
ECW Press is set to release a book covering WrestleMania 3 from long-time reporter and author Keith Elliot Greenberg.
The publisher has announced that Bigger! Better! Badder: WrestleMania III and the Year It All Changed will be released in late March.
The March 1987 event is one of the most storied successes in WWE’s history and represented the largest undertaking for Vince McMahon to that point.
From ECW Press:
On an overcast day in 1987, the pro wrestling landscape was altered forever when a reported 93,173 fans converged on the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit to see Hulk Hogan defend his championship against André the Giant. For several years, Vincent Kennedy McMahon had been transforming old-time rasslin’ into mainstream “sports entertainment,” incorporating A-list celebrities into storylines and forcing even cynics to follow the proceedings. But the massive turnout for WrestleMania III convinced sponsors, licensees, and media conglomerates that the company that would become World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) was no longer a fringe diversion for the unwashed masses; it was now legitimate physical theater worthy of global attention. From this point forward, it would be acceptable for devotees to make the annual pilgrimage to WrestleMania from the far corners of the Earth, the way others journeyed to the World Cup or Super Bowl.
BIGGER! BETTER! BADDER! is the story behind the seminal event, told from the perspective of company executives, wrestlers who appeared on the card, fans who attended the show, and other wrestling personalities. But wrestling author and historian Keith Elliot Greenberg also examines the entire industry at the time, including insights from representatives from the rival promotions McMahon was putting out of business as pro wrestling transitioned from a regional phenomenon into an international juggernaut.
While not the financial risk that the inaugural WrestleMania posed, it was by far the largest stadium McMahon had ever booked, and relying on Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant to fill the Pontiac Silverdome.
Hogan was on fire during this period and was coming off a major program with Paul Orndorff where one of the highlights was attracting over 64,000 to the CNE in Toronto the previous summer and drawing a gate of $800,000 (CDN) for a sold show, which was not televised.
The legend of WrestleMania 3 has been surrounded by the spectacle of the main event, the Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat match, and the dispute over the show’s attendance.
For years, the accepted attendance figure of 93,173 was repeated over and over and has become one of those stats that wrestling fans have clung to as a source of pride. The dispute arose when event promoter Zane Bresloff contacted Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer regarding the actual figure being about 78,000 and citing the company’s internal records. The former number was used for entertainment purposes, which was common practice in WWE throughout its history.
Greenberg has previously written for WWF Magazine and authored many in-house autobiographies including ones for Freddie Blassie and Superstar Billy Graham. In recent years, he wrote Too Sweet: Inside the Indie Wrestling Revolution and Follow the Buzzards: Pro Wrestling in the Age of COVID-19.
Bigger! Better! Badder is set for release on March 25.