I watched WrestleMania for the first time and can see why it generates so much money

Cody Rhodes enters Night Two of WrestleMania 40 at Lincoln Financial Field on April 7, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.WWE/Getty Images

• I stayed up all night in the UK to watch WrestleMania 40. It was a new experience for me.
• I'm not a WWE type. But by Sunday, I was a changed woman.

This weekend I made good on a long-held promise: to watch all eight hours of WrestleMania 40 with my boyfriend, across two nights.

It felt like a real ask.

I had only a passing knowledge of "sports entertainment" and its characters, born of half-watching fight recaps over his shoulder.

Before this Sunday, I had never heard of the Undertaker; my belief that Seth "Freakin" Rollins and Seth Rogen were one and the same was unquestioned.

I also didn't think I was a WWE type. I wince at violent movie scenes, have zero interest in muscle-bound lunks, and didn't see the appeal of a clearly predetermined fight.

We also live in the UK, where WrestleMania airs at 1 a.m., so we were giving up on serious amounts of sleep.

But it turned out that I loved it.

Here's how my weekend unfolded.