WrestleMania 23
WrestleMania 23 | |||
---|---|---|---|
Promotion World Wrestling Entertainment | | ||
Brand(s) | Raw SmackDown! ECW | ||
Date | April 1, 2007 | ||
City | Detroit, Michigan | ||
Venue | Ford Field | ||
Attendance | 74,287[1] | ||
Buy rate | 1,250,000[2] | ||
Tagline(s) | All Grown Up[3] | ||
Pay-per-view chronology | |||
| |||
WrestleMania chronology | |||
|
WrestleMania 23 was the 23rd annual
Eight professional wrestling matches were scheduled for the event, which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. The main event of the show, which was the main match on the Raw brand, was John Cena versus Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship, in which Cena won. The predominant match on the SmackDown! brand was Batista versus The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship, in which The Undertaker was victorious. The primary match on the ECW brand saw ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley (representing Donald Trump) defeat Raw's Intercontinental Champion Umaga (representing Vince McMahon) in a match where either Trump or McMahon would be shaved bald if their wrestler lost. The match was billed as the "Battle of the Billionaires". Other featured matches included an eight-man tag team match between The ECW Originals and The New Breed and an eight-man interpromotional Money in the Bank ladder match.
Tickets for the event went on sale on November 11, 2006. The event set the all-time Ford Field attendance record of 80,103 people; people from all fifty U.S. states, twenty-four countries, and nine Canadian provinces attended the event. WrestleMania 23
Production
Background
The
Though it took three weeks to fully prepare Ford Field, set assembly began the week before WrestleMania 23 and was completed shortly before the day of the event.[14] It took a week for 300 staff members, unloading and working from forty semi-trucks, to build the set and assemble the event's lighting within Ford Field, far more than the usual forty hours, 100 staff members, and fourteen semi-trucks required for the production of WWE's weekly television events.[12][13] After the event concluded, it took around thirty hours to disassemble the set and lighting, also far more than the usual three hours required for WWE's weekly television events.[12][14]
Storylines
WrestleMania 23 featured professional wrestling matches involving wrestlers from existing scripted feuds and storylines played out on WWE's television programs. Wrestlers portrayed faces (heroes) or heels (villains) as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a match or a series of matches.[16][17]
The main
The main rivalry on the Raw brand was between
I will have your back until WrestleMania. I've turned against all my partners and more importantly, I've stabbed all my friends in the back. But with you, John, it's different.
After Michaels defeated Orton, Cena ran-down to the ring and saved Michaels from an attack by Edge and Orton.[23] On the final Raw before WrestleMania, Cena and Michaels would team up to face Batista and Undertaker in a rematch from their match at No Way Out. Cena and Michaels looked set to win after performing a synchronized Five Knuckle Shuffle, but Michaels turned on Cena and superkicked him, which allowed Batista and Undertaker to win the match.[24]
The main feud on the SmackDown! brand was between Batista and The Undertaker over the World Heavyweight Championship. Undertaker won the 2007 Royal Rumble match to earn a championship match against any one of WWE's three world championships (WWE, World Heavyweight, or ECW). On the February 5 episode of Raw, Undertaker chose to challenge Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship when he
The main feud on the ECW brand was between two teams of four; The
The last major feud involved eight men. Several weeks before WrestleMania 23, it was announced that the
At No Way Out,
Event
Role: | Name: |
---|---|
English commentators | Jim Ross (Raw) |
Jerry Lawler (Raw) | |
Michael Cole (SmackDown!) | |
John "Bradshaw" Layfield (SmackDown!)
| |
Joey Styles (ECW) | |
Tazz (ECW)
| |
Spanish commentators | Carlos Cabrera |
Hugo Savinovich | |
Interviewer
|
Todd Grisham |
Ring announcer | Lilian Garcia (Raw/Money In The Bank) |
Tony Chimel (SmackDown!) | |
Justin Roberts (ECW) | |
Howard Finkel (WWE Hall of Fame) | |
Theodore Long (Batista/Undertaker match) | |
Referee | Charles Robinson (SmackDown!) |
Jim Korderas (SmackDown!)
