The committee and the city of New Orleans hit a home run with WWE officials when they presented their pitch to WWE to return to the city for WrestleMania 34 said John Saboor, WWE’s Executive Vice President of Special Events.

The committee was headed by New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Deputy Major Ryan Bernie, President/CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation Jay Cicero, Vice President of the Sports Foundation Sam Joffray and others, along with the support by Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards. The group went to Stamford early last year to present their case which also included a video recorded by the Governor according to The Times-Picayune. The decision to give New Orleans WrestleMania was only taken a few weeks ago.

The Mayor said that what sold the city to WWE was that he mentioned incorporating WrestleMania into the city’s tricentennial celebration in 2018. In total, 15 other cities were vying to get WrestleMania.

“I’m very passionate about the city,” Landrieu said. “It’s my view that New Orleans is one of America’s great comeback stories. For the past 10 years, we have become the nation’s most immediate laboratory for innovation and change. It’s just a great, great, great story. I wanted WWE to be part of our birthday celebration. We talked about where we’ve been and where we’re going and what the city is going to be. It’s going to be a great, great, great event,” he added.

WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon said that New Orleans was is perfect setting for WrestleMania and Saboor added that the company is very honored that the event will serve as one of the cornerstones of New Orleans’ tricentennial celebration next year. “That was a theme that resonated with us in very powerful fashion,” Saboor said.

The original Times-Picayune story is located at NOLA.COM.