WrestleMania 32

WrestleMania 32
Promotional poster featuring Triple H and Roman Reigns
Promotion	WWE
Date	April 3, 2016
City	Arlington, Texas
Venue	AT&T Stadium
Attendance	80,709[1][2]
WWE Network event chronology
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WrestleMania chronology
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WrestleMania 32 was the 32nd annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It took place on April 3, 2016, at the AT&T Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. This was the last WrestleMania to be held before the reintroduction of the brand extension in July, which introduced another world championship, the WWE Universal Championship, thus it was also the last WrestleMania to feature one world championship. It was also the third WrestleMania to be held in the state of Texas (after X-Seven and XXV).

Twelve matches were contested at the event, including three on the Kickoff pre-show. Four matches were particularly considered to be the marquee attractions.^[3][4][5][6] In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Triple H to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. In other prominent matches, The Undertaker defeated Shane McMahon in a Hell in a Cell match, Brock Lesnar defeated Dean Ambrose in a No Holds Barred Street Fight, and Charlotte defeated Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks to win the inaugural WWE Women's Championship, which replaced the WWE Divas Championship that Charlotte held going into the event and had been retired during the Kickoff show. The event was also notable for having the shortest WrestleMania match ever, when The Rock defeated Erick Rowan in an impromptu match. The André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal included the surprise participation of former National Basketball Association player Shaquille O'Neal; the match was won by NXT's Baron Corbin in his main roster debut.

According to WWE, WrestleMania 32 set multiple records for the company, including grossing $17.3 million and a claimed attendance record of 101,763. However, independent reports listed an attendance of 80,709, making it the third most attended wrestling event in the history of the medium.^[2][1] WWE Chairman Vince McMahon later admitted the attendance record "wasn't 101,000 paid" as it included "ushers and ticket takers and all of that".^[7]

Despite its commercial success, critics gave mixed to negative reviews for WrestleMania 32, and rated it worse than the NXT TakeOver: Dallas event WWE held two days prior. Praise went towards the opening ladder match, Styles vs. Jericho, and the Women's Championship match; criticism was focused on the main event, Ambrose vs. Lesnar, the Hell in a Cell match, the overall length of the event, and what were seen as questionable booking decisions, which were focused on the amount of heel victories outside of the opening match and main event. The show was voted as the "Worst Major Wrestling Show" of 2016 in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards, and readers of WrestleCrap, which chronicles the worst moments in professional wrestling, gave it the Gooker Award for the worst wrestling event of any kind in 2016.^[8] The main event title match drew particular criticism and resulted in negative and angry crowd reactions.