WrestleMania Fan Axxess

WrestleMania Axxess
WrestleMania XXVIII Axxess in 2012
StatusActive
GenreProfessional wrestling
CountryUnited States
Inaugurated1988
Organized byWWE
Filing statusCorporate

WWE World at WrestleMania, formerly known as WrestleMania Axxess, is a professional wrestling fan convention held by WWE during the week of WrestleMania. The event typically runs for four to five days—from Thursday to Sunday or Monday—and features WWE talent and alumni autograph signings, interviews, fan activities, memorabilia displays, meet-and-greets, and matches. WrestleMania Axxess was briefly discontinued from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but was relaunched as WWE World at WrestleMania beginning with WrestleMania XL in 2024.

History

The first event happened in 1988, when the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) in association with The Trump Organization prepared a small festival to celebrate WrestleMania IV. It included autograph signings, a brunch, and a five kilometer run; the event was held again in 1989 for WrestleMania V. In 1992, a festival was held the day of WrestleMania VIII which included a WWF wrestler look-alike contest and a tournament for the WWF WrestleFest arcade game. In 1993, the WWF held a "WrestleMania Brunch" the day of WrestleMania IX at Caesars Palace, during the course of which Lex Luger attacked Bret Hart. In 1994, the WWF offered "Fan Fest" for the weekend of WrestleMania X, which allowed fans to step inside a WWF ring, participate in games, meet wrestlers, and purchase merchandise; the event was followed up in 1995 with another "Fan Fest" for WrestleMania XI. In 1999, the WWF held its first Saturday pre-WrestleMania event taking place on March 27, 1999. WrestleMania Rage Party, as it was known, was televised live on the USA Network from 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (EST). The event was to be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The idea of the event was "...to celebrate the final WrestleMania of the millennium..."[1][2]

The following year, the WWF held its first WrestleMania Axxess event at the Anaheim Convention Center expanding upon the party idea of WrestleMania Rage Party. The event included autograph signings and mementos of inductees of the WWE Hall of Fame. There were also activities where fans could enter a wrestling ring and commentate a wrestling match.[3] In 2001, WrestleMania Axxess was held at the Reliant Hall which expanded upon the event by adding numerous activities including areas where attendees could buy special merchandise, see a production truck, and check out special WWE vehicles.[4] In 2002, WrestleMania Axxess was extended to a three-day event and was held at the National Trade Centre (now Enercare Centre).[5][6] The three-day event included similar activities to that of the one-day line-up.[6] In 2007, WrestleMania Axxess went on tour around cities in both the United States and Canada. In recent years, Axxess has become a four-day event, with one session on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, and three sessions on Saturday.

Since 2013, NXT matches have been held at WrestleMania Axxess, and since 2017, matches from various independent promotions have been held, such as Insane Championship Wrestling, Progress Wrestling, and Evolve.[7][8] In 2018, WWE held four invitational tournaments for NXT championship matches. The winners of the WWE United Kingdom Championship Invitational, NXT North American Championship Invitational, NXT Tag Team Championship Invitational, and NXT Women's Championship Invitational tournaments received matches for the respective titles on April 8.[8]

WWE cancelled the traditional WrestleMania Axxess events since 2020 due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently announced that the 2022 event during WrestleMania 38 weekend will be replaced by a Superstore Axxess shop with superstar panels and premium experiences. Unlike previous events, no live wrestling matches and only a limited amount of autograph signings were involved for the 2023 event.[9][10]

For WrestleMania XL in April 2024, WWE relaunched the event under a new name of WWE World at WrestleMania, which was done in partnership with Fanatics Events and held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.[11] The event runs from Thursday, April 4 until Monday, April 8. The five-day event includes interview panel sessions with WWE wrestlers, a WWE 2K24 gaming tournament, live podcast recordings, meet-and-greets with wrestlers, and a large merchandise store with various memorabilia honoring WrestleMania's 40-year history.[12]

WrestleMania Superstore

Merchandise shop at WrestleMania XXVIII Axxess

Every year during the week leading up to WrestleMania, the WrestleMania Superstore is open at WrestleMania Axxess. The WrestleMania Superstore has "the largest selection of WrestleMania and WWE merchandise under one roof". It has over 700 items and includes exclusive Superstore-only merchandise. The store is open to the public, and no ticket is required.[13]

WWE Superstar statue

Beginning in 2013, WWE has honored a Legend Superstar by unveiling a real-size statue at WrestleMania Axxess. This has not occurred every year, with no statue being unveiled in 2018 and 2023. (Excluding 2020 and 2021 when there was no convention following the COVID-19 pandemic.) In 2024 Bray Wyatt got two statues, one which shows him being the normal Bray Wyatt and one which shows him in the updated ”The Fiend” Bray Wyatt gear that he never got to use to wear in ring.[14]

