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WrestleMania 36, Day 1 is in the books, and it was rather underwhelming.
The strangest WrestleMania ever kicked off today. The 36th installment of the Showcase of the Immortals had to deal with the limitations of coronavirus government regulations, and a whole bunch of other things. The matches were pre-taped and in front of no fans, which led to an eerie, surreal viewing experience. The wrestlers worked hard, but the lack of an audience made things rather jarring at times.
The highlight of the show was definitely a ladder match for the tag titles between John Morrison, Kofi Kingston, and Jimmy Uso. Yes, a three-way dance for tag titles. This became necessary due to Morrison’s partner, The Miz, being ruled out of the show due to being sick (no one’s sure if it was COVID or not). Still, The Miz was around long enough to tape an awful segment for the pre-show at some point. But regardless, the three men took a bunch of nasty bumps and Kingston looked amazing as usual. In the end, they all fought over the belt at the top of a ladder and Morrison fell off, belt in hand, to take an ugly back bump on a ladder, but winning the match in the process.
The next best match was Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins. Owens originally won by DQ when The Monday Night Messiah hit him with a ring bell, but Owens demanded a restart with no DQs. He then jumped off the WrestleMania sign onto Rollins, crashing through a table, in the spot of the night. Eventually he got the three count.
The last two matches were throwaways, in very different forms. Braun Strowman won the Universal title in a short match with Goldberg. It was short because…well, Goldberg can’t wrestle. The finale was AJ Styles and Undertaker in a “Boneyard match”. Basically it was a Buried Alive match, filmed in a graveyard. And it was incredibly hokey. It was filmed like a movie, with bad dialogue and worse interference. Eventually (and mercifully), Taker put AJ into a grave and rode his bike off into the sunset. Yikes.
The event will continue tomorrow with nine more matches, including Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre for the WWE championship.
Here are the full results from day one.
The Undertaker defeated AJ Styles (Boneyard Match)
Braun Strowman defeated Goldberg to win the Universal championship
Kevin Owens defeated Seth Rollins
John Morrison defeated Kofi Kingston and Jimmy Uso to retain the Smackdown tag team titles
Sami Zayn defeated Daniel Bryan to retain the Intercontinental championship
Becky Lynch defeated Shayna Baszler to retain the Raw women’s championship
Elias defeated King Corbin
Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross defeated The Kabuki Warriors to win the WWE women’s tag team titles
Cesaro defeated Drew Gulak (Kickoff show)