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WrestleMania 23 was the twenty-third annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was presented by 360 OTC and took place on April 1, 2007, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. The event was the first WrestleMania at Ford Field and the second to take place in the Detroit metropolitan area (following WrestleMania III, at the Pontiac Silverdome, in Pontiac, Michigan). The event was a joint-brand pay-per-view, featuring performers from the Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW brands. Eight professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. The main match on the Raw brand was John Cena versus Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship, in which Cena won. The predominant match on the SmackDown! brand was Batista versus The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship, in which The Undertaker was victorious. The primary match on the ECW brand was an eight-man tag team match between The ECW Originals and The New Breed; The ECW Originals claimed victory in the match. The featured matches on the undercard included Bobby Lashley versus Umaga and an interpromotional Money in the Bank ladder match. Tickets for the event went on sale on November 11, 2006. The all-time Ford Field attendance record of 80,103 consisted of people from all fifty states, twenty-four countries, and nine Canadian provinces. WrestleMania 23 grossed US$ 5.38 million in ticket sales, breaking the previous record of $3.9 million held at WrestleMania X8.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=WrestleMania Blows Away Attendance Record At Ford Fields )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=WrestleMania X8 Sets Revenue, Attendance Records )〕 WWE estimated that $25 million was pumped into the Detroit economy. With about 1.2 million buys, the event was the highest WWE pay-per-view buyrate in history. WrestleMania XXVIII in 2012 passed 1.2 million buys with 1.21 million buys. It also had the second highest attendance in recent WrestleMania history until it was beaten by WrestleMania 29 with 80,676 fans in 2013.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Q2007Presentation ) 〕 ==Background== The event featured eight professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either villains or fan favorites as they followed a series of events which built tension, culminating in a wrestling match or series of matches. The main staged rivalry heading into WrestleMania 23 was between WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and Donald Trump. On the January 8 edition of ''Raw'', Donald Trump faced off against his real-life rival, Rosie O'Donnell. Donald Trump won the contest, although local wrestlers portrayed Trump and O'Donnell. During McMahon's "Fan Appreciation Night" on the January 29 edition of ''Raw'', Donald Trump interrupted and dropped large sums of money into the arena. The following month, the two came up with a match for WrestleMania, where the stipulations for the match were that they each had to choose a representative to wrestle for them and the loser would have his head shaved bald. This match was then billed as the "Battle of the Billionaires". McMahon picked Umaga as his representative, while Trump picked Bobby Lashley. After successfully defending his ECW World Championship against Hardcore Holly in a Steel Cage match, a match in which the ring is surrounded by a steel cage on an edition of ''ECW on Sci Fi'', Lashley charged at the cage, slammed through it, and landed atop of Umaga, who was at ringside. On the March 5 edition of ''Raw'', Steve Austin was appointed as special guest referee for the "Battle of the Billionaires" match at WrestleMania 23. On the March 26 edition of ''Raw'', McMahon faced off against Lashley in a No Disqualification match. In the match, several people interfered on McMahon's behalf, including Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, Chris Masters, Johnny Nitro, and Umaga. This interference allowed McMahon to win the bout. The main rivalry on the Raw brand was between John Cena and Shawn Michaels over the WWE Championship. After The Undertaker, the winner of the 2007 Royal Rumble match, made his decision to face Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania, a match to determine the next challenger to the WWE Championship was announced. Michaels defeated Randy Orton and Edge in a match involving three wrestlers to win a chance to face Cena at WrestleMania. On an edition of ''Raw'', Orton and Edge, who were tag team partners as Rated-RKO, attempted to attack Cena, but Michaels ran-in and attacked them with steel chairs.〔 Before a scheduled tag team match between Rated-RKO and Cena and Michaels, Orton played a video that highlighted the past friendships that Michaels was involved in, before turning on the friend. In the match, Michaels nearly superkicked Cena after Orton moved. Due to a later disagreement, Edge left Orton and walked off backstage, which allowed Cena and Michaels to win the match. The following week, Michaels responded to the video set-up by Orton, and made comments regarding Cena.