John Cena Announces Retirement Tour, Wrestlemania 2025 Will Be His Last Match

John Cena has done the unthinkable.

The former 16-time world champion made a surprise appearance at this evening’s Money In The Bank premium live event in Canada, where he received a hero’s welcome. Cena got on the mic and told the WWE Universe that was officially retiring from WWE after two decades. He added that the great Canadian fan base always shows up when wrestling is at its hottest, and WWE is hotter than ever.

Cena then revealed his plan for retirement, stating that he will be at the Raw premiere on Netflix, he’ll compete at the 2025 Royal Rumble, the 2025 Elimination Chamber, and at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas. However, those events will be his last, with the indication being that Mania 41 will be his final match. To end his speech, Cena challenged any future WWE superstar to step up to the plate, because “The Last Time Is Now.”

WrestleMania 40 Shatters Multiple WWE Records to Become Highest-Grossing Event in Company History

WrestleMania 40 broke multiple WWE records and has become the most successful live event in the company’s history.

WrestleMania 40 took place over two nights at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA. Per WWE, the gate for the event was up 78% compared to the previous record set during WrestleMania 39, with 145,298 in attendance across both nights this year. The company also says viewership was up 41% versus last year, while merchandise sales — in partnership with Fanatics — was up more than 20% over last year.

But the live events on Saturday and Sunday nights are just one part of the story. WWE set up a massive presence in Philadelphia from Thursday-Monday. The company, along with Fanatics Events, hosted the WWE World experience at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where fans could pay to get up close with authentic WWE memorabilia from their archives as well as take part in immersive experiences. This was coupled with the WWE Superstore, which featured a wide range of branded merchandise from apparel to toys and beyond.

The April 5 episode of “SmackDown” originated from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, drawing the largest gate in “SmackDown” history. Likewise, the April 8 episode of “Monday Night Raw” drew the largest gate in “Raw” history. WWE also put on the NXT live event “Stand and Deliver” on Saturday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center, which drew a record breaking crowd of 16,545, the most ever for an NXT event.

On social media, over 660 million views were generated across WWE’s social channels, while the WWE YouTube channel had its biggest day ever on Sunday with 67 million views in 24 hours.

WrestleMania 40 featured a number of smash hit matches, most notably the WWE Universal Championship match between Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes on Night 2. On Night 1, the two squared off with the aid of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Seth Rollins, respectively, in a tag team match that marked Johnson’s first match for WWE since 2016.

source: variety.com

Triple H Says He’s Happy To Have Stephanie McMahon Back Home, She Belongs Here

WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H says he’s happy that Stephanie McMahon was “back” at WrestleMania 40 Night Two.

Former WWE Co-CEO Stephanie McMahon appeared at WWE WrestleMania 40 Night Two and hyped up the crowd. This marked her first official appearance since she left the company in January 2023.

During the WrestleMania 40 Post-Show Press Conference, Triple H commented on Stephanie McMahon’s appearance on Sunday

“My wife looked good right? She hasn’t lost a step,” Triple H said. “So great to have her back home, right. I get her home all the time. But to have her back here, to see the doubt leave her by being here for the last few days, to see her confidence come back and to know that this is her home…all of you, all of us, all this business, it’s her home.

“As much as anybody on the planet, she belongs here. Hopefully she knows that now. So happy to have her back.”

