40 Years Of Fascinating WWE WrestleMania Facts (Part 2)

There's something unique about WWE's efforts to show consistency between their milestone WrestleManias once a decade.

The first, tenth, twentieth and thirtieth WrestleManias all had something to tether one to the next, with many forecasting something (and/or manifesting a Cody Rhodes title victory unimpeded by The Rock) for the fortieth edition of the show that keeps the link alive. Be it arenas, or specific title victories or merely the ceremony around the passing of another decade, the shows have all had a certain flavour about them that luxuriates in the tradition, pageantry and undeniable magic the 'Show Of Shows' has the power to offer up.

But what lingers under the surface of the shows in between? They can't all be special, they can't all capture the intended spirit, and they can't all have everything up front go ahead exactly as planned. They can all, however, have stories and tales attached that may not generate the column inches of the big title wins, classic matches and historic moments captured forever on celluloid.

And sometimes, on WWE's grandest stage, it's the littlest things that stick out most of all...

Times were hard in 1995.

Amidst a product that fans were abandoning in droves and stories of the water coolers being removed from Titan Tower to save money, WWE had never been as commercially or critically reviled as they were 11 years on from the first WrestleMania.

In a fairly transparent attempt to subvert that narrative entirely, Vince McMahon's solution to bolster the New Generation's first official 'Show Of Shows' was a simple but stupid one - use loads and loads of famous people because the wrestlers aren't famous themselves.

Lawrence Taylor main eventing against Bam Bam Bigelow was the centrepiece of the idea, but Pamela Anderson heading to the ring with Royal Rumble winner Shawn Michaels fed into an angle where she dumped him in favour of Diesel on the night. Not to be outdone, Michaels entered with Jenny McCarthy on his arm, did a lap of the ring and revealed that the skint "market leader" only paid for three WrestleMania ring skirts.

The story behind the scenes was supposedly mere clumsiness rather than the need to be frugal - the delivery allegedly arrived one skirt short - but the irony of surrounding the ring with photographers only to have your own cameras reveal an aesthetics fumble was yet another optics setback the company were forced to endure.