WrestleMania 32
WrestleMania 32 was a 2016 professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 32nd annual WrestleMania and took place on April 3, 2016, at the AT&T Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. This was the last WrestleMania held before the reintroduction of the brand extension in July, which introduced another world championship, the WWE Universal Championship, thus it was also the last WrestleMania to feature one world championship. It was also the third WrestleMania to be held in the U.S. state of Texas, after WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001 and WrestleMania 25 in 2009.
Twelve matches were contested at the event, including three on the Kickoff pre-show. Four matches were particularly considered to be the marquee attractions. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Triple H to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. In other prominent matches, The Undertaker defeated Shane McMahon in a Hell in a Cell match, Brock Lesnar defeated Dean Ambrose in a No Holds Barred Street Fight, and Charlotte defeated Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks to win the inaugural WWE Women's Championship, which replaced the WWE Divas Championship that Charlotte held going into the event and had been retired during the Kickoff show. The event was also notable for having the shortest WrestleMania match ever, when The Rock defeated Erick Rowan in an impromptu match. The André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal included the surprise participation of former National Basketball Association player Shaquille O'Neal; the match was won by NXT's Baron Corbin in his main roster debut.
According to WWE, WrestleMania 32 set multiple records for the company, including grossing $17.3 million and a claimed attendance record of 101,763. However, independent reports listed an attendance of 80,709, making it the third most attended wrestling event in the history of the medium. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon later admitted the attendance record "wasn't 101,000 paid" as it included "ushers and ticket takers and all of that".
Despite its commercial success, critics gave mixed-to-negative reviews for WrestleMania 32, and rated it worse than the NXT TakeOver: Dallas event WWE held two days prior. Praise went towards the opening ladder match, Styles vs. Jericho, and the Women's Championship match; criticism was focused on the main event, Ambrose vs. Lesnar, the Hell in a Cell match, the overall length of the event, and what were seen as questionable booking decisions, which were focused on the amount of heel victories outside of the opening match and main event. The show was voted as the "Worst Major Wrestling Show" of 2016 in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards, and readers of WrestleCrap, which chronicles the worst moments in professional wrestling, gave it the Gooker Award for the worst wrestling event of any kind in 2016. The main event title match drew particular criticism and resulted in negative and angry crowd reactions.
Production
Background
is WWE's flagship professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event, having first been held in 1985. It was the company's first pay-per-view produced and was also WWE's first major event available via livestreaming when the company launched the WWE Network in February 2014. It is the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". The event has been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. Much like the Super Bowl, cities bid for the right to host each year's edition of WrestleMania. As part of bidding process, Texas offered WWE $2.7 million in subsidies.Announced on January 20, 2015, WrestleMania 32 was scheduled to be held on April 3, 2016, at the AT&T Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. It was the third WrestleMania to be held in the U.S. state of Texas and the first to take place in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex area. It was also the second to be held in a FIFA World Cup stadium since the Pontiac Silverdome as it is one of the venues hosting matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Tickets went on sale on November 6, 2015, with individual tickets costing $18 to $2,360. On October 13, 2015, traveling packages with accommodation ranging from $575 to $6,625 per person were sold. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that WrestleMania 32 broke the WWE's record for most tickets sold with at least 84,000 tickets sold.
Jesse Lawrence of Forbes speculated that WrestleMania 32 could break the WWE attendance record of 93,173 set at WrestleMania III at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. This record stood as the highest attendance for any indoor event until the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, also held at AT&T Stadium, drew 108,713. However, Dave Meltzer reported that the actual WWE attendance record before WrestleMania 32 was the 1992 SummerSlam's 79,127, and that WrestleMania III's actual attendance was around 78,000.
The five official theme songs for the event were "My House", "Hello Friday", "Hail to the King", "Sympathy for the Devil", and "Oh No". On March 21, 2016, it was announced that the American girl group Fifth Harmony would be performing "America the Beautiful" during the WrestleMania 32 Kickoff pre-show.
WWE had been hobbled by real-life injuries to the wrestlers on its roster, rendering them unable to wrestle at WrestleMania 32. The injured list at the time included John Cena, Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, Cesaro, Neville, and Luke Harper. Meanwhile, Sting, Nikki Bella, and Tyson Kidd suffered neck injuries, with Kidd barely avoiding paralysis or death and Sting being forced to retire. Daniel Bryan was also forced to retire due to severe concussions. David Shoemaker, writing for ESPN, described that "it seems as if the talent left off the match lineup could sell more tickets than the one currently on it." Shoemaker also theorized possible reasons for injuries being firstly "WWE's grueling schedule", and secondly "the travel, the exhaustion, the lack of an offseason".
In March 2016, Daniel Van Doom of CNET wrote that WrestleMania 32 would see the culmination of "the biggest story in WWE", which is "establishing Roman Reigns as the top babyface". WWE's attempts to get Reigns the "level of recognition" of name like Hulk Hogan, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, and John Cena met its "toughest opponent" in the wrestling audience which started a "fan rebellion" in opposition to WWE's support of Reigns, with fans preferring Dean Ambrose instead. COED agreed that Reigns, whom WWE thought "has the most star power and wide-spread appeal", was "being feverishly rejected" with boos by WWE's audience. To combat this trend, WWE has taken measures including muting booing crowds and piping in canned cheers during Reigns's appearances in 2016. Kyle Fowle of The A.V. Club commented that "WWE has a serious Roman Reigns problem", due to "basically nobody wanting to see Roman Reigns in the main event" of WrestleMania.
Celebrity involvement
As is tradition at WrestleMania, the show included appearances by numerous celebrity guests. Fifth Harmony, who performed "America the Beautiful" at the start of WrestleMania 32, Maria Menounos served as a backstage interviewer, and Snoop Dogg – who the night before was inducted into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame – performed a live version for his cousin Sasha Banks' entrance theme as he accompanied her to the ring for her match.Joan Lunden was recognized as part of the 2016's WWE Hall of Fame class, as she won the Warrior Award for her public battle with breast cancer. NBA great Shaquille O'Neal was a surprise participant in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, eliminating Damien Sandow and having a standoff with fellow seven-footer Big Show before both of these two were eliminated by about ten other wrestlers, before Baron Corbin eliminated Kane to win the battle royal. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders also made an appearance as part of The Rock's entrance to the ring.
Storylines
The event comprised 12 matches, including three on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw and SmackDown.The storylines leading into WrestleMania 32 were not received well by critics. Jason Powell of Pro Wrestling Dot Net lamented that "the build to WrestleMania has been a creative mess", and that WWE's injury-hit roster does not excuse "sloppy booking or storylines with massive holes and logic gaps". Josh Hamlin of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter criticized, "There is no momentum for WrestleMania at all. The event sells itself purely on its brand name". Ben Tucker of Pro Wrestling Torch wrote, "Not since WrestleMania 13 has WWE's Super Bowl come together in such a bizarre fashion, with WWE making some of the most head-scratching decisions I've seen in ages". Kyle Fowle of The A.V. Club declared that WWE's "ship is headed straight for the rocks", and in particular "the WWE World Heavyweight Championship feud is a disaster".