WrestleMania is WWE’s annual flagship professional wrestling event and the longest-running major event series in the company’s history. The first WrestleMania took place on March 31, 1985, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, with Hulk Hogan and Mr. T facing Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff in the main event.
WWE created WrestleMania as a large-scale event that combined its top wrestling matches with celebrity appearances and national media attention.
The early events featured names like Hulk Hogan, André the Giant, Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, and Mr. T, while later generations of wrestlers including The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, The Rock, John Cena, Roman Reigns, and Cody Rhodes became major parts of WrestleMania history.
The event regularly features WWE’s major championships, long-running rivalries, special stipulations, retirement matches, and other matches tied to the company’s biggest storylines of the year. Several championships have changed hands at WrestleMania, and the event has also been used for major debuts, returns, and career milestones.
WrestleMania has been held in arenas and stadiums throughout the United States and has also taken place in Canada. As the event grew, WWE began regularly using large stadiums, with several editions drawing some of the largest announced crowds in company history.
WrestleMania expanded to a two-night format in 2020, allowing WWE to divide the card across Saturday and Sunday.
The series has remained WWE’s biggest annual event and is usually held in late March or April. WrestleMania weekend also includes additional WWE programming and events, with the main two-night card featuring wrestlers from Raw, SmackDown, and other parts of the WWE roster.
