Wrestlemania Press Conference

The Spotlight On A Physical WWE Hall Of Fame

Tom Lynch Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello everyone and good morning to you. I meant to talk about this on the site yesterday but figured I would more focus on the stuff related strictly to the announcement of Wrestlemania 33 coming to Orlando. That said, the Wrestlemania announcement wasn’t the only big WWE news related to Orlando that made the rounds yesterday. Attractionsmanagement.com released a story yesterday that WWE will be opening a “museum-cum-restaurant” within the Universal Studios Orlando theme park.  According the article, which you can read in full here http://www.attractionsmanagement.com/detail.cfm?pagetype=detail&subject=news&codeID=322371, the restaurant portion of the place would be similar to the old WWF New York (later The World) in that there will be a retail section of the store where you can purchase merchandise from all of your favorite superstars and divas and then a restaurant with big screens playing WWE programming throughout the day. If this news wasn’t big enough, it’s the museum portion of the story that has everyone talking.  Many took this to believe that this means that there will finally be a physical hall of fame for the prestigious WWE Hall of Fame. 

The idea is for this new WWE attraction to open where the old NBA City location was as a part of Universal City located Adjacent to the theme park. Probably the best part of all of this is that the attraction is planning to open in March of next year. This means that the attraction will be ready for people to visit just in time for Wrestlemania in Orlando, the next month.  

I for one could not be more excited as growing up WWF New York was one of my favorite locations. Nothing beat being able to head times square after a half day in middle school or high school, go wait outside of TRL hoping that Jesse Camp would give me a pound and then ending the day with lunch at WWF New York. I had celebrated almost everyone of my birthdays with the family from about 1999 to 2003 and even celebrated my junior high school graduation there with my family and a bunch of my friends. This really was the premier spot for any WWE fan as it was the only store you can walk in and buy merchandise and the restaurant was so much fun. There were always superstars stopping by and a packed house for any live airing of Raw or a pay per view. WWF New York even aired smackdown live which I thought was so cool at the time.  

All of that said, I think that it would be really cool for WWE to bring back a restaurant and the idea of a physical hall of fame would be a long time coming. I remember at WWF New York there was a little section of the restaurant dedicated to past WWE artifacts, that would rotate in and out (similar to the set up at Axxess) but never a full museum, the likes of which you would see in Cooperstown for the baseball hall of fame. While, I’ve never been to NBA City, I got to chat with friend of the site and contributing writer, Metsgoon who went to the place just a few years ago and mentioned that it was very spacious. Being a theme park enthusiast, nothing sounds better then spending the day at Harry Potter World and then heading across the street to check out the Royal Rumble live at the WWE restaurant.  

In closing, I’d say that before we all get so excited we should proceed a bit cautiously. WWE held a press conference live yesterday for Wrestlemania in Orlando and nothing has been officially announced by them. That said, if this is being reported by Universal Studios themselves, there’s a good chance that where there is smoke there is some sort of fire. One thing is for sure, as Stephanie McMahon said yesterday, Orlando has become the second home for World Wrestling Entertainment.   

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The Spotlight On Wrestlemania 33 Coming To Orlando!

Tom Lynch Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Well it’s official, WWE will be returning to the sunshine state next year for Wrestlemania 33 on April 2nd, 2017! WWE held a press conference earlier today officially announcing that Wrestlemania will return to the, newly renovated, Citrus Bowl for the first time since Wrestlemania 24 in 2008.  This is huge news for vacation goers as Orlando is one of, at least to me, biggest vacation spots in all of the United States. Last year my girlfriend and I had an amazing time at Wrestlemania in California and created our own Wrestling & theme park week! Thus, I’m excited to be being able to recreate some of the grandeur of last year, next year in Orlando! Let me get into all you need to know about Wrestlemania from the press conference today.

-First off, we’ll start with some important dates and locations. WWE Axxess will take place at the Orange County Convention Center throughout the weekend. While I haven’t been there myself, I spoke to a friend who lives in Orlando & he told me that the building is really nice & spacious. The Amway Center, home of the Orlando Magic, will play host to both The 2017 Hall Of Fame, April 1st and Monday Night Raw the night after Wrestlemania, April 3rd. There was no date announced for NXT but with the performance center & NXT headquarters, they film most television out of Full Sail University, being right in Orlando, I’d bet NXT will have quite a prescence Wrestlemania weekend. 

– As far as the press conference today, kudos to WESH news in Orlando for broadcasting the press conference live. I was able to follow along while at work & it was really cool to see. That said, it’s a shame for those folks that couldn’t follow along live, 11AM on a Tuesday few can, that can’t watch the press conference if they wanted to. WWE has its own network & really should make this stuff available for subscribers who want to watch it. Especially if they aired this kind of stuff live, I feel it would draw more people to the livestream on the WWE Network. 
– From the looks of it Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, John Cena, Ric Flair, Charlotte, Roman Reigns and the New Day were all on hand for the press conference and joined different politicians in the local area in sharing their excitement over Wrestlemania returning to Orlando. There were also a number of NXT talents on hand, said to be greeting folks as they entered the conference, including Bayley, Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin and others. John Cena acknowledged the NXT talents, who were sitting front row, and joked that they were given time off to come watch them talk.

-The biggest piece of news, aside from the announcement, was that John Cena officially announced that he will not be taking part in this year’s Wrestlemania. Cena mentioned that for the first time in a decade and a half, he’ll be enjoying Wrestlemania as a fan. I know Cena was doing all he could to return, and it’s tough he won’t be able too, but it’s for the best that he takes his time to recover.  The last thing anyone wants is for Cena to return too soon and injure himself more. 

Overall this was a nice day for WWE and a big win for the city of Orlando, which Stephanie noted has become the WWE’s second home. Wrestlemania raises hundreds of millions of dollars for any city that plays host for it and it really looked like next year was going to be Minnesota. Thus, Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer had every right to dance with the New Day! As a fan, no offense to Minnesotans but nothing beats that combination of Disney and Wrestling…I can’t wait! 

That’s going to do it for now but tomorrow morning I’ll be back as it seems that WWE may not only bringing Wrestlemania to Orlando. Tomorrow we’ll look at whether or not the rumors are true…is WWE creating a physical hall of fame?!