page_title: WrestleMania 25
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: WrestleMania 25 / Production / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Wrestlemania 25 at Reliant Parkin Houston Texas 2009
context_page_description: WrestleMania 25 was the 25th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment. It took place on April 5, 2009, at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. The event featured talent from all three WWE brands: Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. It was the second WrestleMania to be held in Houston, with the first being WrestleMania X-Seven at the Reliant Astrodome, which was held in 2001.
  Eight matches were held on the event's card, which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main bout. The first of these matches saw The Undertaker defeat Shawn Michaels. The second was a Triple Threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship, which saw John Cena defeat the champion, Edge, and the third participant in the match, The Big Show, to win the championship. The final match of the night was a singles match for the WWE Championship that featured the champion, Triple H, defeating Randy Orton to retain the title. Featured matches on the undercard included Jeff Hardy versus Matt Hardy in an Extreme Rules match, Chris Jericho versus the team of Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat and Jimmy Snuka, and the annual Money in the Bank ladder match.
context_section_description: WrestleMania is considered World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) flagship 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, dubbed the "Big Four". It has been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. The event featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands—it was the last to feature ECW, and subsequently the ECW Championship, as the brand was disbanded in February 2010, deactivating the championship along with it.
  As the second WrestleMania to be held in Houston and the state of Texas after WrestleMania X-Seven at the Astrodome, WWE mainly promoted WrestleMania 25 under the tagline "Everything Is Bigger in Texas, Especially WrestleMania" since its announcement at WrestleMania XXIV in March 2008. WWE later began using "The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania" name in late-2008 to primarily promote the event. Tickets for WrestleMania 25 were originally scheduled to go on sale September 20, 2008, but had to be postponed out of concern for the residents near the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane Ike and the disaster area declaration by Texas Governor Rick Perry. Following another postponement due to the effect of Ike on the state of Texas, WWE announced that ticket sales would be postponed until November 8, 2008.
  The official theme songs for the event were AC/DC's "War Machine" and their live version of "Shoot to Thrill", as well as "So Hott" by Kid Rock. Other songs used at the event include "Crash" by Decyfer Down and "Touched" by VAST.
caption: Pyrotechnics from the WrestleMania 25 entrance set, in front of an attendance of 72,744 fans
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