This week WrestleMania 27 drops on Atlanta like a moonsault from the top rope, and even in the overblown world of wrestling promos, the return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is foam-at-the-mouth hysterical.
“The most electrifying man in all of entertainment hosting the most electrifying event in all of entertainment!” is the billing. (Add exclamation points as desired.)
If not quite “End of World” huge, the news is big in professional wrestling. The Rock, who seven years ago made a successful transition from wrestling to big-budget movies, is back in the ring. He is being sold as the “host” of the big event. Does that mean he will wear a nice suit and stay out of the action?
“What I can guarantee in Atlanta is that I will put my boot to candy [rear-ends] live in front of 75,000 strong members of Team Bring It,” Johnson said in a telephone chat.
WrestleMania, slated to fill the Georgia Dome on Sunday, marks a few major milestones:
- In the new world of professional wrestling, dominated by the global conglomerate World Wrestling Entertainment (or WWE), it's the biggest event of the year.
- It's the first time in 26 years that WrestleMania has been held in Atlanta, a stronghold of the once powerful rival promotion, World Championship Wrestling, now defunct and thus relegated -- in wrestling lingo -- to parts unknown.
- This year's showdown demonstrates that WWE has set it sights on making WrestleMania a Super Bowl-size cultural phenomenon. Considering the event's projected $45 million economic impact, just in dollars spent in Atlanta, and the vigorous courtship of WrestleMania by Atlanta officials, that goal is perhaps not so over the top.
In pursuit of this prize, Vince McMahon Jr. is leaving no angle unexploited, inviting tiny Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi from “Jersey Shore” into the ring, having Keri “Pretty Girl Rock” Hilson sing the customary “America the Beautiful,” and engineering the return of that Easter Island statue known as The Rock.
Along with the matchups between champion Mike "The Miz" Mizani and baby-faced challenger John Cena, the spooky Undertaker and Triple H, among many others, WrestleMania 27 offers a charity golf tournament, an interactive fan experience and a benefit auction of paintings by wrestlers. (What’s next? Wrestlers in interpretive dance?) What was once a single pay-per-view event has expanded into a week of hoopla.
A new audience has embraced the view that professional wrestling is not to be taken too seriously: It's theater, plus flying neckbreakers. McMahon encourages this, referring to his fighters as entertainers or superstars, not wrestlers.
While it’s the first visit of WrestleMania to Atlanta, it’s not the first visit for many WWE wrestlers, including champion The Miz, who trained for six months with legendary Deep South Wrestling promoter Joseph “Jody” Hamilton out of McDonough.
Marietta resident Cody Runnels, aka Cody Rhodes, is also featured in a grudge rematch with the masked Rey Mysterio, who supposedly broke Runnels' nose several bouts ago on the Monday night WWE show "Raw." Runnels is helping to sell the injury as a shameful insult to his “dashing” persona by wearing a plastic face protector.
Runnels is part of a Southern wrestling dynasty, including his brother Dustin and their father Virgil Runnels, aka the venerable Dusty Rhodes. Dusty, "The American Dream," delivered many a bionic elbow at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium and the Omni during Georgia Championship Wrestling (later WCW) matches, often bringing Cody to wait backstage.
“I grew up not being allowed to watch WWE," Cody Runnels said. "That was the competitor.”
Now, everyone works for the WWE, including Dad, who’s in charge of WWE development in Brandon, Fla.
Cody Runnels says the reason the WWE has administered a pile-driver on most of the competition is simple: “The sad truth of it is, it was just the better product.”
Stephen “Platinum” Scarborough of East Point, who promotes Atlanta matches "for hipsters and die-hard fans" through tiny independent Platinum Championship Wrestling, offers a different take: WWE just doesn’t want to share. “It’s financially prudent for there to be no competition,” Scarborough said.
Yet even Scarborough and other fans of old-school wrestling admire the multiplatform success of the WWE machine, with its weekly TV shows "Raw" and "SmackDown," its elaborate story lines and its spinoff books and movies.
James Kelly of Cabbagetown, a clinical psychologist, country musician and longtime wrestling fan, put it simply: "They have turned it into a worldwide phenomenon."
Meet the wrestlers:
John Cena:
Challenger for the WWE championship
Motto: "You can't see me."
Trademark look: Purple shirt.
Signature move: Five Knuckle Shuffle, Attitude Adjustment
Outside the ring: Movies ("The Marine"), TV appearances and a rap album.
Quoted: "I'm in the business of saying nasty things about people."
Michael “The Miz” Mizanin
Reigning WWE champion.
Motto: "I'm awesome!"
Trademark look: Fauxhawk hairdo (somewhere between Ed Grimley and Richard Blais.)
Signature move: Skull-crushing finale.
Outside the ring: Many reality TV shows, including "Realworld/Road Rules Challenge," "Fear Factor" and "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?"
Quoted: "I'm the WWE champion, I'm the best, and people are going to have to live with it."
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Movie actor and, until recently, retired from wrestling.
Motto: "I bring it."
Trademark look: Cocked eyebrow.
Signature move: The People's Elbow.
Outside the ring: Many movies, including "The Scorpion King," "The Tooth Fairy," "Escape to Witch Mountain" and "Furious Five."
Quoted: "In wrestling there are no stunt doubles."
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