| |
Mickie Henson (SmackDown!) | |
Marty Elias (Raw) | |
Jack Doan (Raw) | |
Mike Chioda (Raw) | |
Chad Patton (Raw) | |
Scott Armstrong (ECW) | |
Stone Cold Steve Austin (Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga) |
Pre-show
Before the event went live on pay-per-view,
The event officially began with Aretha Franklin singing a rendition of "America the Beautiful", reprising her role from twenty years earlier at WrestleMania III.[28]
Preliminary matches
In the first match that aired,
The next match was billed as a "SmackDown! versus Raw Interpromotional match". Raw's The Great Khali faced SmackDown!'s Kane. It was a short match but contained a notable spot. In homage to Hulk Hogan slamming André the Giant twenty years earlier at WrestleMania III, Kane picked up Khali for the first time and body-slammed him to the mat. The match ended with Khali pinning Kane after a Giant Chokeslam. After the match, Khali choked Kane out with Kane's chained hook, which was a reference to Kane's movie, See No Evil, where his character used the hook as a signature weapon.[28]
A backstage segment was featured next, which involved
In the fourth match, Chris Benoit faced Montel Vontavious Porter for the United States Championship. The match started off with a chain of takedowns, holds, and reversals, with MVP keeping up with Benoit, even going for some submission holds. The match lasted almost ten minutes, with Benoit attempting to lock in some of his signature submission holds, but MVP successfully reversed them, including the Crippler Crossface. The two exchanged suplexes and holds until Benoit executed a Diving headbutt on MVP, which led to Benoit getting the pinfall victory to retain the WWE United States Championship. This was Benoit's last WrestleMania match.[28]
Main event matches
Long-time ring announcer Howard Finkel then introduced the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2007. The next match featured Batista defending the World Heavyweight Championship against The Undertaker. The match started with Batista performing a Spear on Undertaker as the bell sounded. The match went back and forth, with both men countering each other and performing their finishers. Undertaker performed a Chokeslam, but Batista kicked out of the pinfall attempt. Undertaker was then able to perform a Last Ride to Batista for a near-fall. Midway through the match, Undertaker performed an Over The Top Rope Suicide Dive on Batista. At one point, Batista was able to perform a running powerslam on Undertaker through a broadcast table. Back in the ring, Batista executed a Spinebuster followed by a Batista Bomb for a near-fall. Undertaker then pinned Batista following a Tombstone piledriver to become the World Heavyweight Champion and emerge from WrestleMania with his winning streak intact. The Undertaker's win made him the first wrestler to have won both the World Heavyweight Championship and the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.[28]
The match that WWE billed as the "Battle of the Billionaires" was next, as
The next match was Melina against Ashley in a Lumberjill Match for the WWE Women's Championship. The match was short, as Melina Bridge pinned Ashley to retain the title. After the match, the lumberjills began brawling in the ring.[28]
The main event was John Cena against Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship. Cena made a grand entrance by driving a Ford Mustang through the streets of Detroit and smashing through a glass panel upon entering the stadium. After a back-and-forth match, the longest of the night, Cena applied the STF on Michaels, Michaels submitted and Cena retained the title. Following the match, Cena embraced while holding his retained championship and offered to shake hands with Michaels, who refused and walked away. He soon turned back and Cena saluted him before walking back into the ring as he celebrated with pyrotechnics and confetti filling the Ford Field.[28]
Reception
The event received generally positive reviews.
