WrestleMania entertains without audience
WWE presented WrestleMania 36 over the course of Saturday and Sunday, and it produced about as entertaining a show as possible considering the circumstances.
Instead of taking place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa in front of 70,000 fans, it was moved to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando without an audience.
While people will always question why Vince McMahon made the decision to run the show instead of postponing it, it gave fans a chance to watch a new event that wasn鈥檛 a replay of historical games or fights.
And while it felt like anything except WrestleMania, it still allowed people to pause from the current situation that we are all living through.
Let鈥檚 take a quick look at the results.
Two new World champions
As expected, Braun Strowman defeated Goldberg for the Universal championship Saturday night while Drew McIntyre defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE championship in the main event Sunday night.
The matches were relatively uneventful as both matches featured the four men hitting their respective finishers at least three times on their opponents.
Combined, the matches were less than 10 minutes long.
鈥滺ollywood鈥� matches
While WWE is heading to Hollywood for WrestleMania next year, WWE produced two unique matches that had a touch of the big screen.
In Saturday night鈥檚 main event, The Undertaker defeated AJ Styles in a Boneyard match.
While there were some unexplained actions like druids attacking Taker, the match far exceeded anything I had expected from him at this point in his career.
The duo had great chemistry together and the Hollywood-like effects added to what could be Taker鈥檚 last match.
If it is, he leaves with one last Mania classic.
Sunday night, Bray Wyatt 鈥渄efeated鈥� John Cena in a Firefly Fun House match.
There was never a bell to start the match or end it, but it ended with Cena passed out to Wyatt鈥檚 mandible claw.
The match itself was a retrospect of moments of Cena鈥檚 career and it may have been complicated for some to follow the storytelling.
The reviews for both the Boneyard match and the Fun House match were overwhelmingly positive.
Charlotte wins NXT title, Lynch, Bayley retain
Sunday night, Charlotte defeated Rhea Ripley to win the NXT title in what may have been the match of the weekend.
Lynch pulled out a surprising win over Shayna Baszler to retain her Raw title while Bayley retained her Smackdown crown in a fatal-five way.
Ironically, three of the 鈥淔our Horsewomen鈥� in WWE hold the three belts, with Sasha Banks being the lone member without a single鈥檚 title.
Edge wins return to ring
In his first singles match in nine years, Edge defeated Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing match.
Edge looked really good for being gone so long, but the match was way too long.
The match went over 35 minutes and it should have been trimmed to 20 minutes.
Owens and Rollins deliver
Kevin Owens defeated Seth Rollins in what may have been the match of the night Saturday, Boneyard match withstanding.
I can鈥檛 help to think how emotionally invested the crowd would have been had the show been held in front of 70,000 fans.
Title defenses
In other title matches, Sami Zayn defeated Daniel Bryan to retain the Intercontinental title, John Morrison defeated Kofi Kingston and Jimmy Uso to retain the Smackdown tag titles, Mojo Rawley defeated R-Truth Saturday to win the 24/7 title but lost it Sunday to Rob Gronkowski while the team of Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross defeated The Kabuki Warriors to win the women鈥檚 tag titles, becoming the first-ever two-time holders of the belts in the process.
Other match results included Elias defeating King Corbin, Aleister Black defeated Bobby Lashley and Otis defeated Dolph Ziggler.
Mania to remain two days?
The hope here is that WWE considers keeping the two-day format for the show.
It would keep the fans energized and not worn out by the last hour.
Saturday night, between the Kickoff Show and Night One, lasted four hours whereas it was over four-and-a-half hours Sunday.
Between eight and nine hours is too much for one night, but over two days, it could work for everyone included from the talent to the production crew as well as the fans.
Email questions/comments to powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to @BillHughes_III.