WrestleMania 22

WrestleMania 22
Promotional poster featuring Booker T and John Cena wrestling at No Mercy in 2004
Promotion	World Wrestling Entertainment
Brand(s)	Raw SmackDown!
Date	April 2, 2006 (2006-04-02)
City	Rosemont, Illinois
Venue	Allstate Arena
Attendance	17,155[1]
Buy rate	975,000[2]
Tagline(s)	Big Time![1]
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WrestleMania 22 was the 22nd annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. The event took place on April 2, 2006, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois.

There were two main events, which were the main matches for each brand. The final match, which was the main match from the Raw brand, was John Cena versus Triple H for the WWE Championship, which Cena won after forcing Triple H to submit to the STFU. The predominant match on the SmackDown! brand was a triple threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship between champion Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio, and Randy Orton. Mysterio won the match and the World Heavyweight Championship after pinning Orton following a 619 and a West Coast Pop—during Mysterio's reign, the championship was simply called the World Championship due to Mysterio not being a heavyweight wrestler.

Featured matches on the undercard included a No Holds Barred match between Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon, a Casket match between The Undertaker and Mark Henry, a WWE Women's Championship match between Mickie James and Trish Stratus, and an interpromotional Money in the Bank ladder match featuring Bobby Lashley, Finlay, Matt Hardy, Ric Flair, Shelton Benjamin and Rob Van Dam.

WrestleMania 22 was the third WrestleMania to take place in the Chicago metropolitan area following WrestleMania 2 (which partially took place in the Chicago metropolitan area as well as Uniondale, NY and Los Angeles, CA) and WrestleMania 13. The Chicago metropolitan area portion of WrestleMania 2 as well as WrestleManias 13 and 22 all emanated from the Rosemont Horizon/Allstate Arena. Coincidentally, all 3 of the aforementioned WrestleManias did not have Roman numerals in their names. Tickets sold out in under two minutes, grossing US$2.5 million for the event, making it the highest grossing one-day event at the Allstate Arena. More than 17,155 people from 16 countries and 43 states attended, with millions more watching in more than 90 countries.^[3][4] WrestleMania 22 also marked the last WrestleMania to be held in a traditional arena, as every subsequent edition, excluding WrestleMania 36, has been held in a stadium.