Maria Menounos has already had a busy week juggling her day job at “E! News” with presenting for Warner Bros. Pictures at CinemaCon, but there is no way she was going to miss Wrestlemania in Orlando this Sunday.
“The line up is so amazing, whether it is Shane McMahon and A.J. Styles, or Brock Lesnar and Goldberg — there’s so much to get excited about,” the lifelong WWE fan told TheWrap at the Susan G. Komen Project:OM yoga event hosted by pro wrestler Dallas Diamond Page the day before the big show.
The stars hitting the ring are all huge — but the stage itself is even bigger! “The set is going to blow your mind. It gives me chills, it is insane,” Menounos said. “I have never seen anything like it. They [WWE] are just taking it up a notch.”
One of the winning components of WWE aside from the huge stable of talent is the element of the unknown, as Vince McMahon and co. are guaranteed to bring something unexpected to the night.
“I always think Shane McMahon is going to be a big surprise, he pulls out all the stops when he wrestles. You never know which surprise performers will come out, WWE always put on an amazing show,” Menounos continued.
For those who are uninitiated with WWE’s flagship annual event, the host of the previous night’s WWE Hall of Fame described it as “like the Academy Awards of this business. It is the Super Bowl and the Oscars all in one weekend, the best of the best are competing for the title, and it’s awesome.”
Speaking of the Super Bowl, Menounos is also a diehard New England Patriots fan and said the one NFL player she would love to see in the WWE ring is Tom Brady.
“Duh! But that will never happen,” the Massachusetts native said. “We need him to stay in tip-top shape and focusing on football because we need five more baby, five more,” she added, of course referring to the five Super Bowl rings Brady already has.
As a former correspondent for “Today,” “Access Hollywood,” and “Extra,” Menonous’ career has already enjoyed some monumental peaks, but — after making her in-ring debut in a tag team match in 2009 — she always returns to WWE, and explained why it has a special place in her heart.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of WWE, I love it. I have grown up with the people behind the scenes and I have such an admiration and respect for wrestlers,” she explained. “I always say that there is no one else who can command a crowd of up to 70,000 people and do it 365 days a year. Who does as much for the community and travels all over the world? They visit the troops, they are actors, performers, athletes, and the best part of them is that they are so humble and so wonderful — and you don’t find that very easily.
“For me, when I get to be in that environment with everybody, it feeds my soul. This is my home, my family … I will be here in a rocking chair if I have to. They make me better, and I like that,” she said.
One person who was determined to make Maria and the whole room at Full Sail University a better person on Saturday was Dallas Diamond Page, who led a class of his DPP Yoga, which, as the tee-shirts proclaimed: “Is not your Momma’s yoga.”
“I combine yoga with a strength training program, old school calisthenics,” the longtime WWE Superstar told TheWrap.
“We do slow burn push ups, crunches, squats. I found that every time you flex or engage your muscles, your heart has to beat faster to get the blood to the muscle,” he said. “In my place, everyone would be wearing heart monitors to see how high they are. DPP is kickass cardio, it dramatically increases your flexibility, and strengthens the core like never before, with minimal joint impact.”
Project:OM is a partnership between Susan G. Komen and Manduka to promote health and wellness in support of Susan G. Komen‘s Bold Goal of reducing breast cancer deaths by 50 percent in the U.S. by 2026.