Philadelphia will be Disneyland for wrestling fans across the world this weekend as WWE’s WrestleMania XL takes place over two nights — Saturday and Sunday, April 6-7 — at the city’s Lincoln Financial Field. Not only will fans be paying attention to the in-ring action, but also the spectacle outside of the squared circle, which will include Lil Wayne and one of the city of proverbial brotherly love’s favorite sons, Meek Mill.
WWE has a long history of artists performing at Mania, and hip-hop has had a serious spotlight over the years, with artists from Run-DMC and Salt N Pepa to Lil Uzi Vert and Snoop Dogg rapping and fighting on separate occasions. Bad Bunny has also competed at a WrestleMania; this week Def Jam dropped a special mixtape celebrating WrestleMania’s 40th anniversary.
This year, Lil Wayne — who dropped a new single with Young Thug, “Bless,” on Thursday night —and Meek have been tapped to perform separate sets at Mania. While everyone is anticipating Meek to ignite the night with some of his greatest hits, especially “Dreams and Nightmares,” Wayne promised during his appearance on the April 1 edition of WWE’s “Monday Nighy Raw,” that he’s going to premier his new single. Def Jam’s Coco Jones will also sing the national anthem.
“It’s gonna be lit,” says veteran DJ Whoo Kid, one of the many celebrities (including Justin Bieber) who were walking Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas with a custom WWE golden championship belt. “You’ve got the guy who reps Philly the hardest in Meek, and then with Wayne, every young kid that loves his music also loves wrestling.”
WWE is touting 2024’s Mania as the “biggest of all-time,” as the Rock returns for a match for the first time in 12 years on night one, teaming with his cousin, Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Rock and Roman will face off in a tag-team match against WWE Champion Seth Rollins and the fan favorite Cody Rhodes. On night two, Reigns and Rhodes will go one-on-one for the Universal Championship. It’s a rematch from their bout last year, where Reigns stretched the rules and got outside help from his faction, the Bloodline, to win.
WrestleMania week officially launched on Thursday with the grand opening of “WrestleMania World,” a convention-like setting where fans can meet the athletes and buy merchandise. Friday is “Friday Night Smackdown” and the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony from the Wells Fargo Center: self-proclaimed GOAT manager Paul Heyman and legendary boxer Muhammad Ali among the inductees. On Saturday afternoon, Wells Fargo host WWE’s developmental league NXT’s “Stand and Deliver,” and Mania night one kicks off that evening. On April 9, “Monday Night Raw” from Wells Fargo Center caps the week.
“[WWE President] Nick Khan is doing his thing, man,” rapper and world-class wrestling fan Wale told PvNew on Thursday. Wale has been a front row seat mainstay at Mania and many other WWE events the last decade — he even performs the theme for popular but injured WWE Superstar Big E. “I love to see it. Besides the song performances, those guys go out and get people like Bad Bunny and Logan Paul to compete in the ring. [WWE] are getting mainstream!”
Over the last nine years, Wale has made sure the music and the partying surrounding WrestleMania week starts a few days early with his own annual shindig — probably the only place on earth where you can see wrestlers ranging in height from seven feet to four-and-a-half feet standing onstage with top MCs spitting rap bars while the DJ drops the beat. On Thursday night at Philadelphia’s Franklin Music Hall, Wale welcomed wrestlers such as “The Almighty” Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, the Street Profits, and M.V.P. as well as MCs like Beanie Sigel, the Young Gunz, Westside Gun and Smoke DZA. (Pictured below.)
“I’m definitely proud of all the strides we made with it,” Wale said Thursday before the event, which is produced by Andria Paridesand co-curated by the Ringer’sKazeem Famuyide and Emilio Sparks. “We’re almost at that 10 year mark, every year has its own kind of character to it. We really don’t know what to expect every year.”
Philly native Sigel, who performed at WaleMania said around 3 a.m. Friday morning, in his way to an anti-gun violence gaming tournament put on by Life Camp in Queens this weekend. While he says he’s been a wrestling fan for most of his life, he didn’t realize that there were so many hip-hop fans that love the sport as well.
“That’s what bugged me out the most, seeing the wrestlers rocking to our music and knowing all our records,” he said, in a comment that summarizes the entire weekend. “They were coming up to me saying “Yo, I’m a big fan man… ‘When you came out with this song, I used to keep it in the locker room.’ The wrestlers turn up to our music and wrestlers grew up with hip-hop just like ballplayers did.”
