Wrestlemania 36

Im surprised its not in an empty stadium.

I only really caught Becky-Shayna, Bliss/Cross-Kabuki Warriors, the No DQ part of Rollins-Owens, Goldberg-Braun and the main. They were all pretty good (except Braun-Goldberg which really wasn't going to be anything more than what it was) and honestly I think the condensed, edited format really worked in the show's favor.

Night 2 not as fun.

I watched with my roommate who last watched wrestling when she was like 11. She was a big fan of Rikishi back then, we watched the Andre the Giant HBO doc together recently (she loved it and wants to watch it again) and she LOVES the GLOW TV show. She barely remembered Edge (he looked hot back then...now he's just old). She didn't even know Goldberg. Didn't know Ric Flair ("Why do they keep Woo-ing? Charlotte really likes to do the chops" etc). At one point asked "How do you even become a wrestler? Are there like regional tournaments?" So it would be a stretch to even call her a lapsed casual fan. The last Mania I watched live was 32.

But with stay at home orders and the end of netflix reached like two weeks ago, we decided to watch. It was pretty fun in that context. We were looking for camp more than anything else. To say we didn't know anything about the storylines would be an understatement. I haven't seen a single Bray as the Fiend match or segment ever for example. Haven't seen most of the people on the card. But its Covid19-Mania so fuck it right?

Night 1 we had a lot of fun.

Kabuki Warriors had us at first rolling are eyes like "Kabuki Warriors...are they fucking serious" but my roommate pointed out that they had a lot of stage presence and felt professional (compared to what the divas were when she was a kid). Their costumes in particular are fantastic. We liked Alexa Bliss as like if Margot Robbie was born prematurely and had a meth addiction. Nikki Cross was the most business exposing wrestler of the night for my roommate, but we had a lot of fun making fun of her and the "Naughty Nikki" name.

Elias vs King Corbin sucked but we pretended as though it was a gay lumberjack vs white supremacist.

We really liked Becky vs Baszler. Roommate loved Shayna Baszler. Probably her favorite individual wrestler.

Bryan vs Sami Zayn got over huge in our living room. Especially Zayn's stalling tactics. Roommate was pissed, and it got her heavily invested. She also loved Shinsuke Nakamura's look.

Ladder match I would have hated in any other circumstance, but was fun in this setting. Roommate loved Kofi, liked John, hated Jimmy and then turned around and really liked Jimmy. The Kofi eye-poke spot was our favorite spot of the night up to this point. I'll point out here that my roommate thought everyone's name was stupid. "Daniel, John, Jimmy, Corbin. They can come up with any names and this is what they pick?" Even better was the next match...

Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins I knew I was going to hate because I have never seen either guy in a singles match that I didn't hate. So I made dinner and listened to my roommate shit all over the match. She thought it was boring and it dragged and their names being Kevin & Seth was stupid.

Braun vs Goldberg was over so quick I don't think she looked up from her phone other than to say OMG at Braun's size.

Boneyard match brought us all the way back in. We were both going absolutely crazy for it. At first I thought it was going to be the dumbest thing ever. I initially hated the cinematic aesthetic but pretty quickly realized what I was seeing was amazing. We both agreed they should get an EMMY.

Overall night 1 we had a blast. The undercard was really fun and moved around quickly. We both agreed the silence was fucking weird. Roommate thought they should add in fake crowd noise or music. But overall we really liked it. Boneyard was so great it made up for Kevin & Seth which was the only true stinker.

Night 2 was more of a mixed bag. We were fucking HYPED at the start.
Charlotte vs Rhea Ripley was an awesome match. We were both super into it. Roommate was blown away by some of the stiff shots and was genuinely concerned for Ripley's leg. 6:24 PST my adult roommate said out-loud while watching WrestleMania in 2020 "That one was real. You can't fake that." And I was delighted. We both thought this was the best match of either night excluding the Boneyard match.

Aleister Black vs Lashley had no chance of following the opener. "At least they're big giant muscley dudes" said roommate. Yall...WWE might know what they're doing? Its eye-opening to watch this stuff with an extreme casual fan. Speaking of...

Otis vs Dolph was a legit hit in our living room. Otis got over as a sympathetic figure and roommate wanted to see Dolph destroyed. The post match got legit living room applause. She HATED Dolph.

And you know how just a second ago I was like "Maybe WWE knows what they're doing" well the Edge vs Orton pre-match video package ALSO got over huge. Roommate was super invested. She hated Randy Orton from the video package. I mean legit heel heat. "This guy is the biggest asshole ever and I want to see him get killed" heel heat.

And then those two went out and absolutely killed the entire 2 nights. We hated this. I did my best both nights not to try and influence her. Like I knew Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins was gonna suck when I saw it listed, but I didn't want to tell her "These dudes are the fucking worst." If she liked them, then that would be great. But she hated Kevin & Seth. But BOY did she ever hate Edge vs Orton. I was in making & eating dinner mode during this match and kept quiet while roommate watched mostly silently. Finally she just yelled "IS THIS SHIT EVER GOING TO END?" We were barely halfway through the match. Hated it so much. We spent the 2nd half screaming at the TV for them to finish. According to wikipedia, that match was 36+ minutes and it felt like 200 years. How the same company can have a night like night 1 and then follow it up with this is beyond belief.

Street Profits vs Austin & Angel. Roommate immediately liked this more than Edge vs Orton. Saying about the Street Profits "Now these guys, these guys are actually good wrestlers" (she was comparing them to Edge & Orton horror show) and noted their athleticism, teamwork and "synchronization."

Women's 5 way really dragged and was too predictable. My only attempted influence of the night was to make roommate cheer for Sasha Banks. Roommate struggled to maintain interest honestly.

Firefly Fun House did not work for us on any level and killed whatever interest roommate had left. She thought the Fiend was like a bush-league cheap Joker spoof. She hasn't been watching for forever so she doesn't know about John Cena's rookie year or his rapper phase or his match with Bray Wyatt from 5 years ago. She has no idea who Husky Harris is. Way to self referential and weird for the sake of weird. She got up and quit watching about halfway through and never came back.

Mixed bag. I would say I liked it all overall. Night 1 was awesome. The Boneyard match unforgettable. Charlotte vs Rhea Ripley was a genuine MOTYC type match but night 2 was a disappointment after that. Edge vs Orton was as bad as that Fujita/Shiozaki match where they just stared at each other. Two of the worst matches in history. Unfortunately for WWE, a lot more people watched Edge/Orton. Honestly, if Charlotte vs Ripley had replaced Seth vs Kevin on night 1 and my roommate & I only watched Night 1, we'd probably watch a few more shows. Instead she texted me earlier and asked if there are any Andre the Giant matches on the network. Yes. Yes I believe there are.