Aftermath
John Cena and Shawn Michaels continued their feud, with Michaels betraying Cena the night after WrestleMania on Raw. During the second of two battle royals, Michaels eliminated himself and Cena, resulting in The Hardys winning the World Tag Team Championship.[34] On the Raw before Backlash, Cena and Michaels wrestled an almost hour long non-title match, which Michaels won.[35]
Batista also continued his feud with The Undertaker, facing off against him in a
Bobby Lashley's feud with Vince McMahon continued for a further three months after the event. Vince, livid after being embarrassed at WrestleMania, vowed to destroy Lashley and take his
The match between Chris Benoit and Montel Vontavious Porter expanded into a lengthy feud for the WWE United States Championship, resulting in Benoit retaining via pinfall at Backlash and MVP winning the title in a Two out of three falls match at Judgment Day, winning 2–0.[38]
The feud between the ECW Originals and the New Breed continued, with the New Breed defeating the ECW Originals in an
Mr. Kennedy lost his Money in the Bank contract to Edge on the May 7 episode of Raw, after Edge defeated Kennedy in a match with the briefcase on the line. Kennedy would be the only Money in the Bank contract holder to never cash in the briefcase until Otis in 2020. On the May 11, 2007, episode of SmackDown!, after the Undertaker retained the World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage match against Batista via a draw and was attacked by Mark Henry, Edge successfully cashed the contract in on a beaten-down Undertaker and won the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time in his career.
This was the last WrestleMania ever to be in 4:3 format until January 2008 when it went to high definition.
Sponsorship controversy
Rockford-Montgomery Labs, through their brand 360 OTC, was named as the official sponsor of the event. On January 19, 2008, WWE filed a lawsuit against the company alleging non-payment of the sponsorship funds.[40] A similar lawsuit was also filed by NASCAR Cup Series team Bill Davis Racing, which had run WWE and WrestleMania 23 sponsorship as part of their sponsorship deal with 360 OTC.[41][42]
Results
No. | Results dark match |
---|
- Snitskyfrom ECW.
- Mr. McMahon.
- Trinity and Victoria.
See also
- Donald Trump's CNN bodyslam tweet
References
- ^ Observer Staff (April 14, 2014). "Apr 14 2014 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Most newsworthy week in years, WrestleMania, Hall of Fame, post-Mania Raw, death of Ultimate Warrior, so much more". f4wonline.com. Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Archived from the original on July 13, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
93,173 (WrestleMania III), 80,676 (WM 29), 80,355 (SummerSlam 1992 at Wembley Stadium) and 80,103 (WM 23). The real numbers for those shows were 78,000, 72,000, 78,927 and 74,287.
- ^ "WWF Pay-Per-View Buys (1993-2015)". Wrestlenomics. March 25, 2020. Archived from the original on October 21, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
- ^ "WWE WrestleMania 23 - "All Grown Up" « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net. Archived from the original on August 1, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
- ^ "WWE/WWF Pay-Per-View (PPV) Buys (Buyrates)". Wrestlenomics. 2020-03-25. Archived from the original on 2021-10-21. Retrieved 2024-04-06.
- ^ "WrestleMania Blows Away Attendance Record At Ford Fields". Archived from the original on April 18, 2007. Retrieved April 2, 2007.
- ^ "WrestleMania X8 Sets Revenue, Attendance Records". WWE. Archived from the original on February 3, 2007. Retrieved January 16, 2007.
- ^ "Q2007Presentation" (PDF). WWE. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 10, 2007. Retrieved January 16, 2007.
- ^ "WrestleMania breaks more records". WWE. Archived from the original on April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
- ^ "WrestleMania 29 press conference brings WWE to Radio City Music Hall". WWE. Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
... WWE's flagship event lights up MetLife Stadium ... WrestleMania
- ^ Ian Hamilton. Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition (p. 160)
- ^ )
- ^ a b c d "Big stadium set lets designer push the limits". The Detroit News. 2007-03-28. Retrieved 2008-01-13.[dead link]
- ^ a b c "WrestleMania gets bigger and brighter". WWE. 2007-02-15. Archived from the original on 2008-02-26. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
- ^ a b c "Vector Guides Bandit and WrestleMania 23 as they put on the Most Impressive Show to Date!". Compulite. 2007-04-10. Archived from the original on 2018-11-18. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
- ^ "What's in an Entrance?". WWE. Archived from the original on 2008-01-17. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
- Discovery Communications. Archivedfrom the original on November 29, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
- ^ "Live & Televised Entertainment". WWE. Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
- ^ Dee, Louie (January 8, 2007). ""Trumps" O'Donnell". WWE. Archived from the original on September 19, 2018. Retrieved November 6, 2007.
