— Saturday, March 4: WWE Road to WrestleMania Tour at Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto, Ont.
— Saturday, March 12: Road to WrestleMania Tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
— Monday, March 13: Raw at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, R.I.
— Friday, March 24: SmackDown at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
— Saturday, March 25: Road to WrestleMania Tour at Maverik Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
— Sunday, March 26: Road to WrestleMania Tour at Ball Arena in Denver.
— Friday, April 7: SmackDown at Moda Center in Portland, Ore.
— Monday, April 10: Raw at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
— Friday, April 14: SmackDown at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Neb.
— Saturday, April 15: Saturday Night’s Main Event at Rio Rancho Events Center in Rio Rancho, N. Mex.
— Sunday, April 16: Sunday Stunner at Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Tex.
— Monday, April 17: Raw at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock, Ark.
— Friday, April 21: SmackDown at Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.
— Saturday, April 22: Saturday Night’s Main at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind.
— Monday, April 24: Raw at Allstate Arena in Chicago.
— Friday, April 28: SmackDown at American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Tex.
— Saturday, April 29: Saturday Night’s Main Event at Ford Arena in Beaumont, Tex.
— Sunday, April 30: Sunday Stunner at Brookshire Grocery Arena in Bossier City, La.
— Monday, May 1: Raw at Dickies Arena in Ft. Worth, Tex.
— Monday, May 22: Raw at GIANT Center in Hershey, Pa.
Food for Thought
Want to know more about the Brookshire Grocery Arena, formerly known as the Bossier City Arena (2000), CenturyTel Center (2000-10) and CenturyLink Arena (2010-20)? It isn’t a bandbox. Located in the Shreveport-Bossier City area, the arena was built in 2000 at a cost of $56.5 million and seats 14,000 (12,440 for hockey).
The first concert there was Styx in 2000. The list of artists who have performed there includes Elton John, Kid Rock, Britney Spears, Cher, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney. Tyler, Tex.-based Brookshire Grocery Company bought naming rights to the arena in 2020. There are more than 150 Brookshire grocery stores in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The stores employ more than 14,000.
Back to the WWE schedule. WrestleMania 39 will be Saturday, April 1 and Sunday, April 2 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Ticket sales have eclipsed all the previous WrestleMania events even though not one match has been announced.
The previous WrestleMania gate sale record was $17.3 million for WrestleMania 32 in 2016 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex. Attendance that night was announced as 101,763. But WWE Chairman Vince McMahon said during a 2017 press conference that the attendance figure included “ushers and ticket takers and all that.”
Shaq Attack
What have been the big matches at AT&T Stadium? Roman Reigns beat Triple H to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship; The Undertaker defeated Shane McMahon in a Hell in a Cell match; Brock Lesner beat Dean Ambrose in a No Holds Barred Street Fight and Charlotte beat Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks in a triple-threat match to win the first WWE Women’s Championship.
Charlotte held the WWE Divas Championship going into the night. That championship was renamed the WWE Women’s Championship that night. Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal participated in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, which was won by NXT’s Baron Corbin in his main roster debut. Corbin eliminated Kane to win the Battle Royal. Shaq eliminated Damien Sandow then had a stare down with the Big Show before both were eliminated by several wrestlers.
