INGLEWOOD — Professional wrestling fans swarmed to SoFi Stadium on Saturday, April 1, with championship belts, bright-colored shirts and luchador masks for Night 1 of the WWE’s two-day WrestleMania 39 event.
In a town that has become accustomed to giant football games and massive music concerts, this time it was WrestleMania goes Hollywood as more than 75,000 filled the state-of-the-art stadium — perhaps no surprise really, since in the first 24 hours after tickets went on sale, fans bought 90,000 of them for Night 1 and Sunday night.
The sheer pilgrimage of the wrestling faithful to SoFi itself was almost as much of a spectacle as the wrestling action.
Jonathan and Juan Rodriguez were part of the masses who made the trek on Saturday.
They traveled from Riverside County to experience their first WrestleMania event in person and were among the many others dressed as their favorite wrestler.
Both dressed as different versions of Hulk Hogan, the company’s top star during the 1980s and into the early 90s.
After finishing a transaction at the concession stand, the duo was met by several other fans who wanted to take photographs of them and with them.
Both have intentions of returning for Night 2 of WrestleMania and attending RAW on Monday at Crypto.com Arena but remain undecided on plans for another costume.
“We might come as Hogan or just come as our regular selves,” Juan said. “We might do Stone Cold (Steve Austin) tomorrow,” Jonathan said. “We already have the bald caps and everything ready there’s just a small tweaks I have to make that I didn’t like.”
A look around SoFi Stadium from the ground level during #WrestleMania 39. pic.twitter.com/4cJmnyRh4u
— James H. Williams covers UCLA football (@JHWreporter) April 2, 2023
The match between wrestler Seth Rollins and media personality Logan Paul had the attention of Jonathan, who is a self-proclaimed fan of Rollins.
Rollins’ match drew a reaction from the crowd after he caused Paul to…
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