Forever

Stephanie McMahon rings in the Paul “Triple H” Levesque era

The Rock comments on the job Triple H has done and how this WrestleMania felt knowing Vince McMahon is no longer involved

“I think that Triple H has done a tremendous job as our chief creative officer, I think that’s his title, he has a few, earned every single one of them. I like ushering in new things and new times and new eras and it feels like in our world here, professional wrestling, it is a new era that we’re ushering in. I talked to Triple H earlier as we were kicking off and kicking off the show tonight and without giving detail on what we talked about, it was a special night for him. This was the beginning of something and marking the beginning of something new for him, under his creative, and I think from a company standpoint, this is an exciting time for the company, for WWE, an exciting time for TKO. You felt the convergence towards the end of the year when the acquisition happened, you felt the convergence in the first quarter of the year as I was fortunate enough to come back and kind of traversed our way to what these storylines could look like, so it’s an exciting time and I think we capped off day one of WrestleMania that we had stated was gonna be the biggest of all time, which is really saying a lot given how many great WrestleManias there has been in the past, so I thought collectively as a company and a team, [it was] a really great show tonight.”

credit 411mania.com for the transcription

WrestleMania Generated $215 Million For the Los Angeles Region

WWE continues to tout the success of its second quarter earnings. On Wednesday, the company announced that WrestleMania 39 generated $215 million in economic impact for the Los Angeles region. WrestleMania events spanned several days in the "City of Angels" with "WWE SmackDown," the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony, NXT Stand and Deliver, the two-night WrestleMania event, and "WWE Raw" the following Monday, plus other local events.

Applied Analysis conducted the economic impact study. With that being said, WrestleMania 39 broke the record from the year prior when WrestleMania 38 brought $206.5 million in economic impact for the Dallas/Arlington region in Texas. It was also noted in WWE's press release that WrestleMania events have generated more than $1.2 billion in cumulative economic impact for host cities since 2016.

Other statistics from the study found that out-of-town visitors stayed for an average of four nights in Los Angeles. More than half of the attendees came from outside of southern California and 15% of fans traveled from international markets.

WWE previously announced that WrestleMania 39 brought in $21.6 million in ticket sales, which was a 27% increase from the previous record and made it the highest-grossing WWE event of all time. They also sold 20% more merchandise than the year before. Night One drew 80,497 attendees, while Night Two drew 81,395 for a combined attendance of 161,892.

Most Successful WrestleMania Of All Time

WWE today announced that WrestleMania 39 became the most-successful and highest-grossing event in company history. The two-night, sold-out event at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles set new records for viewership, gate, sponsorship, merchandise and social media. WrestleMania 39 became the most social WrestleMania of all-time, with over 500 million views and 11 million hours of video consumed over the two days, a 42 percent increase over last year. Night 2 of WrestleMania 39 surpassed the existing global viewership record by 33 percent, just one day after Night 1 of WrestleMania 39 surpassed the existing global viewership record by 28 percent. WrestleMania 39 generated a gate of more than $21.6 million, breaking the previous record by 27 percent, with 161,892 in attendance at SoFi Stadium over the two nights. In addition, WrestleMania 39 broke all-time sponsorship and merchandise records. Sponsorship revenue eclipsed $20 million, more than doubling the previous record. Merchandise sales were up 20 percent versus the record set in 2022.

WWE’s WrestleMania extravaganza draws sponsors to the ring

WWE’s WrestleMania, the Super Bowl for the sports entertainment company, arrives this weekend to a massive audience and vastly larger sponsorship revenue as it seeks to establish itself as a serious contender for major dollars from such partnerships.

Craig Stimmel, WWE’s senior vice president and head of global sales and partnerships, told The Associated Press in an interview that sponsorship revenue for this year’s event has doubled to more than $20 million, a record for any WWE event.

Those numbers are critical in light of the return in January of Vince McMahon, the founder and majority shareholder of WWE, who said the sports entertainment company could be up for sale...More?

source:  apnews.com

WWE gains another 6% as it reports record WrestleMania gate

World Wrestling Entertainment is 6% higher, driving into its sale-chatter rally from the end of last week and pacing toward its fifth straight session gain, as it reports record gate revenue for its WrestleMania almost three months prior to it taking place.

WrestleMania 39 - what the company is calling WrestleMania Goes Hollywood, based in its Los Angeles setting - has surpassed its previous record of $17.3M for 2016's WrestleMania 32. Tickets are still on sale.

