WWE WrestleMania 33: A Live Report from the Weekend in Orlando

WrestleMania 33 Source: WWE.com

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to go to WrestleMania 33? Well, here’s a glimpse into a wild and crazy weekend of wrestling.

WrestleMania 33 Week is a huge time of year for WWE. Just about all eyes in the wrestling world converge on the site of WrestleMania for a wide range of events. Signings, shows, ceremonies: there’s something for everybody.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend WrestleMania 33 in Orlando this year. It was something I had been looking forward to for quite some time. And with so much to do over the weekend, it is an incredibly tiring few days.

But not many people get to experience a trip to the Show of Shows. Depending on where you live, travel can be an issue. And it’s pretty expensive, based on location and how much you plan to do while on the area.

Therefore, allow me to present a snapshot into the craziness that is WrestleMania Week. A couple of quick notes before we dive into this:

• I flew in Thursday night, so if you’re looking for info on things like Joey Janela’s Spring Break, sadly I have none.
• To make things easier in general, I purchased a WWE Travel Package (more on that later), so most of my weekend is WWE-centric.
• I bailed on the Hall of Fame induction because CHIKARA was running a show at the same time with More Than Mania. I am a big CHIKARA fan, and not a big fan of long speeches, so it was an easy decision.
• I’m not going to bore everyone with every single picture I took or every single tweet I posted over the weekend. If you want to see more than what I’ve added to this post, go to my Twitter for the rest.

Related Story: WWE WrestleMania 33 Review

With that all said, here’s a peek behind the curtain of WrestleMania Weekend travel! 

WWE AXXESS

For the uninitiated, AXXESS is the WWE’s big fan festival. Every WrestleMania weekend, WWE loads a bunch of stuff into a big convention center or ballroom and the WWE Universe gets to check everything out.

This year AXXESS was held in the Orange City Convention Center, and it was jam packed. The vast majority of events can be broken into three categories: matches, meet and greets, and interactive activities. Each individual’s enjoyment of AXXESS, in my opinion, depends on how into those things you are.

I was at AXXESS on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Pro tip number one: if you plan on souvenir shopping while at AXXESS, go earlier in the weekend. There was still plenty of stuff to buy, but some of the more popular items (like almost every Kevin Owens piece of merch) were already sold out by the time I made it there.

I spent most of my time at AXXESS by the ring checking out the matches. Lots of PROGRESS matches, and NXT superstars who haven’t been on TV a lot (or at all). Tyler Breeze, Akira Tozawa, and the Ascension were the biggest names out there in my two sessions. Some of the matches were very good (especially Mark Andrews v. Travis Banks for PROGRESS), and others were just kind of there.

The meet and greets for most superstars are included in the price of admission (there are VIP and premium sessions for top superstars, though). However, it’s both a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is you can meet as many superstars you want, and get a photo and autograph. The bad? You’ll spend so much time on line that it may end up being all you do. The superstars are all very personable and accommodating, though – I went up to Cedric Alexander and The Brian Kendrick. You get about a minute while they sign, pose for a quick photo, and make some awkward small talk.

For me, the highlight was the interactive parts. I’m really just a big kid at the end of the day, so if you tell me I can reenact a superstar’s entrance, or cut a promo, of course I’m going to get on those lines. WWE films those things and hosts them on a website you can easily access. Spoiler alert: 48+ hours later my voice is still shot from the promo.

https://twitter.com/BigHeat34/status/848546588129710080

All in all, AXXESS can be a blast, or a dud. If you don’t mind waiting on line to do stuff, you’ll have fun. But if waiting 45 minutes or longer to meet someone like Curtis Axel doesn’t sound like fun, you may find it to be a waste. 

NXT TakeOver

(***SPOILER ALERT, as I’ll discuss the matches taped for NXT this week prior to TakeOver***)

As I mentioned earlier, I purchased a WrestleMania travel package. It was one price for basically everything all weekend except flight: hotel, two AXXESS sessions, TakeOver, Hall of Fame, and WrestleMania (including transportation to and from Mania). Depending on how deep your pocketbook is, and how much time you have for vacation, you could stay longer and hit up Raw and SmackDown afterwards. (My pocketbook is not that deep, so I flew home during Raw.)

