A bit of a short column this week.
Through the years, I’ve written a few different columns that involved looking at future sites for WrestleMania. Almost without fail, I would mention London, or another major city in the United Kingdom, as a possible host, but would quickly move on to something else. As much as I would’ve enjoyed seeing it, I just couldn’t picture WWE ever holding a show of that level overseas, simply because of the logistical nightmare that would come along with it. I felt that the “negatives” would far outweigh the “positives” in a situation like that.
When WWE announced that they would be holding this year’s edition of the Money In The Bank pay-per-view in London, my Spidey Senses started to tingle a bit. Could this be the opening that the United Kingdom needed to host WrestleMania one day? It still seemed like a long shot, as there’s so much more going on for the entire week of WrestleMania than there is for the weekend of an event like Money In The Bank, but hey, it was a start.
When AEW announced that they were going to be holding this year’s edition of All In at Wembley Stadium in London, my Spidey Senses started to tingle a bit more. I was a bit confused, but only because I wasn’t 100% sure about how many tickets could be sold for a venue that could be set up to hold way more than 100,000 fans. Then… those tickets began selling like hot cakes, as the saying goes. I was watching… 5,000 tickets sold, then 10,000 tickets sold, then 20,000 tickets sold… and the numbers kept getting higher.
Even with every ticket sold, my official opinion didn’t budge. The idea of a WrestleMania in the United Kingdom was a good one, but the execution of said idea would be way too difficult for WWE to pull off.
As I watched Money In The Bank, I found myself enjoying the show and taking note of how red hot the crowd was. That wasn’t a surprise to me at all. What was a surprise, though, was when John Cena’s music hit, and he made his way to the ring completely unannounced. His appearance wasn’t even hinted at as a possibility by anybody in the wrestling media game. As soon as he started teasing the possibility of convincing WWE to listen to the people and bring a future WrestleMania to London, my Spidey Senses went into overdrive.
There just isn’t a chance in hell that WWE paraded Cena out there in front of those people to say the things he said if the ball wasn’t already rolling to bring WrestleMania out there soon. I know there are reports that it was done so that the city of London, and other cities in the United Kingdom, would see the crowd reaction and put a bid in for hosting Mania after realizing how much the people want it. That’s a dangerous game, though. You would assume people might get upset if that segment happened, and then absolutely nothing ever comes of it. Next year’s edition will be taking place in the home of ECW, Philadelphia. For WrestleMania 41 in 2025, it has been rumored that cities like Orlando, Florida and Minneapolis, Minnesota have been in talks about putting bids in. Beyond that, the door remains wide open.
It… it’s finally going to happen, isn’t it? After more than four decades, WrestleMania is finally going to take place outside of North America. I couldn’t help but take my mind back to those logistical issues, though. The first thing I did was think about NXT, who has been piggybacking on WrestleMania for years now, holding shows in the WrestleMania host city during Mania weekend, except for when the pandemic prevented it. Over the last two years, NXT has presented Stand & Deliver on WrestleMania Saturday, with the show airing at 1pm Eastern time, allowing for plenty of time to finish before Mania started at 8pm Eastern. For those in London and that time zone, that meant a 6pm start for Stand & Deliver, and a 1am start for WrestleMania.
A lot of the initial arguments against holding Mania in the United Kingdom involved that exact start time. Surely, WWE wouldn’t have their biggest event of the year start at 1am, local time, right? Fans in the United Kingdom are tremendous, but there’s a big difference between being amped up and excited at near midnight when Mania is winding down on the east coast in the United States and being amped up and excited at 5-something in the morning when Mania is winding down in London. Even worse, what about the people who work or have school on Monday morning? Do they leave the stadium at 5-something, and then just go straight to their responsibilities? Of course not.
Well, as we saw with Money In The Bank, those initial arguments seem to be for naught, as WWE clearly had no issues with changing the event’s start time for the local crowd. Money In The Bank started at 8pm, local time, with meant that it started at 3pm Eastern time. For me, it began at 12 noon. In Hawaii, where I was born and raised, the show began at 9am, which isn’t ideal, either. If WrestleMania in London had an 8pm local start time, or even 7pm because of the longer shows, that would work out just fine for North America, which is obviously important for WWE.
What does that mean for Stand & Deliver, though? If WrestleMania were still a one-night affair, we wouldn’t be talking about this. We’d have Smackdown and the Hall Of Fame on Friday, NXT on Saturday, WrestleMania on Sunday, and then close things out with Raw on Monday. WrestleMania isn’t a one-night affair anymore, though. If the same time frame that we saw this year stayed in place for London, that would mean Stand & Deliver would begin at 1pm, local time, and if we’re adjusting for Daylight Savings here, it would begin at 9am Eastern, 8am Central, 7am Mountain, 6am Pacific, 5am Alaska, and 3am Hawaii.