The event is set for Saturday and Sunday, April 1-2, and WWE has yet to announce which matches will take place there. It will stream exclusively on Peacock in the United States and on WWE Network elsewhere.

WWE stock (WWE) is now up 30% over its five straight winning sessions. It rose 17% Friday following news that former CEO Vince McMahon is hoping to return to the company's board and plot a sale of the company.

WrestleMania 38 Shatters Records

WWE announced that WrestleMania 38 became WWE’s highest-grossing and most-attended event in company history. WWE’s annual pop-culture extravaganza saw 156,352 fans from all 50 states and 53 countries converge on AT&T Stadium in Dallas over the course of two exciting nights, surpassing the previous gate and attendance records set by WrestleMania 32 in 2016.

Triple H Appears At WrestleMania 38 Night 2, Leaves His Boots In The Ring

Triple H returned to WWE TV to kick off WrestleMania 38 Night Night Two.

Aside from his appearance at NXT Stand & Deliver on April 2, “The Game” hadn’t appeared on WWE programming since his cardiac event in September 2021. He recently announced his in-ring retirement due to the subsequent health issues he dealt with. With all this in mind, the live crowd welcomed “The King of Kings” with open arms.

After a lengthy ovation, Triple H thanked the fans and stated that he wanted to show his love the best way he could. He then said, “Welcome to WrestleMania” before an extravagant fireworks display officially opened the show. “The Game” then left his boots in the ring as a sign of his retirement.

Triple H WrestleMania 38 Week Notes, Update On The WWE Tryouts

WWE Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development Paul “Triple H” Levesque is in Dallas for the WrestleMania 38 Week festivities.

These are the most appearances Triple H has made since suffering his cardiac event last fall. You can click here for his recent comments on his health and in-ring retirement announcement, and click here for his comments on his WWE workload.

As seen in the photo above, Triple H was present for the talent tryouts in Frisco, TX at the Ford Center at The Star, home of the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters and state-of-the-art practice facility. WWE announced these tryouts several weeks back, and noted that they were exclusively for current and recently graduated college athletes.

The tryouts began on Wednesday and will run through Friday. WWE is hosting more than 50 male and female participants with collegiate athletic backgrounds across football, basketball, track and field, wrestling, volleyball, gymnastics, cheer and dance. Several NFL Draft-eligible college football players were also scheduled to participate in the invite-only event.

WWE NXT and WWE Performance Center staff brought to Texas to help out include WWE Vice President of Talent Development Shawn Michaels, PC Head Coach Matt Bloom, along with PC Coaches Fit Finlay, Terry Taylor and Norman Smiley. Several NXT Superstars who are not booked for Stand & Deliver are also in town, including Harland, Joe Gacy, The Rock’s daughter Simone Johnson, Robert Stone, Indi Hartwell and Dexter Lumis, among others.

Triple H was joined by Dallas Cowboys players Anthony Brown, Jourdan Lewis, Ezekiel Elliott, and Dak Prescott at the tryouts. He cut a promo for fans on the Cowboys social media pages, inviting them to The Grandest Stage of Them All this weekend.

“Hey Cowboys Nation, this is The Game, Triple H. We are here in Texas talking to all of you guys and this is an epic weekend. Everything is bigger in Texas and this weekend is no exception. This weekend, WrestleMania – the most stupendous event in history. Trust me, you don’t want to miss it. Go to seatgeek.com and get there. Don’t miss it,” he said in the video below.

The Game also tweeted on the tryouts and wrote, “The first days of the #WWETryout in Dallas at @thestarinfrisco. Excited to see the progress of the attendees through the rest of the week! Thanks to @EzekielElliott @dak @nino9brown @JourdanJD of the @dallascowboys for stopping by!”

