10 Fun Facts From My Trip To WWE WrestleMania 31

In the lead up to WrestleMania 31, I wasn't exactly thrilled about the prospect of the San Jose stadium show. Sure, there was the long awaited debut of The Icon, Sting but with the seemingly insistent push of Roman Reigns as the new WWE Champion, it seemed lacklustre.

In the end, the weekend of WrestleMania "Play" (as we affectionately called it) ended up being one of the most entertaining live 'Mania weekends I've ever been to. From the NXT show on the Friday night to the stacked pay per-view that was full of surprises and entertaining matches on the Sunday, it exceeded expectations.

We decided to stay at the WrestleCon hotel, which is always a good choice due to the amount of random interactions you have with wrestlers. Where else can you be grabbing a late night bottle of Pepsi at the vending machine and have Scott Steiner storm past you barking "HEY MAN!", or see Sunny at the pool wearing a lot less than she probably should be wearing? 

Only at the WrestleCon hotel, folks.

San Jose was a strange town for 'Mania, especially given that it had to top the manic, bustling and frankly amazing atmosphere of New Orleans from the previous year. Everything was spread out in the California state which made it harder to go to a street with loads of bars and wrestling fans. 

Nonetheless, WrestleMania Play delivered far more than it should have.

Here are my highlights...

When Court Bauer of MLW announced that he was teaming up with WhatCulture's favourite rapper, Wale, to create 'WaleMania' it felt like something I had to check out. The premise was a live MLW Podcast featuring Konnan and Rey Mysterio followed by an after party with a performance by Wale.

It was held on the Thursday night in San Jose at a swanky nightclub. We got there early in time to get the last of the buffet that was available and grab a drink so we could get a decent seat for the show.

It kicked off with Konnan and Rey addressing the recent passing of Perro Aguayo Jr. You could tell how difficult it was for them to talk about it, but by doing it we could all move on and enjoy the evening.

Then came the cameos.

One after another, wrestling names would come out to the roar of the crowd. Dave Meltzer appeared for the whole podcast, interestingly comparing Daniel Bryan's reign/position as similar to Rey Mysterio in 2006, which made for an awkward moment for Rey.

Jim Ross came out and after having clearly had a few cocktails, was happy to be no holds barred and talk about the Roman face push not working. From there Scott Hall, MVP and Samoa Joe all came out on stage to tell stories, answer fan questions and have a good time.

Most of the talent were promoting Samoa Joe and how he deserved to be in WWE. Here we are just a year later and he's NXT Champion. WaleMania wasn't just a fun night out but predicted Joe's WWE run months before it happened.