Because of the travel package, I was guaranteed seats in a certain area of the arena upon purchase, but I had no options for choosing a seat. For TakeOver, it meant a seat in the lower part of the upper deck, because even when spending a lot of money I am very cheap/poor.

Pro tip number two: if you’re going to lots of events, make sure to check out the prohibited items list ahead of time. It took me like seven tries to get into the Amway Center for TakeOver, because just assuming what items should be left behind wasn’t good enough. (In my defense, some of the prohibited items were kind of ridiculous – like my backpack that was smaller than 75% of the purses I saw being brought in.)

By the time I made it in, I missed all of the first match of the TV tapings before the show. Super depressing, because Heavy Machinery defeated the Bollywood Boyz. Both of those teams are super exciting, and making all those trips back to the car in excessive Central Florida heat and humidity cost me.

Peyton Royce also defeated Aliyah as I was getting to my seat. Once I settled in, Oney Lorcan came out for a match, and he took on “El Vagabundo” in a supremely entertaining match. I’ll let you all see that for yourselves this week on NXT.

The main show, as you likely saw on the WWE Network, was great. For me, the tag title match was a five star affair and a clear best match of the night. The story throughout was terrific, and I think the crowd got it – or at least my section did. Aside from the lunatics a few sections over who thought they were the stars of the show and tried to ruin the night, it was a great time.

WrestleMania 33

Ah, the main event of the weekend. By the time you make it here, you’re already fighting exhaustion. And you only have ten hours left.

That’s not an exaggeration, mind you. If anything, I’m undershooting how long we were all there for. You think WrestleMania is long when you’re watching at home, try sitting outside in the Florida sun while doing it. It’s interminable – but in a good way.

The transportation included in the travel package stated a pickup time of 2pm from the hotel. My travel party decided to get to the pickup location a little early – better to be safe than sorry. Well, we got right onto a coach bus at around 1:35, making our long day even longer.

Once at Camping World Stadium (or the Citrus Bowl, as WWE still calls it), we had about 45 minutes until doors opened. After that, it was another two hours until any matches started. And after that, it was only six and a half hours of matches until we started to head back!

Pro tip number three: find a shady or air conditioned area to kill some of that time. The stadium had a club/lounge section, and the air conditioning was more glorious than Bobby Roode. A couple of adult beverages later (thanks, not having to drive!), and we made our way to our actual seats.

Surprisingly, the seats we had for WrestleMania were actually better than the seats for TakeOver – at first. Once the sun went down, we (and many other people, based on social media posts) found that WWE’s crowd lights were right in our faces all night. Despite multiple chants from many areas of the stadium, those lights stayed on for every. Single. Match.

Leaving that aside, WrestleMania was really good. Being a part of a crowd is always more fun than watching at home, you know? When you multiply that by a billion for the biggest show of the year, it’s crazy. Cosplay enthusiasts up their game even more at Mania, so it’s a huge spectacle all over. Before the show kicked off, there was an impromptu match in the crowd between “Steve Austin” and “The Ultimate Warrior.” Seriously, there was a referee, a run-in from “Ric Flair,” and a high-risk maneuver when someone jumped over the barricade from several rows up.

I know a lot of people weren’t really looking forward to certain aspects of the card. And you know what? Even though almost all of those things still happened (namely Undertaker losing), those people were ultimately happy with how the show turned out, talking about how much of a good decision it was to make the trip on their way out of the building.

All in all, if you have the chance to go to WrestleMania, do it. Don’t pay attention to the card. Ignore spoilers. Forget about part-time vs. full-time superstars. Just go. Some things are bigger than just being another show. Even if you end up going to the worst WrestleMania of all time, it’s still WrestleMania.

Must Read: 25 Greatest WrestleMania Moments in WWE History

And if you have to pee, there’s always a Flo Rida concert to accommodate you.