WrestleMania 31 was a 2015 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 31st annual WrestleMania and took place on March 29, 2015, at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Santa Clara, California. This was the last WrestleMania to be held in March, as all WrestleMania events since have been held in April.
Nine matches were contested at the event, including two matches on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank contract as the scheduled main event match between defending champion Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns was in progress, and won the resulting impromptu triple threat match to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by pinning Reigns. In other prominent matches, The Undertaker (in his first on-screen appearance since the previous year's event) defeated Bray Wyatt while John Cena defeated Rusev to win the WWE United States Championship. The event was also notable for Sting's debut match in WWE, as well as his only WrestleMania match, in which he was defeated by Triple H.
Despite criticism for its build-up, WrestleMania 31 received highly positive reviews from fans and critics; some critics called it one of the greatest WrestleManias of all time. Praise was directed to the quality of matches, the conclusion to the main event and focused match card, although the women's tag team match was subject to criticism for being seen as "filler" and Triple H's win over Sting was criticised as an unnecessary ode to WWE winning the Monday Night War. WWE reported that the show was the highest grossing WWE event ever at the time, drawing a revenue of US$12.6 million. The company also claimed an attendance figure of 76,976. This was also the first WrestleMania to incorporate WWE's current logo that was originally used for the WWE Network that launched in February 2014.
Production Background
WrestleMania is WWE's flagship professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event, having first been held in 1985. It was the company's first pay-per-view produced and was also WWE's first major event available via livestreaming when the company launched the WWE Network in February 2014. It is the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". The event has been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. Much like the Super Bowl, cities bid for the right to host the year's edition of WrestleMania.
Announced on December 9, 2013, WrestleMania 31 was scheduled to be held on March 29, 2015, at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Santa Clara, California. It was the first WrestleMania event to be held in the San Francisco Bay Area, the sixth to be held in the state of California (after 2, VII, XII, 2000, and 21) and the sixth to be held in an open-air venue (after IX, XXIV, XXVI, XXVIII, and 29).
The logo for the event included a red "play" button. According to a San Jose Mercury News article, Vince McMahon explained that the play button highlighted the technical prowess of Silicon Valley. There were two theme songs for the event. The main theme was "Rise" by David Guetta featuring Skylar Grey, while the secondary theme was "Money and the Power" by Kid Ink. The event included live musical performances from Skylar Grey, Kid Ink, Travis Barker, and Aloe Blacc. Grammy Award winner LL Cool J appeared in the opening video package for the event.
Travel packages for the event went on sale on September 29, 2014, with the exclusive California Dreamin' Travel Package ranging from $5,500. The VIP Package, Platinum Premium Package, Gold Package, and Silver Package were available on October 6 with prices starting from $3,250, $1,650, $1,150, and $900, respectively, including tickets to WrestleMania, hotel accommodation, airfare, and other activities through WrestleMania Axxess. Individual tickets went on sale on November 15, ranging from $35 to $1,000.
Storylines The event comprised nine matches, including two on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw and SmackDown.
Main event match
At the Royal Rumble, Brock Lesnar successfully defended his WWE World Heavyweight Championship against John Cena and Seth Rollins in a triple threat match. Rollins also held the Money in the Bank briefcase, guaranteeing him a future title match at a time of his choosing. Later that night, the Royal Rumble match was won by Roman Reigns, making him the #1 contender for Lesnar's title at WrestleMania. However, the reaction to his victory was overwhelmingly negative, much of it due to the early elimination of fan-favorite Daniel Bryan. On the February 2 episode of Raw, in response to this, Reigns agreed to put his WrestleMania title shot on the line in a match at Fastlane. Later in the night, Bryan defeated Rollins to face Reigns at the event. At Fastlane, Reigns defeated Bryan to remain the #1 contender for Lesnar’s title, enraging the fans even more. From then until WrestleMania, Reigns had only two face-to-face interactions with Lesnar, with critics describing his title match as "being built on whether or not he is even worthy of being in the match in the first place". Reigns was also described as having "experienced no adversity on his journey", as he "chatted with (Lesnar's manager) Paul Heyman one week, got a shirt and then, played tug o' war" with Lesnar (a reference to the final in-ring confrontation between Lesnar and Reigns on the March 23 episode of Raw in which the two grappled with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt). It was acknowledged in the storyline that Lesnar's contract was set to expire not long after WrestleMania, but less than a week before the event, amid speculation that he would be returning to UFC, Lesnar signed a new WWE contract and retired from MMA.
Undercard matches On the March 2 episode of Raw, Paige defeated Divas Champion Nikki Bella by disqualification in a title match after Brie Bella attacked Paige; therefore, Nikki retained the title. Brie and Nikki then continued to attack Paige in the ring until AJ Lee returned from injury and saved Paige. On the March 5 episode of SmackDown, AJ defeated Brie after Paige kept Nikki from interfering in the match. On March 9, AJ and Paige were scheduled to face The Bellas at WrestleMania.
