WrestleMania Week Live Report - Anonymous Reader

I thought I'd send along a few live observations from WrestleMania weekend...

- The highly-recommended Mania Weekend has truly become quite the event. This was my second Mania, and the event has grown tremendously since I last attended one. Never seen two entire cities and states fully embrace WWE like N.Y. and N.J. did. Signs and billboards everywhere, etc.

- My weekend started with the Hall of Fame at MSG. I won't recap the actual event as that's been well-documented. However, I, along with many other people in attendance, was very disappointed by the crowd's behavior at times. From what I could see, the majority of disturbance came from the "cheap seats" in the upper sections of the Garden. They had announced before the event that hecklers would be ejected, but I didn't see one person get the boot. This was one of those times that you saw very clearly why advertisers and others in the mainstream still look down at wrestling.

- That takes me to WrestleMania at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. WWE really lucked out on the weather. People were having a fantastic time in the parking lot for hours tailgating, etc. It felt like an NFL game in August. Based on the line, and I mean LINES, I saw for the WrestleMania SuperStore all day (and the steady flow of traffic I saw in the days before), the company is going to absolutely shatter merchandise records. People were buying those 450-dollar WWE title belts like they were water, as well as all other belts. WWE was out of most of the WM event t-shirts on Saturday.

- I ran into Rita Benson LeBlanc (who is the daughter of Saints owner Tom Benson and was one of the people responsible for bringing WM30 to New Orleans next year) as well as several other reps from New Orleans in the store. They were clearly taking in all the sights to see how they can improve on this experience next year. Great idea.

- I've been to MetLife for many football games, and I've never seen so many people in that stadium. I don't know if the 80,767 number is a work, but based on my experiences there before, I totally believe that number. The lines for food and beer were long all night long to that point I felt they should’ve had more concessions open to meet the demand.

- I was sitting ringside in the floor section right in front of the hard camera (camera was to our back). Lots of notable names were also in my area. Shane McMahon's wife, Marissa, and their kids were in the row in front of me. They were there for the entire show and looked to be really enjoying themselves. Not one fan in the section bothered them. So, either nobody knew who she was or they just knew to let them enjoy the show.

- About an hour into the show, Donald Trump and his entire family arrived and took their seats in the row in front of Shane's family. Again, everyone was respectful to him and he was even shaking hands and taking pics with people around. He left during the Hunter-Brock match to get backstage for the HOF presentation before the Main Event. Also during the Hunter-Brock match, X-Pac came out and stood right next to our section to watch from the floor. He was there for the reminder of the show. In the next section over was Michael Strahan, Michelle Beadle, Snooki, etc. I was surprised there weren't more New York football stars or really any other area sports stars there.

- It goes without saying that the event was a spectacle. Undertaker's entrance was truly amazing. I've attended many PPVs/live events with Taker before, but this by far was next level. Just tremendous. By far the Match of the Night. Not sure how it sounded on TV, but the crowd was HOT for this. The crowd was also into Cena-Rock - especially the last ten minutes or so. Lots of boos for Cena, and they were both booed at the end of the night when they hugged, etc. The fans did not want to see that for sure.

- From my vantage point at ringside, the crowd was great. It was hard to contain the noise in an open-air venue like that, but they were loud to me.

- My weekend ended Monday with Raw. And, boy am I glad I went. I've been going to WWE shows for over 20 years and this was by far the best crowd I've ever been a part of (even counting some hot MSG shows). Just electric. You knew it was a juiced crowd when, during a commercial break, they popped hardcore for Hulk Hogan's "No Holds Barred" DVD commercial. When Ziggler won the title, the floor was shaking. And Cena did the right thing by thanking the crowd and playing into the moment at the end of the night. Fandago and Ziggler were made by the crowd.

- And that caps the weekend. What a great time.

One thing before I end this, I work for a very large (and I mean large) well-known media company that does a ton of charity work, etc. It comes off as really self-serving when WWE repeatedly plays those Make-A-Wish, Be A Star, and any other "good thing they do" promos. Especially on a Pay-Per-View that people paid a small fortune for. I get that they want to be accepted by the mainstream, but this isn't the way. It really comes off tacky. You don't see other companies doing that.

Anyways, the Road to WrestleMania XXX begins and I hope to be there next year!

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