FanPost

30 Things You May Not Know About WrestleMania

Happy Wrestlemania week everyone! Coming off last year's 12 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Wrestlemania, I've combed the darkest corners of the Internet to bring you 30 (mostly) new facts about the "Showcase of the Immortals". Learn something. Be amazed. Win money off your friends. I'm about to bring you some things that WWE.com probably won't.

EDIT NOTE: Jakattakk88, ZeroIndulgence, and kevmendo509 set me straight on a couple facts, and they've been fixed. Thanks guys!

1. Wrestlemania 2000 featured multi-man encounters nearly all the way through the card, with just a single one-on-one match on the show (there were five tag matches and three multi-man singles bouts). Wrestlemania 21, also taking place in the LA area, was probably the make-good for that. Wrestlemania 21 had exactly zero tag matches and just one multi-man match on the main card. I'm sure Teddy Long was disappoint.

2. Evolution is a mystery, as Lemmy from Motorhead once said. Unless, of course, you're the Undertaker at Wrestlemania, then it's no mystery. The Deadman's gonna win. The Evolution stable, a modern take on the legendary Four Horsemen, is a combined 0-6 against the Undertaker. Here's the list: Ric Flair (X8), Randy Orton (21), Batista (23), and Triple H (X-Seven, XXVII and XXVIII).

3. Sitting at a career worst 0-5 at Wrestlemania: Jeff Hardy and Goldust.

4. The ironic thing about Jeff Hardy's 0-5 record: Matt Hardy was there for all of them. The list: losses in three consecutive tag title matches in 2000, X-Seven, and X8, a DNF in the Money in the Bank ladder match at 23 (Matt was also one of the participants), and a loss to Matt in an extreme rules match at 25.

5. With eleven losses, Shawn Michaels is Wrestlemania's biggest loser (Mr. Wrestlemania has just six wins in seventeen appearances). Wrestlemania's second biggest loser: Triple H with nine. His list: Ultimate Warrior, Kane, Chris Benoit, Batista, John Cena, Randy Orton, and three losses to the Undertaker.

6. Remember when the Intercontinental Championship was a thing? Trust me, it was. Since Rob Van Dam defeated William Regal at Wrestlemania X8, the Intercontinental Championship has been defended just twice on the main show (sorry Miz, king of the preshow. Your defense doesn't count). The two times: Rey Mysterio's 21-second defeat of JBL at Wrestlemania 25 and Big Show's win over Cody Rhodes at Wrestlemania XXVIII.

7. At just three years old at the time of the event, Metlife Stadium is the youngest venue to host a Wrestlemania. The home of the New York Giants and New York Jets opened in April 2010 and hosted Wrestlemania 29 just last year. (Bonus fact: that record will be broken next March 29 when Levi's Stadium, the new home of the San Francisco 49ers, hosts Wrestlemania XXXI. The stadium will be just nine months old from its opening this coming July.)

8. The oldest goes to Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, host of Wrestlemanias IV and V, which opened in 1926.

9. Heel and face turns at Wrestlemania are a rare thing. The double turn from Wrestlemania 13, Macho Man's face turn from Wrestlemania VII, and Steve Austin's heel turn from Wrestlemania X-Seven come to mind. But the show with the most turns in one night: surprise, surprise, Wrestlemania XV. Big Show, Kane, and Triple H all flipped alignments during the show.

10. Sometimes, you have to wait more than a year for the biggest show of the year. That was the case with Wrestlemania XIX, which came 378 days after Wrestlemania X8. The longest wait, however goes to Wrestlemania 21, which came 385 days (or 55 weeks) after Wrestlemania XX.

11. No foolin': Wrestlemania has been held on April Fool's Day four times (VI, X-Seven, 23, and XXVIII).

12. Wrestlemania has landed on April 2nd four times too (V, XI, 2K, 22).

13. Wrestlemania XXX will be the first Wrestlemania on April 6. Meanwhile, two Wrestlemanias has been held on March 30, and another was held on March 23.

14. Just like Alfred Hitchcock appeared in all the movies he directed and a Superman reference appearing in every episode of Seinfeld, Howard Finkel, the man often credited with coming up with the word "Wrestlemania", has appeared in every Wrestlemania. These days, it's usually when he introduces the WWE Hall of Fame class, which he became a part of at Wrestlemania 25.

15. There are a few things certain in life: death, taxes, the Undertaker winning at Wrestlemania. (I swear I wrote this before last night.) And lately, the Undertaker appearing at Wrestlemania, as the Deadman has wrestled in every single Wrestlemania of the 21st century (proper), a record (soon to be) fourteen in a row.

