WWE star Drew McIntyre made a dramatic entrance at Wrestlemania 40 — piped out by a band founded by a Tyrone man more than a century ago.
The Scottish Warrior beat Seth Rollins to become the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion at the Lincoln Financial Field stadium in Philadelphia on Sunday.
However, he lost the title to Damian Priest, who cashed in his ‘Money in the Bank’ contract.
More than a dozens pipers and drummers from the Ulster Scottish Pipe Band (USPB) performed as the 38-year-old — also known as ‘The Chosen One’, made his way onto the stage at the home of the Philadelphia Eagles.
The sound of Scotland the Brave reverberated around the 67,000-seater NFL stadium as McIntyre appeared wearing a leather kilt.
“This is sweet,” a commentator told tens of millions of viewers.
Originally called the Philadelphia Ulster Pipe Band, it was founded by John A Hall Sr in 1922 after he emigrated from Cookstown as a young man.
Old photographs show him and other members in their uniforms which included white shirts, black ties, white pants and straw hats. Thomas Hall took over running the band five decades later and was instrumental in its success up until his death in 2005 — during his time as Pipe Major it won a haul of trophies.
“His spirit lives on in the music of those he taught over the years and in the hearts of those who knew and loved him,” the band’s website states.
Tom’s daughter, Traci Cooper, is the current Pipe Major of The Thomas Hall Memorial Pipe Band founded in her father’s memory almost 20 years ago — she was one of the first females allowed to play in the original band back in 1977.
Meanwhile, his son David took over the reins of the USPB in 2004 and helped ensure the band’s success until he retired in 2017.
It is currently led by Eric Ouellette with Tom’s grandson Derek Cooper serving as lead drummer.
WWE’s blockbuster WrestleMania XL event has been touted as the “most-successful and highest-grossing event in company history”.
The two-night showcase, which took place on April 6 and 7, broke WWE’s record for the number of at-home views, amassing more than 660 million worldwide over the two days, up 41% from last year.
More than 67 million views occurred within 24 hours of Sunday’s transmission, WWE said.
The pay-per-view event was expected to be big due to the return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson earlier this year.
Although he has made guest appearances on WWE’s weekly shows and at previous WrestleManias, this year was the first since 2013 that he had been scheduled for a match.
He opened Saturday’s show with a tag team match in which he was partnered with his cousin, Roman Reigns.
Reigns was another reason WrestleMania XL had been hotly anticipated.
Before his main event match against ‘The American Nightmare’ Cody Rhodes, Reigns had been the Universal Champion for almost four years,the fourth-longest world title reign in WWE history.
His storyline was due to wrap up at WrestleMania, so fans expected the title to change hands.
The match featured appearances from other well-known wrestlers such as John Cena and The Undertaker.
WWE has claimed this WrestleMania also broke the company’s record for fan attendance, with a combined audience of 145,298 fans over the two nights.
However, while the combined number is the biggest since the event was expanded to two nights in 2020, neither Saturday nor Sunday’s numbers, 72,543 and 72,755 respectively, beat WrestleMania 32 in 2016.
At 80,709, the crowd at that event in Austin, Texas, remains the largest attendance at a single event in WWE history.
by Classy56