WrestleMania 25, also promoted as The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania, was a 2009 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the 25th annual WrestleMania and took place on April 5, 2009, at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. This was the second WrestleMania held in Houston, after WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001 at the Reliant Astrodome. This would also be the last WrestleMania to feature the ECW brand, as it was dissolved in February 2010, and it was the first WrestleMania of the PG Era.
Eight matches were held on the event's card, which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main bout. The final match of the night was a singles match in which Triple H defeated Randy Orton to retain SmackDown's WWE Championship. Another main match was a triple threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship, which was also briefly on SmackDown at the time, and saw Raw's John Cena defeat defending champion Edge and Big Show to win the championship and subsequently transfer the title to Raw. The main match of the ECW brand, which occurred during the pre-show, saw SmackDown's WWE Tag Team Champions The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) defeat ECW's World Tag Team Champions John Morrison and The Miz in a lumberjack match to unify the two championships as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship; both titles remained independently active but could be defended on any brand under the unification. Another marquee match saw The Undertaker defeat Shawn Michaels to extend his undefeated WrestleMania streak to 17–0. Featured matches on the undercard included Matt Hardy defeating Jeff Hardy in an Extreme Rules match, Chris Jericho defeated the team of Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat, and Jimmy Snuka, and the annual Money in the Bank ladder match, which was won by CM Punk over Christian, Finlay, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, Montel Vontavious Porter, and Shelton Benjamin.
Tickets for the event commenced sale to the public on November 8, 2008. For the third consecutive year, WrestleMania broke the record for the highest-grossing pay-per-view in WWE history, grossing US$6.9 million in ticket sales, which included fans from all 50 U.S. states, 24 countries, and seven Canadian provinces. WrestleMania 25 generated approximately 960,000 pay-per-view buys, grossing $21.0 million in revenue. The event pumped an estimated $49.8 million into the local economy and generated $5.7 million in local tax revenue, equating to 600 full-time jobs for the area. With an attendance of 72,744, it is the eighth largest attendance in WrestleMania history.
Production Background
WrestleMania is considered World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) flagship professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985. It has become 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 25 was held on April 5, 2009, at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas and featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. Despite being the 24th anniversary of the inaugural WrestleMania in 1985, WWE marketed the event as "The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania" and written as "WrestleMania 25th Anniversary".
As the second WrestleMania to be held in Houston and in the U.S. state of Texas after WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001 at the Reliant Astrodome, WWE mainly promoted WrestleMania 25 under the tagline "Everything Is Bigger in Texas, Especially WrestleMania" since its announcement at WrestleMania XXIV in March 2008. WWE later began using "The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania" name in late 2008 to primarily promote the event. Tickets for WrestleMania 25 were originally scheduled to go on sale on September 20, 2008, but had to be postponed out of concern for the residents near the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane Ike and the disaster area declaration by Texas Governor Rick Perry. Following another postponement due to the effect of Ike on the state of Texas, WWE announced that ticket sales would be postponed until November 8, 2008.
The official theme songs for the event were AC/DC's "War Machine" and their live version of "Shoot to Thrill", as well as "So Hott" by Kid Rock. Other songs used at the event included "Crash" by Decyfer Down and "Touched" by VAST.
Marketing According to WWE's executive vice president, Michelle Wilson, WrestleMania 25 featured the most extensive promotional campaign in WrestleMania history at the time. Promotion for the event included a merchandise deal with Kmart enabling discounts on the pay-per-view's retail price, as well as deals with DirecTV and Dish Network to promote through interactive television. The campaign also saw WWE mail to previous purchasers of WrestleMania, professional boxing, and mixed martial arts pay-per-views to order their show. WWE spent US$10 million for cross-channel spots on television networks such as ESPN, MTV, and the USA Network. The Army National Guard were the primary sponsor for the event, using the event to help enhance their recruitment. To commemorate the event, THQ and Yuke's produced a video game, WWE Legends of WrestleMania, that was released a few weeks prior to the event and featured past competitors from the company.
