Month: April 2020
Early reports promised that WWE was filming “cinematic” gimmick matches for WrestleMania, and the “Boneyard Match” between AJ Styles and The Undertaker on night one could certainly be described as cinematic.
After a couple of low effort altercations with The Undertaker at Super Showdown in Saudi Arabia and Elimination Chamber, Styles challenged Taker to fight him in the “boneyard,” because you can’t say “graveyard” or “cemetery” during a global pandemic. That took the form of a short film with AJ Styles (arriving in style in a casket, from the back of a hearse) taking on The Undertaker (arriving on a motorcycle, sadly to Metallica instead of Limp Bizkit) battling to bury each other in what we assume is the backyard of the House of Horrors.
Highlights from the match included The O.C. commanding a group of hooded figures from a backlit graveyard cabin, Styles charging into Undertaker to knock him through the wall of shed, and a seemingly dead Undertaker teleporting out of a grave plot to prevent himself from being buried by heavy machinery. Actual machinery, not the tag team. Ultimately, as you do, Undertaker chokeslammed Styles off the roof of a building and booted him into his grave, but only after a lengthy bout of convincing him he’d fought valiantly enough to escape burial.
The match ended with a personalized tombstone, AJ Styles’ hand sticking out of the ground, and Undertaker riding off into the sunset — moonset? — with plumes of fire in the background. We’re not sure this is what every wrestling match should look like, but it’s definitely what every Undertaker match should look like.
AJ Styles was 42 years old. He is mourned by Wendy.
Here are your quick and dirty, editorial-free WWE WrestleMania 36 results for night one, originally aired on April 4, 2020. The first night of the show “Too Big For Just One Night” featured the Raw Women’s Championship match between Becky Lynch and Shayna Baszler, the ladder match for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship, a BONEYARD MATCH, and more. Make sure you’re here tomorrow for the first of two Best and Worst of WrestleMania 36 columns.
WrestleMania 36 Night One Results:
1. Kickoff Match: Cesaro defeated Drew Gulak with the UFO, his no-hands Airplane Spin.
– The show opened with a message from Stephanie McMahon, followed by a montage of ‘America The Beautiful’ performances from previous WrestleManias.
– Rob Gronkowski and Mojo Rawley opened the show, and waved at the wrestlers from the WWE Performance Center’s little balcony. Michael Cole and JBL were on commentary.
2. Women’s Tag Team Championship Match: Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross defeated the Kabuki Warriors (c). Cross hit a neckbreaker on Kairi Sane, and Bliss followed up with Twisted Bliss to win the match. Bliss Cross Applesauce are now two-time Women’s Tag Team Champions. You can watch highlights from that here.
3. Elias defeated King Corbin. Corbin said that Elias wasn’t going to compete and demanded a forfeit, but Elias showed up anyway. The referee saw Corbin try to pin Elias with his feet on the ropes, allowing Elias to win with a roll-up with a handful of tights.
4. Raw Women’s Championship Match: Becky Lynch (c) defeated Shayna Baszler. Lynch arrived in her personalized semi-truck, and countered the Kirifuda Clutch into a pin to retain the championship.
SHE’S SO COOL. #WrestleMania @BeckyLynchWWE pic.twitter.com/OjlzRmh6Py
— WWE (@WWE) April 4, 2020
5. Intercontinental Championship Match: Sami Zayn (c) defeated Daniel Bryan. Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura attacked Drew Gulak at ringside, causing Bryan to dive into them to make the save. Bryan tried to come back into the ring off the top rope and got kicked in the face, and Zayn pinned him.
6. Triple Threat Ladder Match for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship: John Morrison (c) defeated Kofi Kingston and Jimmy Uso. All three men were fighting at the top of ladders and pulled down the hook that had been holding the title belts. Kingston and Uso knocked Morrison off the ladder, but Morrison brought the belts down with him as he fell, winning the match.
O.M.G.#WrestleMania @TheRealMorrison @WWEUsos pic.twitter.com/JghB1wncvZ
— WWE WrestleMania (@WrestleMania) April 5, 2020
7. Kevin Owens defeated Seth Rollins Owens originally won by disqualification when Rollins hit him with the ring bell. Owens got on the microphone and taunted Rollins, challenging him to a no rules, no disqualification match. Owens put Rollins through the announce table with a senton off the WrestleMania sign, then hit a Stunner to win the match. You can watch that here.
– R-Truth asked Mojo Rawley and Rob Gronkowski to help him out and give him a break from having to defend the 24/7 Championship. They attacked him, obviously. Gronkowski tried to make the pin, but Rawley pulled Gronk off of Truth and took the pin himself to regain the 24/7 Championship.
8. Universal Championship Match: Braun Strowman defeated Goldberg (c). Strowman won the championship after four powerslams. You can watch that here.
9. Boneyard Match: The Undertaker defeated AJ Styles. Undertaker won a highly cinematic match with a chokeslam off the roof of a building, and a boot to send Styles into a graveplot. Undertaker buried him and drove off on a motorcycle to win the match. You can watch that here.
The year is 2020. The WrestleMania is 36. The location is inside an empty gym in Orlando, Florida. The WWE Universal Champion is 53-year-old Bill Goldberg. This might not be the darkest timeline, but it sure as hell might be the weirdest, at least when it comes to professional wrestling.
On night one of WrestleMania 36, Goldberg marched to the ring to defend his prize not against Roman Reigns, his previously advertised opponent, but against Braun Strowman, who replaced Reigns at the literal last minute due to Reigns’ immunocompromised state putting him at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19. With literally zero interaction between champion and challenger before the match, what could the WWE Universe expect to see?
Despite being outweighed by 100 pounds, Goldberg still attempted a Jackhammer (after connecting with four straight spears, going for a pinfall attempt after spear No. 3), but had it reversed into three straight powerslams by the Monster Among Men, followed by a running powerslam, after which Strowman covered him for the pin. This is Strowman’s first Universal Championship — and presumably, Goldberg’s last. It is also not only Strowman’s first singles victory at WrestleMania, it’s his first singles match at the Grandaddy Of ‘Em All, having previously won the tag team championship with a [checks notes] 10-year-old boy named Nicholas in 2018.
One of the longest-simmering feuds that was set to come to a boil at WrestleMania 36 was between Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins. The two had been running into each other on Monday Night Raw and at pay-per-views for the past three months, and it all culminated at what eventually became a no-disqualification match at the Showcase Of The Immortals.
During the bout, Rollins clocked Owens in the head with the timekeeper’s bell, which caused the referee to award the contest to Owens via disqualification. Owens, unhappy with this result, got on the mic and challenged Rollins to restart the match as a no-DQ match, a stipulation the Monday Night Messiah happily took. He would regret that decision a few minutes later, however: Owens eventually got him laid out on the announce table, then scaled the gigantic WrestleMania sign hanging inside the WWE Performance Center and catapulted himself off the top of it, putting Rollins into the ground and exploding the table in the process. See for yourself:
Shortly thereafter, Owens delivered a Stone Cold Stunner to Rollins to score the pinfall victory — his first in WrestleMania history. Rollins’ record at the Show Of Shows is now a still-impressive 6-2. Is this the end of their feud? Only time will tell.