Last year’s WrestleMania was too big for just one night, and it seems that this year’s WrestleMania is really too big for just two days.

WWE is putting out 8 consecutive days of pro wrestling content that started with Raw on 4/5 and concludes with NXT’s first Tuesday show on 4/13.

There will be hits and misses along the way, but it’s a lock that we’ll have some interesting surprises, plenty of title changes, and a lot of fun!

As I’m traveling to Tampa to attend Mania live, this issue is a little different than the gigantic news dump that you normally get with the Body Slam Brigade newsletter every week.

Instead of endless amounts of news, I’ll talk about just three things.

It’s true that this year’s Mania is missing all those names, but I’m encouraged to see a couple of sleeper matches: Cesaro v. Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn v. Kevin Owens.

Cesaro has never had the opportunity to compete in a one on one match at WrestleMania, but there has always been such a strong undercurrent of support for him. This will be the biggest match of his career, and he will likely be more driven than usual to deliver an excellent match.

Zayn v. Owens is a match that we’ve seen many times before. It’s a tale told over multiple companies and multiple WWE brands, but that tale is now being brought to the biggest stage possible.

I bring those two matches up because while they don’t have a ton of attention, they could easily be the show stealing match each night.

As for the rest of the card, I see a ton of potential for each match to deliver something great.

2. WrestleMania Stats and Figures

My story goes back to WrestleMania IV, which was one of the first videos I remember renting from our local video store. I can remember watching that VCR tape and becoming completely mesmerized by Randy Savage’s huge championship win.

After reading newsletters and articles from 1988, I have come to understand that not everyone was as captivated by WrestleMania IV as me.

The tournament to crown a new WWE Champion was full of short matches, non-finishes, and head scratching results.

Still, I became a fan of wrestling by watching Randy Savage’s four match ascent to the WWF Championship.

I told that story and many others in an interview on the Wrestling Heroes and Insiders Podcast (aka The WHIP Show).

Give a listen if you’re curious to know more about me and my relationship with wrestling and how I came to start this newsletter.

Ryan Joy