WrestleMania's annual fan convention, WrestleMania Axxess, was held from April 2 through April 5 at Reliant Center. On April 4, WWE hosted its annual WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at the Toyota Center, where the Class of 2009 were inducted. WrestleMania featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on "Raw", "Friday Night SmackDown", and "ECW on Sci Fi"—World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) primary television programs. Wrestlers were portrayed as either a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches. The event featured wrestlers from WWE's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands—a storyline division in which WWE's employees are assigned to a television program of the same name. John "Bradshaw" Layfield defeated CM Punk on March 9, 2009 on an episode of Raw to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. A week later, JBL's old rival, Rey Mysterio, issued a challenge to face JBL for his Intercontinental title at Wrestlemania 25. With the match accepted by JBL, this would be the first time since Wrestlemania 18 that the aforementioned title belt would be defended on a Wrestlemania card. On the March 30th episode of Raw, JBL was pinned by Mysterio in a non-title match. At No Way Out, Shawn Michaels defeated John "Bradshaw" Layfield in a match with the added stipulation that if JBL had won, he would have become the owner of Michaels' name and likeness. On the February 16 episode of "Raw", Michaels challenged JBL to a match, with the winner advancing to WrestleMania to challenge The Undertaker to attempt to end his undefeated streak at the event. The next week on "Raw", Michaels defeated JBL, but it was later announced that another competitor would stand in his way to prevent him from advancing to the show in the form of Vladimir Kozlov, who also made a challenge to The Undertaker; the two wrestled the next week on "Raw" with Michaels defeating Kozlov, and earning his match with The Undertaker. The next week on "Raw", The Undertaker and Michaels defeated Kozlov and JBL in a tag match. After the match, Michaels attacked The Undertaker. The pair played mind games with each other over the following weeks. The headline of WrestleMania 25 was on the entire show of Raw, with a confrontation over the WWE Championship, rooted at the 2009 Royal Rumble pay-per-view event in January by Randy Orton winning the Royal Rumble match.