You can see how that would be a problem for WWE, a company based in North America, right? For shows on WrestleMania weekend, you want as many eyeballs as possible watching your shows live, posting about them on social media, and so on. Bob Bobbington in Portland, Oregon probably isn’t ready to be tweeting up a storm about NXT’s biggest show of the year at 6am. Alex Alexander in Cody, Wyoming probably isn’t ready to chat it up with his pals about NXT’s biggest show of the year at 7am.
So what do you do about NXT? Do you go with that crazy starting time (in North America) for Stand & Deliver? What about just not having Stand & Deliver during WrestleMania weekend that year? Sure, it’s a tradition, but that tradition is only a few years old. 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023 have seen NXT put on WrestleMania weekend shows, with 2020 being skipped because of COVID, and the 2021 edition taking place at the WWE Performance Center instead of the Mania site (Tampa, about 85 miles away). WWE could easily have Stand & Deliver take place the weekend before, or the weekend after, allowing the NXT roster to have their biggest show of the year at a “normal” time and have the sole focus for an entire weekend.
I already know that there are two things on the minds of many of you right now, so let me clear them up here and now…
1. This is approximately 1,089,436% because of the ticket sales for All In(nit). Someone, somewhere, in the upper management of WWE saw the amount of tickets sold, and the money made from those ticket sales, and decided to float the idea out there to have a WrestleMania in the United Kingdom. In WWE’s ideal situation, Mania would also be held at Wembley Stadium, and yes, they would sell more tickets for Mania than AEW will end up selling for All In(nit). That’s not a knock on AEW at all. It’s simply pointing out that WWE is a bigger promotion, whether you like them or not, and the allure of WrestleMania only multiplies that.
2. Some of you who don’t live in North America are thinking that you’ve spent years and years dealing with wrestling events airing at all kinds of strange times, and that it’s only fair that people on this side of the world have to deal with some of those problems for once. I get that, but come on… I’m an American, and therefore, I have to be a selfish prick that is more concerned about me and my issues than you and yours.
The bottom line here is that I would love to see WrestleMania in the United Kingdom. The idea of 100,000+ fans at Wembley is an exciting one, both for me, as a fan, and for WWE. The fact that we’re even having a serious conversation about it now, after decades of “it’ll never happen” being the dominant line of thinking, is a great sign. I’m merely concerned for what happens to NXT that year, as I have really come to enjoy their Mania weekend shows.
My question to you is a simple one…
Do YOU want to see WrestleMania in the United Kingdom one day? Why or why not? As always, hit me up in the comments section below, or on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage) if the fucking app is still working, and let me know what’s on your mind.
Weekly Power Rankings
The Usos vs Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa: I’m really running out of ways to praise the matches, promos, segments, and overall moments that The Bloodline are delivering on a regular basis.
Men’s Money In The Bank Ladder Match: A sprint of a Ladder Match, featuring wild action from bell-to-bell. Everyone involved looked strong, and while the winner might not be the one who the WWE Universe wanted, he’s the one who might have the most interesting stories as he carries the briefcase around.
Roderick Strong vs Samoa Joe: This gave me all the best flashbacks of watching old Ring Of Honor DVD’s on my living room couch. While Roddy looked strong in defeat, Joe continues to look like a motivated monster all over again, and now he gets to face CM Punk in the next round of the Owen Hart Cup. It will be their first singles match against each other since March 2005, when Joe beat Punk at a Frontier Wrestling Alliance show in England, three-and-a-half months after the final match in their classic Ring Of Honor trilogy.
Nathan Frazer vs Dragon Lee: The best Heritage Cup match we’ve seen in North America, but I still can’t help but feel this would’ve been better off as a regular match.
Sami Zayn vs Gunther: You know what? Gunther can go ahead and win until he feels like he wants to walk away from the sport. That’s fine with me at this point. He has earned it.
Tomohiro Ishii vs Jon Moxley: I hit you, you hit me, I hit you again, you hit me again, and we just continue hitting each other until one of us can’t hit the other one anymore. Simple, yet effective.
MJF vs Ethan Page: I know that Page was the hometown boy, but it was still strange to see him playing the strong babyface here. It worked, though. Really well, in fact.
Teasing WrestleMania In The United Kingdom: I think I’ve made my thoughts on this one pretty clear.
