10 Biggest Challenges WrestleMania Has Ever Faced

'Mania 36 isn't the only time WWE has gone in to a panic ahead of its biggest show of the year.

by Andrew Pollard
True Story Of WrestleMania
WWE.com

For WWE, WrestleMania is the be-all and end-all of its calendar.

Whether you're a WWE fan or not, it's hard to dispute that Vince McManon's sports entertainment juggernaut pulls out all the stops for its annual Granddaddy of Them All. Be it the biggest stars, the biggest match-ups, the biggest venues, or the biggest acts of pageantry and showmanship, there really is no show quite like WrestleMania.

This year, WrestleMania will be drastically different to anything we've ever seen before. Truth be told, who knows if WrestleMania 36 will even take place as planned during the first weekend of April. As the current climate of 2020 continues to change at a head-spinning rate, there are still so many question marks surrounding this year's Showcase of the Immortals.

Where WrestleMania is concerned though, this won't be the first time that McMahon and WWE higher-ups have faced adversity or have been faced with a huge challenge at this time of year - for while WrestleMania has proved to be a ludicrous success for WWE, it has also at times proved to cause the company plentiful headaches.

Here then, are ten such examples of times WWE has been truly tested by WrestleMania.

10. The "Sniper Threat" - WrestleMania VII

True Story Of WrestleMania
WWE

Going into WrestleMania VII, the then-WWF planned to hold the event in front of a crowd of 100,000 people at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Only that didn't happen, as the 1991 edition of the annual Showcase of the Immortals was moved to the Los Angeles Memorial Arena.

The official line given for this change of venue was due to the fear of a sniper attack on uber-heel Sgt. Slaughter. Remember, this is a Sarge who was fully in the midst of a villainous run in which he was portraying an Iraqi sympathiser at the peak of the Gulf War.

If WWE is to believed, this fear was completely and utterly genuine - and if that is indeed true, the threat of your top heel being assassinated live on PPV is clearly a major challenge.

Of course, the other school of thought from many on this is the fact that ticket sales were extremely slow for WrestleMania VII. That slow traffic on the ticket front meant the company's planned 100,000 crowd seemed extremely unlikely - and so the vastly smaller venue of the Memorial Arena was a far less embarassing home for the 16,000 people who were ultimately in attendance for 'Mania VII.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.