The WWE Rewind: WrestleMania 36 Night Two

Alright, I have to finish this one up. We covered Night One of WrestleMania 36 a while back, now it is on to Night Two. Filmed in late March 2020 but aired on April 5, 2020, this continued our first pandemic-era WWE PPV.

First, a kickoff show match!

Liv Morgan vs Natalya

This is Liv’s third year in a row in a WrestleMania kickoff match but she’ll have a lot bigger Manias to come. Nattie has been doing Manias since WrestleMania 25.and will continue having them at least until WrestleMania 39 as she hasn’t had a match at one since. Liv offers a handshake and Nattie pulls her into a headlock. Nattie taunts Liv and tells her to show her what she’s got. This drags on for a while as Nattie overpowers the young Morgan. Nattie hooks Liv into a submission and she won’t submit, so Nattie shoves her to the mat and yells about WrestleMania. Morgan knees Nattie in the face and covers for a two, then dropkicks Nattie against the ropes out of frustration. They trade rollups and Morgan is able to hold Nattie down, getting the pin.

Liv Morgan pins Natalya. Not a lot to this, but the story of Liv being able to overcome the vet was pretty good.

Stephanie McMahon welcomes us to night two – for the first time ever – and we get our intro video with the Jack Sparrow soundalike again.

THIS is the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida with zero fans in attendance. Host of WrestleMania Rob Gronkowski greets us from the balcony, promising hype.

NXT Women’s Championship: NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley vs Charlotte Flair

Tom Phillips and Byron Saxton are on commentary for the Raw side while Mike Rome handles ring intros . Charlotte won the Royal Rumble and was challenged by Rhea to go after Ripley’s NXT Women’s Title instead of the Raw or SmackDown titles to shake things up a bit. While this is Rhea’s WrestleMania debut, she did participate in the 2019 Royal Rumble. The Mania stage will get much more grand for Rhea in the future, but tonight she’s in white, gold and blue gear instead of her typical black as inspired by Dragonball Z’s Vegeta.

Charlotte takes Rhea down. “This is our NXT Champion,” she yells as Tom tells us that Charlotte tried to hurt Rhea’s knee a few weeks ago to soften her up. Lots of talking back and forth here early as the women trade chops and Charlotte yells the different championships she has held. Ripley snatches Charlotte with an early Riptide but Flair is out right before the three hits. Charlotte rolls outside and Rhea yells that this is her ring. They fight outside and Charlotte lights Rhea up with a chop before they battle near the steel steps and Rhea cannonballs onto her. Back in, Ripley works a body scissors on Flair to wear her down a bit. Charlotte misses a kick and gets her leg caught on the rope, Charlotte taking advantage and beginning to work the leg.

Charlotte batters the left leg and yells about Rhea coming into her kingdom to challenge her. Rhea works up for a slap but Charlotte kicks her knee and she’s back on the mat in agony. Charlotte slams Rhea’s leg into the ring post repeatedly but Rhea pulls her arm-first into the ring post. Rhea comes in and cho pblocks Rhea, Rhea yelling for the referee to not stop the match. Charlotte: “I made NXT!” Work on the leg continues. Rhea scoops Charlotte into a face-first slam but aggravates her knee with it. They trade blows but Charlotte chops the shit out of Rhea. Rhea takes her good knee to Charlotte’s head and hits a basement dropkick, leveling Charlotte with clotheslines. She charges in the corner, Charlotte lifts her over it and kicks the leg out again. Charlotte nails Rhea in the corner and misses a stomp to the injured leg. Rhea goes up top and dropkicks, taking Charlotte down and hurting herself further. Charlotte kicks out at 2.5 as Byron begins to tell us how Rhea needs to think about career longevity at this point. She knew there were women like me who would offer her our knees if needed, it is fine.

