Background in
East Rutherford, New Jersey.
WrestleMania is considered
WWE's flagship
professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV)
event, having first been held in
1985. It is the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views, which includes
Royal Rumble,
SummerSlam, and
Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". The event has been described as the
Super Bowl of
sports entertainment. Much like the Super Bowl, cities bid for the right to host the year's edition of WrestleMania. Announced on February 15, 2012, WrestleMania 29, promoted as WrestleMania NY/NJ, was scheduled to be held on April 7, 2013, at
MetLife Stadium in
East Rutherford, New Jersey. This was the fifth WrestleMania in the
New York metropolitan area;
WrestleMania I,
X, and
XX were held at
Madison Square Garden, and a portion of
WrestleMania 2 was held at
Nassau Coliseum. It was the third WrestleMania held in the state of
New Jersey after
WrestleMania IV and
V, both of which were held at
Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. To combat this, WWE added a heater that was hanging above the ring. Additionally, six electric furnaces were plumbed underneath the ring and vented into the ring posts to supply warm air. Tickets went on sale on November 10, 2012, during which WWE set a first-day sales record of 52,029 tickets, beating the
WrestleMania X8 record of 51,620 tickets. Partly due to increased ticket prices, WWE also set a first-day revenue record of more than $10 million, which topped
WrestleMania XXVIII's previous record of $6.3 million. For the first time, WrestleMania was streamed on mobile devices via the WWE app and on
Xbox Live. WrestleMania's set included replicas of several
New York City landmarks, including the
Brooklyn Bridge and
Empire State Building on top of the entrance ramp, the
Statue of Liberty on a podium above the ring. There are three official theme songs for the event, "
Coming Home" by
Diddy – Dirty Money feat.
Skylar Grey, "
Bones" by
Young Guns and "
Letters from the Sky" by
Civil Twilight.
Sean "Diddy" Combs performed a medley of tracks during the event, and
Living Colour performed "
Cult of Personality" as
CM Punk made his way to the ring.
Storylines The event comprised nine matches, including one on the Pre-Show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows,
Raw and
SmackDown. On January 27,
John Cena won the
2013 Royal Rumble match, making him the fourth
multiple Rumble winner, and earning himself either a
WWE Championship or
World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania 29. Later that same night, The Rock won the WWE Championship from previous champion
CM Punk. The next night on the January 28 episode of
Raw, Cena announced he would challenge the reigning WWE Champion, thus challenging The Rock. At the
Elimination Chamber event on February 17, Rock successfully defended the championship against Punk. The next night on
Raw, Punk challenged Cena for his spot in the main event, and Cena accepted. Cena won the match on February 25, setting up a rematch of his "Once in a Lifetime" match from the
previous year against Rock. Cena blamed Rock for sending his life into a downward spiral, citing events such as being attacked by Brock Lesnar on the post-WrestleMania
Raw,
Big Show turning heel and attacking him, being embarrassed by
John Laurinaitis at
Over the Limit, failing to cash in his Money in the Bank, losing to CM Punk multiple times and losing to Dolph Ziggler at
TLC. He told Rock he would gain redemption by beating him at WrestleMania. At Elimination Chamber,
World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio successfully retained his championship against
Big Show.
Jack Swagger,
Chris Jericho, and
Mark Henry, who all made their return, earned spots in the six-man
Elimination Chamber match, along with
Daniel Bryan,
Kane, and
Randy Orton to become the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship. Swagger won the match and challenged Del Rio for the title at WrestleMania. Throughout the weeks, Swagger and his new manager,
Zeb Colter, repeatedly stressed about the ignorance of America and allowing illegal immigrants in, and promised that they would bring a new era of "Jack Swagger's America". They also repeatedly attacked Del Rio, and Swagger injured Del Rio's ring announcer,
Ricardo Rodriguez's ankle. On the February 25 episode of
Raw,
Triple H returned, brawling with a returning
Brock Lesnar (who was last seen at
SummerSlam in 2012), who was about to attack
Vince McMahon for the second time, thus reigniting their feud from last year. During the brawl, Lesnar's head was busted open and required 18 stitches. The following week, Triple H set out a challenge to Lesnar at WrestleMania. On the March 11 episode of
Raw, after Lesnar attacked Triple H's former
D-Generation X members,
The New Age Outlaws, Lesnar's manager,
Paul Heyman, stated that Lesnar accepted Triple H's challenge, but only if Heyman could add the stipulations, to be revealed after Triple H signed the contract. Triple H signed the contract, therefore, he accepted the conditions, then Heyman revealed that the bout would be No Holds Barred and that if Triple H lost the match, he must retire from WWE. On the final
Raw before WrestleMania,
