'The City Beautiful' set for WWE's biggest night

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Press Trust of India Orlando
Last Updated : Apr 02 2017 | 6:22 PM IST
The excitement is palpable here as WWE WrestleMania returns to 'The City Beautiful' after a gap of nine years.
Orlando, a city that attracts millions of tourists from all the over the world, has given a rather fitting welcome to the WWE superstars ahead of big night at the Camping World Stadium on Sunday.
For once, the tourists are not only here for its array of theme parks, they are here to witness arguably the biggest show in the sports entertainment. Be it in the always buzzing downtown or the city's outskirts, huge WrestleMania hoardings stare right in your face.
And it is not just about the main event, the excitement is generated with a host of engagements in the lead up to the WrestleMania.
The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at the Amway Center took place on Friday, where the superstars of yesteryears including the likes of Kurt Angle were honoured. It was followed by a dedicated fan event and NXT Takeover, featuring fights in WWE's third global brand alongside Raw and Smackdown.
While thousands will turn up to root for their favourite stars at the venue, millions will be glued to their television sets worldwide including India, which is WWE's second biggest market outside the United States.
Returning to Orlando for WrestleMania is like a homecoming for the professional wrestling company which also nurtures global talents at its state of the art Performance Center here.
For Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, it was a no-brainer that the city should host WrestleMania again.
"There is no better place than the most visited place in the world. We had it in 2008 and it broke pretty much every record we had at the stadium, so we are very excited to have it come back," Dyer.
Eleven matches are scheduled for the big night and it will be the first time in four years that WrestleMania will see a battle for two world championships: Raw's Universal Championship, which is defended for the first time at the WrestleMania, between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar while Bray Wyatt faces off with Randy Orton.
Also seen in action will be WWE legend Triple H, who takes on Seth Rollins in an unsanctioned match. Triple H, whose real name is Paul Levesque, is also WWE's executive vice-president of talent, live events and creative division.
Ahead of the main event, Triple H said he is proud that WWE is going global like never before.
"Forty percent of our talent comes from 22 countries. We are recruiting globally like we have never done even before. The world is becoming a smaller place and we want to find talent from every walk of life, every country," he said.

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First Published: Apr 02 2017 | 6:22 PM IST

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