page_title: WrestleMania XXIV
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: WrestleMania XXIV / Production / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Citrus Bowl, Section 139Wrestlemania from Section 139
context_page_description: WrestleMania XXIV was the 24th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment. The event took place on March 30, 2008, at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida and was the first WrestleMania to be held in the state of Florida. WrestleMania XXIV was the second WrestleMania to be held outdoors, with the first being WrestleMania IX, held in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.
  Nine professional wrestling matches were scheduled for the event, which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. The first of these matches was a singles match from the ECW brand, in which Kane defeated ECW Champion Chavo Guerrero to win the ECW title. The second was a Triple threat match from the Raw brand, in which WWE Champion Randy Orton defeated challengers Triple H and John Cena to retain the championship. In the final match of the event, The Undertaker defeated SmackDown's World Heavyweight Champion Edge to win the title. From the six scheduled bouts on the undercard, three received more promotion than the others. In a No Disqualification match, boxing champion Floyd "Money" Mayweather defeated Big Show.
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.
  On March 21, 2007, a press conference was held at City Hall in Orlando, Florida, formally announcing the event for Orlando at the Citrus Bowl. According to an interview with The Daytona Beach News-Journal at the press conference, WWE chairman Vince McMahon mentioned Orlando being one of three front-runners to host the event, the other two being Las Vegas and Paris. McMahon explained that Orlando was chosen as geographically, a WrestleMania was never held in the southeast before.
  As the second WrestleMania to be held entirely outdoors, Vince McMahon also announced that the show would have taken place regardless of the weather conditions. In the March 2008 issue of WWE Magazine, WWE set designer Jason Robinson revealed that a steel rig with a tarpaulin roof would be built above the ring itself to prevent rain from falling on the ring. In that same issue, an initial design of the ring setup was revealed showing a larger rig surrounding the tarpaulin rig, with lighting and two giant screens attached. The final design had the lighting and video screens on the tarpaulin rig, as well as the sound system. During an interview, WWE production manager Brian Petree mentioned that video reinforcement should prevent anyone's view from being obstructed by the steel structure. Up to seven generators were used to power up the show.
  The set design for the entrance stage was at the north end of the stadium and consisted of another steel structure with various video screens hanging from it. The steel beams for the structure were custom built in Belgium and shipped over to Orlando. According to WWE Magazine, the amount of pyrotechnics used would be ten times that of the amount used on Raw. Without the restriction of a roof, the pyrotechnics for the show shot as high as 2,000 feet (610 m) as compared to WrestleMania 23's height of 150 feet (46 m). The fireworks were set off from boats on one of the lakes nearby the stadium. WWE has been said to have spent an estimated $300,000 on the fireworks alone.
  With the Citrus Bowl's locker rooms on the south side and the entrance set on the north side, a tented 40,000 square feet (3,700 m²) mini-city outside the north end served as the show's backstage area and included air conditioning, trailers, VIP areas, showers and restrooms. As a consequence, the road next to the north end zone, W. Church Street, was closed down until a day after the event. Numerous other roads were also closed to allow trucks and fork lifts to move in mega equipment for the event. The ring itself was built on the 50-yard line of the Citrus Bowl to give the best view for fans. Heavy-duty plastic flooring had been put over the field, to protect the turf, provide seating, and serve as the steel structures' foundation.
  Development on the set design began in the middle of 2007. The building of the actual set began in the middle of March 2008. 100 people worked 16 hours a day to construct the set for the event. The construction finished on March 29. WrestleMania XXIV was the first WrestleMania event to be filmed in high-definition. It was also the first WWE show and sports related title to be released on the Blu-ray Disc format by WWE Home Video. WrestleMania also led to an increase in sales for musical artists related to the event, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers' album Stadium Arcadium, John Legend's album Live from Philadelphia, Rev Theory's single "Light It Up", and Fuel's single "Leave the Memories Alone", which was used as part of a tribute to Ric Flair.
caption: A steel rig with a tarpaulin was placed over the ring at WrestleMania XXIV
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