WWE's WrestleMania 40 Kickoff Makes History

WWE’s WrestleMania 40 Kickoff event got fans talking as the Road To WrestleMania was flipped on its head with the reveal that Cody Rhodes, not The Rock, would be facing Roman Reigns in the main event of the show for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Rhodes initially gave up his spot to The Rock, but after backlash from fans online, Rhodes revealed that he wasn’t giving in to the influence of The Rock and was taking his spot back for the main event of WrestleMania. 

This event in Las Vegas was a different approach to WWE’s WrestleMania build that it has done in the past, and it certainly paid off. On X, Triple H revealed the record-breaking and history-making success of the WrestleMania Kickoff event. 

In its first 12 hours, the WWE WrestleMania 40 Kickoff received over 100,000,000 views, which is a WWE company record. In terms of live viewership, across all of WWE’s social platforms it received upwards of 4.7 million viewers. These viewership numbers made this the highest viewed non-wrestling event livestream in WWE history. All of this is mightily impressive, showcasing the interest in what was going to happen at the event involving Roman Reigns, The Rock, and Cody Rhodes.