16. Had he not torn his quad at the 2007 Royal Rumble event, that record would belong to Triple H, who would be on #18 in a row. He missed Wrestlemania 23, which at the time would have tied him with Bret Hart for most consecutive Wrestlemania appearances.

17. Despite CM Punk's modern-day record run of 434 days as WWE Champion from late 2011 to early 2013, not even the "Best in the World" can make this claim: the only man to hold the WWE Championship from one Wrestlemania to the next successfully: Hulk Hogan. In fact, Hogan held the world title without losing it for the first three Wrestlemanias.

18. We've come a long way from the likes of Papa Shango, Tatanka, and Repo Man. Wrestlemania XIX is the first-and to this day, the only-main event to feature two wrestlers using their real names.

19. Wrestlemania VII is usually remembered for five things: (1) the show being moved to the smaller LA Sports Arena from the LA Coliseum (delaying the first outdoor Mania by two years), (2) the Randy Savage-Ultimate Warrior classic (and reunion that followed), (3) the WWF trying to play up the Gulf War to the chagrin of many, (4) the first of 21 wins for the Undertaker, and lately, (5) the death toll: a staggering fifteen performers from that card are dead, with only "Macho Man" Randy Savage making it to his 50th birthday. By comparison: only twelve performers from the original Wrestlemania are dead.

20. Three WWE Hall of Famers suffered their first clean pinfall loss on television at a Wrestlemania: Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania III, Rowdy Roddy Piper at Wrestlemania VIII, and Bob Backlund at Wrestlemania IX.

21. As the story goes, Hulk Hogan got $1.8 million for his match against "Macho Man" Randy Savage at Wrestlemania V. Adjusting for inflation, that's over $3.3 million today, or about $600,000 more than the downside guarantee of John Cena's current contract.

22. Speaking of getting paid, famed Chicago Bears linebacker William "The Refrigerator" Perry not only scored at the Super Bowl, but he scored at the pay window at Wrestlemania 2, to the tune of $150,000, or about $320,000 when adjusted for inflation.

23. Amazingly, every Wrestlemania venue is still standing except for one, and it's not the Silverdome or the Astrodome (also, the arena constructed especially for Wrestlemania IX at Caesars' Palace in Las Vegas doesn't count). They're still up-for now. It's the Hoosierdome in Indianapolis, site of Wrestlemania VIII. It was torn down in December 2008.

24. From the "Who booked this crap?" department, Wrestlemania IV featured a one-night tournament to crown a new WWF Champion. A tournament of eight or twelve would have been suitable, but it was a 14-man tournament, and outside of Macho Man winning four matches in one night, it was ugly. In fact, despite being a four-hour show, only three matches at Wrestlemania IV went longer than ten minutes: a show-opening battle royal (10:40), the tag team title match (12:33), and Jake Roberts and Rick Rude's 15-minute Broadway.

25. Macho Man's four wins will very likely stand as the record for wins in a single Wrestlemania. In fact, only two other men have won more than one match on the same show: Ted DiBiase and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, both winning two matches at Wrestlemania IV.

26. At 21 years, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat had the longest gap between Wrestlemania matches. Coming in a distant second: Bret Hart at 13 years. My guess: this record could be in jeopardy with the 30-man battle royal.

27. In the last ten years, there have been five pre-show battle royals at Wrestlemania. Three of them have been won by former world champions: Booker T (Wrestlemania 21), Kane (Wrestlemania XXIV), and The Great Khali (Wrestlemania XXVII). The other two: Viscera (Wrestlemania 22), and... Yoshi Tatsu (Wrestlemania XXVI). Yeah. The preshow battle royal winners drop off a cliff after the Bookerman.

28. Shane McMahon's on-camera Wrestlemania debut doesn't come at Wrestlemania VIII when he along with a few others were trying to get Miss Elizabeth backstage. It came two years earlier in Toronto as referee Shane Stevens.

29. Chris Benoit's submission of Triple H was the first time a Wrestlemania ended with a submission victory. Three of the next four Wrestlemanias also ended on a submission: John Cena twice (Triple H and Shawn Michaels at 22 and 23, respectively) and The Undertaker at 24.

30. This year's Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal will be the first battle royal to take place during the main show since the Gimmick Battle Royal at Wrestlemania X-Seven.

And here's one more for the road: Wrestlemania has been a primetime offering since Wrestlemania XI in 1995, starting at 7pm some years and 8pm in other years (before settling back on 7pm since Wrestlemania XX). It wasn't always that way: the first Wrestlemania took place at 1pm on a Sunday afternoon.

There you go. Now you know more about Wrestlemania than you probably should. Now go make a few bucks off this, will ya? And if you have any obscure Wrestlemania facts, I'd like to hear about it.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.