April 8, 2024 Observer Newsletter: WWE WrestleMania 40 preview, CM Punk talks, Janel Grant lawsuit updates

A pair of WWE WrestleMania shows that were planned months ago and reconstructed based on a series of things that went wrong ended up being positive from an interest standpoint.

It will end up being the biggest WrestleMania, as far as revenue and viewership, in history, although that would have been the case under almost any circumstance.

The first night’s main event with Rock & Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins has been pushed as the biggest tag team match in WrestleMania history. Normally such a hyperbolic tagline when it comes to wrestling should be taken with a grain of salt and the first WrestleMania had Hulk Hogan & Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff, which I’d call the biggest.

I do think the first Mania, in a different time and place, captured the general public more than this one, but WrestleMania itself is so much bigger and more established as is WWE itself. Plus, from a financial standpoint, they are night and day. While Hogan was a rising celebrity and Mr. T was a huge star on television, The Rock was far beyond where they were at the time. Hogan did get bigger to the point where almost everyone in culture knew who he was, like The Rock today, but in 1985, he was not nearly at that level.

The two-night affair is set to climax with what is expected to be the culmination of a two-year build, where Rhodes, playing on the legend of his father, ends the longest so-called World title reign of Reigns.

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