Charlotte chop blocks Rhea again and Rhea rolls her into stomps before hooking the standing cloverleaf. Charlotte crawls to the ropes before rolling Rhea down to the mat. Rhea tries for the figure-four and Rhea kicks out. Charlotte gets a Boston crap instead. They trade pin reversals before battling to the second rope where Charlotte punches out of a superplex and shoves Rhea to the mat. Charlotte moonsaults into Rhea’s feet but is able to spear her for a two. Charlotte gets the figure-four and Rhea tries to fight but Charlotte bridges into the figure-eight. Rhea taps and Charlotte is a two-time NXT Women’s Champion.

Charlotte Flair defeats Rhea Ripley by submission to win the NXT Women’s Championship. A very good match with some good storytelling of Rhea slowly picking apart the young champ that won’t give up. A lot of us groaned at the time about Charlotte winning. They’ll have another WrestleMania match in a few years that will steal the show.

Here’s a look back at night one of this very special WrestleMania.

Aleister Black vs Bobby Lashley (with Lana)

I’m sure there is a reason this match is happening but I have no memory of why. This is Black’s second and final Mania (he teamed with Ricochet at Mania 35) while Big Bob was making his fourth of seven appearances on the big show. Tonight, WrestleMania is presented by Snickers! Lashley overpowers Black in the early stage, tossing him around as Lana slowly walks around ringside. Lashley charges and Black ducks, following it with a kick and missing a moonsault from the second rope. Lashley gets an overhead belly-to-belly to the delight of his wife. Lashley beats Black around from corner to corner and spears Black in the corner. Black sneaks a big kick in and dives over Bob, running into a massive power slam for a two. Bobby suplexes Aleister. Bob goes for a spear, Black stops it with a kick to the face. Black leaps onto Lashley on the outside again, rolls him in and Bobby gets the comeback again. Lana hops on the apron to yell at Bobby to spear Black (not that there are people outside of the commentators to be louder than her right now if she just said it from ringside). He takes too long, Black hits Black Mass and gets the pin.

Aleister Black pins Bobby Lashley. This felt like a match right out of 2018-2021 or so Raw (and with about the same crowd reactions it would get then). You’re not missing much if you skip over this. If you’d like to watch six minutes of Lashley dominating and about a minute of Aleister coming back, this is for you.

Kayla Braxton is backstage with Sasha Banks and WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley. Bayley calls tonight’s match unfair and that she and Sasha are united, best friends, and nothing will stand between them. Bayley heads out and Sasha sticks behind, telling Kayla to watch and see what happens.

Money in the Bank is coming May 10, live on WWE Network.

Michael Cole and John Bradshaw Layfield greet us from ringside, here to cover the SmackDown side of action. Greg Hamilton is on the ring mic for the SmackDown side.

Charly Caruso and Gronk are up in the balcony to talk about last night’s 24/7 Championship events. Gronk says he wouldn’t mind winning the title by the end of the night. Sounds unlikely!

WWE 2K10: experience your own WrestleMania moment now!

Otis vs Dolph Ziggler (with Sonya Deville)

Your backstory is that Otis had the hots for Mandy, Ziggler stole his Valentine’s Day date, and the mysterious hacker-to-be-named revealed that Mandy’s partner Sonya Deville helped Ziggler ruin the date. And here we are. The fans loved (and still love) big Otis and this probably would have been great in front of a crowd, but there’s no helping that here. This is Dolph’s seventh and final main card Mania appearance (two more if you count Kickoffs), while Otis is making his Mania main card debut after being on the 2019 Kickoff with two more in his future thus far.

Dolph tries to escape the large mad man but falls victim to a splash. Dolph superkicks Otis to the outside and yells for referee Charles Robinson to count Otis out, but then Otis decides to break the count and attack. Cole tells us about the lack of Tucker at ringside, something none of us were thinking about. Otis slingshots Dolph into the turnbuckle and gets some meaty man offense for a bit. Otis is the only man to compete at WrestleMania wearing a shirt depicting himself eating ham. So far. You know what you have to do next year, Tribal Chief. Otis tosses Dolph to the outside and slings Dolph into the barricade and ring post.

