WrestleMania 37

WrestleMania is considered WWE's flagship event, having first been held in 1985. It is the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April.[1] It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, dubbed the "Big Four".[2] WrestleMania is ranked the sixth most valuable sports brand in the world by Forbes,[3] and has been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment.[4] It will feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions—although WrestleMania 36 had also featured wrestlers from NXT, this has not yet been confirmed for WrestleMania 37.

WrestleMania 37 was originally announced to be held in the city of Inglewood, California at SoFi Stadium on March 28, 2021, marketed as WrestleMania Hollywood. It would have been the first since WrestleMania 21 to be held in Greater Los Angeles, and the seventh held in the state of California (after 2, VII, XII, 2000, 21, and 31).[5][6] However, on January 16, WWE officially confirmed that WrestleMania 37 would be held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida as a two-night event on April 10–11, 2021. It will be the fifth WrestleMania to be held in the state of Florida (after XXIV, XXVIII, 33, and 36). Ticket information is forthcoming, which will make WrestleMania 37 the first WWE event to have ticketed fans in attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic.[7] WWE's Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon said that "ticket information is not available yet cause we're still trying to figure out all the machinations." She did say that they have a plan on exactly how many fans they will admit, but they are not ready to reveal that number.[8] "Save Your Tears" by The Weeknd is the official theme song of the event.[9]

On January 25, 2021, WWE announced that the WWE Network would become exclusively distributed by Peacock in the United States as part of a new agreement with NBCUniversal, which airs Monday Night Raw and NXT on the USA Network. Beginning March 18, the WWE Network will become its own premium channel under Peacock, while Peacock Premium subscribers will get access at no additional cost; other countries will maintain the current separate WWE Network service distributed by the promotion itself. WrestleMania 37 will be the first WrestleMania produced under this new agreement.[10][11]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE suspended its touring arena shows in mid-March 2020, and moved its weekly broadcasts for the Raw and SmackDown brands, as well as pay-per-views, to their WWE Performance Center training facility in Orlando, Florida, with no outside spectators and only essential staff present. This included WrestleMania 36, which was the first pay-per-view to be affected by the pandemic. NXT continued to broadcast from Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, but with similar limitations.[12] In late August, WWE moved its programming for Raw and SmackDown to Orlando's Amway Center, using a new arena production billed as the "WWE ThunderDome" to display a virtual audience on LED displays around the ring, but still without outside spectators.[13][14] In October, NXT moved to the Performance Center in a similar setup dubbed the Capitol Wrestling Center (which includes a small live audience),[15] while in December, the ThunderDome relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.[16][17]

In October 2020, it was reported by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE was relocating WrestleMania 37 to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida—the originally planned venue for WrestleMania 36—as present health orders and the state of the pandemic in California made it unlikely that the event could be held with in-person spectators.[18] By contrast, Florida officially removed capacity limits for sporting events in late September, but local sports organizations have continued to voluntarily limit their capacity in accordance with CDC guidance.[19] Rival promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) has held tapings with spectators at Jacksonville's Daily's Place since late August 2020, at 15% of the venue's capacity.[20] The Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL) began admitting fans to its games at Raymond James Stadium in October, with a maximum capacity of 25%,[21] while Super Bowl LV was hosted by the stadium on February 7, 2021 with a projected attendance of 25,000 spectators.[22]

On January 16, 2021, WWE officially announced that WrestleMania 37 would take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, and like WrestleMania 36, it would be a two-night event, held on April 10 and 11, 2021. WWE also confirmed that SoFi Stadium would instead host WrestleMania 39 in 2023, as 2022's WrestleMania 38 was scheduled for AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Mayor of Tampa Jane Castor stated that the event would be "in true WWE fashion, the perfect comeback story and marks a clear indication that our beautiful city is poised to bounce back stronger than ever." Mayor of Inglewood James T. Butts Jr. welcomed WWE's decision to allow Tampa to "have their rightful WrestleMania moment".[23][24] WWE also announced that they would reveal the event's COVID-19 safety protocols soon.[7] In an interview with TMZ Sports on January 19, Stephanie McMahon affirmed WWE's plan to have live fans in attendance at WrestleMania 37, stating that "hopefully, this will be the first opportunity for us to have our fans back in attendance." She also said that they would be watching how the NFL handles hosting the Super Bowl to learn logistically what does and does not work.[8]

The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portray heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results are predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,[25][26] while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.[27]

Immediately following WrestleMania XXVII in 2011, Edge, who at the time held the now-defunct World Heavyweight Championship, was forced to retire and relinquish his title due to a severe neck injury; Edge was then inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012.[28][29] After nine years and two neck surgeries, Edge made his return as a surprise entrant at the 2020 Royal Rumble, making it to the final three.[30] The following year, Edge declared his participation for the 2021 Royal Rumble, vowing to win the men's Royal Rumble match so he could go to WrestleMania 37 and become a world champion again, as he had never lost his world title.[31] At the event on January 31, Edge entered the match at number one and went on to win and earn himself a world championship match of his choice at WrestleMania 37, being able to choose between Raw's WWE Championship, SmackDown's Universal Championship, and the NXT Championship.[32] On the following night's Raw, Edge confronted WWE Champion Drew McIntyre and teased that he would choose to challenge for the WWE Championship, however, Edge took issue as he thought McIntyre would be more aggressive and stated that he would make his choice in due time.[33] Edge then appeared on that Wednesday's episode of NXT and stated that he had never held the NXT Championship and that regardless of who won between NXT Champion Finn Bálor and Pete Dunne at TakeOver: Vengeance Day, it could influence his decision.[34] On SmackDown, Edge questioned himself on who he should choose before being interrupted by Universal Champion Roman Reigns, who demanded that Edge choose him, but before Edge could make his decision, Reigns was attacked by Kevin Owens, whom Reigns had defeated at the Royal Rumble.[35]

At the Royal Rumble, Bianca Belair won the women's Royal Rumble match to earn herself a women's world championship match of her choice at WrestleMania 37, being able to choose between the Raw Women's Championship, SmackDown Women's Championship, and NXT Women's Championship.[32] On February 5, during an interview with Ryan Satin, Belair broke down what it would be like to face Raw Women's Champion Asuka and SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks, and also mentioned the possibility of choosing NXT Women's Champion Io Shirai, but said she was too emotional to choose yet and would wait for her emotions to calm down.[36] That night on SmackDown, Belair spoke about her win and which champion she could choose only for Carmella's sommelier Reginald to interrupt, who stated that Belair could not defeat Banks. Banks then came out and complimented Belair but stated she was not the best as she did not have the SmackDown Women's Championship. Reginald interrupted and claimed that Belair would lose to Banks, after which, Belair attacked Reginald as Banks and Carmella watched on.[35]