Wrestlemania returns on April 3,
FORT WORTH, Texas — The standard line of “No cheering in the press box” is decidedly an American thing, and does not apply to the world of wrestling.
You need not be a fan of wrestling to enjoy the following.
In April 2016, WWE'S signature event — Wrestlemania — came to Jerry World in Arlington. We in the press box were about 15 miles away from the ring, behind glass.
Midway through the event, The Rock, mic in hand, took to the middle of the ring. He owned the 101,000 in attendance the way a rock star has the audience in his pocket.
As The Rock trash talks “The Wyatt Family,” a member of the media behind me hollers, “He doesn't need your validation, Rock!”
Again, we're behind glass, 15 miles away from the ring.
I'm trying not to laugh at this guy, because this is wrestling.
AT&T Stadium can't get another Super Bowl, so instead we get another Wrestlemania. WWE has announced that Wrestlemania 38 will be in Arlington on April 3, 2022.
Tickets are not available yet. Expect them to be available sometime later in the year.
Outside of the Olympics, Wrestlemania offers the best peoplewatching opportunities at any sporting experience.
Even if you have no clue who The Rock, Roman Reigns, Drew Mcintyre or Charlotte Flair are, attending Wrestlemania should be on every sports fan's bucket list.
You don't have to know Broadway to appreciate Hamilton, but you watch it anyway.
Should the mood strike you, write these down, and try to get to them: The Masters, the Rose Bowl (preferably in Southern California), Indianapolis 500, Kentucky Derby, NBA Finals, World Series, Stanley Cup Final, Olympics,
New Orleans Saints Sunday night game, Edmonton Oilers on a Saturday night, Madison Square Garden when the Rangers or Knicks are good, a big prize fight in Las Vegas, rodeo at Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyo., Kansas game at Allen Fieldhouse, and some others.
Texas at Texas A&M at Kyle Field, too. We can all dream.
In return for what essentially amounts to product endorsement, WWE sent me nothing, but I am available for bribes. (Editor's note: He's not.)
Why you need to attend Wrestlemania
Wrestlemania does not fall under the umbrella of conventional sports, but for the fan who aspires just to be there for an event, this four-hour show of nonsense is undeniably fun.
Sports fans who look down on this event, and its fans, cease and desist. We are all the same, Trekkies trying to be cool completely unaware of our uncoolness. Protect it. Embrace it.
“Our fans are our No. 1 superstar,” WWE star Drew Mcintyre told me in a phone interview this week. “Sometimes they are more entertaining than what's going on in the ring.”
Mcintyre is from Scotland.
“The closest thing I've ever seen to European soccer fans are WWE fans,” he said in his enviable Scottish accent. “I've been to every American sport. If you stand up for too long and are shouting your opinion, they tell you to sit down.
“Our WWE fans are like soccer fans in Europe. Something is wrong with you if you aren't standing up shouting your opinion.”
Wrestlemania is the circus combined with sports at a Comic-con convention. The fans are blissfully comfortable in their own skin, or dressing up like their favorite wrestler.
Shortly after entering AT&T Stadium that April night in 2016, a young man wearing a John Cena outfit walked by me as if it was Halloween. And there were tens of thousands of people just like him.
Compared to WWE fans, NFL fans are cowards. NFL fans only wear the Dak jersey — not the cleats, mouthpiece, helmet and pads, like WWE fans would.
The one element to this event, and all of wrestling, however that defies logic remains the sheer hairlessness of every male competitor, like Olympic swimmers.
At Wrestlemania 32, back in 2016, we had already seen Charlotte Flair execute one of the most athletic moves AT&T Stadium has ever seen when she “moonsaulted” — a backflip from the top rope down on top of two opponents on the floor.
After Shane Mcmahon jumped 20 feet from the top of the cage in “Hell in the Cell,” I asked myself, “How do they top this? Someone dies?”
“No Wrestlemania has ever been alike,” WWE executive vice president John Saboor said. “That's the challenge of doing it.”
Watching the pride of the University of North Texas, Stone Cold Steve Austin, come out to 101,000, or The Rock hold the room, is captivating. You don't have to be a wrestling fan to appreciate the performers or the performances.
And as a consumer who doesn't know that much about wrestling, but someone who has attended hundreds of sporting events, I can say as an expert there is no league that treats its consumers any better.
The one area I noticed that Wrestlemania lacked was outside-of-the-arena. Whereas other events now have peripheral activities outside of the venue, at the Wrestlemania in 2016 there was nothing.
Saboor said that is something WWE plans to address.
You've got time, but do make plans now. Wrestlemania is coming back to Dallas-fort Worth, and this one needs to be on your list.