Back in, Otis slams Dolph with the single variation of his Compactor slam. He calls for Caterpillar, Sonya hops on the apron to distract and Dolph kicks Otis right in the taint. Mandy Rose comes out to slap Sonya and beat her down. She low blows Dolph as Charles tries to get Sonya out of the ring. Otis Caterpillars and gets the pin, Mandy running in to celebrate with him and give him the big kiss. Otis gets his woman.

Otis pins Dolph Ziggler. Another TV match and one that went long, but it’s Covid Mania. The right result for the feud.

Last Man Standing Match: WWE Hall of Famer Edge vs Randy Orton

And now, the match that has made me put off doing this review for a month. Both men had a solid Mania history at this point. Orton is at twenty Mania matches and counting. Edge had eleven behind him in addition to a retirement coming into this and another three matches in his future. Long story short, these two were friends and partners and then they weren’t. Last man standing means that we’re seeing who can’t answer the referee’s ten count.

Orton sneaks in, having been disguised as a camera man at ringside, with an RKO during his own entrance. Orton nails a second RKO and Edge makes it up at the eight count. Outside the ring, Orton grabs his camera and slugs Edge over the head, Edge tumbling over the barricade. Edge makes it up at seven and they brawl backstage, past the Dusty Classic trophy and into the improvised Gorilla area. Orton drags Edge into the gym and beats him up for a while. Orton grabs a weight plate and Edge boots him down. Edge slams Orton into a table, sending a banana flying. That banana had a family. Edge sits Orton in a conveniently placed office chair that just happens to be in the gym, then flies off a piece of equipment with a catapult. “Nine years, Randy!” yells Edge as he is reversed into a wall. Orton tries to murder Edge with a weight sled but Edge moves, which is good for him.

Next we fight into the production area where they only seem to have red lights. The Fiend would love it here. Orton is bounced off a steel garage door before they battle back up to the arena. Orton tosses Edge into a LED board and dramatically off the side display onto the barricade, Edge still able to answer at a nine count. We’re gonna brawl back to the hallway now into the office area. Albert, close your office door! We hit the board room and knock some chairs around. This is dragging on. Edge kicks Orton and tosses him onto the table then hangs on cage fencing above the table, dropping onto Orton with an elbow. Let’s brawl around some more on our tour of the PC.

A camera person takes a tumble which gives us time to catch up to the two men in a storage facility that happens to have ladders set up. Edge tosses Orton into one of the ladders. I zoned out for a bit and it looks like we’ve battled toward the interview set (which has not been the place any interview on either night of this show has happened so far). Orton drinks some water and edge throws a sandbag at him that Orton sells like he was shot in the leg. Brawling. More brawling. Edge puts Orton on a table and climbs a nearby ladder onto a platform, elbow dropping Orton through the table. They both make it to their feet and Orton has a cut on his back as we brawl even more. Orton drops Edge behind a forklift but has respect for forklift operator licenses and does not get on it. He tosses Edge into the tailgate of of a truck instead. They brawl onto the back of the truck where Orton DDTs Edge onto the truck bed cover as we talk in hushed tones on commentary about Edge’s neck.

Both men make it to their feet again and Edge climbs a few carrying cases to reach the top of the NXT semi trailer. Orton follows up and tries for a punt but Edge spears him, Orton crashing hard. They both beat the count at nine and Edge runs into a RKO. Orton goes to find some chairs to bring back up to the top of the semi trailer. Edge is smashed with a chair and Orton puts a chair under his head, setting up a conchairto as the referee yells that Edge has a family. Just like that banana did earlier! Edge uses this time to put a sleeper on Orton, Orton being down on a chair. Edge curses at the ref to stop his count and tearfully, emotionally, and dramatically takes forever to pull out some tears and smash Orton with his solo conchairto.

