2024 so far has been a banner year for WWE, having shattered indoor box-office and merchandise records in parts of the USA and in France, where the energy for the recent ‘BackLash’ premier live event/pay-per-view was off the charts.
Sheffield has played its part in the WWE (formally WWF) history as far back as April 1993 when it hosted the Sky TV pay-per-view special ‘UK Rampage’, featuring iconic former world heavyweight champions like Lex Luger, Mr. Perfect and Bob Backlund. In times of strife, the world's leading wrestling company could always depend on a UK audience to bring in the bucks.
The World Wrestling Entertainment's show ‘Smackdown!’ is the hottest it has been in years; its controversial former owner Vince McMahon having been replaced by head of creative - and former multiple-time champion - Paul 'Triple H' Levesque. Slow-burning, common-sense storylines that reach their conclusions at epic events such as ‘WrestleMania’ or ‘SummerSlam’ amongst a blaze of pyrotechnics and stadium-sized cheers are really burgeoning at the moment.
Likewise, talents who might previously have been wasted under the past regime are now growing under the financial clout and worldwide reach of TKO (a merger involving WWE and UFC). Stars like workhorse and charismatic champ, Cody Rhodes (formerly of distant 2nd place company ‘All Elite Wrestling’), the supremely entertaining bad-boy LA Knight (former TNA Heavyweight Champion), and newcomers in the dastardly Bloodline faction are thriving in this exciting revamped WWE world.
This summer, WWE - World Wrestling Entertainment - announced that WWE Live will return to the UK and Ireland and, on 6th November, their tour will conclude at Utilita Arena Sheffield, the region's largest indoor premier entertainment venue.
The WWE stated: "Fans attending WWE Live will see their favourite Superstars in action including Undisputed WWE Champion “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax, Bayley, Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, Randy Orton, LA Knight, AJ Styles, The Bloodline, and many more*” And hopefully by November 6th, ex-champ Roman Reigns - built like a Greek sculpture and brooding like an oily Marlon Brando - will also return to wreak revenge on his treacherous colleagues and, touch wood, it will be on Yorkshire soil!
Tickets are on sale now via the Sheffield Arena website here.
*Talent subject to change.
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