I have been a WWE fan on-and-off over the years. From watching the odd show and Royal Rumble as a child, to watching full-time throughout the Attitude Era, and then barely watching any again until the NXT Black and Gold Era and getting back into the main shows during COVID.
This trip consisted of three of us – Nick, who didn’t arrive in Philadelphia until Friday, our mutual friend Becs, who came down from New York on Friday, and myself – whom had been with Becs in New York, until getting to Philadelphia a day early on Thursday.
I stayed in the same hotel as Nick so we met up on Friday afternoon after I had wondered around Philadelphia. In hindsight, I regret not going to more independent wrestling shows. I only did the WrestleCon: The Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow at the 2300 Arena (FKW the ECW Arena) on Thursday night. By the time I decided I wanted to go to GCW: Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport, and the Wrestling REVOLVER & House of Glory Wrestling joint show, tickets were sold out.
The first time all three of us met up was when Becs’ brother picked us up to take us to WWE Smackdown on the Friday night. He lives in Pennsylvania and was coming to this show but not WrestleMania.
Smackdown was good, but to be honest the Hall of Fame Ceremony afterwards was too long and we even left early. Was great that Paul Heyman went in first. Was the only speech I really enjoyed to be honest.
On Saturday morning I went to the NXT Stand & Deliver show, which had an 11:00am entrance and midday start. Never been to a wrestling show so early! Was also a long journey from our hotel.
NXT put on a great show, which included Roxanne Perez winning the Women’s Championship, Ilja Dragunov defending his NXT Championship, and Trick Williams defeating former ally Carmelo Hayes in the main event.
I had a great view on the floor, the second row in from the entrance ramp:
Afterwards I would meet up with Becs and Nick, grab some food before it would be time for the reason we were all together in Philadelphia… WrestleMania XL itself.
Doors were at 6pm and the show began at 7pm. It was cold at the start and freezing by the end on night one! That really had a negative effect on the atmosphere I feel.
That match of the night was certainly the Six-Pack Ladder Match, which included Johnny Gargano, Tomasso Ciampa, Peter Dunne, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, The Miz and Damian Priest. Unfortunately, Gargano and Ciampa didn’t win either of the Tag titles that were on the lnie!
We also got to see Rhea Ripley successfully defend her Women’s World Championship against Becky Lynch in the opening match of the event. We were sitting in the second tier, $800 tickets and the wrestlers were the size of peas. I reckon I watched 80% of the in-ring action with my own eyes and the other 20% on the screen above the ring. The top left corner of the ring was a little obstructed by the rigging around the ring.
Got to see many of my favourite wrestlers in person on night one – Rey Mysterio, Andrade, Santos Escobar, Asuka, Bianca Belair, Kairi Sane, Gunther, Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins and The Rock.
We’d seen The Rock in person for the first time at the Hall of Fame show on Friday night. He was actually at the WWE World at WrestleMania event I attended on Thursday but I’d left before he showed up to check in to my AirBNB and then head to the ECW Arena. Otherwise I could have seen in four consecutive nights in a row.
On Saturday morning we did a little bit of tourism which included getting a photo next to the Rocky Balboa statue:
Then we headed to the WWE World at WrestleMania event. I’d actually come down to Philadelphia a day early to attend it on my own as there was an opportunity to get a photo with my favourite wrestler, Johnny Gargano. Unfortunately, wrestlers were only on stage for 55 minutes and I was 90 minutes back in the queue. I was genuintely devasted! This is the only photo I got of Johnny Wrestling:
Heartbreaking. I did get photos with Tony D’Angelo, Chelsea Green, Carlito, Fallon Henley, JD McDonaugh and Ivy Nile, but I’ve have traded them all away for one with Johnny Gargano! Hopefully there’s a chance to meet my favourite wrestler in person further down the road.
Once again we arrived at Lincoln Financial Field around 6pm for a show start of 7pm. There were 7 matches each night, finishing around 11pm each time.
The opening match on night two saw Drew McIntyre beat Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship, only for Damian Priest to cash in his Money in the Bank and win the title. I am not one to read the rumour mill, listen to previews and predictions etc., but I did lean over to Becs secodns before Priest’s entrance music hit to say “Surely Damian Priest will cash in now?”.
Atmosphere was much better on show 2 – notably when Bayley was in the ring we could hear chants of “Heeeeeeeey Bayley, Ooooh Ahhh I wanna knoooooooow if you’ll be my girl” to the tune of DJ Ötzi’s Hey Baby song. And I knew these pockets of chants were from fellow Brits scattered around the stadium because we’re the only fans that seem to chant that! The Americans certainly don’t.
As well as Bayley, there were lots more of my favourite superstars I got to see in-person on Sunday, including Montez Ford, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Randy Orton and Iyo Sky.
The main event was epic – even though Nick had spoiled it for me by reading off the rumours everyone had been predicting earlier in the week. Annoying because it would have been even more epic if I hadn’t known these were coming. It included The Undertaker and John Cena interferring.
I was buzzing after both shows, buzzing after NXT, buzzing after the indy show I attended. Buzzing for most of my time in Philadelphia!
It was an expensive trip though, but if you’re a WWE fan I would certainly recommend saving for WrestleMania if you can!