Edge is the last man standing against Randy Orton. This went on for over 35 minutes and didn’t need half of them. It’s fine, it was a brawl and we’re filling time on a Covid show, but boy was it long. It’ll lead to their Greatest Wrestling Match Ever at Backlash which I liked a lot better.

WWE 24/7 Champion Mojo Rawley comes down the ramp being chased by a sea of NXT people including Odyssey Jones, Top Dolla, and I’m pretty sure I see Marina in there. Gronk dives off the balcony onto them all, covering Mojo. Rob Gronkowski pins Mojo Rawley to become the new WWE 24/7 Champion. And off Gronk runs.

WWE Raw Tag Team Championship: WWE Raw Tag Team Champions The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) vs Angel Garza and Austin Theory (with Zelina Vega)

Andrade was originally scheduled to be Garza’s partner but was pulled out due to injury, giving us the sudden WrestleMania debut of Austin Theory. This is the WrestleMania debut for all four men but also the second main roster TV match ever for Theory who had just appeared as an ally for Garza and Seth Rollins on Raw.

Ford is at his loudest tonight, shouting about it being WrestleMania many, many times. The Profits work over Theory until he is able to toss Dawkins to the outside, giving Garza a chance for a superkick. Garza rips off his pants and goes to work for a while before Dawkins gets the hot tag. Ford yells “WRESTLEMANIA” again and dives on the outside onto Theory but also Dawkins. Garza moonsaults onto all of them and also yells about WrestleMania. Garza rolls Ford in for a second moonsault, Ford kicking out at two. Theory comes in and hits the TKO and covers Dawkins, Ford frog splashes onto him and Dawkins gets the pin.

The Street Profits defeat Angel Garza & Austin Theory when Angelo Dawkins pins Austin Theory to retain the Raw Tag Team Titles. This was a tag team match!  It was nothing special.

Garza and Theory beat down Ford afterwards with Zelina laying in her own kick. This brings us the WrestleMania debut of Bianca Belair who spears and attacks Vega. Vega eats a KOD and the Profits and Belair celebrate.

Titus O’Neil greets us from the balcony, taking over hosting duties since Gronk has taken gold and run.

Fatal Five-Way Elimination Match for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Title: WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley vs Sasha Banks vs Tamina vs Lacey Evans vs Naomi

Dana Brooke was originally advertised for this as well but is quarantined. No DQ, no count out, the only way to eliminate an opponent is pinfall or submission. The last one left is the champ. After declaring it BOSS TIME, Cole wonders where Sasha’s allegiance is as JBL yells that “it lies with Sasha.” They all go after Tamina who tosses them all off. Bayley and Sasha team up to knock Tamina to the outside. They double team Evans and cover, unable to keep Lacey down. Naomi and Evans hit double dropkicks and double pin attempts. Bayley yells at Cole’s commentary as Tamina returns to clothesline the field. Tamina tries for a Samoan Drop, Sasha pulls Bayley out of danger. Naomi, Sasha and Tamina do the Team B.A.D. “unity” salute and Tamina superkicks Sasha down. Rude. Naomi stunners Tamina for two and Evans tries with a moonsault as well. Sasha hits a 619 on Tamina and Bayley drops the top rope elbow. Sasha frog splashes Tamina, Lacey moonsaults onto Tamina and Naomi does the split leg moonsault. All four cover Tamina to eliminate her. Tamina is eliminated.

We’re down to four. Naomi tries to battle off Sasha and Bayley. She hits them with a double dropkick. She stunners Bayley and Rear Views Sasha. Naomi locks a submission on Sasha, Bayley breaks it with a running knee and Sasha hooks the Banks Statement for the submission. Naomi is eliminated. They work over Lacey for a bit until some miscommunication where Bayley accidentally knees Sasha. Sasha comes in to confront Bayley, Bayley saying they’ll talk about it after. Lacey nails Sasha with the Woman’s Right and Sasha is eliminated. Last but not least, we have Bayley and Lacey. Lacey leads for a while, Bayley tosses her into the ring post. Lacey moonsaults but can’t turn it into a three count. Sasha sneaks in with a backstabber and Bayley lands the Rose Plant for the pin.

