The season of wrestlemania

Background

WrestleMania is considered WWE's flagship event,^[3] having been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment.^[4] The event will be the second WrestleMania to be held in the state of Louisiana and the second held at theMercedes-Benz Superdome, which previously hosted WrestleMania XXX in 2014.^[5] Tickets went on sale on November 17, 2017, with individual tickets costing $35 to $2,000.^[6] On October 30, 2017, traveling packages with accommodation ranging from $1,150 to $8,525 per person were sold.^[6][7]

American duo Chloe x Halle will perform "America the Beautiful" to kick off the main show of WrestleMania.^[8]

Since 2014, WWE had attempted to establish Reigns as their next "face of the company", but a significant portion of fans rejected Reigns and showered him with boos.^[9] In March 2017 before WrestleMania 33, wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer reported that WWE's long term plans ("which obviously could change") for WrestleMania 34 was to "once again build for a year and have the big coronation" for Reigns, who would still be a heroic character "between now and then" and beat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship "to fully replace John Cena as the lead babyface of the company",^[10] while the "idea" for Lesnar's role "for years now" was "to become a monster, be unbeatable, run through everybody, and then lose to Roman Reigns".^[11]

Storylines

The card will include matches resulting from scripted storylines and have results predetermined by WWE on the Raw andSmackDown brands.^[12][13][14] Storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows,Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live,^[15] and205 Live, the latter of which is cruiserweight-exclusive.^[16]

At WrestleMania 31, Brock Lesnar defended the then-WWE World Heavyweight Championship (now WWE Championship) in the main event against Roman Reigns, but there was not a decisive victor between the two as Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank contract during the match's climax and pinned Reigns.^[17] At WrestleMania 33, Lesnar defeated Goldberg to become the Universal Champion, and Reigns became the second person to defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania.^[18] On the post-WrestleMania 33 episode of Raw, Lesnar's advocate Paul Heyman teased a match between Lesnar and Reigns for the Universal Championship since they were the only two men to have defeated The Undertaker at WrestleMania.^[19] Over the following year, Lesnar retained the Universal Championship in various matches, including afatal four-way match at SummerSlam againstBraun Strowman, Samoa Joe, and Reigns, who Lesnar pinned.^[20] At the Royal Rumble, Lesnar retained the title in a triple threat match against Strowman and Kane, and men's Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura chose to challenge for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34. This left Lesnar without an opponent at WrestleMania.^[21] In response, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle scheduled a number one contender's Elimination Chamber match to determine who would face Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania.^[22]At Elimination Chamber, Reigns defeated Strowman, Elias, free agent John Cena, The Miz, Finn Bálor, and Rollins in the first-ever seven-man Elimination Chamber match to become the number one contender.^[23] WWE advertised Lesnar for the February 26 episode of Raw to confront Reigns, but he did not appear. Reigns criticized Lesnar for hiding behind his contract and said that Lesnar did not respect the WWE and that he had no respect for Lesnar, but he would defeat Lesnar at WrestleMania and become the Universal Champion.^[24] The following week, Heyman said that Lesnar would retain, and come SummerSlam, he would be both Universal Champion and UFC Heavyweight Champion, insinuating that Lesnar would make another return to the UFC. He also said that Lesnar would be there the next week, prompting Reigns to warn Lesnar to be ready for a fight.^[25] Lesnar, however, again did not appear. Reigns expressed his frustrations and went backstage to demand answers from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, who temporarily suspended Reigns for disrespecting him and guaranteed that Lesnar would appear on Raw the following week.^[26]That episode, Reigns appeared despite his suspension to confront Lesnar, so Angle had him handcuffed by U.S. Marshals. Reigns assaulted the Marshals, after which, Lesnar brutally attacked the handcuffed Reigns, who was taken out on a stretcher.^[27]

At the Royal Rumble, SmackDown's Shinsuke Nakamura won the men's Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Roman Reigns, earning himself a world championship match of his choosing at WrestleMania 34. After the match, when questioned on which champion he would challenge, Nakamura called out SmackDown's WWE Champion AJ Styles.^[21]Styles had a large hurdle to jump through to ensure that he would be the defending champion at WrestleMania as at Fastlane, he had to defend the WWE Championship in asix-pack challenge against Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, and free agent John Cena. Styles retained the WWE Championship, confirming the Styles-Nakamura match at WrestleMania.^[28] On the post-Fastlane episode of SmackDown, Styles and Nakamura expressed their respect for each other, but Nakamura promised to deliver a Kinshasa to Styles at WrestleMania and become WWE Champion. They were interrupted by Rusev, whom Nakamura had defeated at Fastlane. Rusev and Styles then had a match, which ended in a disqualification after Aiden English interfered. Nakamura saved Styles from the attack and performed aKinshasa on both Rusev and English.^[29] The following week, after Nakamura defeated Rusev, English came in and attacked Nakamura. Nakamura was able to fend off Rusev and English.^[30]

After failing to win the Elimination Chamber match at the namesake pay-per-view,Intercontinental Champion The Miz said that he had made the Intercontinental Championship more important than the Universal Championship and should therefore main event WrestleMania 34. Raw General Manager Kurt Angle decided that his opponent on that night's episode of Rawmight determine his WrestleMania opponent. Seth Rollins then came out and defeated The Miz in a match, after which, Finn Bálor came out to also have a match with Miz, which confused Rollins. The Miztourage (Bo Dallasand Curtis Axel) attacked Bálor right after the match started, causing a disqualification, and Bálor Club members Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson came to Bálor's aid. Angle then banned The Miztourage and Gallows and Anderson from ringside and restarted the match, threatening Miz with excluding him from WrestleMania. Bálor then defeated Miz. Afterwards, Rollins challenged The Miz for the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania.^[24] The following week, both Rollins and Bálor confronted The Miz, leading to a 2-on-3 handicap match between Rollins and Bálor and The Miz and his Miztourage, in which Rollins pinned Miz. Afterwards, Angle scheduled The Miz to defend the Intercontinental Championship against Bálor and Rollins in a triple threat match at WrestleMania.^[25] On the March 12 episode, The Miz interviewed Bálor and Rollins on Miz TV, which ended in Rollins and Bálor jointly taking out Miz and Rollins attacking Bálor. Later that night, Bàlor defeated Rollins.^[26]

