10 Fascinating Facts About WWE WrestleMania III
9. Aretha Franklin Was Stuck In Traffic Just Before The Event Went Live
There's an urban legend claiming that Mean Gene Okerlund's rushed rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner at WrestleMania I was done as a substitution, that a well-known (but unnamed) singer backed out, as Okerlund would say, "at the eleventh hour." The world was pretty close to Mean Gene performing an encore out of necessity two years later.
That's because Franklin found herself arriving late to the venue, owing to the torrent of fan-filled automobiles blocking her path to the Silverdome. "The Queen of Soul" made it in the nick of time, and performed America the Beautiful without a soundcheck.
Naturally, she hit it out of the park, making it perhaps the best WrestleMania rendition next to Ray Charles' spirited offering one year earlier.