First of all, the lack of a crowd is disconcerting at first but you do gradually get used to it; the entire WWE roster deserves applause for making this experiment work as well as it did. With that said, there are too many matches to go through each one here, so I'll just focus on the (subjective) highlights, in chronological order: Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins have a solid "grudge match" which includes a memorable elbow drop from high up on the Wrestlemania sign; AJ Styles and the Undertaker face off in a unique, cinematic and very "meta" Boneyard match which succeeds, thanks to the setting and special effects, to make the Undertaker look more like an invincible, supernatural entity than most such attempts; the phenomenal Charlotte and the shining new star Rhea Ripley have a hard-fought match for the NXT women's title, and my absolute favorite of all, Cena and Bray Wyatt take part in one of the most bizarre segments (a "Firefly Fun House" match) that WWE has ever attempted, which boldly icorporates the attitudes of the fans (or rather the "smarks") towards John Cena into a surreal "storyline"; to use a classic cliche, I don't know what they were smoking when they made this, but I want some of that. It was brilliant. Other enjoyable stuff includes Garza & Theory vs. The Street Profits for the Raw Tag Team titles, which is fast-moving fun, and the 5-way elimination match for the Smackdown women's championship with Bayley, Sasha Banks, Lacey Evans, Naomi, and Tamina; all the women looked very good here (Lacey Evans was a positive surprise - and really hot), although I would prefer a different (possibly any different) winner. The triple-threat ladder match with John Morrison, Kofi Kingston and Jimmy Uso was full of impressive athleticism, but also too many awkward moments where one person would climb up the ladder ever....so....slowly, almost as if waiting for someone else to stop them; the Last Man Standing match between Edge and Randy Orton has a clever start and takes us on an extensive backstage tour, but goes on way, way too long and is hampered by the expected sloth-like pacing; you either like this type of match or you don't, there is no middle ground. Weirdly enough, the two worst matches of the night by far are the Universal (Braun Strowman vs. Goldberg) and the World Heavyweight (Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre) title matches; they are ridiculously short and feauture about three wrestling moves each. But overall, I would say the good matches outnumber the poor ones, and the show as a whole was a commendable effort under extremely difficult circumstances. A 7.5/10 on the whole.
9 Reviews
Commendable, unique Wrestlemania with quite a few highlights (and a few lowlights as well)
gridoon202411 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
It crossed the lines!
Anik997 April 2020
Imagine wrestlemania,the show of shows,in a small arena,without any fans. This year's wrestlemania was exactly like that. But with a solid lineup and great improvisation, this year's wrestlemania could easily be declared as the best since wrestlemania 31.
WrestleMania 36
bobcobb3016 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The first night was a disaster headlined by a really bad horror movie segment (and usually I love bad horror movies) with Styles and Taker.
The second night was an improvement, with a good, but repetitive Charlotte/Ripley match and a genius Firefly Fun House match. That was good creative, a rarity for WWE.
The second night was an improvement, with a good, but repetitive Charlotte/Ripley match and a genius Firefly Fun House match. That was good creative, a rarity for WWE.
bad bad bad bad
ERFANIRONSIDE17 April 2020
Ironically the best wrestlemania in years
P977 April 2020
It's so unfortunate that the situation we have happened exactly right before wrestlemania but i'm really grateful for what wwe did during these times and it just shows how creative can they be with the limited environment, the boneyard match and the firefly fun house was the big example of that and we probably wouldn't get those with a regular wrestlemania, the show also had great matches such as edge vs orton, owens vs rollins the ladder match, drew closing the show... now it wasn't perfect by any means and it didn't really feel like wrestlemania of course but with what they had to work with i say this was a solid show and probably the best mania since 31.
36 years later. People still watch this?
ThunderKing61 January 2021
I used to love wrestling. That was when I was a kid. When I was 16 I instantly grew out of this hash.
And to see what it is today's wrestling has become is mind torture. Even though I don't care for wrestling today at all I still have childhood nostalgia respect for the old wrestlers (Dead, Alive, retired) and moments, that I watched as a kid. Due to lockdown this WrestleMania made me reinforce that wrestling is junk. Always has been. It's not essential.
Iunno how this can still be fun after people know its fake, scripted and pretend. People so called hurting each other....OK? Some of the moments during this program looked so dumb. WrestleMania was boring and hash.