Bayley last eliminates Lacey Evans to retain the SmackDown Women’s Title. This was mostly fine, but the Bayley-Evans ending segment went on too long. Trim a few minutes off that and it would be a good match.

Firefly Fun House Match: Bray Wyatt vs John Cena

If you’re reading this when it is originally published, you might have JUST read my Rewind of Danhausen’s Very Nice, Very Evil Halloween Special where I wrote about that match. And the next few paragraphs might seem very familiar!

Cena enters to his usual entrance, a little thrown off by the lack of crowd and welcoming us to WrestleMania, which is cut out by the video transforming into the Firefly Funhouse intro. Bray Wyatt greets us from the Funhouse, telling us about a world where gods, monsters, angels and demons are neighbors. “Hey John, let’s take a real deep look at who you really are. You’re about to face your most dangerous opponent yet – yourself. Welcome to the Firefly Funhouse!” Bray heads through the door and we cut to John standing on the Funhouse set. Ramblin’ Rabbit tells Cena that Bray went through the door. John heads through the door and enters into darkness before a Mr. McMahon Puppet (with devil horns) asks him if he has ruthless aggression.

We cut to Bray in the ring and splice in and out footage of Kurt Angle on SmackDown. John Cena in his original gear walks out by the SmackDown fist and enters the ring, Bray (and Kurt via video) asking what he has to hang with him. Cena yells “RUTHLESS AGGRESSION” and keeps swinging, Bray easily ducking and laughing at him. Bray mocks the Bella theme and asks if this is really what Cena wants to do with his life. Macho Mercy and Mr. McBossman greet us from their announce table as the classic Saturday Night’s Main Event entrance plays with Funhouse friends interspersed into it. We go to the big blue cage and “Muscle Man” Bray Wyatt cutting a promo about his partner Johnny Large Meat’s body. Cena comes in bumping hand weights uncontrollably and unable to stop as he cuts an 80s promo. Bray cuts a “whatcha gonna do” promo on Cena as Cena is unable to lift his worn out arms, then tosses Cena right back towards the SmackDown fist where he is now Doctor of Thuganomics Cena.

The Funhouse characters dance around Cena as he rejoins Bray in the ring. Cena cuts one of his freestyles, including lines like, “If all I got is rappin’ I use it to my advantage, because unlike Husky Harris its a weight that I can manage.” Cena calls Wyatt a disappointment and creepy piano music plays. Wyatt says he’s earned everything while Cena is the golden goose with unlimited changes. “You’re not a hero, John. You’re a bully. You’re a horrible person. You take the weaknesses of others and you turn them into jokes. You do anything for fame, John. Congratulations, you’re the man now, John. Poor, lonely John Cena. This is your last chance, man.” Wyatt backs across the ring and Cena scowls, tossing a bag of nuts at Wyatt and trying to attack in the corner, only for Wyatt to be behind him with a chain. Wyatt knocks Cena to the mat and we flash to Wyatt in the old Wyatt compound, rocking in his chair and talking about their WrestleMania match where John didn’t listen to the fans who wanted Wyatt. Wyatt tells us that it is time to rewrite his own story – run. And he grabs Cena in the ring, dancing with him before laughing and trying for Sister Abigail. Wyatt laughs that that wouldn’t be enough damage for Superman and hands Cena a chair. He flashes back to Mania where Cena wouldn’t hit him with a chair. Cena swings and Wyatt disappears and the nWo Monday Nitro intro plays.