Women’s Money In The Bank Ladder Match: It was a well-worked match that saw the right person win, and featured a very creative finish. History says that the winner of the women’s briefcase won’t wait long to cash in, so… watch your backs, Rhea Ripley and (especially) Asuka.
Seth Rollins vs Finn Balor: It wasn’t a classic that is going to end up on a bunch of year-end lists, but that’s fine. Not every match has to be. The problem is that the match was really outshined by the opener and the main event of the same show. This was still a really fun match, though.
Carmelo Hayes vs Finn Balor: Back-to-back matches for Finn Balor listed, and the first of two for Melo. The NXT Champion looked like he really belonged in the ring with one of the best in the world, but that isn’t a surprise to anyone who has been watching Melo’s work.
Dustin Rhodes vs Powerhouse Hobbs: He still isn’t called on very often (six matches on television or pay-per-view in 2023), but when AEW does call on Dustin Rhodes, he continues to deliver. It really is incredible to see him continue delivering such quality performances.
Carmelo Hayes vs Baron Corbin: Lots of fun here. Corbin got to shine as a bully against a much smaller opponent, while Melo got to shine as a tough bastard who kept fighting. Even in a loss, Corbin gets to show what he’s capable of when booked right, and Melo picked up a win against someone who has been a champion on the main roster and, until this weekend, was the last man to pin Roman Reigns.
Cody Rhodes vs Damian Priest: I’ve been mentioning it in recent weeks, but it’s really worth pointing out now that Money In The Bank is over… it’s super weird to see how Priest has been booked recently. Before winning MITB, he took some high-profile losses on television, and that’s exactly why many people wrote him off as a briefcase winner.
Ricochet vs Shinsuke Nakamura: I’m really digging this feud between Ricochet, Nakamura, and Bronson Reed. No matter what combination of them are in a match together, it ends up being a lot of fun to watch. Sometimes, that’s all a wrestling feud needs to succeed.
Claudio Castagnoli vs Komander: There wasn’t a person on the planet who thought Komander was going to walk out of the match with the RoH Championship, but that seems to be a bit of a trend when it comes to title matches in AEW that aren’t held on Dynamite or pay-per-view. At least the match was good, so there’s that.
Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs Pretty Deadly: It’s only a matter of time until Pretty Deadly are champions on the main roster. Their act has translated really well since they left NXT. It just isn’t there time, as they’re unfortunately shining when such a strong duo is at the top of the tag division.
Gallus vs Edris Enofe & Malik Blade: In the past, I’ve mentioned that it doesn’t seem like Gallus has really connected with the NXT audience the way they probably should have by now. Because of that, I really thought they were going to drop their titles here, but their reign continues on. It was a strong showing for the challengers, who are getting better in the ring all the time.
Tiffany Stratton vs Thea Hail: Man, Thea Hail has so much future potential in the business. She isn’t even 20 years old yet, and she hasn’t reached two years since her in-ring debut, but she is capable of having good matches like this. Of course, it’s not like Tiffany Stratton is some grizzled veteran, either, as she’s only 24 and debuted a couple months after Thea did.
Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez: Congratulations on winning a set of titles that don’t mean anything, and might never mean anything again. What a stupid way to end the match, as Shayna Baszler decided to fight to keep the titles for a few minutes, then just figured she would attack her tag partner instead. To make it even better, we’re all waiting on the inevitable heel turn for Raquel, which might indicate YET ANOTHER short, pointless title reign in the brief history of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles.
This Week’s Playlist: “Nakamura” by Lil Uzi Vert… “CS” by Lil Uzi Vert… “Werewolf” by Lil Uzi Vert & Bring Me The Horizon… “The End” by Lil Uzi Vert & BABYMETAL… “You” by Wiz Khalifa & Ty Dolla $ign… “One Time” by 42 Dugg… “Eastside” by Jay Rock & Kal Banx… “We Didn’t Start The Fire” by Fall Out Boy… “MOJABI GHOST” by Tainy & Bad Bunny… “Damnation Flame” by Amaranthe… “CODE MISTAKE” by CORPSE & Bring Me The Horizon… “Scorpion” by 3TEETH… “Tainted Blood” by H.E.A.T… “Vertigo” by Make Way For Man… “Praise The War Machine” by Death Ray Vision… “Fall Of The Loyal Warrior” by Asinhell… “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” by Bone Thugs N Harmony… “1st Of Tha Month” by Bone Thugs N Harmony… “If You Love Me” by Brownstone… “5 Miles To Empty” by Brownstone