10 Things I Hate About WrestleMania

WrestleMania is, incredibly, now about to hit its thirty-second instalment as WWE€™s biggest, most grandiose event of the year. And if it€™s WWE€™s biggest, then it€™s the professional wrestling industry€™s biggest, too.

In the old days, the company had the so-called Big Four pay-per-views - Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series - rising head and shoulders above the smaller events broadcast every month. Nowadays, though, WrestleMania doesn€™t even belong in the same ballpark as the other three.

The Show Of Shows is an industry all in itself. Practically every promotion, person and pro wrestling patron with ties to the business will descend upon Dallas this week to snap up all the available hotel space and fill the city€™s social calendar to bursting with wrestling-related events.

WrestleMania brings in so much revenue that the effect has been compared to civic regeneration: an independent study indicated that New Orleans benefited from WrestleMania XXX to the tune of 142 million dollars. Cities compete with one another for the opportunity to be chosen as the next year€™s hosts.

It€™s a big deal, is what I€™m saying - an institution, a brand that is probably equal to WWE€™s own, if not greater, and could conceivably outlive the organisation that spawned it. And, like all institutions, it has its critics€ not least those who remember back when it was just a huge wrestling show, not a 'cultural phenomenon' or an edifice.

With that in mind, here are the 10 Things I Hate About WrestleMania.