WrestleMania XXIV was the 24th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on March 30, 2008, at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida and was the first WrestleMania to be held in the state of Florida. It was also the second WrestleMania to be held outdoors (the first was WrestleMania IX in April 1993). American socialite Kim Kardashian served as the hostess of the event.
Nine professional wrestling matches were scheduled for the event, which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. In the final match of the event, which was the main match from SmackDown, The Undertaker defeated Edge to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Raw's main match was a triple threat match, in which Randy Orton defeated Triple H and John Cena to retain the WWE Championship. The main match from the ECW brand was a singles match in which Kane defeated Chavo Guerrero to win the ECW Championship. From the six scheduled bouts on the undercard, three received more promotion than the others. In a No Disqualification match, professional boxer Floyd "Money" Mayweather defeated Big Show. The other featured undercard matches saw CM Punk win the inter-promotional Money in the Bank ladder match and a retirement match in which Shawn Michaels defeated Ric Flair, leading to Flair's departure from the WWE and a period of retirement from active wrestling.
Tickets for the event commenced sale to the public on November 3, 2007. WWE and the City of Orlando hosted festivities that spanned a five-day period within the central Florida region. For the second consecutive year, WrestleMania broke the record for the highest-grossing pay-per-view in WWE history. It also set a gate record for the Citrus Bowl, grossing US$5.85 million in ticket sales. According to a study by Enigma Research Corporation of Toronto, the Citrus Bowl's record-breaking attendance brought an estimated $51.5 million – surpassing the projected $25 million – into the local economy and generated $1.8 million in local tax revenue. The Central Florida Sports Commission reported that the event created jobs and brought approximately 60,000 visitors to the city. Over one million people ordered the event on pay-per-view, grossing $23.8 million in revenue. It was also the first WrestleMania PPV broadcast in high definition.
Production
Background
WrestleMania is considered World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) flagship 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 XXIV featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands.
On March 21, 2007, a press conference was held at City Hall in Orlando, Florida, formally announcing that WrestleMania XXIV would be held in Orlando at the Florida Citrus Bowl on March 30, 2008, which would be the first WrestleMania held in Florida. According to an interview with The Daytona Beach News-Journal at the press conference, WWE chairman Vince McMahon mentioned Orlando being one of three front-runners to host the event, the other two being Las Vegas and Paris. McMahon explained that Orlando was chosen as geographically, a WrestleMania was never held in the southeast before.
As the second WrestleMania to be held entirely outdoors (after WrestleMania IX), McMahon also announced that the event would have taken place regardless of the weather conditions. In the March 2008 issue of WWE Magazine, WWE set designer Jason Robinson revealed that a steel rig with a tarpaulin roof would be built above the ring itself to prevent rain from falling on the ring; during the Money in the Bank ladder match, it rained briefly. In that same issue, an initial design of the ring setup was revealed showing a larger rig surrounding the tarpaulin rig, with lighting and two giant screens attached. The final design had the lighting and video screens on the tarpaulin rig, as well as the sound system. During an interview, WWE production manager Brian Petree mentioned that video reinforcement should prevent anyone's view from being obstructed by the steel structure. Up to seven generators were used to power up the event.