WWE history was made this morning in Orlando, when a special press conference was held to announce that the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium has been selected as the site for the 2008 edition of sports-entertainment’s biggest showcase, WrestleMania.

The city of Orlando rolled out the red carpet, welcoming some of WWE’s brightest stars, as well as some of WWE’s biggest fans, who lined up as early as 7 a.m. to catch a glimpse of the action. Also converging on city hall were members of the Central Florida Sports Commission, as well as a multitude of local reporters and news cameras, there to document the announcement of what Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer referred to as an “iconic and unprecedented” event for Central Florida’s thriving sports community.  

The press conference started with a bang, as emcee for the day’s events and Hall of Famer Mean Gene Okerlund welcomed the first guest, WWE Chairman and participant in WrestleMania 23’s Battle of the Billionaires, Mr. McMahon.

“Thank you for welcoming us into your city,” said the proud Chairman. “WrestleMania is different than anything else. Next March, we will bring that special atmosphere, as well as 60,000 fans here to the Citrus Bowl, and we promise you the time of your life.”

WWE Superstars in attendance included WWE Champion John Cena, World Heavyweight Champion Batista, ECW Champion Bobby Lashley, and both participants in the highly intense fight over the Women’s Championship, Melina and Playboy cover girl Ashley.

Unwilling to wait for her turn, the WWE Women’s Champion interrupted Mean Gene and took to the podium. It didn’t take long for the agitated Diva to state her intentions, and make a promise to her fans, and the paparazzi.

“Next March, we are going to heat up one of the hottest cities in the world,” yelled Melina. “But first, I am going to dismantle Ashley at WrestleMania 23, and hold on to my title for the next 12 months so I can bring it right back here to Orlando for WrestleMania 24.”

ECW Champion Bobby Lashley was next to take the podium. The hard-hitting Extreme champion had a confident and relaxed look on his face as he spoke to the crowd, taking a moment to glance over at one of his WrestleMania 23 adversaries, Mr. McMahon. While the Champion was quiet and soft spoken on this day, he will be anything but in just a matter of days when he takes the stage at Ford Field.

“It’s an honor to be here in Orlando,” said Lashley. “Every Superstar dreams of the day he can be a part of something like WrestleMania, and it will be honor to be able to live my dream again next year here in Orlando.”

While the reception for all the Superstars was overwhelming, John Cena may have elicited the loudest response of the day. The Champ backed up the words of his fellow Superstars, telling the audience that Orlando was a perfect fit for sports-entertainment’s grandest spectacle.

“We are here to make history,” said Cena. “Orlando has a reputation for making dreams come true, and that is why there is no better fit for WrestleMania than the Citrus Bowl. I plan to work my ass off every day to make sure I can be a part of it, and to make sure that the next time I walk into Orlando, I am still the WWE Champion. We’ll see you back here in 374 days.”

On March 30, 2008, WWE fans from all 50 states and more than 23 countries will arrive in droves to the Sunshine State. You can be a part of the excitement as well. Stay tuned to WWE.com in the coming months as information regarding tickets is made available.

Readers who pop open the April 2007 issue of WWE Magazine will be pleased to find what’s “Under Maria’s Hood” on page 48 (check out the .PDF file). The Diva’s knowledge of cars is nothing short of amazing, and her popular mechanic column seems to run on all cylinders with WWE fans. In the latest issue, WWE’s car goddess shifts gears with her personal list of auto accessory “hots” and “nots.” WWE.com decided to tailgate on the subject and ask several WWE road warriors—Raw’s Shelton Benjamin, Kenny Dykstra, Chris Masters, Trevor Murdoch and Shad of Cryme Tyme; SmackDown’s Montel Vontavious Porter and Jimmy Wang Yang; and ECW's Elijah Burke—how they like to varnish their vehicles.

Burke enjoys a personal “Elijah Experience” whenever he heads out in his tricked-out maroon 1990 Camaro. “It’s very stylish, very hooked up, with nice American racing wheels and 15-inch rims on it,” he boasts. “Real low-profile, but an awesome-looking car.” Meanwhile, a life of Cryme Tyme seems to have paid off nicely for Shad—“I’m fixin’ up a 1969 Chevy Chevelle Convertible SS, fully loaded. I put a chrome engine in, with 20-inch chrome rims that don’t spin, but they look ballin’ as hell. It’s gonna be tight.”

“Chrome” is the operative word when it comes to Benjamin’s white H2. “A Hummer’s a great car once you’ve accessorized it,” he says. “I’ve got the chrome 22-inch rims, chrome light bezels, chrome door handles and I’m working on a chrome gear shifter. I even took out the original factory dash—you know, the casing for the radio and everything—and had carbon fiber put on it. Now it’s a carbon fiber dash, and it’s clean. It really sets off the car.”

“I used to have a van,” recalls the 20-year-old Dykstra about his pre-WWE days on the road. “I put rims on it and little shades in the windows, and I added a little disco ball in the middle. Then I took out most of the seats out and threw a bed in it.” These days, he prefers keeping his cars a bit more on the plain side, including his Z28 Camaro. “I have this Hawaiian lei on the rearview mirror that I got during spring break, and I never took it off. Shad once tried to convince me to get the car lowered, put rims and ground effects on it—like, he’s telling me stuff I already know.”

To the surprise of no one at WWE.com, the unsportsmanlike MVP won’t play nice and talk about his car collection—“I roll on only the finest German engineering; 22-inch chromed-out rims, low-profile tires,” is all he’ll say—but he won’t even entertain anyone’s ideas on how to pimp ’em up. “I am by far and away the flyest thing ever to happen to this company,” he declares, “the most ballin’-est player ever; there’s nobody here that could tuh-teach me how to deck out a ride. I’m from Miami, know what I’m sayin’? Will Smith even made a song about it—‘Hundred thousand-dollar cars, everybody got ’em’? Well, everybody ain’t got ’em. Only few of us that have ’em, and those that do have ’em know what to do with ’em. Those who don’t, wish and dream.”

On the flip side, guys like Masters don’t need to dream over auto-body touchups; other than adding a limo window tint and “eventually” some rims (crediting the latter suggestion to Randy Orton), he’s quite content with keeping his 2006 Cadillac Escalade the way he found it—a Masterpiece.

“It’s actually a Special Edition from the Grammy Awards,” he explains. “They only used it to drive a celebrity to the show, and I bought it with about 300 miles on it. It also has this big Grammys sticker, so people are always pulling up next to me, trying to look in through the tinted windows and see who’s inside.”

Think that’s ludicrous? WWE Superstars like Murdoch and Wang Yang may have Masters beat with their own ornamental oddities. “Any truck that drives on dirt road needs a Yosemite Sam tailgate cover,” notes Raw’s surly Superstar (who also happens to own what he calls his “pride and joy,” a cream-colored 1964 Plymouth Fury). “Everybody sees Yosemite Sam on a pickup driven by a redneck, they just get the hell outta the way.” As for Wang Yang, one might not notice his Toyota T100’s 17-inch, five-star Fatboy rims (“I went through a phase,” he says)—especially since WWE.com can’t verify if SmackDown’s resident redneck is joking about the accessories he’s kept in every vehicle he’s ever steered: “My 12-gauge shotgun and a rearview mirror.”

Needless to say, you won’t find firearm frills and the like “Under Maria’s Hood” in the April issue of WWE Magazine. She delves into more important, cooler and safer auto makeover ideas, so be sure to pick up a copy. Then come back to WWE.com for Part 2 of this story and discover what kinds of fan gifts hang in some Superstars’ cars, who likes having a dancing diva on their dash, and how vanity factors into some of their rides.

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