〔 After Michaels defeated Orton, Cena ran-down to the ring and saved Michaels from an attack by Edge and Orton.〔 On the final ''Raw'' before WrestleMania, Cena and Michaels would team up to face Batista and Undertaker in a rematch from their match at No Way Out. Cena and Michaels looked set to win after performing a synchronized Five Knuckle Shuffle, but Michaels turned on Cena and superkicked him, which allowed Batista and Undertaker to win the match.〔 The main feud on the SmackDown! brand was between Batista and The Undertaker over the World Heavyweight Championship. Undertaker won the 2007 Royal Rumble match to earn a championship match against any one of WWE's three world championships (WWE, World Heavyweight, or ECW). On the February 5 episode of ''Raw'', Undertaker chose to challenge Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship when he chokeslammed him at the center of the ring. In the weeks leading to WrestleMania 23, Batista and Undertaker partook in tag team matches. In the beginning of the feud, Batista claimed to have great respect for The Undertaker; however, after several attacks by The Undertaker, Batista claimed to have lost all respect for him especially at No Way Out when Batista gained some payback by delivering a Spinebuster to The Undertaker, allowing Raw's WWE Champion, John Cena and Shawn Michaels to deliver their signature moves on The Undertaker for the victory during their interpromotional WrestleMania 23 tag team main event. The main feud on the ECW brand was between two teams of four; The ECW Originals and The New Breed. The feud mainly revolved around which team was the "dominant force" in the revived ECW brand. The two factions of four faced off in several tag team matches throughout the weeks prior to the event. The New Breed seemed to have dominated for several weeks; however, ECW Originals leader, Rob Van Dam, defeated New Breed leader Elijah Burke in a singles match. ECW Original Tommy Dreamer issued the challenge to the New Breed for an eight-man tag team match at WrestleMania 23, which was accepted by Burke on behalf of The New Breed. The last major feud involved eight men. Several weeks before WrestleMania 23, it was announced that the Money in the Bank ladder match would be held again, as it was in the last two years. This year, however, there would be eight men involved, rather than six the two previous years had. Throughout the weeks leading up to WrestleMania 23, qualifying matches took place on all three shows. On an edition of ''Raw'', Edge, the winner of the match held in 2005, defeated Rob Van Dam, the winner of the match held in 2006, to earn the first spot in the match. The next night on ''ECW'', another cross-brand match took place, with CM Punk defeating Johnny Nitro to qualify. On that week's ''SmackDown!'', King Booker became the third man to qualify, defeating Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match after The Great Khali interfered. On the next edition of ''Raw'', Jeff Hardy pinned Shelton Benjamin in a match to become the fourth man to qualify. The next night on ''ECW'', Mr. Kennedy defeated Sabu in an Extreme Rules match to earn the fifth spot. On the next ''SmackDown!'', two qualifying matches took place, with Matt Hardy and Finlay winning their respective match to qualify when Matt Hardy defeated Joey Mercury and Finlay defeated WWE US Champion, Chris Benoit & Montel Vontavious Porter in the Triple threat qualification match. The final qualifying match took place on ''Raw'' between Carlito and Ric Flair. The match was deemed a no contest after The Great Khali interfered and attacked both men. The following week, on ''Raw'', Randy Orton defeated Flair and Carlito in an elimination match to become the final man to qualify. After Edge and Orton had split as a team, the two attempted to get the other taken out of the Money in the Bank ladder match. Both men failed, however, as Edge won a "last chance" battle royal to retain his spot and Orton won a match on ''ECW'' to retain his. At No Way Out, WWE United States Champion Chris Benoit and the The Hardys (Matt and Jeff) defeated MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro) and Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP). After Benoit and MVP had some matches with the two in them (tag team and triple threat matches), MVP decided to start showing he was the "true" United States Champion. MVP would then have matches against the "champions" of other countries (including Luxembourg and Scotland, who in reality were jobbers), beating them within minutes. MVP then challenged Benoit for the title at WrestleMania 23. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WrestleMania 23」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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