WrestleMania 34

WrestleMania 34
Promotional poster featuring various WWE wrestlers
PromotionWWE
Brand(s)Raw
SmackDown
205 Live
DateApril 8, 2018
CityNew Orleans, Louisiana
VenueMercedes-Benz Superdome
Attendance60,000–65,000[1]
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WrestleMania 34 was the 34th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brand divisions. The event took place on April 8, 2018, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was the second WrestleMania held at this venue after XXX.

The card comprised fourteen matches, including three on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, which was the main match of the Raw brand, Brock Lesnar retained the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns. The main match from SmackDown saw AJ Styles retain the WWE Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura. Other matches saw Ronda Rousey make her WWE debut and Daniel Bryan return to the ring after nearly three years of absence. Rousey teamed with Kurt Angle to defeat Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a mixed tag team match, while Bryan teamed with Shane McMahon to defeat Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Also, The Undertaker defeated John Cena in an impromptu match.

Also on the card, Charlotte Flair retained the SmackDown Women's Championship against the 2018 Women's Royal Rumble Winner Asuka, ending Asuka's undefeated streak. A 10-year-old named Nicholas (son of referee John Cone) became the youngest champion in WWE history when he teamed with Braun Strowman to defeat Cesaro and Sheamus for the Raw Tag Team Championship. It was also the first time that the SmackDown Tag Team Championship was defended at a WrestleMania.

The US Championship was contested in a fatal-four-way match featuring Randy Orton as the champion, Bobby Roode as the previous champion, Rusev accompanied by Aiden English, and Jinder Mahal accompanied by Sunil Singh. Jinder came out on top via pinfall on Rusev.

WrestleMania 34 received mixed to positive reviews from fans and critics, with the world title matches being subjected to more negative responses. The main event between Lesnar and Reigns particularly received heavy criticism and was decried by some as one of the worst main events in WrestleMania history.[2][3] Despite this, other aspects of the show, such as the return of Daniel Bryan, the Intercontinental Championship and SmackDown Women's Championship matches, and the debut performance of Ronda Rousey, were widely praised.

  1. ^ "April 16, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Historic Wrestlemania 34 weekend reviewed, more". f4wonline.com. Wrestling Observer Newsletter. April 12, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2020. The live attendance was announced as 78,133 fans with a gate of $14.1 million. WWE exaggerates live attendance, usually between 10,000 and 15,000, although according to police records, two years ago the exaggeration was 20,000 (the building itself claimed the exaggeration was only 8,000). We were told the afternoon of the show that the real number this year would also be between 60,000 and 65,000, and that they "had" to announce a bigger number than four years ago.
  2. ^ Hines, Martin (9 April 2018). "Brock Lesnar beat Roman Reigns in possibly the worst Wrestlemania main event ever". metro.co.uk. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 9, 2018.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference worst was invoked but never defined (see the help page).