wwe wrestlemania

WrestleMania is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced annually in late March or early April by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) (formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation). It is considered the flagship pay-per-view event of WWE, as it is the most successful and longest-running professional wrestling event in the world. WrestleMania is nicknamed "The Grandaddy of Them All", "The Grandest Stage of Them All" and "The Showcase of the Immortals."The event was first produced in 1985, and 24 editions have been produced as of 2008, with WrestleMania XXV to be held in 2009.

First WrestleMania (1985):

WrestleMania (chronologically known as WrestleMania I) was the first WrestleMania professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on March 31, 1985 at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. The attendance for the event was 19,121 fans. The event was viewed by over one million fans through closed circuit television, making it the largest event on closed-circuit television in the United States at the time. The event was the start of the Rock 'n' Wrestling gimmick, which brought together professional wrestling and the music industry, and matches aired on MTV during the build up to the event.

Nine professional wrestling matches, performances with pre-determined outcomes between wrestlers with fictional personalities that are portrayed as real, were featured. The main event match pitted Hulk Hogan and Mr. T against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. Hogan won the match after interference from Cowboy Bob Orton (Bob Orton, Jr.). Also at the event, Wendi Richter defeated Leilani Kai (Patricia Karisma-Schroeder) for the WWF Women's Championship, and Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik defeated The U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham) to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.

The reviews for the event were mixed. Reviewers considered the main event match to be entertaining and humorous but lacking in technical wrestling. Despite this, it received Pro Wrestling Illustrated's annual PWI Match of the Year award.

Tagline(s) :The Greatest Wrestling Event of All Time!
Promotion : World Wrestling Federation
Date : March 31, 1985
Attendance :19,121
Venue : Madison Square Garden City New York, New York

List of celebrities involved with WrestleMania:

Aside from professional wrestling performances, celebrity involvement has been a major key in the production of WrestleMania events. WWE involves celebrities in the WrestleMania events to gain more hype and media attention for the event, in this way receiving more attraction to the event, pay-per-view buys, and ticket sales.The celebrities involved with WrestleMania events have come from a range of occupations, including singing, acting, professional boxing, and modeling, and usually appear in non-wrestling roles, such as singing, promoting a subject, or managing wrestlers at ringside. There have been exceptions, however, in which celebrities have had a professional wrestling role.

One of the first celebrities to appear at the first WrestleMania was Mr. T, who wrestled in the main event in a tag team match with Hulk Hogan. Aretha Franklin also appeared at the first WrestleMania and sang a rendition of "America the Beautiful." Franklin appeared 22 years later at WrestleMania 23 and sang another rendition of the same song. At times, WWE has inducted celebrities into their Hall of Fame. For example, Chicago Bears defensive lineman William Perry wrestled in a match that involved other NFL football players, and he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a "Celebrity Inductee" in 2004. Another celebrity was Mike Tyson, who appeared at WrestleMania XIV and was originally planned to enforce the ringside area, although he was involved in a physical altercation with Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom). Pete Rose has made the most celebrity appearances at WrestleMania, with four overall appearances. Overall, there have been 95 celebrities involved at WrestleMania: 32 athletes, 26 musicians, 18 actors, and 20 others from different backgrounds.

Commentators:

For five of the first six, Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura served as the main commentators (the exception being WrestleMania 2, which was split among three venues and had Monsoon, Ventura, and Vince McMahon split up with guest commentators), while Bobby Heenan and others filled guest roles. For WrestleMania VII and VIII, Monsoon and Heenan were the main commentators. In the mid to late 1990s, the team was composed of Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler. Since the brand separation in 2002-03, matches from the Raw brand have been called by Ross and Lawler; the SmackDown matches called by Michael Cole, Tazz, John Layfield and Jonathan Coachman and ECW matches called by Joey Styles and Tazz. Howard Finkel has served as the long-standing ring announcer, but since the WWE Brand Extension, Lillian Garcia, Justin Roberts, and Tony Chimel have also filled in the role.

(The logos used for WrestleMania from 1985-2008)

WrestleMania XXV:

Tagline(s) : Everything Is Bigger in Texas, Especially WrestleManiaTheme song(s): "Shoot to Thrill" (Live) and "War Machine" by AC/DC
Promotion :World Wrestling Entertainment
Brand (s) : Raw SmackDown ECW
Date :April 5, 2009
Venue : Reliant Stadium City Houston, Texas

WrestleMania XXV, also promoted as The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania, is a forthcoming professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which is scheduled to take place on April 5, 2009 at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. The event will be the 25th event produced under the WrestleMania name and will feature wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands.

It will be the second WrestleMania held in Houston, with the first being WrestleMania X-Seven at the Reliant Astrodome, which was held in 2001.