Date Location Venue Statue WrestleMania Ref
April 3, 2013 East Rutherford, New Jersey Izod Center André the Giant
(André Roussimoff)
29 [15]
April 3, 2014 New Orleans, Louisiana Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Bruno Sammartino XXX [16]
March 26, 2015 San Jose, California San Jose Convention Center The Ultimate Warrior
(James Brian Hellwig)
31 [17]
March 31, 2016 Dallas, Texas Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dusty Rhodes
(Virgil Runnels Jr.)
32 [18]
March 30, 2017 Orlando, Florida Orange County Convention Center Ric Flair
(Richard Morgan Fliehr)
33 [19]
April 4, 2019 Brooklyn, New York Pier 12 "Rowdy" Roddy Piper
(Roderick George Toombs)
35 [14]
March 31, 2022 Dallas, Texas Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center The Undertaker
(Mark Calaway)
38 [20]
April 6, 2024 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Convention Center Bray Wyatt
(Windham Lawrence Rotunda)
XL [21]
April 18, 2025 Las Vegas, Nevada Fontainebleau Las Vegas Triple H
(Paul Michael Levesque)
41

Wrestling shows

WrestleMania Date(s) Venue Location Main event Notes Ref
16 April 1, 2000 Anaheim Convention Center Anaheim, California N/A
17 March 31, 2001 Reliant AstroHall Houston, Texas N/A
18 March 14-15, 2002 National Trade Centre Toronto, Ontario, Canada Crash Holly vs. Tommy Dreamer
Hardcore Holly vs. Maven
25 April 2-5, 2009 Reliant Center Houston, Texas Jimmy Wang Yang vs. Paul Burchill
Cryme Tyme (JTG and Shad) vs. Ezekiel Jackson and Brian Kendrick
Goldust vs. Mike Knox
Dolph Ziggler vs. Sim Snuka
26 March 26-27, 2010 Phoenix Convention Center Phoenix, Arizona Justin Gabriel vs. Michael Tarver
Jimmy Wang Yang vs. Vance Archer
27 March 31-April 2, 2011 Georgia World Congress Center Atlanta, Georgia Daniel Bryan vs. Ted DiBiase Jr.
Rob Dyrdek and Roddy Piper vs. Tyson Kidd and Zack Ryder
Drew McIntyre vs. Chris Masters
28 March 29-April 1, 2012 Miami Beach Convention Center Miami Beach, Florida The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) vs. Epico and Primo in a non title match
Seth Rollins vs. Antonio Cesaro
Santino Marella vs. Dolph Ziggler in a falls count anywhere match
Big E. Langston, Bo Dallas, and Husky Harris vs. Antonio Cesaro, Damien Sandow, and Kenneth Cameron in a six man tag team match
29 April 4-6, 2013 IZOD Center East Rutherford, New Jersey Ezekiel Jackson and Yoshi Tatsu vs. Camacho and Hunico
Sasha Banks vs. Audrey Marie
R-Truth vs. Heath Slater
Sami Zayn vs. Corey Graves
30 April 5-6, 2014 Ernest N. Morial Convention Center New Orleans, Louisiana Paige (c) vs. Charlotte for the WWE NXT Women's Championship
Adrian Neville (c) vs. CJ Parker vs. Tyler Breeze in a triple threat match for the WWE NXT Championship
31 March 26-29, 2015 San Jose McEnery Convention Center San Jose, California N/A Featured a qualifier tournament for the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal which aired on NXT on April 8, 2015.
Hideo Itami vs. Finn Balor
Adrian Neville and Baron Corbin vs. CJ Parker and Mike Rawlis
32 March 31-April 3, 2016 Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas, Texas Colin Cassady and Enzo Amore (w/Carmella) vs. Blake and Murphy (w/Alexa Bliss) Matches were taped as part of NXT
Apollo Crews vs. Elias Samson
Patrick Clark and Tye Dillinger vs. Blake and Murphy
Adrian Neville and Baron Corbin vs. CJ Parker and Mike Rawlis
33 March 30-April 2, 2017 Orange County Convention Center Orlando, Florida TJ Perkins vs. Gran Metalik
Macey Estrella vs. Daria Berenato
Riddick Moss and Tino Sabbatelli vs. ??? and ???
Tyler Bate (c) vs. Pete Dunne for the WWE United Kingdom Championship
34 April 5-April 8, 2018 Ernest N. Morial Convention Center New Orleans, Louisiana Kairi Sane vs. Bianca Belair in a WWE NXT Women's Championship invitational first round match Featured wrestlers from World Wrestling Network
Pete Dunne vs. Morgan Webster
Chris Dickinson & Jaka (w/Stokely Hathaway) (c) vs. Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan for the Evolve Tag Team Championship
Adam Cole (c) vs. Akira Tozawa for the WWE NXT North American Championship
35 April 4-8, 2019 Brooklyn Pier 12 Brooklyn, New York Roderick Strong vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Ariya Daivari vs. Dave Mastiff vs. Dominik Dijakovic vs. Drew Gulak vs. Eric Bugenhagen vs. Fabian Aichner vs. Humberto Carrillo vs. Joe Coffey vs. Ligero vs. Mark Coffey vs. Matt Riddle vs. Rinku Singh vs. Saurav Gurjar vs. Steve Cutler vs. Brian Kendrick vs. Travis Banks vs. Tyler Bate vs. Wesley Blake Featured tapings for the Worlds Collide specials
Jordan Devlin vs. Akira Tozawa
Tyler Breeze vs. Roderick Strong
WALTER vs. Jordan Devlin in a non title match
Toni Storm (c) vs. Bianca Belair vs. Nikki Cross in a triple threat match for the WWE NXT UK Women's Championship
41 April 17-21, 2025 Las Vegas Convention Center Las Vegas, Nevada Myles Borne (w/Wren Sinclair) vs. Harlem Lewis
No Quarter Catch Crew (Myles Borne and Tavion Heights) (w/Wren Sinclair) vs. The Culling (Brooks Jensen and Niko Vance)
Myles Borne vs. Harlem Lewis
Fraxiom (Axiom and Nathan Frazer) vs. The Culling (Brooks Jensen and Niko Vance)
Hank and Tank (Hank Walker and Tank Ledger) (c) vs. No Quarter Catch Crew (Myles Borne and Tavion Heights) for the WWE NXT Tag Team Championship
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

