10 Obscure WWE WrestleMania Facts You'll SWEAR Aren't Real
1. Main Event Representation
For the past several years, these WWE facts columns have catalogued how WWE has been pretty abysmal in recent years at giving Black wrestlers a spotlight in singles PLE matches. Jade Cargill broke a near-two-year streak at WrestleMania 41 last year, but no male Black superstar has won a singles PLE match in more than three years.
However, representation questions are just as notable when it comes to WrestleMania itself. With 41 events and 47 main events (two each for WMs 36-41) in the books, it’s worth looking at how WWF/E has booked its Black superstars for the final match of the night.
But first, just think about the sheer number of major, main-event level Black wrestlers have come through the company’s doors during the past four decades.
Then that makes this fact seem even more stark: Black wrestlers have only won five main events of the 47 that have occurred, two of which are tag matches, two of which involve the same person, and two of which involve celebrities rather than active superstars.
WrestleMania I saw Mr. T team with Hulk Hogan to win a tag match against “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff. At WrestleMania 11, NFL great Lawrence Taylor defeated Bam Bam Bigelow.
It wasn’t until WrestleMania 28 when The Rock finally won a WrestleMania main event (he lost at WM 15, 2000 and X-Seven) by returning as a part-timer and beating John Cena. Bianca Belair became the first full-time Black superstar to win a WrestleMania main event when she bested Sasha Banks at WrestleMania 37. And then The Rock returned again in a glorious – albeit part-time – role as the Final Boss to team with Roman Reigns and beat Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 40.
If you’re keeping score, that means that Bianca Belair is the only Black full-time wrestler to win a WrestleMania main event. If you want to count The Rock as legend who returned on a part-time deal to win two main events, that’s fine. But that’s still a pretty shoddy record out of 47 Mania main events.