The Royal Rumble often sets the table for WWE’s marquee event, WrestleMania, each year. The battle royal guarantees the winner a main event booking at WrestleMania.
Will hosting the Royal Rumble get Orlando a title shot at WrestleMania in 2017?
A city official confirmed to Jeff Weiner of the Orlando Sentinel the city has indeed submitted a bid to host WrestleMania in 2017.
The city previously hosted WrestleMania in 2008 at the pre-renovation Citrus Bowl, filling the stadium with 74,635 fans. It was the eighth most attended WrestleMania’s 30-plus-year history.
There are several other cities also in the bidding for the event that originally was reported to be focused on landing in Minneapolis at U.S. Bank Stadium, the new home for the Minnesota Vikings.
The WWE has tied itself to Orlando in some very unique ways and it had a successful WrestleMania in Orlando in 2008 both in attendance and in the show. The event featured Ric Flair’s retirement match against Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker continuing his storied WrestleMania undefeated streak (since broken) against Edge.
Since then, WWE expanded its operations in Orlando, placing its NXT Training Center at Full Sail University and holding NXT shows throughout the state.
In the run up to the Royal Rumble, NXT will put on a show at CFE Arena on Friday night.
The Royal Rumble itself feels like something of an audition for Orlando. It is the first WWE pay-per-view event to be hosted at the Amway Center and just the fourth pay-per-view event in Orlando’s history. Orlando previously hosted the 1990 Royal Rumble at Orlando Arena.
Orlando should be getting more of these marquee events from the promotion. It has usually gotten a good response from Orlando crowds.
These were the kind of events the Amway Center and the Orlando Citrus Bowl were built to attract and hold.
[…] city of Orlando confirmed in January it had put in a formal bid for the event, which could net more than $50 million in economic impact and pack the Citrus Bowl’s […]