10 Things I Hate About WrestleMania
7. The Revisionist History
The story of WrestleMania, like the story of the WWF/E and Vince McMahon himself, has been subject to vast swathes of revisionist history over the years, so lets clear a few things up.
Contrary to vicious rumour, before the WWF went national professional wrestling wasnt stuck in high school gymnasia and local armouries. Supercards were around long, long before Hulkamania or WrestleMania.
Its likely that Vince McMahon was inspired to create WrestleMania due to the success of the NWAs annual Starrcade event, and by memories of his fathers Showdown At Shea events in 1972, 1976 and 1980 with the WWWF, which drew crowds ranging from 22,000 to 36,000.
Wrestling has always been a huge draw for audiences, and that predates Vince Jr. and his courting of celebrity involvement and mainstream indulgence. Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidts rematch for the World Heavyweight Championship supposedly drew 30,000 fans in Chicago in 1911.
In fact, it doesnt just predate them, it runs concurrently. Jerry Lawler was a massive star in Memphis before he came to the WWF, the main draw that brought an average weekly crowd of 8,900 to the citys Mid-South Coliseum on Monday nights in 1982.
Todays WWE (the top wrestling organisation in the world for two decades and a major global brand, dont forget) manages to draw around that number to Monday Night RAW every week, and thats as a touring commodity that carefully manages its schedule to avoid burning out the fanbase.
WrestleMania has become a monolith, but it wasnt a revolution. In point of fact, even at its most massive, its not the top-drawing wrestling show of all-time. That honour falls to the two-day Collision In Korea event in April 1995, a collaboration between World Championship Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling that saw well over 150,000 attend each of the two days.
Of course, WWF/Es own estimation of their top drawing shows is famously exaggerated: the alleged 93,173 that attended WrestleMania III is widely disputed. The Wrestling Observers Dave Meltzer maintains that the venues promoter told him that the genuine attendance was around 78,000 which is still huge, but not record-setting.
Don't believe everything you read, folks.