AAA, Impact & New Japan announce WrestleMania week shows in Dallas

Pre-pandemic, wrestling companies big and small flocked to whatever metropolitan area was hosting WrestleMania every year. A global audience made the trip to see WWE’s biggest event of the year, and almost everyone wanted to be there to take advantage of it.

That didn’t happen in 2020, of course, as even WWE retreated to their Orlando Performance Center for a fan-free/cinematic ‘Mania. The show was back in front of a limited crowd last year in Tampa, but travel restrictions and other precautions still kept things from returning to their full, life before COVID norms.

In 2022, even with cases surging from the omicron variant and more questions than ever about what the responsible thing to do is, the wrestling world is planning to converge on Dallas-Fort Worth for WrestleMania 38.

Many events will be held under the WrestleCon umbrella at Dallas’ Fairmont Hotel, including from three big companies:

• AAA will have its first ‘Mania week event Thurs., Mar. 31 at 5pm
• New Japan USA will tape NJPW Strong on Fri., April 1 at 5pm
• Impact will run a show on Fri., April 1 at 9pm

These are in addition to already announced signings, meet & greets, and other events taking place at WrestleCon as it runs from March 31-April 2. They’ll each require separate tickets.

Other shows set for ‘Mania week in the Metroplex include

GCW’s The Collective and Wrld Fair will run in Dallas on the same days as WrestleCon. And Ring of Honor just announced their return event, Supercard of Honor, for April 1. That show will overlap with Impact’s, which is especially curious as the two companies seem to be collaborating on an invasion angle these days.

It’s a full-blown WrestleMania week. And hopefully not a full-blown anything else.