SANTA CLARA — Mayor Jamie Matthews lugged the WWE championship belt over his shoulder, strutted out from behind gold and red drapes to booming pop music and entered the ring — er, news conference — to loud cheers.
And just like that, the first of many crazy, over-the-top World Wrestling Entertainment shows leading up to the first Silicon Valley WrestleMania had begun.
After announcing over the weekend that the San Francisco 49ers’ new Santa Clara stadium would host the 31st WrestleMania in March 2015, all the dignitaries got to show off a bit at a Santa Clara convention hall Tuesday morning.
It was not the typical news conference deal where officials thank each other and blather on while putting everyone else asleep. Instead, in true WWE style, there was blaring music and bright flashing lights throughout as professional stages crews worked behind the scenes to choreograph the made-for-TV event.
“We don’t do much that’s traditional,” said WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
At one point, a wrestler named R-Truth, wearing a suit and sporting dreadlocks, began rapping and pointing to a crowd of suit-wearing bureaucrats and attendees before executing a loud split on stage. A woman wearing a skimpy turquoise dress began dancing her way through a crowd of officials from Santa Clara and San Jose.
At another point, the 49ers mascot Sourdough Sam launched an impromptu break-dancing competition with WWE wrestlers as a smiling John Cena — the WWE’s current champion and biggest superstar — cheered them on.
Tight end Vernon Davis appeared, demanding to know why he does not, too, have his own entrance music for 49ers games. He offered to serve as McMahon’s bodyguard, but already present at the event were several very large men — including one giant called The Big Show, towering at 7 feet tall — that made Davis and his teammates in attendance look normal, perhaps even small, by comparison.
They talked about the event, too, saying it would bring more than 100,000 visitors to Silicon Valley and generate more than $100 million in economic impact. Because of extra floor seating, it could be the largest attended event at Levi’s Stadium, with more than 75,000 fans packing into the $1.3 billion stadium that will typically have a capacity of less than 70,000 when it opens next summer.
McMahon said in an interview after the event that this WrestleMania “will blow away” its predecessors. He added that it would “rival, if not supersede, the Super Bowl” coming to the stadium in 2016. He said they would highlight the region’s tech prowess, starting with unveiling a logo that includes a red “play” button.
49ers CEO Jed York recalled wrestling with his younger brother growing up in Ohio, when he emulated Andre the Giant and dropped flying elbows.
The biggest star was John Cena, with his 17.2 million Facebook likes and 5.7 million Twitter followers, who took on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in this year’s WrestleMania main event. He said the region “has so much more to offer” than its tech reputation and predicted it would soon turn into a wrestling hub.
“WrestleMania is an entertainment field of dreams,” said Cena, who has starred in movies and looks like he could suit up at middle linebacker for coach John Harbaugh on Sunday. “When you build it, they will come. It will be one hell of an event.”
Contact Mike Rosenberg at 408-920-5705. Follow him at twitter.com/RosenbergMerc.