Steve Austin returning to WWE to fight Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38

Sting Comments On His WrestleMania Match With Triple H

Sting talked about the match in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated:

“WrestleMania is a great memory, too,” said Sting. “I know so many fans have said to me, ‘You should have won that match.’ But when you think about that WrestleMania, what do you remember about it? Hulk, Hall, Nash, and DX, that was surreal. I hope that’s what people remember.”

Booker T Denies Triple H Segment Was Pulled From A&E Biography; Clears The Air On Racial Overtones of WM Match

Earlier on Sunday, professor and writer David Dennis Jr., who was interviewed by A&E to cover Booker T’s career, tweeted that he was brought in specifically to talk about the controversial WM19 storyline – but the footage didn’t make the final cut in the two-hour documentary.

While speaking on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T cleared the air on the situation.

“Ok, you [Dennis Jr.] talked about it [the storyline] but how can it be pulled from the biography? It was never supposed to be in there,” Booker T said. “It makes it seem like there was a whole lot of meat and potatoes on the bone of the story of Booker T vs. Triple H at WrestleMania 19.

“And personally, I’ve never given that story a whole lot of credence. To me it was just a championship match that I lost. I understand where some fans are coming from, since as a young black kid, I looked up to my heroes as well. But I’ve never looked at my career and framed it around any one match.

“I got paid more money for that one match than I got paid for any other match in my life. I am not going to complain about that. End of the day, it’s about taking care of my family. When people try to make stuff out of something such as a racial issue… for me, that was not what my story was about.”

Booker T went onto confirm that he never saw Dennis Jr.’s interviews – talking about WrestleMania 19 – on the rough draft he reviewed a year ago.

“My documentary was not just about one match or one angle,” stressed Booker. “It was about taking whatever I had [in my career] and turning it into something. I never cared if I was on the mid card or I was doing GI Bro opening the show, or if I was in the main event.”

credit: Hall of Fame podcast Wrestling Inc.

Stephanie McMahon Issues Statement On WrestleMania 37

Stephanie McMahon issued the following open letter:

Good morning,

On Saturday night, I stood on stage at Raymond James Stadium, surrounded by WWE Superstars, in front of a 103 ft long pirate ship, and looked out into a sea of fans. My father, WWE Chairman and CEO, Vince McMahon, addressed the crowd and said: “Throughout this past year our WWE Superstars performed tirelessly for all of you. Week after week, month after month but we all knew there was something missing, something very important, THE most important, and that would be all of you, our fans, the WWE Universe. And as we emerge from this dreadful pandemic on behalf of our entire WWE family, we would simply like to say thank you and welcome you to, WRESTLEMANIA!”

The 25K in attendance erupted and the rest of us had tears in our eyes; reinforcing the meaning behind our new company signature that started the show, “Then. Now. Forever. Together.”

WrestleMania streamed exclusively from its new home on Peacock in the U.S., and WWE Network around the world, taking place over two nights and making history.

Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair became the first Black female Superstars to main event WrestleMania. We had live musical performances from Bebe Rexha, Wale, Ash Costello and Ashland Craft, and Grammy award-winning artist Bad Bunny and YouTube influencer Logan Paul found themselves getting in on the action inside the ring. Bad Bunny’s performance receiving praise from ESPN touting it as “…one of, if not the, most impressive showings by a celebrity in the ring.”

WWE also secured a record 14 new and returning blue chip partners for WrestleMania including Snickers as the Presenting Partner for the sixth consecutive year and Presenting Partner of the Main Event, NBCUniversal, Papa John’s, Cricket Wireless, P&G’s Old Spice, DraftKings, 2K, Nissin, and Credit One Bank.

Across YouTube, WWE.com and WWE social media content during WrestleMania Week, video views hit 1.1 billion, 31 million hours of content was consumed, and WWE-related content saw 115 million engagements. WrestleMania was also the world’s most-social program both nights of the weekend, delivering 71 Twitter trends in the U.S. alone.

For the first time we launched a series of NFTs featuring The Undertaker, had record breaking WrestleMania weekend e-commerce sales and record merchandise per capita sales in stadium.