See also

References

  1. ^ "WrestleMania Rage Party Kicks Off WrestleMania XV On Saturday, March 27 to be Televised Live From 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. On USA Network". Stamford, Connecticut, United States: WWE. 1999-03-26. Retrieved 2010-11-06.
  2. ^ "WrestleMania XV Facts/Stats". WWE.com. Archived from the original on 2005-11-29. Retrieved 2010-11-06.
  3. ^ Oliver, Greg (2000-04-01). "Fans get Axxess to WWF stars". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on August 3, 2012. Retrieved 2010-11-06.
  4. ^ Oliver, Greg (2001-03-31). "Access improved at WWF Fan Axxcess". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved 2010-11-06.
  5. ^ "WrestleMania X-8 to be held at Toronto's SkyDome on March 17, 2002". Corporate.WWE.com. 2001-09-03. Archived from the original on March 3, 2005. Retrieved 2010-11-06.
  6. ^ a b Powell, Jon (2002-03-17). "Axxess ends with a whimper not a bang". SLAM Wrestling!. Archived from the original on July 14, 2012. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
  7. ^ "PROGRESS and ICW Talent to Appear at WM33 Axxess". Pro Wrestling Sheet. March 21, 2017. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  8. ^ a b WWE.com Staff (April 2, 2018). "WrestleMania Axxess to feature four invitational tournaments, PROGRESS and EVOLVE Wrestling action and more". WWE.com. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  9. ^ "411Mania".
  10. ^ "WWE Advertising "Surprise Guest" for WrestleMania 38 Weekend Superstar Panel". 18 March 2022.
  11. ^ Powell, John (February 19, 2024). "WWE World replacing WrestleMania Fan Axxess". SLAM! Wrestling. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
  12. ^ Carey, Ian (February 19, 2024). "WWE, Fanatics reveal details of 'WWE World' at WrestleMania". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
  13. ^ "WrestleMania Superstore". WWE.com. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  14. ^ a b "WWE Hall of Fame statue to be revealed at WrestleMania Axxess". WWE. April 3, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  15. ^ WWE (3 April 2013). "Triple H Reveals Life Size Statue of Andre the Giant" – via YouTube.
  16. ^ "Triple H reveals Bruno Sammartino statue at WrestleMania Axxess".
  17. ^ "Ultimate Warrior statue revealed at WrestleMania Axxess | WWE".
  18. ^ "Dusty Rhodes statue unveiled at WrestleMania Axxess".
  19. ^ "Ric Flair Statue Being Made For WrestleMania 33 Axxess". 24 January 2017.
  20. ^ "The Undertaker's statue revealed at WrestleMania Axxess". 31 March 2022.
  21. ^ "Bray Wyatt statue World at Wrestlemania 2024".