Saturday, April 4, 2020

WWE: WrestleMania 36 Review (Night One) - April 4th, 2020

WWE WrestleMania 36
WWE Performance Center
Orlando, FL 

Pre- Show: 

1) Drew Gulak vs. Cesaro 
I was really looking forward to this and they got five minutes. With their style, I thought this could work well under the no-crowd format but we didn't really get a chance to tell. It was fine while it lasted none the less. 

Match rating - **

Main Show: 

1) Asuka & Kairi Sane (c) vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross - Women's Tag Title Match 

Missed part of this because I left to get food but what I caught was decent. I love Asuka and Alexa. New champions were crowned in the form of Alexa & Nikki. 

Match rating - ** 

2) King Corbin vs. Elias

Elias cracks Corbin with a guitar to start. That earned one star and the half was earned by Corbin yelling "y'all like the view?" To God knows who considering its an empty arena. Other than those two moments this blew. 

Match rating - *1/2

3) Becky Lynch (c) vs. Shayna Basler - Raw Women's Title Match 

Wow.. for all the great matches Becky has had, she has two ultra disappointing Mania matches under her belt. Last year's main event and this travesty. Not anything like what the build insinuated. And ultimately dumb. Becky rolls out of a submission for a pin to retain. I don't get it. 

Match rating - ** 

4) Sami Zayn (c) vs. Daniel Bryan - Intercontinental Title Match 

4 minutes of stalling from Zayn. Then 5 minutes of Bryan stiffing him and beating the hell out of him. Bryan takes out Nakamura & Cesaro at ringside after they mess with Gulak. Zayn takes advantage and catches Bryan with a helluva kick in mid air. Best thing on the show so far, but can't help but think this was ended way too quickly/abruptly. 

Match rating - ***1/4

5) John Morrison (c) vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Jimmy Uso - Ladder Match for the Tag Team Titles

Each man's partner was taken out due to the virus and having too many people in the ring (I think) - so it's a solo representation thing now. And wow. These guys killed it. They were just as motivated as Bryan & Zayn to make the best of this and gave nothing less than what I feel like they'd give in front of a full arena. A number of insane spots and even though the finish was weird, kinda lame - this deserves the rating I'm giving it for the performance and keeping my attention the entire duration on such a weirdly formatted show. Morrison retains the belts for he & The Miz. 

Match rating - ****

6) Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens

Wow. No clue how they pulled this off. I wasn't even expecting a ***1/2+ match from this if it was a normal scenario but they knocked it out of the park. Very stiff, very good pacing. False DQ finish, restarted as No DQ and Owens has a WrestleMania moment that will probably be replayed for a long time as he did a senton off the WrestleMania sign to the floor planting Rollins through the announce table. The camera angle on that made it look amazing also. Rollins best match in ages and Owens shows he deserves more than what he gets. 

Match rating - ****

R-Truth says he's the 24/7 I95 South Champion and Mojo Rawley knocks him on his ass and wins the title from him. 

Paul Heyman is backstage selling everyone on the McIntyre/Lesnar match tomorrow. Heyman says Brock isn't of our species.

7) Goldberg (c) vs. Braun Strowman - Universal Title Match

Goldberg went longer than a minute this is wild. Strowman wins a showcase of power moves that lasted not even 5 minutes. This shouldn't have been a World Title match. 

Match rating - *1/4 

8) AJ Styles vs. The Undertaker - Boneyard Match


Yanno. WWE really surprised me here. I don't really know how to review this or articulate my thoughts on it. BUT I think the biggest thing here is that WWE did something different and out of their element in lieu of the covid-19 crisis that backed them up against the wall before their biggest show of the year. So kudos to them for that. This has to be seen to be believed. Taker and Styles battle action-movie style in a graveyard. Gallows and Anderson are involved. Taker shows up as Biker Taker on his motorcycle. And when all is said and done and he buries AJ Styles, he rides off in the night on his motorcycle. All in all, it's a real hoot and not what I expected AT ALL. Some are gonna love it, some are gonna hate it, all I can really say is..

Match rating - WHAT THE FUCK 

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