Paul Wedding
Get Caught Up On This Week's WrestleMania News.
We're less than a month away from WrestleMania 32 on April 3, brother. And with the Grandest Stage of Them All inching closer to AT&T Stadium every day, more and more news is coming out revealing the details of what will be happening come WrestleMania weekend.
Here's your fix of WrestleMania news for this week:
• WrestleMania 32 will break the all-time company attendance record.
Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that WrestleMania 32 is close to selling out with around 84,000 tickets already sold, a number that will officially break the all-time record for attendance at a WWE event. The record was previously held by the 1992 Summerslam event, which sold 79,127 tickets at Wembley Stadium. Some of you are probably wondering how this could surpass the WrestleMania III record of 93,173 tickets sold. Well, WWE is a business of carnies, and carnies like to lie and exaggerate to make themselves look better. The actual number of folks that attended WMIII was somewhere around 78,000. Don't be surprised if WWE boosts the number of tickets sold at this year's mania by 10,000 or 15,000 tickets as well.
See Also: Ranked. // The Five Best Wrestling Podcasts For Preparing Your Ass For WrestleMania 32, Brother.
• Jacqueline Moore and Stan Hansen will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
It was confirmed by the official WrestleMania 32 magazine that Jacqueline Moore and Stan Hansen will be the final two inductees in the 2016 class of the WWE Hall of Fame, which also includes The Fabulous Freebirds, Big Boss Man, The Godfather, and Sting.
Jacqueline first rose to prominence in the WWE during the attitude era, becoming a two-time Women's Champion, the first black woman to ever hold the title, and even defeating Chavo Guerrero for the Cruiserweight Championship in 2004, becoming the only woman ever to hold the now-defunct championship. She had also wrestled in World Championship Wrestling and United States Wrestling Association for years beforehand.
Stan Hansen is much less widely known in the United States, but he's a legend in Japan, where he spent the majority of his career. He did have a short stint with WWE (then the WWWF) in the '70s, having a series of matches with the world champion at the time, Bruno Sammartino, and returning for a short time in the early '80s as well. He then headed to All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he became a big, tough, mean, tobacco-spitting cowboy who was on hellbent on beating the shit out of as many small Japanese people as he could. Hansen is widely regarded as the greatest gaijin (Japanese word for foreigner) in history. He become a four-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion and an eight-time tag team champion in All Japan Pro Wrestling. Just look at him knocking the heads off of these people. What a man.
See Also: Going Raw. // Ten Things I Learned While Watching My First-Ever Monday Night Raw.
• The Hall of Fame is looking to go physical.
It's also worth mentioning that WWE has begun plans to build an actual Hall of Fame building in Universal Studios in Orlando, complete with a restaurant. It'll probably be similar to their former restaurant, WWF New York. Let's hope this is more similar to an actual Hall of Fame, and less like a Planet Hollywood.
See Also: Just Watch Wrestling Already. // How To Stop Worrying and Learn To Love the Powerbomb.
• WWE Roadblock is this Saturday night.
The fittingly-named WWE Roadblock is the last big wrestling event on schedule before WrestleMania 32. The card is kind of like a what-could-have-been for this year's Mania, with the main event being Triple H v. Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, as well as Bray Wyatt v. Brock Lesnar, which looked to be originally planned to happen at 'Mania. Both matches could be real barnburners if they're given the proper time to really showcase what they can do. Also on the card will be The New Day v. The League of Nations, composed of Sheamus and King Barrett, for the WWE Tag Team Championship. And in a unique occurrence, the NXT Tag Team Championship, a title from WWE's developmental brand, will be on the line as The Mechanics take on Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady, who are basically the new New Age Outlaws and are going to be over as fuck when they make their entrance. If you've never heard these guys on the microphone before, you're in for a treat.
See Also: Weighing In. // North Texas' Fiercest Indie Pro Wrestlers Chime In On WrestleMania 32.