- ^ Starr, Noah (January 29, 2007). "Has he made his decision?". WWE. Archived from the original on October 27, 2007. Retrieved November 6, 2007.
- ^ Hoffman, Brett (February 15, 2007). "Billion Dollar Handshake". WWE. Archived from the original on July 11, 2007. Retrieved November 6, 2007.
- ^ a b Hoffman, Brett (February 19, 2007). "Chairman's Choice". WWE. Archived from the original on October 27, 2007. Retrieved November 6, 2007.
- ^ Tello, Craig (2007-02-27). "To hell and back". WWE. Archived from the original on 2007-10-29. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
- ^ a b c d Starr, Noah (2007-03-05). "A stunning revelation". WWE. Archived from the original on 2021-03-01. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ a b Starr, Noah (2007-03-26). "The circle is complete". WWE. Archived from the original on 2019-09-03. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
- ^ Hoffman, Brett (2007-02-05). "Tickets punched for WrestleMania". WWE. Archived from the original on 2012-07-07. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
- ^ Starr, Noah (2007-02-26). "Billionaire's brawlers". WWE. Archived from the original on 2021-01-13. Retrieved 2007-11-06.
- ^ "WWE WrestleMania 23". CompleteWWE.com. Retrieved April 10, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Canton, John (March 17, 2022). "WWE WrestleMania 23 Review". TJR Wrestling. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
- )
- ^ Markazi, Arash (2007-04-02). "Close shave: Donald Trump escapes with 'do intact at Wrestlemania 23". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on 2012-10-25. Retrieved 2009-12-28.
- ^ "Donald Trump's man wins "hair match"". The Seattle Times. 2007-04-05. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2009-12-28.
- ^ "SGA Helps Ford Field Break Attendance Record With Wrestlemania Audience Risers". Live Design Magazine. 2007-04-23. Archived from the original on 2011-12-26. Retrieved 2009-12-28.
- ^ Beck, Jason (April 2, 2007). "Notes: WrestleMania steals the show – More than 80,000 fans attended wrestling event at Ford Field". Major League Baseball. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2009.
- ^ Starr, Noah (April 2, 2007). "HBK dumps Cena". WWE. Archived from the original on April 16, 2007. Retrieved February 23, 2007.
- ^ "Raw results – April 23, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Archived from the original on February 17, 2008. Retrieved February 23, 2008.
- ^ )
- ^ a b "SmackDown! results – May 11, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2019-01-19. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
- ^ )
- )
- ^ WWE sues 360 OTC, last year's WrestleMania sponsor Archived 2017-10-21 at the Wayback Machine, Wrestling Online, January 19, 2008, Retrieved 2010-8-09
- ^ "2007 Nextel Cup Series Schemes 2007 – #36 Team". Jayski's Silly Season Site. Archived from the original on 12 August 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ Pockrass, Bob. Bill Davis Racing sues sponsor 360 OTC for non-payment Archived March 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Scene Daily, April 9, 2008, Retrieved 2010-08-09
- DVDTalk. May 22, 2007. Archivedfrom the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
- ^ McAvennie, Mike (April 1, 2007). "'Bank' on Kennedy! Kennedy!". WWE. Archived from the original on March 31, 2008. Retrieved May 17, 2008.
- ^ Hunt, Jen (April 1, 2007). "The streak lives on for The Deadman". WWE. Archived from the original on March 27, 2008. Retrieved May 17, 2008.
- ^ Robinson, Bryan (April 1, 2007). "Old-schooled, ECW Original style". WWE. Archived from the original on March 29, 2008. Retrieved May 17, 2008.
- ^ Tello, Craig (April 1, 2007). "The 'mane' event". WWE. Archived from the original on March 25, 2008. Retrieved May 17, 2008.
- ^ Dee, Louie (April 1, 2007). "Detroit, Champ City". WWE. Archived from the original on March 31, 2008. Retrieved May 17, 2008.