WRESTLEMANIA WEEK
WrestleMania XL primed to be an extra-large presence in Philadelphia this week
The professional wrestling world descends on Philadelphia this week in the leadup to WWE’s showcase event, WrestleMania 40.
WrestleMania XL, a two-night sports entertainment spectacle to be held Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7 at Lincoln Financial Field, is the main attraction for a week of events that has expanded into a holiday for WWE’s global fanbase.
Three corresponding events will be held at Wells Fargo Center, including Smackdown and the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony (April 5), NXT Stand and Deliver (April 6) and Raw (April 8).
Friday night Smackdown and Monday night Raw are WWE’s weekly television programs; NXT Stand and Deliver is a premium live event for WWE’s developmental brand, NXT.
“On April 6 and 7 in Philadelphia, we’re going to take it to a whole new level,” WWE Chief Content Officer Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque said at the WrestleMania XL Kickoff event in February. “It is a new time, it is a new era and
WWE.”
Other fan events will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, including WWE World at WrestleMania, a five-day fan exposition that will feature roundtable discussions with inring talent, a WWE 2K24 gaming tournament, and memorabilia and autograph sales from Thursday, April 4 through Monday, April 8.
WWE will also host multiple community outreach events, including a Make-A-Wish event with WWE Superstars, hospital visits and ‘Be a STAR’ bullying prevention rallies, designed to give back to the local region.
WrestleMania was last held in Philadelphia in 1999 at the thenFirst Union Center. The main event featured The Rock against “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in a no disqualification match. it is an all-new
Twenty-five years later, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson still holds main-event status.
The Rock will team with Roman Reigns in a tag-team match against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins in the main event of Night 1.
In the Night 2 main event, Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Reigns will defend his title against Rhodes, a rematch of the WrestleMania 39 finale.
Both men share a common bond as sons of former pro wrestlers. Cody Rhodes is the son of “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. Reigns is the son of Sika, one half of “The Wild Samoans” tag team in the 1980s, and the real-life cousin of The Rock.
Johnson, the 51-year-old with ties to eastern Pennsylvania — he is a 1990 graduate of Freedom High School in Bethlehem — left WWE for Hollywood in the mid-2000s and has had a hugely successful career in movies, most notably in the Fast & Furious series, Jumanji and Disney’s Moana.
The Rock has appeared in WWE only in cameo appearances since 2014 until February when he returned and joined Reigns’ Bloodline faction.
It has been an unprecedented year for WWE since last year’s WrestleMania in Los Angeles with significant moves behind the scenes, including the departure of founder Vince McMahon.
McMahon sold his controlling stake of WWE, valued at $9.1 billion, to Endeavor on April 3, 2023, merging with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to create TKO Group Holdings.
This marks the first WrestleMania under the TKO banner and with WWE not under McMahon family control.
McMahon had stepped down from his role as chairman and CEO on June 17, 2022, amid allegations he paid more than $12 million over 16 years in hush money to suppress claims of workplace sexual misconduct.
McMahon reinstalled himself as WWE chairman to see through the sale to Endeavor and was given the role of TKO executive chairman.
In January, former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a sex trafficking lawsuit that named McMahon, longtime executive John Laurinaitis, and WWE as