[6] Announced on December 9, 2013, WrestleMania 31 was scheduled to be held on March 29, 2015, at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Santa Clara, California.

According to a San Jose Mercury News article, Vince McMahon explained that the play button highlighted the technical prowess of Silicon Valley.

At the Royal Rumble, Brock Lesnar successfully defended his WWE World Heavyweight Championship against John Cena and Seth Rollins in a triple threat match.

[15][16][17] On the February 2 episode of Raw, due to this uncomfortable atmosphere, Reigns agreed to put his #1 contendership on the line in a match at Fastlane.

The distraction allowed Cena to pin Rollins for the win, which reinstated the jobs of the recently (kayfabe) fired Ziggler, Ryback, and Erick Rowan.

Over the following month, The Miz, Curtis Axel, Ryback,[29] Fandango, Adam Rose,[30] Zack Ryder,[31] Jack Swagger, Titus O'Neil, Darren Young, Big Show, Kane,[24] Erick Rowan, Sin Cara, Damien Mizdow,[32] Goldust, Heath Slater, Mark Henry,[33] and The Ascension were announced as participants.

[32] On the October 20 episode of Raw, The Authority members Randy Orton, Kane, and Seth Rollins defeated Cena and Ambrose in a 3-on-2 handicap street fight.

[19] On March 23, the new champions were scheduled to defend their titles against Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando) (with El Torito), The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Big E) (with Xavier Woods), and The Usos in a fatal four-way tag team match on the WrestleMania 31 Kickoff pre-show.

[43] The WrestleMania 31 Kickoff Show was hosted by Renee Young, with Booker T, Corey Graves, and Byron Saxton as analysts, while Tom Phillips and Lita served as social media correspondents.

[44] The actual pay-per-view opened with the seven-man ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship where champion Bad News Barrett defended the title against Daniel Bryan, R-Truth, Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper, Dolph Ziggler, and Stardust.

Sting knocked down Billy Gunn, Road Dogg, and X-Pac, countered Triple H's Pedigree and threw him to the outside, and then launched himself from the top rope onto all four men.

After the match, Triple H and Sting shook hands in the ring while the commentary team speculated that the rivalry between WWE and WCW had finally been put to rest.

Paige finally tagged in Lee, who applied her "Black Widow" hold to Nikki, but Brie saved her sister from defeat.

In the climax, Paige slammed Brie into the ring steps, allowing Lee to apply the "Black Widow" on Nikki, who submitted.

[45] After the match, the 2015 Hall of Fame class was introduced; The Bushwhackers, Larry Zbysko, Alundra Blayze, Tatsumi Fujinami, Rikishi, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Kevin Nash were presented to the crowd, while posthumous inductees "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Connor "The Crusher" Michalek were represented by family members.

The end of the match came when Lana climbed onto the ring apron and was accidentally knocked off by Rusev, who then suffered an "Attitude Adjustment" for Cena's pin and the title.

It was reported that Wyatt legitimately injured his ankle earlier in the day while preparing for the match, resulting in both men working at a slow pace.

While Wyatt largely controlled the offense, The Undertaker was able to execute most of his signature moves such as "Old School", the big boot, and "Snake Eyes".

[45] In the main event, Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) defended the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Roman Reigns.

[49] However, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported an attendance of 67,000,[1] and said during the second main card match that there were "actually a lot of empty seats all over the stadium", mostly in the upper deck.

From NWO's reunion, to The Rock teaming up with Ronda Rousey and Randy Orton's incredible 'RKO outta nowhere', nearly every match delivered a spectacle fitting of the Grandest Stage of Them All".

[53] Dave Meltzer reported that members of Roman Reigns' family were legitimately upset at the finish of the main event, writing that especially his father Sika was furious to the point that there was "nearly a bad scene".

[54] The following night on Raw, Brock Lesnar wanted to invoke his WWE World Heavyweight Championship rematch clause, but was denied by new champion Seth Rollins.

Lesnar then attacked Rollins' cornermen J&J Security (Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury), a cameraman, and the broadcast announcers (Booker T, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, and Michael Cole).

[56] Due to Rollins not winning cleanly, a fatal four-way match was scheduled for Payback where Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Orton went for the title.

[62] On November 4, during a match against Kane at a WWE live event in Dublin, Ireland, Rollins tore the ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus in his knee while attempting to execute a sunset flip powerbomb.

[64] During the match, Bryan hit his head on the announce table and suffered an unplanned cut on his forehead which caused him to bleed and later acquired stitches for the wound.

[75] On the April 13 episode of Raw, Paige won a battle royal to become the number one contender to Nikki Bella's Divas Championship at Extreme Rules.

[77] On the post-WrestleMania 33 episode of Raw, Paul Heyman teased a match between Lesnar and Reigns for the Universal Championship since they were the only two men to have defeated The Undertaker at WrestleMania.

[81] In April, Lesnar had two successful, albeit controversial, televised title defenses against Reigns, first at WrestleMania 34[82] and then Greatest Royal Rumble inside a steel cage.