Another WrestleMania has come and gone, although this one was certainly an event unlike any other. WWE tends to use hyperbole like that whenever their biggest show approaches, but usually, it’s empty carny talk. This time it’s true but what that means for how the show will be remembered in years to come is still to be determined. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in ten years, the event is mostly forgotten (as much as a WrestleMania could be), on account of it being such an unusual format and from what I expect to be WWE mostly ignoring the event as soon as is feasible.
They are masters at writing and re-writing their own history, after all.
On the other hand, fans might keep it alive with annual reminiscences and, almost certainly, regular retrospectives on the event’s two most bizarre and instantly-memorable matches. I’ll have more to say about the Boneyard and Firefly Funhouse matches later. For right now, let’s look back on the weekend that almost wasn’t (and, in a lot of ways, basically wasn’t)…
WHAT WE MISSED
Several staples of WrestleMania weekend had to be cancelled due to the change in format. For one, the usual weekly schedule of (1) Axxess, (2) NXT Takeover, (3) Hall of Fame, (4) WrestleMania, and (5) Raw After WrestleMania was basically tossed out the window. Axxess was cancelled, obviously. Takeover’s matches were split across various episodes of NXT on USA. The Hall of Fame was bumped to, presumably, later in the year (SummerSlam perhaps?), and the R.A.W., though it technically happened, was basically the same as every other “Performance Center Raw.” It also drew the worst ratings for the post-Mania show ever, largely because it wasn’t anything special. The crowd and the surprises were almost the entire reason to watch the R.A.W. Without them, there wasn’t much else to tune in for.
#WrestleMania 36 garnered the most social media interactions in WWE history! https://t.co/PuaX3SRcbl
— WWE (@WWE) April 6, 2020
So, even though Mania itself generated more social media buzz than any previous WWE event, the hype and interest was confined to a much smaller bubble and didn’t help any other aspect of the company enjoy the spotlight of the event. In short, what we missed this year was everything that made WrestleMania special.
There was a lot of talk from the WWE roster that they were going to go all out, just like they typically would. This wasn’t going to be a Saudi Arabian paycheck trip. This was the night they prepared a year for. I get that. I appreciate that. In the end though (with the exception of two remarkable “matches”), it might as well have been a couple of longer-than-usual Raws.
Speaking of…
TOO BIG FOR TWO NIGHTS?
You’d think, with everything going on, that WWE might opt for a leaner, meaner, version of their biggest show. After all, ever since WrestleMania 32, the show’s biggest, most persistent criticism has been its length. WWE has been operating on the belief that fans need to get their money’s worth, which means spending six hours watching the program. Six hours! There’s nothing else in sports or entertainment that operates on the belief that its fans want to spend six hours consuming it at a time. That’s insanity. You go see your favorite music act in concert and it’s a two-hour event. Go watch the Superbowl and it’s a three-hour event. The super-sized finale of your favorite TV show? Ninety-minutes.
WrestleMania? Six. Hours. Long.
Here, with the COVID-19 pandemic throwing a monkey-wrench into everything, this would have been the perfect opportunity to shake things up, reassess what wasn’t working, or experiment with new ideas. The company did that with two very different matches, but those were two matches…out of eighteen. Instead of reassessing, and cutting their show down to the best and most important matches, WWE doubled-down. Instead of one excruciatingly-long night, they decided to spread it out to two nights. And while this was good for this year, I worry it sets a bad omen for the future. Fans are hoping this means we’ll get two-night Mania events going forward. I would both caution against that hope and cast some doubt on it, too.
For one, if we got a two-night WrestleMania in a stadium full of fans, Vince isn’t going to give away two tickets for the price of one. You’re either going to have to pay for two tickets or pay for one ticket for one night. That being said, I don’t think we’ll get two-night Manias in the future; I think we’ll get eighteen-match, one-night Manias that run eight-hours long.
Oh well. At least for this year, it was nice not having to clear the entire second half of my day to watch the show.
PROS AND CONS HODGEPODGE
PRO: Night One was stellar. The only downsides were the Universal Title Match (and, to be fair, it was never going to be good) and the loss by Shayna Baszler, though that second knock is a slight one. Overall, the first night of the show set things up for a great event overall.
CON: Night Two was filled with disappointment. It was a collage of different kinds of problems: There were bad finishes (Charlotte/Ripley), great finishes hampered by the lack of a crowd (Otis/Ziggler), horrible matches (Edge/Orton) and wastes of time (Black/Lashley). It wasn’t all bad, however: Charlotte vs Ripley was an excellent bout until the ending. The Firefly Funhouse will be talked about for generations to come. The main-event finish was the right call. Those moments are few compared to how much wrong there was, though.
PRO: Bianca Belair making her presence known at Mania and then moving to Raw the next night. I’m really looking forward to all the ways she’ll be misused!
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CON: Rob Gronkowski winning the 24/7 Championship was bad enough. That it happened in an empty arena when, ordinarily, it would have been accompanied by 80k boos is the real tragedy of the weekend.
PRO: Everyone put forth 110% effort worthy of WrestleMania. No one, from the undercard on up, including Brock Lesnar (who simply wasn’t asked to do more than the bare minimum), failed to give the show their all, despite the crazy circumstances and lack of an audience to feed off of.
CON: Wrestling without a crowd just doesn’t work. In other articles I’ve said it’s like an 80’s sitcom without a laugh track. Really it’s like Star Wars without John Williams…
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Much as WWE might wish it weren’t true, the fact is the crowd is 50% of the show. They can make or break a match, make a good match great and a bad match horrible. Take them away and you’re removing an essential element. In so many ways this show was on pace to be an all-timer. After night-one, even without the crowd, I was ready to call it a top-15 Mania. Had the crowd been there, this might’ve been a top-6 or 7 level event. It dropped a bit for night two but who knows what a hot crowd might’ve done for it.
Ultimately, this was a show that most fans will probably never forget, and which the company will do everything they can to try and make you.
We’ll talk about the Funhouse later. That deserves its own article…