WWE Superstars and executives participated in more than 300 interviews to promote our WrestleMania celebration including appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, TODAY Show, ESPN Get Up, FOX & Friends, E! and Access Hollywood. And because we always want to leave our host city better off than when we arrived, we held more than 10 community activations throughout the week, from our community caravan where we recognized 11 local community leaders; to teaming with FOX Sports and Good Sports to donate sports equipment to Special Olympics Florida; and working with Feeding Tampa Bay, University of FL IFAS program, the Healthy Living Coalition, Nestle Waters and the Tampa Bay Sports Commission to dedicate the first of five sustainable community gardens throughout the Tampa Bay area to combat food insecurity.

It takes the effort of so many different people to make WrestleMania happen, especially during a global pandemic. Thank you to our friends, partners, employees, and of course, our Superstars for making it possible.

I hope to see everyone in person soon,

Steph

WrestleMania 37 Scores Big Numbers for WWE as Company Welcomes Fans for First Time in Over a Year

WrestleMania 37 marked the first WWE event with fans in attendance since last March, and by many measures, it was a homerun.

The sports entertainment company’s flagship event, which was held over two nights this past Saturday and Sunday, took place at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. Capacity was capped, though both nights still sold out, with 25,675 fans each night (51,350 total). Fans were seated in socially distanced pods, with mask requirements, mobile ticketing, cashless concessions, and enhanced sanitization throughout the venue.

According to WWE, the event also saw a record 1.1 billion video views across their various video and social media channels, marking a 14% increase year-over-year. WWE content also saw a record 115 million engagement on social media during the week of WrestleMania, a 102% increase, and boasted 71 Twitter trends alone between Saturday and Sunday night. In addition, on-site merchandise sales were said to be the highest per capita in WWE history.

More?

WrestleMania 37 Boasts 51,000+ Fans Over Two Nights

WrestleMania 37 had quite the turnout this weekend in Tampa.

Following the announcement that they’d sold out night one of WrestleMania, WWE is now touting a second consecutive sell-out with 25,675 fans in attendance. With the two sell outs, a combined 51,350 fans attended both nights of WrestleMania at Raymond James Stadium.

WrestleMania 38 will take place on Sunday, April 3, 2022 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The full press release is below:

SUNDAY WRESTLEMANIA® SOLD OUT

TAMPA BAY, FL., April 11, 2021 – For the second consecutive night, a sell-out of 25,675 fans attended WrestleMania at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, FL with millions more watching at home on Peacock in the U.S. and on WWE Network around the world.

Two sell outs with a combined 51,350 fans attended both nights of WrestleMania at Raymond James Stadium.

Adhering to local health guidelines, a limited number of tickets were sold for both nights of WrestleMania, with all in attendance seated in socially-distanced pods. Additional safety measures included health screenings and temperature checks prior to entry into Raymond James Stadium, mask requirements, social distancing, mobile ticketing, cashless concessions and enhanced sanitization throughout the venue.

Next year’s WrestleMania will take place on Sunday, April 3, 2022 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington/Dallas. Ticket information will be announced later this year.

Two-Night NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Set For WrestleMania Week

William Regal promised some huge news tonight at NXT, and when the episode began, he delivered. Regal kicked off the show by announcing that NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver will be a new, two-night TakeOver event that will take place during WrestleMania week.

Unlike prior two-part events, NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver will take place over the course of back-to-back nights, with the first night occurring on Wednesday, April 7 at 8:00 p.m. ET on USA Network, and the second night airing on Thursday, April 8 at 8:00 p.m. ET exclusively on Peacock, NBC’s newest streaming service and the future home of all WWE content. 

It’s unclear as of right now what matches will take place at Stand & Deliver, but with it happening during WrestleMania week and with one night airing on Peacock, it’s safe to say fans will be in for a huge show when it does happen.