{"id":13511,"date":"2018-02-01T10:42:04","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T15:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=13511"},"modified":"2018-02-01T10:42:28","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T15:42:28","slug":"wrestlemania-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/02\/01\/wrestlemania-new-york-city\/","title":{"rendered":"WrestleMania and New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the impending announcement\u00a0of Met Life\u00a0Stadium hosting WrestleMania 35<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, fans are no doubt reminded of\u00a0WrestleMania 29<\/strong><\/em>. But\u00a0New York City has been a part of WrestleMania<\/strong>‘s history since the very beginning. What better city to host the event meant to be the intersection of wrestling and pop culture?<\/p>\n

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March 31st, 1985, in front of 19,121 fans at Madison Square Garden<\/strong>, the world saw pro wrestling move one step closer to sports entertainment. WrestleMania I<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0was a celebration of the biggest superstars the\u00a0WWF<\/strong>\u00a0had to offer and some of the biggest names in pop culture. Cyndi Lauper<\/strong>, one of the biggest celebrities in the “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection<\/strong>“, Muhammed Ali<\/strong>,\u00a0and\u00a0Mr. T<\/strong> were major parts of the event. Lauper accompanied\u00a0Wendi Richter<\/strong> to the ring for her\u00a0Women’s Championship<\/strong> match. Ali was the special guest referee in a match pitting Mr. T and\u00a0Hulk Hogan<\/strong> against\u00a0Paul Orndorff<\/strong> and\u00a0Roddy Piper<\/strong>.\u00a0Liberace<\/strong> was the special guest timekeeper. One of the most iconic images in the history of the WWF is Liberace dancing with\u00a0The Rockettes<\/strong>. Besides the above-mentioned names, the card also featured\u00a0Andre The Giant<\/strong>,\u00a0Junkyard Dog<\/strong>, and\u00a0The Iron Sheik<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the show had its ups and downs, it was a success.\u00a0Vince McMahon<\/strong> and the WWF would build upon the success by hosting\u00a0WrestleMania 2<\/strong><\/em> in three separate venues. The\u00a0Nassau Veterans Memorial Colisseum<\/strong> was one of those host venues. While the arena is in Uniondale, New York, it was close enough for the WWF. About 20 miles east of New York City proper, fans got to witness four matches live.\u00a0Joan Rivers<\/strong>,\u00a0Ray Charles<\/strong>, and\u00a0Cab Calloway<\/strong> were among the celebrities at the Coliseum. The matches featured Mr. T and Piper again, as well as\u00a0“Macho Man”<\/strong> Randy Savage<\/strong> and\u00a0George “The Animal” Steele<\/strong>.\u00a0Jake “The Snake” Roberts<\/strong> and\u00a0George Wells<\/strong> battled one another, and\u00a0Don Muraco<\/strong> took on Orndorff. Many consider WrestleMania 2 as the worst Mania of all time, and it lacked WrestleMania I’s historic significance.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

March 20th, 1994 saw the WWF return to New York City for\u00a0WrestleMania X<\/strong><\/em>. Little Richard <\/strong>and\u00a0Burt Reynolds\u00a0<\/strong>arguably secure WrestleMania X the top spot for best celebrity facial hair. In terms of in-ring quality, WrestleMania 2 and WrestleMania X couldn’t be further apart. The first match aired from Madison Square Garden on this night was a battle between brothers.\u00a0Bret Hart<\/strong> took on\u00a0Owen Hart<\/strong> in a match widely considered the greatest opening match in WrestleMania history. The card also featured a ladder match between\u00a0Shawn Michaels<\/strong> and\u00a0Razor Ramon<\/strong> for the\u00a0Intercontinental Title<\/strong>.\u00a0Yokozuna<\/strong> defended the\u00a0World Heavyweight Championship<\/strong> on two occasions. After defeating\u00a0Lex Luger<\/strong>, Yokozuna would drop the belt to Bret Hart.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first WrestleMania in New York City after the name change to WWE<\/strong> was\u00a0WrestleMania XX<\/strong><\/em>. This WrestleMania holds an interesting place in WWE history. The opening match featured\u00a0Big Show<\/strong> and, in his WrestleMania debut,\u00a0John Cena<\/strong>. The night included a match between Chris Jericho<\/strong> and\u00a0Christian<\/strong> that was spectacular.\u00a0“Stone Cold” Steve Austin<\/strong> acted as special guest referee in a less spectacular match between\u00a0Bill Goldberg<\/strong> and\u00a0Brock Lesnar<\/strong>. As the crowd knew the two competitors were leaving the company, the fans reacted very negatively towards this match. The fact that the two didn’t touch for minutes to start the match didn’t help their case. After two great matches, fans saw\u00a0Eddie Guerrero<\/strong> and\u00a0Chris Benoit<\/strong> end the night as champions. Due to Benoit’s actions later in life, one of the most iconic images in WrestleMania history has been practically erased from the company’s history.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most recent WrestleMania in the New York City area was at MetLife Stadium. With a live attendance of 80,676,\u00a0WrestleMania 29 <\/em>was the WrestleMania debut for\u00a0The Shield<\/strong>. The trio defeated\u00a0Randy Orton<\/strong>,\u00a0Sheamus<\/strong>, and\u00a0Big Show. This show also featured the last match in\u00a0The Streak<\/strong>. For the fifth year in a row,\u00a0The Undertaker<\/strong> put on the best match of the night, put on the best match of the night. This time, he defeated\u00a0CM Punk<\/strong>. The card also featured a rematch between John Cena and\u00a0The Rock<\/strong>. With Cena winning this time, many saw this as a passing of the torch. The night also featured performances by\u00a0Living Colour<\/strong> and\u00a0Diddy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

New York City has hosted five WrestleManias and is about to get its sixth. The WWE currently has one of the most talented rosters in history and has a deep bench in\u00a0NXT<\/strong>. With the bright lights of the Big Apple shining, will this Showcase of the Immortals live up to the hype? We’ll have to wait until 2019 to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the impending announcement\u00a0of Met Life\u00a0Stadium hosting WrestleMania 35, fans are no doubt reminded of\u00a0WrestleMania 29. But\u00a0New York City has been a part of WrestleMania‘s history since the very beginning. What better city to host the event meant to be the intersection of wrestling and pop culture? March 31st, 1985, in front of 19,121 fans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2333,"featured_media":13524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,25,26,4,3],"tags":[1127,2103,2106,396,2108,2111,2102,2107,2109,2110],"class_list":["post-13511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-raw","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-metlife-stadium","tag-new-york-city","tag-wrestlemania","tag-wrestlemania-2","tag-wrestlemania-29","tag-wrestlemania-35","tag-wrestlemania-i","tag-wrestlemania-x","tag-wrestlemania-xx"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2333"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}