As with previous WrestleMania events, a series of events were held in the week preceding WrestleMania 25. For the second consecutive year, WrestleManiArt, an art exhibition and auction featuring work by WWE wrestlers and local artists, was held at the Julia Ideson Building on April 1, with the proceeds going to Houston Public Library Foundation. WrestleMania's annual fan convention, WrestleMania Axxess, was held from April 2 through April 5 at Reliant Center. On April 4, WWE hosted its annual WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at Houston's Toyota Center, where the Class of 2009 was inducted.
Storylines WrestleMania featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, and ECW on Sci Fi—WWE's primary television programs. The event featured wrestlers from WWE's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands—a storyline division in which WWE's employees are assigned to a television program of the same name.
John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) defeated CM Punk on the March 9 episode of Raw to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. A week later, JBL's old rival Rey Mysterio issued a challenge to face JBL for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania. With the match accepted by JBL, this would be the first time since WrestleMania X8 that the Intercontinental Championship would be defended at WrestleMania. On the March 30 episode of Raw, JBL was pinned by Mysterio in a non-title match.
At No Way Out, Shawn Michaels defeated John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) in a match with the added stipulation that if JBL had won, he would have become the owner of Michaels' name and likeness. On the February 16 episode of Raw, Michaels challenged JBL to another match, with the winner advancing to WrestleMania to challenge The Undertaker to attempt to end his undefeated streak at the event. The next week on Raw, Michaels defeated JBL, but it was later announced that another competitor would stand in his way to prevent him from advancing to the show in the form of Vladimir Kozlov, who also made a challenge to Undertaker; the two wrestled the next week on Raw with Michaels defeating Kozlov, and earning his match with Undertaker. The next week on Raw, Undertaker and Michaels defeated Kozlov and JBL in a tag match. After the match, Michaels attacked Undertaker. The pair played mind games with each other over the following weeks.
The headline of WrestleMania 25 was a confrontation over the WWE Championship, rooted at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event in January by Raw's Randy Orton winning the Royal Rumble match. Per the stipulation of the match, Orton was given the opportunity to choose to wrestle for either the WWE Championship, World Heavyweight Championship, or ECW Championship at WrestleMania. Simultaneously, Orton began to assault the McMahon family, the owners of WWE. During this conflict, Orton punted both Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon (father and son, respectively) in the head as well as RKO-ing Stephanie McMahon (Vince's daughter), which enraged Triple H, SmackDown's WWE Champion and Stephanie's husband. Triple H. On the March 2 episode of Raw, Triple H convinced Orton to use his title opportunity in a match for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. The following weeks saw Triple H attack Orton both backstage and at his house. In retaliation, Orton attacked Triple H's wife Stephanie McMahon. As a result, Triple H recruited his brother-in-law and father-in-law, Shane and Vince McMahon respectively.
After the main event of the March 2 episode of Raw, SmackDown general manager Vickie Guerrero announced that her husband Edge would defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Big Show at WrestleMania. A contract to be signed to make the match official was intended to be held on the next episode of SmackDown; however, John Cena, from whom Edge won the World Heavyweight Championship at the previous month's pay per view, No Way Out (in the Elimination Chamber match), interfered with the signing before whispering a message in Vickie's ear prompting the signing to be canceled. The next week on Raw, Vickie announced to the surprise of Edge and Big Show that Cena would be in the match, thus making it a Triple Threat match. It was soon revealed that the match would involve the new challenger based on Cena extorting Guerrero with footage of the general manager having adulterous relations with Big Show. The next week on Raw, Edge, Vickie and Big Show were set to confront Cena due to Cena revealing the affair between Vickie and Big Show, much to the chagrin of all three. As a result, Guerrero arranged a match pitting Edge against Cena with herself serving as a special guest referee. With all that misdirected hostility focused on Cena, who could not touch Vickie or he would sacrifice his World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania, a lopsided confrontation seemed inevitable. As Edge and Cena battled, Big Show walked down the ramp toward the ring. When he arrived, Edge joined him in tying Cena up within the ring ropes. Fittingly, each drove their anger in his direction: Edge speared him, Vickie slapped him and Big Show drove his giant fist into Cena's ribs several times before clocking him in the jaw. Edge then speared Big Show and sent a message that he would retain his title at WrestleMania.