Pro wrestling continued its week-long stranglehold — or is it chokehold? — on South Florida’s attention Sunday night with WrestleMania 28, the unofficial Super Bowl of the massively popular pseudo-sport.
Egos and chins were bruised, or at least very much appeared to be so. World Wrestling Entertainment, known more commonly as WWE, these days readily acknowledges the scripted nature of its matches.
For fans, none of that really matters. They don’t know the results going in, and Sunday’s WrestleMania included an extra helping of suspense and drama with the return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who went head-to-head with WWE icon John Cena.
Who won that clash of the titans? The Rock, of course, to an eruption of inevitable, thundering cheers from the hometown crowd. During the bout, one fan held up a sign that said, “If Cena wins, we riot.” Besides, Johnson’s victory now sets the stage of a rematch.
Sunday’s string of wrestling matches at the Miami Dolphins’ Sun Life stadium attracted a crowd of 78,363 — a number the Dolphins themselves have struggled to achieve of late, and which WWE claimed was a Sun Life record. When a WWE announcer revealed the figure in the midst of WrestleMania, it was followed immediately by a boisterous display of fireworks.
Wrestling is a lot of things — silly, full of plot twists, and acrobatic among them. A place for understatement it is not.
In addition to fireworks, the technical dazzle included shooting flames, smoke effects and a massive screen-within-screen visual display that essentially occupied an entire football end zone.
Things began with a pre-event press conference featuring some of the WWE’s biggest names, along with a surprise appearance by boxing legend Mike Tyson.
Tyson, a lifelong wrestling fan, was earlier this week inducted into the WWE’s Hall of Fame (as a celebrity inductee). He said that honor impressed his family even more than his entrance into the boxing hall of fame.
Though wrestling is certainly a full-contact affair, Tyson said it has an uplifting undercurrent of positivity — something that contrasted with his boxing career, which included some startling lows, such as Tyson’s biting off a piece of opponent Evander Holyfield’s ear.
Of wrestling, Tyson said: “Boxing represented the dark side of me, and this represents the light.”
From there, the press conference predictably veered into some smack talk between star attractions Johnson and Cena. Johnson’s varied movie roles in recent years — and limited WWE presence — led Cena to question his commitment to fighting in the ring. Johnson responded that he left his full-time wrestling gig years ago because he wanted a “diverse” career that included starring on the silver screen.
“I quietly walked away, and I make no apologies for that,” Johnson said.
Soon after, the wrestling action began — and none of that could be called quiet. Crowd chants were frequent and thunderous, and included a “USA!” chant after the singing of America the Beautiful.
The oohs and ahhs were particularly audible when wrestlers in the ring were about to fly through the air. And if a wrestler was pinned down, the referee could have easily not bothered counting on the mat — a seat-rattling “One . . . Two . . . Three!” erupted every time from the crowd.
The crowd even roared after what was likely the most lackluster bout of the night — a victory by the pasty-skinned Irish wrestler Seamus. Seamus took advantage of an opponent who was distracted — wrestler Daniel Bryan was receiving a kiss from one of the WWE’s sultry “divas.” Seamus pounced, and the match was done in what seemed like less than 10 seconds.
“It was too fast,” admitted wrestling fan Cynthia Caceres, 20, of Miami, who was attending her first WrestleMania.
But Jorge Ferdinandy, a 30-year-old from Miami, loved the speed with which Seamus triumphed — it brought the night closer to what he was really waiting for: Cena versus The Rock.
The Rock’s talents as an actor, and a wrestler, are why Ferdinandy has long been a fan.
“He’s not only a good sportsman and wrestler and all that, but he can also perform,” Ferdinandy said.