At WrestleMania 40, memories ‘for the next 20 years’

At Lincoln Financial Field Saturday, art imitated life as WrestleMania 40 kicked off a weekend of highly anticipated matchups — or maybe it was the other way around.

In the early afternoon, tailgaters of all ages and backgrounds counted down the hours until they could see Cody Rhodes, a wrestler who famously rebelled against the WWE. He helped found and lead competitor All Elite Wrestling before returning to the organization he once rebuffed.

Rhodes’ return, like so many wrestling story arcs, had heart. He was to do what Dusty Rhodes — his father and fellow wrestler — never could: hold a bedazzled WWE Championship belt.

Joshua Glickman, 26, was all in on Rhodes’ resurgence and that of the WWE, which he said experienced a boon after the pandemic.

“This is a new era,” he said, marveling at the scores of fans.

Glickman sported the iconic white, red, and gold duster jacket that Cody Rhodes made famous and naturally people of all ages wanted to snap a photo. His partner Patricia Realmuto, 28, wore a jacket honoring Becky Lynch.

“I wasn’t born to be champion, I fought to be a champion,” read the back of the jacket, quoting Lynch.

The Rhodes storyline was particularly poignant because he was robbed in last year’s WrestleMania and this was the year he could “finish his story,” fans said.

Yet for the spectators, the weekend was equally about looking at their personal story arcs and their continuing plot lines, getting hit with a Manhandle Slam of nostalgia. They reconnected with the friends they’d spent gripping in friendly chokeholds at the schoolyard, caught up on the pastime they’d thought they left behind, and passed the love for a sport they know is “predetermined” to the next generation.

“At the end of the day, it’s just about a group of friends getting together and creating a memory,” said John Pilquist, 36, noting WrestleMania would not return to Philly for quite some time as cities battle to host like they do the Super Bowl.

“Whatever memory you make tonight is going to be your memory for the next 20 years.”

John’s brother Matthew said his days of keeping up with wrestling are long gone but he and some high school friends rallied to support his twin to make his Wrestlemania dreams come true, all while in full costume. Pilquist made the trip from West Chester in a Diamond Dallas Page costume, complete with a shaggy blond wig.

Pilquist said one of his fondest childhood memories is performing the DDT — a DDP signature move— on his brother.

“He did it back on me and my heel went through the wall,” Pilquist remembered. “We had to explain to my parents why there was a hole in the wall.”

So yea, the weekend had a nostalgic feel to it, said Matthew.

For Jeffrey Payuyo, 42, the weekend was also about the friends he made along the way before there were endless online forums and Facebook groups where fellow wrestling fans could connect.

Payuyo and the four friends he was with met at other wrestling events. Some of them have been friends for about 20 years despite living a country away. Payuyo is from northern New Jersey and three members of the group live in Toronto. They joke that their friendship was once costly, they used to have to pay per text message.

Still, attendees were not limited to fans looking back on their youth. The sport, after all, has changed, said Downingtown’s Scott Pomante, 46.

Pomante beamed when talking about how wrestling has been picked up as an interest by his two daughters who begged for WrestleMania tickets — they were their Christmas present.

“I was okay with them watching with me because they had people they could root for and have role models,” he said. “It wasn’t as misogynistic and all that. That’s kind of gone away.”

Indeed Ava Pomante, 12, looked forward to multiple matchups with women and couldn’t pick one favorite.

The 12-year-old showed off a black t-shirt with Jade (as in Cargill) in large blue letters, the wrestler’s figure resembling X-men’s storm smack in the middle.

Cargill, formerly part of the All Elite Wrestling family, became part of the WWE Family last year and the Pomante girls looked forward to her match.

Ava Pomante was excited by Jade’s Wrestlemania debut, which coincidentally happened to be her first Wrestlemania, though she’s been to WWE Raw events and house shows.

Her younger sister Scarlett, 8, wore a pink unicorn headband and a black shirt with Bianca Belair’s name in pink.

Scott Pomante said he and his cousin, who was part of the tailgate with his three sons, used to watch wrestling in the late 1980s. They remember watching Wrestlemania 7 after dinner and just how mind-blown they were to see Jake “The Snake” Roberts face Rick Martel while both were blindfolded.

In a sea of championship belts and chains that read “WWE” it was not hard to find “a story” and for some, the weekend was just a reminder that like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — who was set to return to the ring after 11 years— they too couldn’t stay away for too long.

Teddy Smith, 37, traveled from Washington, D.C. because one of his best friends hyped him up for Wrestlemania 40. For all the new characters introduced, Smith said the world of WWE remained familiar.

“It’s always going to be there,” he said. “It’s like riding a bicycle.”