Plus how is wrestling more essential than a restaurant during this super "real" pandemic. Its ironic that men can grapple each other but mom and pop can't sell food......It's so stupid.
And to see what it is today's wrestling has become is mind torture. Even though I don't care for wrestling today at all I still have childhood nostalgia respect for the old wrestlers (Dead, Alive, retired) and moments, that I watched as a kid. Due to lockdown this WrestleMania made me reinforce that wrestling is junk. Always has been. It's not essential.
Iunno how this can still be fun after people know its fake, scripted and pretend. People so called hurting each other....OK? Some of the moments during this program looked so dumb. WrestleMania was boring and hash.
Plus how is wrestling more essential than a restaurant during this super "real" pandemic. Its ironic that men can grapple each other but mom and pop can't sell food......It's so stupid.
Empty arena
akashfi235 April 2020
The Wrestlemania was good but it would have been great if it had happened in front of the crowd. The Women Tag Team championship would have been better if it had crowd in it,the ladder match would have felt more devastating if the show had crowd,Goldberg's match is always interesting. The title change in front of the crowd would have been one of the best things of 2020 and hats off to Kevin Owens. He always takes advantage of the circumstances. The boneyard match was lit.
I'm not saying the show was bad. It was good but it could have been better if there were fans in the arena. This year's Wrestlemania has the best card in years but the corona.....
(Night 1)
For what it was it wasn't half bad.
chrisrowexxx5 April 2020
I applaud the WWE for giving us some entertainment during this awful time, I know there are valid arguments it was an unnecessary risk but whilst news reporters still needlessly travel to locations and guests come in for interviews I can't see why this version was a problem, every guy was checked and few pulled out, miz who was ill forced the change, so i think it'll take a break soon but this first night was great.
Preshow decent match just short C+ Bliss and cross vs KW, great match, cross put in best performance, match worked well B Elias vs Corbin, dead characters boring feud. D- Triple threat ladder match. Amazing, top quality A Becky vs shayna, terrible, short, dead, just nothing good to say, F Bryan vs Sami , don't get why zayn who's a class wrestler is acting like this, I get the cowardly stuff but this again is ridiculously poor, D- Strowman va Goldberg. Love the big guy but Goldberg sucks, no stamina, awful mannerisms, if he ever gets another title the WWE need to get new writers, he's been dreadful, fiend should be champ, only good thing is the result F Rollins vs KO, good match but for me Rollins is awful, his destroyed any credibility he's had by overexposure and Twitter C Undertaker vs AJ, top class, great visual, ideal use of undertaker, be more than happy for him to do this style until he retires as it hid any problems he has. AJ was class. Two all time greats A+++
Overall B
Great it exists but some stuff was dreadful but The three great matches really make up for the awful ones. Sad there's no raw after mania crowd. Results and performance understandably affected by circumstances.
To everyone, stay healthy, stay safe, follow rules, don't be selfish or ignorant, help if you can and spread joy when you can
Peace and love
Preshow decent match just short C+ Bliss and cross vs KW, great match, cross put in best performance, match worked well B Elias vs Corbin, dead characters boring feud. D- Triple threat ladder match. Amazing, top quality A Becky vs shayna, terrible, short, dead, just nothing good to say, F Bryan vs Sami , don't get why zayn who's a class wrestler is acting like this, I get the cowardly stuff but this again is ridiculously poor, D- Strowman va Goldberg. Love the big guy but Goldberg sucks, no stamina, awful mannerisms, if he ever gets another title the WWE need to get new writers, he's been dreadful, fiend should be champ, only good thing is the result F Rollins vs KO, good match but for me Rollins is awful, his destroyed any credibility he's had by overexposure and Twitter C Undertaker vs AJ, top class, great visual, ideal use of undertaker, be more than happy for him to do this style until he retires as it hid any problems he has. AJ was class. Two all time greats A+++
Overall B
Great it exists but some stuff was dreadful but The three great matches really make up for the awful ones. Sad there's no raw after mania crowd. Results and performance understandably affected by circumstances.
To everyone, stay healthy, stay safe, follow rules, don't be selfish or ignorant, help if you can and spread joy when you can
Peace and love
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