10 Fascinating WWE Facts About WrestleMania 34
7. Minimal AEW Involvement
Partly due to the shape of the mainstream scene in the late 2010s and speculatively because they knew AEW (or something like it) was looming, WWE had masses of talent on the books shortly before the challenger brand opened its doors in 2019.
Enormous WrestleManias - the advent of the Network in 2014 burst the run-time banks, with sprawling 'Show Of Shows' cards routinely hitting the seven hour mark before the pandemic mercifully split the event into a two-night extravaganza - made space for many of these wrestlers, with two battle royals padding out the pre-show ahead of the 11 matches on the main card.
Yet, as if to illustrate the alternative All Elite Wrestling was trying to be when it launched with the critically acclaimed Double Or Nothing pay-per-view just over a year later, only two wrestlers performed on both shows.
As Goldust, Dustin Runnels made up the numbers in the aforementioned Andre The Giant multi-man, as did a floundering Shawn Spears trying and failing to juice up a once-beloved Tye Dillinger persona. Both worked AEW's Vegas premiere, and remain valued as two of the more experienced hands on the roster nearly five years later.