WWE’s Wrestlemania is Coming Back to LA, but Really Inglewood

By Jeff Duarte
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Updated: February 11, 2020

The WWE has recently announced that Wrestlemania is coming back to Hollywood, and by Hollywood they mean Los Angeles, and by Los Angeles they mean Inglewood, California, next year to host Wrestlemania 37. The “Showcase of the Immortals” is to take place on March 28, 2021 at the currently still being built, SoFi Stadium.

(SoFi Stadium being build as the Fabulous, Great Western Forum looks on. Photo : bloomberg.com)

The $5 billion dollar football stadium, which is officially opening in July, will be the new home for both the Los Angeles Chargers and Rams, and will also host the 2022 Superbowl.

(Hulk Hogan defends the WWF (now WWE) World Title against King Kong Bundy in the LA portion of Wrestlemania II at the LA Sports Arena. Photo : WWE)

Los Angeles has already hosted 2 and a half (or a third of) Wrestlemanias in the past, with co-hosting Wrestlemania II in 1986 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, along with Uniondale, NY and Rosemont, IL, (yes, one event was hosted by 3 different cities in 3 different time zones at the same time. It was a total disaster), and fully hosting Wrestlemania VII, also at the LA Sports Arena in 1991, and Wrestlemania 21 at the Staples Center in 2005. LA has also hosted many Summerslam pay-per view events, along with the WWE’s flagship shows, Monday Night Raw and Smackdown.

Seating and attendance at the SoFi Stadium is expected to be at 70,000 for football games, but the WWE is hoping they will reach over 100,000 in attendance, something they were hoping to achieve back in 1991 when they booked the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for Wrestlemania VII. They only ended up selling 16,000 tickets. (Ouch!) The lack of interest in ticket sales were both due to a downturn in the wrestling business due to over-saturation, and due to a terrible angle that stunk with bad taste, when the WWE (WWF at the time), booked a storyline where former U.S. Marine and babyface, (and member of G.I. Joe!), Sgt. Slaughter turned heel and became an Iraqi sympathizer, winning the WWF World title from the non-drawing Ultimate Warrior. He would then face off against the ultimate good guy and “hero” Hulk Hogan, at that Wrestlemania. This was all during and after the real life Persian Gulf War, where people were really being oppressed, fighting and dying, while the WWE/F tried exploiting it to make money. It didn’t work.

(The original planned site for Wrestlemania VII, the LA Memorial Coliseum. A stadium that can fit over 100,000 fans. Now imagine the WWF/E holding a PPV there with only 16,000 fans in attendance? Ouch! Photo : preston art and design)

Plans were quickly changed and the event was moved to the nearby Sports Arena, where the show went off without a hitch and had positive reviews. The WWE/F of course, didn’t want to admit that they moved venues due to a lack of ticket sales, so they came up with the kayfabe story for the mainstream press that they decided to switch to the Sports Arena due to bomb threats that Slaughter and his family were receiving. How moving 16,000 people, plus staff and the performers to a smaller and more cramped arena would save them from a bomb is anyone’s guess but that’s WWE/F owner Vince McMahon for ya.

(The official poster of Wrestlemania VII with the controversial main event of Iraqi sympathizer and former American “Hero” Sgt. Slaughter vs the real American Hulk Hogan. Photo : WWE)

The WWE did finally achieve it’s goal of having an attendance of over 100,000 fans when they drew 101,000 for Wrestlemania 32 in 2016 in Arlington, Texas at AT&T Stadium.

Along with Wrestlemania 37, the WWE will also be bringing Friday Night Smackdown to downtown LA on the Friday before the big event, along with an NXT TakeOver event on the Saturday, and Monday Night Raw on, well, you know, on the Monday. All three of those events will be held at the Staples Center. As is normally the case, many indie promotions will also be in and around town promoting their own events as well, so that entire weekend will be a sweet dream for any pro wrestling fan.

(The good old Grand Olympic Auditorium. Home to some of the greatest wrestling and boxing matches of all time. Photo : wikipedia.org)

Los Angeles has a long and storied history with professional wrestling/sports entertainment, most famously with the old WWA (Worldwide Wrestling Associates) promotion, that regularly had sold out shows at the classic Olympic Auditorium. The Aud was located at 1801 South Grand Avenue, now south of the Santa Monica Freeway. The WWA was known as an outlaw (or renegade) promotion as it had it’s own World Heavyweight title and wasn’t affiliated by the worldwide leader in the industry, the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance, not the pioneering, gangsta rap group, though that would be even cooler), who had an iron grip and monopoly over the industry. They had such stars as “Classy” Freddie Blassie, Pedro Morales, Dick Beyer, Bobo Brazil and Korean sensation Rikidozan.

(An LA wrestling scene superstar, WWA World Champion and future manager and WWE Hall of Famer, “Classie” Freddie Blassie. Photo : prowrestlingfandom.com)

The WWA was also one of the first ever American promotions that went overseas to Japan, to work with the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance, truly making it’s outlaw belt a World title. This was unheard of at the time. The WWA was owned and ran by the Lebell family, which included “Judo” Gene Lebell, who became one of the first ever MMA fighters in North American history when he fought boxer Milo Savage in 1963. This was a full 30 years before the very first UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) event happened in 1993. Lebell won the “no holds barred” (not the horrible film starring Hogan and Tiny “Zeus” Lister jr.), fight with a rear naked choke.

Lebell would also go on to be a 9th Dan in Judo, and would help train future UFC and Strikeforce MMA World Champion Ronda Rousey, who later became a pro wrestler herself, winning the WWE Raw Women’s World title and along with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, became the first women in WWE history to headline the main event of Wrestlemania. Lebell also became a famous stuntman and fight choreographer in Hollywood, and infamously choked out martial arts actor Steven Seagal, while on the set of his film, “Out for Justice”. Seagal was boasting that he couldn’t be choked out, so Lebell, who was in the 60’s at the time, put Seagal in a rear naked choke and put him to sleep easily. Rumor has it that when Seagal passed out, his bowels fully let go, but that’s a story for another day. Or I’ll just let Joe Rogan tell the story but WARNING, THIS VIDEO HAS VULGAR LANGUAGE.

The WWA was finally integrated into the NWA in 1968, ending LA’s wrestling independence. They were then known as NWA Hollywood, which lasted until 1982. After that, the WWE/F machine rolled into town and hasn’t left since. Smaller indie promotions such as PWG (Pro Wrestling Guerrilla), and CWFH (Championship Wrestling from Hollywood) still hold shows to this day with a strong cult like following.