Back in August, a promo video for the still under-construction U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis seemingly jumped the gun with a major WWE announcement, saying, “you know we’ve got WrestleMania coming.” WWE said Minneapolis was a contender for WrestleMania, but that nothing had been confirmed yet. A few days later, the Observer reported that Minnesota was “a lock” to get the show, with Orlando and Philadelphia hopefuls for the WrestleMania after that.
As of now, it sounds like WWE’s “nothing’s confirmed” was the clearer message.
With the Slammy Awards edition of Raw in Minneapolis on Monday, many people thought an announcement of Mania 33’s location would follow, or at least be hinted at. Nothing of the sort happened. In fact, the show was mostly WWE giving awards to big name stars like John Cena, Sting, The Rock, Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker with none of them in attendance. As of Tuesday, it looks like Minnesota might be out of the question entirely. PWInsider reports:
For those holding your breath today, I advise you to stop immediately. There is no scheduled WWE announcement today for that event and we are also hearing that Mania 33 in 2017 will not be in Minneapolis.
That comes with a “nothing’s set in stone” disclaimer, and WWE could spend an entire Wednesday pumping out promotional material, but it doesn’t look good. Did U.S. Bank Stadium shoot itself in the foot with the early announcement? There are few things WWE likes less than someone making an announcement before they do. Ask anyone who has almost signed with the company and made the mistake of breaking the news early.
Does that mean WrestleMania 33 is coming to Orlando, or Philadelphia? We’ll keep you updated as the announcements develop.