Shawn Michaels announced that he would be in Triple H's corner for the match to support him. On the March 4 episode of
Raw, which celebrated "Old School Raw",
The Undertaker made his return (his first appearance since
WWE Raw 1000) by opening up the show, signaling any challenger to face him and try to end his
undefeated WrestleMania streak at the event. CM Punk, Randy Orton, Big Show, and
Sheamus all declared they wanted to face The Undertaker, prompting
Raw's
Managing Supervisor Vickie Guerrero to set a Fatal Four-Way match among the four later that night. CM Punk won the match by pinning Orton, earning him the match against The Undertaker. The following night, The Undertaker and Kane's former manager
Paul Bearer died of respiratory problems. The next week on
Raw, Punk interrupted Paul Bearer's tribute segment to boast that he would break Undertaker's streak, which prompted Kane to attack Punk, although Punk escaped. Later that night, Kane defeated Punk in a No Disqualification Match, before The Undertaker came to the stage to perform his signature taunt with Kane to honor Bearer. Punk interrupted once again by hitting Kane with The Undertaker's
urn, which prompted The Undertaker to chase him away, and Punk escaped with the urn. On the March 18 episode of
Raw, The Undertaker came to the ring to tell Punk he had one chance to return Undertaker's property but was interrupted by Punk on the TitanTron, who further boasted about being the one to "snap the streak" while nonchalantly tossing the urn in the air. Disguised as a druid, Punk further assaulted The Undertaker on
Raw and constantly beat him with the urn while Punk's manager
Paul Heyman looked on, dressed like Bearer. Punk then boldly opened the urn and emptied its ashes over a fallen Undertaker, thus igniting their feud. On the March 15 episode of
SmackDown,
The Shield (
Roman Reigns,
Seth Rollins, and
Dean Ambrose) challenged Randy Orton and Sheamus to a six-man tag team match at WrestleMania 29. Orton and Sheamus accepted, then recruited
Ryback as their partner. Later that night, The Shield interfered in Ryback's match with Mark Henry and delivered a triple powerbomb to Ryback before he was given three World's Strongest Slams by Henry. The following Monday on
Raw, Vickie Guerrero pulled Ryback from the six-man tag team match and put him in a singles match with Henry. After winning a match on the March 18 episode of
Raw, Sheamus and Orton were about to be assaulted by The Shield, but then Big Show – who had also been brutalized by The Shield – came out to aid Orton and Sheamus, causing The Shield to retreat, and on
SmackDown that week, Sheamus, Orton, and Big Show were teamed together by
Booker T to test their teamwork in a six-man tag match against 3MB (
Heath Slater,
Drew McIntyre and
Jinder Mahal), in which they were victorious. Following the match, The Shield came to the ring to confront the victors before retreating once again. On the March 18 episode of
Raw,
Dolph Ziggler defeated
Kofi Kingston, with outside help from his bodyguard
Big E Langston. This caused
WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane), who both had been attacked by Langston during past matches with Ziggler, to challenge them at WrestleMania. Ziggler's girlfriend,
AJ Lee, said they would accept the match only if Team Hell No put their Tag Team Championship on the line, to which they agreed. A minor rivalry between Chris Jericho and
Fandango (the former Johnny Curtis from NXT) developed prior to Wrestlemania. Fandango made numerous appearances, but he never competed in matches due to announcers and wrestlers repeatedly mispronouncing his name or did not say it with the right kind of "feel" he liked. The feud with Jericho began on the March 22 episode of
SmackDown when Jericho made fun of Fandango's name. This caused Fandango to interfere with Jericho's match and attack him following the match. Fandango attacked Jericho once more on the March 25 episode of
Raw after Jericho's match. This caused Jericho to ask Vickie Guerrero to set up a match between himself and Fandango at WrestleMania. According to Jericho, the original plan was Jericho vs. Ryback, but Vince McMahon changed his rival. The other rivalry that had escalated was between
The Miz and
Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett. Miz and Barrett had been trading jabs back and forth about which of them was the better actor, as Miz had starred in
The Marine 3: Homefront, and Barrett had a minor role in the film
Dead Man Down. After defending his title in a triple threat match against Miz and Chris Jericho on the March 18 episode of
Raw, Barrett continued the feud with Miz after he shoved him on
Main Event on March 20, which caused Miz to retaliate. On the March 25 episode of
Raw, Miz defeated Barrett in a non-title match via submission, thus earning him a championship match against Barrett. The match took place on the WrestleMania 29 Pre-Show.
Canceled match The Bella Twins and Team Rhodes Scholars (
Cody Rhodes and
Damien Sandow) were scheduled to participate in an eight-person tag team match against Tons of Funk (
Brodus Clay and
Tensai) and
The Funkadactyls (
Naomi and
Cameron) at WrestleMania, but the match was canceled due to time constraints and instead took place the following night on
Raw, where Tons of Funk and The Funkadactyls emerged victorious. ==Event==