10 Things You Only Learn Attending WWE WrestleMania Live

1. ...And The REAL WrestleMania Moments

KOFI WRESTLEMANIA
WWE.com

I was sat in the highest tier of the MetLife Stadium - sorry, Hulk, the MetLife Center - and the match between Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston made me feel like I - everybody - was in the front row.

A storytelling masterclass, the tale of Kofi's unwavering heart going over Bryan's unparalleled technique absolutely rocked the house. It's difficult to not feel physically and emotionally removed from WrestleMania at that height. You have to really focus on the action, which makes it difficult to lose oneself in it.

Bryan's ring generalship swept everybody away on a Waimea bay-sized wave of undiluted, uninhibited emotion. The dynamic was perfect, and contributed to a shocking atmosphere of intimacy; Kofi's expressive high-flying work meshed incredibly with Bryan's Final Boss body language and heartrending submission counters, converging to create a genuinely life-affirming pro wrestling match everybody received as if it was right in front of them. It mirrored so perfectly Kofi's own, agonisingly close career dream.

It was, simply, a masterpiece that distilled WrestleMania's old essence as the site of both classic action and babyface triumph. People, who read the reports of the transport issues and the slog of a duration and the freezing temperatures, ask if attending WrestleMania live is worth it. I've seen better worked matches than this live, but I've never felt anything like that in person.

The only way to describe it is as a WrestleMania Moment.

Watch Next


Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!