Wrestlemania 33 is on Sunday. This is, without question, the biggest and best weekend of every calendar year. Everyday in the world of sports and entertainment people in suits are sending each other emails and they are sitting in meetings and they are video conferencing and holding corporate retreats and they are using analytical data from polls and surveys and focus groups; all in an effort to figure out how to get their brand and their events to the next level. Everyone wants to give you something grandiose, something epic, something memorable. It isn’t hard to see how hard they try either. From NFL owners tweaking their game constantly to keep your attention, to the NCAA taking two decades to conjure up a playoff system they pray you will respect, to MLB putting high stakes into All Star Games and winner take all play-in playoff games; these entities cannot quite earn your loyalty, respect, and most importantly, your dollars year in and year out. Everyone wants to have the biggest and best roller coaster, but there can only be one “Space Mountain.”
In 1985, Vince McMahon created the quintessential annual American event, which in turn became the quintessential global event. While sports like football can put on the Super Bowl, it is still just football. Hell, many times the commercials during that event are better than the event itself. The NFL wishes the Super Bowl could deliver like Wrestlemania. And that is what separates Wrestlemania from all of those other so-called “big events.” Wrestlemania never fails to deliver. It never has and it never will. It is a formula for excitement nobody can duplicate. The high stakes of a Super Bowl with the drama of the Academy Awards are what make it the “Ultimate Thrill Ride.”
Wrestlemania is, no joke, the event that brings out the best in people. It’s families, friends, and strangers all coming together, not just for not fake fights or any of the stuff on the surface of a pro wrestling match, but for sheer excitement. People simply want to be entertained and put on a roller coaster of emotion. They want to feel something and no event makes you feel more than Wrestlemania. Unlike the Super Bowl, it is not just the elite in attendance. Rich and poor, young and old, and everyone marks their calendars each year for the “Granddaddy of Them All.” No event brings more people from more nations, backgrounds, religions, sexual orientations, or any other category you want to put humans in. This weekend, they will all be there in Orlando and they will all be there for some different reason in regards to the draw, but they all are there because everyone loves a thrill ride.