WrestleMania 37 was a 2021 two-part professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 37th annual WrestleMania and was WWE's first event to have ticked fans in attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic, although to a limited capacity. Like the prior year's WrestleMania 36, it took place as a two-night event, held on Saturday, April 10, and Sunday, April 11, 2021, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, subsequently making the two-night format for WrestleMania a permanent change. WWE Hall of Famers Hulk Hogan and Titus O'Neil served as the hosts of the event, ultimately being Hogan's final WrestleMania appearance before his death in 2025.
The event was originally scheduled to take place on March 28, 2021, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California; however, due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions in California, WWE rescheduled and moved the event to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, the originally planned venue for WrestleMania 36 before the pandemic forced that event to be relocated and held behind closed doors at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida—in August 2020, Florida loosened its COVID-19 restrictions and SoFi Stadium would later get WrestleMania 39 in 2023. This marked WWE's first event to have ticketed fans in attendance since NXT on March 11, 2020, just before pandemic-related restrictions took effect. With the limited capacity, WWE claimed to have sold out of all available tickets and had an attendance of 25,675 spectators for each night, totaling 51,350 combined; however, this was disputed, with the actual number of tickets sold and the actual attendance number being around 20% lower than WWE's claimed numbers for both nights.
The card comprised 14 matches that were evenly divided between the two nights and unlike previous years, there were no matches contested on either night's Kickoff pre-show. In the main event for Night 1, Bianca Belair defeated Sasha Banks to win the SmackDown Women's Championship. This was the first time two African Americans headlined WrestleMania, as well as the second time women headlined the event after WrestleMania 35 in 2019. Other prominent matches saw singer Bad Bunny and Damian Priest defeat The Miz and John Morrison, and in the opening bout, which was a main match for Raw, Bobby Lashley defeated Drew McIntyre by technical submission to retain the WWE Championship. In the main event for Night 2, which was SmackDown's main match, Roman Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan and Edge in a triple threat match to retain the Universal Championship. Also on the card, Rhea Ripley defeated Asuka to win the Raw Women's Championship. Additionally, Natalya and Tamina became the first women to compete in two separate matches at a single WrestleMania, having a match on both nights.
Following the merger of the American version of the WWE Network under Peacock, which had a transitional period beginning in mid-March, WrestleMania 37 was WWE's first PPV and livestreaming event for the main roster to broadcast on Peacock after the shutdown of the American WWE Network on April 4. After this event, WWE returned Raw and SmackDown's programming to its bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome, which was relocated to Tampa's Yuengling Center beginning with the April 12 broadcast of Monday Night Raw, before the company resumed live touring with full capacity crowds in mid-July.
WrestleMania 37 was generally well-received for marking the return of a live crowd, with the main events of both nights, as well as Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro, Sheamus vs. Matt Riddle, and a surprise celebrity performance by Bad Bunny receiving the highest praise, while Shane McMahon vs. Braun Strowman, Randy Orton vs. The Fiend, and most of the tag team matches were criticized.
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 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". WrestleMania was ranked the sixth most valuable sports brand in the world by Forbes in 2019, and 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. WrestleMania 37 featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions—unlike WrestleMania 36, it did not feature the NXT brand. "Save Your Tears" by The Weeknd, "Head Up High" by Fitz, and "All The Gold" by def rebel were the official theme songs for the event. WWE Hall of Famers Hulk Hogan and Titus O'Neil served as the hosts of WrestleMania 37.
WrestleMania 37 was originally scheduled to be held in 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 U.S. state of California (after 2, VII, XII, 2000, 21, and 31). However, on January 16, WWE officially confirmed that WrestleMania 37 would instead be held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida—the originally planned venue for WrestleMania 36—as a two-night event on Saturday, April 10, and Sunday, April 11, 2021. It was in turn the fifth WrestleMania to be held in the U.S. state of Florida (after XXIV, XXVIII, 33, and 36). WrestleMania 37 adopted much of the pirate-themed marketing originally used for WrestleMania 36, including having a similar logo. It was also the first WWE event to have ticketed fans in attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tickets were originally to go on sale on March 16, but were delayed. Pre-sale tickets were then available on March 18 before tickets went on sale the following day. Individual tickets for each night, as well as two-night bundle packages, were made available, with a maximum capacity of 25,000 spectators for each night.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
As a result of 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 their PPV and livestreaming events, to the 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 major professional wrestling event to be affected by the pandemic. NXT continued to broadcast from its home venue at the time, Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, but with similar limitations. In late August, WWE moved its programming for Raw and SmackDown to Orlando's Amway Center in a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome to display a virtual audience on LED displays around the ring, but still without outside spectators. In October, NXT moved to the Performance Center in a similar setup called the Capitol Wrestling Center, but included a small live audience, while in December, the ThunderDome relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
In October 2020, it was reported by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE was relocating WrestleMania 37 to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, as the state of the pandemic in California made it unlikely that the event could be held with in-person spectators on the originally scheduled date. By contrast, Florida officially removed capacity limits for sporting events in late August, but local sports organizations continued to voluntarily limit their capacity in accordance with CDC guidance. Rival promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) held tapings with spectators at Jacksonville's Daily's Place since late August 2020 at 15% of the venue's capacity. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL) began admitting fans to their games at Raymond James Stadium in October, with a maximum capacity of 25%, while Super Bowl LV was hosted by the stadium on February 7, 2021, with an official attendance of 24,835 spectators.
On January 16, 2021, WWE 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, thus making the two-night format for WrestleMania a permanent change. 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". In an interview with TMZ Sports on January 19, WWE's Chief Brand Officer 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 handled hosting the Super Bowl to learn logistically what does and does not work.
In February, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that WWE were planning to cap attendance at 30,000 spectators for each night, but later reported that the promotion were hoping for 45,000, if it could be approved by the city of Tampa. On March 17, the Tampa Bay Times confirmed that the capacity for each night would be 25,000 spectators and that attendees would be separated by pods with physical distancing in place. They also confirmed that the stadium would administer temperature checks and wellness screenings, that masks would be required and they would have free masks available, and any transactions would be paperless.
The pandemic also resulted in the absence of John Cena, who although had focused heavily on his acting career since 2016, he had wrestled or appeared at every WrestleMania since WrestleMania XIX in 2003. Cena had been reported to wrestle or at least appear at WrestleMania 37, but due to his filming schedule for the HBO Max series Peacemaker, which was shooting in Canada, it made it logistically impossible for him to travel to Florida, as upon his return to Canada, he would have had to quarantine for two weeks, which would have shut down production on the series. Two other big names that were absent from the event were Brock Lesnar and Goldberg. Lesnar last appeared at WrestleMania 36 and his contract expired in August 2020, and while it was believed that WWE would try to negotiate a new deal for Lesnar, there were no plans for him to appear at WrestleMania 37 by February 2021. Goldberg, who still had one more match on his contract for the year, had been briefly discussed to wrestle at the event, but by February, he was ultimately left out of any plans.
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