Wyatt, in a nWo Wolfpac shirt, does an impression of Eric Bischoff and introduces the “coolest guy that ever walked the face of the wrestling earth.” Cena comes out in nWo shirt and with the Hogan-spraypainted belt at the Nitro entrance as Mr. McBossman declares, “This is such good shit.” nWo Cena attacks Bray and we flash through rough moments in Cena’s career before we see that Bray has been replaced by the Huskus the Pig Boy puppet. Cena realizes this and The Fiend rises behind him. Fiend hooks the mandible claw on and we get a voiceover from John Cena. “This WrestleMania match is going to accomplish what should have happened six years ago, ending the existence of the most over-hyped, over-valued, over-privileged WWE Superstar in existence.” The claw is locked on again and Cena’s shoulders fall to the mat, Bray in his sweater counting the pinfall as The Fiend stands above the body of John Cena before Cena disappears. “Let me in.”

The Fiend pins John Cena. I totally get why some people don’t like this. It isn’t a match by regular standards, but I think it is incredibly creative especially in the time period where they had extreme limitations. I always enjoy watching it back and it really is one of Bray’s brightest moments.

Titus is speechless.

WWE Championship: WWE Champion Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) vs Drew McIntyre

Drew won the Rumble to earn this title shot. This was the first and last time these two would meet in a singles match. Drew storms in with a Claymore for a two. He tries for a second and Brock dodges, taking him sailing with three suplexes. Brock hits the F5 and Drew kicks out at one. A second F5 gets a two. A third gets two. Lesnar tries for a fourth, Drew hits three more Claymores and covers. We have a new WWE Champion.

Drew McIntyre pins Brock Lesnar to become the new WWE Champion. This followed the usual setup for short Brock matches and worked for what it was. It would’ve been nice for Drew to have this big win in front of a crowd, but fate chose differently. Still a very cool moment for him. We end with Drew reaching out to the fans through the camera, mouthing “thank you” to those watching. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE.

The official YouTube video includes the post-match events that air on Raw the next night, so I’ll cover all of that as well.

Sarah Schreiber catches up with Drew in the ring. He already has his sideplates on his championship and this places us about twenty minutes after WrestleMania went off the air if we allow ourselves to believe this was in real time. Drew thanks Paul Heyman for motivating his desire to come back during the match. Weeeelllll it’s the Big Show as Big Show comes out, pulling a referee out with him. As Byron notes, we haven’t seen Big Show in months. Show congratulates Drew on slaying the beast at WrestleMania. Big Show says he isn’t here to challenge for the title right now, but since they’re both in gear “ring the bell, bitch, let’s go.” Drew doesn’t know why Big Show is even dressed to competed but he’s not fighting right now. Show says Drew is afraid of him. Drew: “There is nothing you can say that will convince me to fight you tonight.” Show slaps him and Drew slams his title down, so we’re on.

WWE Championship: WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs Big Show

Drew batters Show in the corner and runs into a big shoulder. Show yells at Drew, asking if he’s angry now as Show stomps him across the bottom rope. Show yells about being here four decades and keeps working over Drew in the corner, chopping him to the mat. Show climbs to the second rope and drops his weight on Drew, covering for two. Show tries a chokeslam, McIntyre slides out and hits a slam on the big stinky giant for a two count. Drew climbs to the top rope and gets caught, this time falling to a chokeslam but kicking out before the three. Show winds up the KO punch but Drew ducks, catching Show with a Claymore and getting the pin.

Drew McIntyre pins Big Show to retain the WWE Championship. A good TV match and really a little better than a few of the matches we got on the main show.

Your opinions on this night of the show probably largely fall on which side of the Firefly Fun House match argument you fall on. Outside of the opener and most of the SmackDown women’s match, there wasn’t much else to write home about here. Night one was better, but I’m also not going to be harsh on this since it was, to say the least, a big sudden change.

Recommendations to watch: Flair vs Ripley, Firefly Fun House, Lesnar vs McIntyre / McIntyre vs Show