Also at the Royal Rumble, Raw's Asuka won the first women's Royal Rumble match, last eliminating Nikki Bella. As a result, Asuka earned the right to challenge for either theRaw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship at WrestleMania 34.^[21] The following night on Raw, Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahonconvinced Asuka to postpone her decision until after Elimination Chamber.^[22][31] At that event, Raw Women's Champion Alexa Blisssuccessfully defended her title in the first-ever women's Elimination Chamber match againstBayley, Mandy Rose, Mickie James, Sasha Banks, and Sonya Deville, while Asuka defeated Nia Jax to keep her from being added to her championship match at WrestleMania.^[23] Asuka held off on making her decision for a couple more weeks. After SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair successfully defended her title againstRuby Riott at the Fastlane pay-per-view, Asuka appeared and pointed to the WrestleMania sign, indicating that she would challenge Flair at WrestleMania.^[28] Asuka appeared on the March 12 episode of Raw to explain why she had chosen to challenge Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship. Bliss and James interrupted, stating that Asuka was afraid to challenge Bliss, however, Asuka said she had chosen Flair because she wanted to challenge the best women's champion in WWE. Bliss and James then attacked Asuka, who defeated James in a match.^[26] Asuka then appeared onSmackDown the next night and confronted Flair, who vowed to end Asuka's undefeated streak.^[29]

After Alexa Bliss won her second Raw Women's Championship in 2017, she formed a friendship with Nia Jax. At Elimination Chamber, Bliss retained the Raw Women's Championship in the Elimination Chamber match, but Jax failed to defeat Asuka, which would have granted her the opportunity to be added to Asuka's championship match at WrestleMania 34.^[23] Jax had a rematch with Asuka on Raw, but again failed to defeat Asuka. Later, Bliss consoled Jax over her loss and said she deserved to have a championship match.^[25] After Asuka decided to challenge Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship at WrestleMania instead of Bliss, she and James confronted Asuka and had intended for Jax to have a match with her, but Jax did not appear, prompting James to have the match, which she lost. Bliss confronted Jax, who said that Raw General Manager Kurt Angle instructed her not to come out because she was scheduled for a different match. During Jax's match, a conversation between Bliss and James, who were unaware, could be heard and seen on the TitanTron. Bliss said that she was just using Jax and made fun of her, which greatly upset Jax.^[26] The following week, as Bliss was having a match with Asuka, Jax came out and chased Bliss to the backstage area, giving Asuka the win by countout. Later, Bliss confronted Angle who decided that Bliss would defend the Raw Women's Championship against Jax at WrestleMania.^[27]

After retaining the Raw Tag Team Championship against Titus Worldwide (Apollo and Titus O'Neil) at Elimination Chamber^[23] and again in a rematch onRaw,^[24] Cesaro and Sheamus then defeatedThe Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson) in a number one contender's non-title match. As they had apparently defeated every tag team on Raw, Cesaro and Sheamus then issued an open challenge to any tag team to face them for the titles at WrestleMania.^[25]On the March 12 episode, Cesaro and Sheamus were scheduled to wrestle The Miztourage (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel), but before the match could start, a brawl between all tag teams on Raw (including The Revival, Titus Worldwide, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, and Heath Slater and Rhyno) ensued. Cesaro and Sheamus managed to escape and complained to Raw General Manager Kurt Angle. Angle scheduled a tag team battle royal for later that night involving all of the aforementioned tag teams, with the winning tag team receiving a Raw Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania. As the match was about to begin, Braun Strowman by himself appeared and was declared as a competitor in the match and won by last eliminating Anderson.^[26] The following week, Angle decided that Strowman would receive a Raw Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania as long as he found a tag team partner. Strowman said that he did not need a partner, but would have one. He then defeated Cesaro in a singles match.^[27]

After previous WWE Cruiserweight ChampionEnzo Amore was released from WWE on January 23, 2018, vacating the title,^[32][33] a separate general manager was appointed for205 Live to address the championship and the division; 205 Live was previously controlled by the Raw General Manager.^[34] On the January 30 episode of 205 Live, new general managerDrake Maverick (formerly Rockstar Spud inImpact Wrestling) scheduled a 16-man single elimination tournament to crown a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion, with the finals to occur at WrestleMania 34. The tournament began that episode with Cedric Alexander andTJP advancing to the quarterfinals by defeating Gran Metalik and Tyler Bate, respectively.^[35] Over the next couple of weeks, Kalisto, Roderick Strong, Mark Andrews, Drew Gulak, Buddy Murphy, andMustafa Ali also advanced to the quarterfinals with wins over Lince Dorado, Hideo Itami,Akira Tozawa, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, andGentleman Jack Gallagher, respectively.^[36][37][38] The quarterfinals occurred over the next two episodes with Alexander, Strong, Gulak, and Ali advancing to the semifinals by defeating TJP, Kalisto, Andrews, and Murphy, respectively.^[39][40] On the March 13 episode, Alexander secured his spot in the tournament final by defeating Strong.^[41] The following week, Ali defeated Gulak, positioning himself in the tournament final against Alexander at WrestleMania for the vacant WWE Cruiserweight Championship.^[42]