showed the recap of both WWE Hall of Fame ceremonies of 2020 and 2021. William Shatner and Ozzy Osbourne were inducted for the 2020 and 2021 classes respectively, with each class given a tribute on each night.
WrestleMania featured two celebrities getting physical in the ring. On Night 1, fans were greeted to the in-ring debut of rapper Bad Bunny. At the Royal Rumble event in late January, Bad Bunny performed his song “Booker T” live, named after the five-time WCW Champion and two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T. That same night, Bad Bunny got involved in a storyline involving the tag team of The Miz and John Morrison, with Bad Bunny getting on the bad side of the tag team. Miz would later destroy Bad Bunny’s music equipment.
In the Royal Rumble match, NXT star Damian Priest would eliminate Miz and Morrison, with Bad Bunny performing a top rope dive onto the tag team. This would eventually lead to a tag team match at WrestleMania, pitting Damian Priest and Bad Bunny up against Miz and Morrison.
Bad Bunny was impressive, leaving fans wowed as he looked great in the ring. Bad Bunny performed a number of incredible moves, including a Canadian Destroyer to Morrison on the outside. Bad Bunny and Priest would both perform a Falcon Arrow inside the ring to their opponents.
Bad Bunny and Priest would win the match. Bad Bunny amazed us all, showing how much of a wrestling fan he is and how talented he really is. His performance is up there with Mr. T, Lawrence Taylor, and Floyd Mayweather as some of the best celebrity performers at WrestleMania.
Night 2 featured long-time rivals Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in a singles match. The story told was that there was a conspiracy out against Zayn, that the company was against him. These examples included Zayn losing the Intercontinental Championship on SmackDown back in December and getting eliminated from both the Royal Rumble match in January and the Elimination Chamber in February. Owens tried to tell Zayn that he was crazy and that his conspiracy wasn’t real, but Zayn wouldn’t listen.
After an exchange on Twitter, Zayn would invite YouTube star Logan Paul on Zayn’s Red Carpet Premiere on the April 2, 2021 episode of SmackDown. Paul would end up accompanying Zayn at WrestleMania against Owens.
Though Paul didn’t perform any moves at WrestleMania, he was entertaining. His facial expressions throughout the match were great, making fans believe that he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Owens would defeat Zayn after a back-and-forth match. After the match, Paul would get in the ring, and would receive a stunner by Owens for his trouble.
Fans praised Paul for taking the move and making it look painful. Paul was the best celebrity to get hit by a stunner, compared to the bad stunner ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin performed to Donald Trump at WrestleMania 23 in 2007.
Paul described taking the stunner on his Impaulsive podcast. Paul said that while he was at WrestleMania, he realized how real it was and how the wrestlers get their body beat up and travel amazing distances in the air.
“The whole ‘it’s fake narrative’ has died because people realize it’s real and it’s a skillset. I witnessed it with the Stunner. As soon as I did it, the ref comes over and is like, ‘Are you okay?’ I’m like, [in pain] ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ because it looked real and I committed myself to it.” – Logan Paul
Paul would state that one day, he would get revenge on Kevin Owens.
As for the rest of the show, it delivered. Night 1 had a historic main event, as for the second time ever, the women headlined WrestleMania. Though, this was the first time two African-American women were in the main event. Women’s Royal Rumble winner Bianca Belair would dethrone SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks to win her first women’s championship.
Night 1 also saw wrestler AJ Styles become a WWE grand slam champion (winning the WWE, Intercontinental, United States, and Tag Team Championships), capturing the Raw Tag Team Championship with his bodyguard Omos.
Night 2 had a great main event, as two-time Royal Rumble winner Edge clashed with Daniel Bryan and Universal Champion Roman Reigns in a triple threat match. Reigns would win the match, retaining the Universal Championship with help from cousin Jey Uso. Edge would become the first two-time Royal Rumble winner to lose both title matches.
Overall, WrestleMania 37 was a great show with amazing matches on both nights. The next time audiences might be able to attend a WWE event in person is SummerSlam in August, though this has not been confirmed.