At Survivor Series, Sting made his first WWE appearance in the main event Survivor Series elimination match, attacking Triple H and aiding Dolph Ziggler in pinning Seth Rollins, giving Team Cena the win and causing The Authority to be out of power, which was a secondary stipulation of the match. On the January 19 episode of Raw, Sting made his Raw debut, appearing backstage during the main event, a 3-on-1 handicap match between Cena and the team of Big Show, Kane, and Rollins. The lights in the arena darkened as Sting entered the stage and gestured to The Authority at ringside. The distraction allowed Cena to pin Rollins for the win, which reinstated the jobs of the recently (kayfabe) fired Ziggler, Ryback, and Erick Rowan. On January 26, Triple H challenged Sting to a "face-to-face" confrontation at Fastlane. On the February 9 episode of Raw, Triple H again called Sting out to accept his challenge. The lights went out, and a group of Sting impersonators appeared around the arena and inside the ring, illuminated by spotlights, while a video message of Sting accepting Triple H's challenge played on the TitanTron. At Fastlane, the two brawled until Sting got control of Triple H. Sting then pointed to the WrestleMania sign in the rafters with his signature baseball bat, issuing a challenge, which Triple H accepted. Later that night, the match was confirmed.
On the February 23 episode of Raw, a second annual André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was scheduled for WrestleMania. Over the following month, The Miz, Curtis Axel, Ryback, Fandango, Adam Rose, Zack Ryder, Jack Swagger, Titus O'Neil, Darren Young, Big Show, Kane, Erick Rowan, Sin Cara, Damien Mizdow, Goldust, Heath Slater, Mark Henry, and The Ascension were announced as participants. On March 26, the match was set for the Kickoff pre-show. That same day, Hideo Itami won a NXT tournament at WrestleMania Axxess to earn a spot in the match.
On February 26, Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett was scheduled to defend his title in a multiple-man ladder match at the event, in which a storyline was made when several contenders stole the title, claiming that they won it. Between the March 2 episode of Raw and the March 12 episode of SmackDown, R-Truth, Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper, Dolph Ziggler, Stardust, and Daniel Bryan were added to the match.
At Fastlane, Rusev defeated John Cena to retain the United States Championship after hitting Cena with a low blow (while the referee was distracted with Lana) and making him pass out to the Accolade submission hold. In the following weeks, Cena challenged Rusev to a rematch, which Rusev declined. On the March 2 episode of Raw, Stephanie McMahon decreed that Cena would not compete at WrestleMania unless Rusev agreed to a match. On the March 9 episode of Raw, after Rusev defeated Curtis Axel, Rusev made several insulting remarks towards the US, drawing the ire of Cena. Following the insults, Cena went into the ring and placed Rusev in the STF submission hold until Rusev passed out. Cena then picked up a bottle of water, used it to revive Rusev and then placed him into the STF again. Although Rusev submitted, Cena refused to break the hold until Lana granted Cena a title rematch at WrestleMania on Rusev's behalf.
At Fastlane, Bray Wyatt challenged The Undertaker to a match at WrestleMania after sending messages to the Undertaker weeks prior. On the March 9 episode of Raw, The Undertaker accepted Wyatt's challenge to a match at the event.
On the October 20 episode of Raw, The Authority members Randy Orton, Kane, and Seth Rollins defeated Cena and Ambrose in a 3-on-2 handicap street fight. Immediately after the match, Rollins performed a Curb Stomp on Orton after dissension between the two. On the October 27 episode of Raw, Orton performed an RKO on Rollins, thus directly defying The Authority's orders. On the November 3 episode of Raw, after increasing frustration, Orton attacked Rollins during his Intercontinental Championship match against Ziggler. Orton then demanded a match with Rollins to settle their dispute, which Triple H granted in order to keep Orton on The Authority's side. Rollins won the match, and Orton then attacked the Authority before Rollins Curb Stomped him, causing a (kayfabe) injury which forced Orton to miss several months of competition. At Fastlane, Orton returned to WWE and attacked The Authority. Over the next weeks, Orton teased a renewed alliance with The Authority, before attacking Rollins after a handicap match against Reigns. On the March 12 episode of SmackDown, Orton challenged Rollins to a match at WrestleMania. On the March 16 episode of Raw, Rollins accepted the challenge.
At Fastlane, Tyson Kidd and Cesaro (with Natalya) defeated The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (with Naomi) to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. On March 23, the new champions were scheduled to defend their titles against Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando) (with El Torito), The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Big E) (with Xavier Woods), and The Usos in a fatal four-way tag team match on the WrestleMania 31 Kickoff pre-show.
Event