Tye Richmond East Rutherford, NJ. – When people say that Wrestlemania is the grandest stage of them all, it is not a joke. From the way the stadium looks — stage setup, wrestling attire and the pyrotechnics used throughout the show — there is nothing like Wrestlemania.
Just imagine over 80,000 people packed into a stadium. Everybody at one point or another is there either screaming, crying, dancing, singing, upset or laughing for over eight hours. Some, even including myself, are scared because of all the pyrotechnics going off.
From the moment you step foot into the parking lot, you can feel a different energy than most sporting events. At other sporting events, you will have tailgating: people cooking out and playing games. But at a WWE event, you have that and more. Hours befores the gates open, people are cosplaying as their favorite wrestlers and having their own wrestling matches in the parking lot.
When the gates are open, everybody’s cheering and giving a Ric Flair “WOO.” At wrestling events, a Ric Flair “WOO” for wrestling fans is like a Philadelphia Eagles or New York Jets chant. Once somebody says “WOO,” there’s a domino effect of people doing it. Some people will do different chants for different wrestlers and for their own country.
An aspect that makes Wrestlemania crowds different than other sporting events crowds is that you will meet people from all around the world. Normally, in most sporting events, everybody that goes to the events are from the same city or region.
A cool thing is that people would bring their home countries’ flags to show where they have traveled from. I saw many flags from Mexico, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia and more. A cool moment was when an Australia tag team won their match, so a whole section in the crowd from Australia starting chanting “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi.” Then you will get some Americans chanting back “U.S.A.,” and the two sections would go back and forth.
Even how the crowd interacts with each other is different than other events. Everybody is there for a good time, just to have fun, escape the the “real world” and enjoy the event. At football and basketball games, you can feel the tension building if your team loses or something bad happens. Then fights could break out if people aren’t happy or are drunk. Nobody really gets drunk at WWE shows because the experience of the show is good enough.
There truly is nothing like experiencing Wrestlemania. I’ve been to a lot of sporting events in my life, but I never had as much fun going to those as I did going to Wrestlemania. You don’t even have to be a wrestling fan to have fun and enjoy yourself there. So if you ever have the chance to go to a Wrestlemania or even a wrestling show, do it — you won’t regret it.
