WrestleMania 36: Night TWO

Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley

This came off like a big stadium match, but it worked excellently in this empty arena setting too. They beat the crap out of each other with everything looking (& sounding) pretty vicious -- the vocal selling & that trashtalk were on point here too. The big story of the match was Flair going after Rhea's knee, and that was some lovely stuff; thought that Charlotte delivered one of her finest performances to date w/ her focused attack on that knee, and Rhea's selling was good throughout. I do think this went a tad bit longer than it probably should've, but that's where the "this came off like a big stadium match" line comes to play. All in all, this was my favorite thing on the show for sure. ***3/4

Aleister Black vs. Bobby Lashley

Kind of the "Elias vs. Corbin" of Night 2, but these two are better than those two, so it was a bit better. Definitely nothing to write home about, but the action was physical and solid bell-to-bell + the finish was nice. **

Dolph Ziggler vs. Otis

One of the best built-up matches on this WrestleMania as a whole. The story they built was legit pretty damn sweet, and the way it ended here was perfect. The actual match was solid action w/ Ziggler at first controlling things, using his speed to gain that advantage, but ultimately when Otis got his hands on him, it was OTIS-style runthrough, essentially. **1/2

Edge vs. Randy Orton

This felt like the longest match of all-time. Almost 40-minutes of slow, uninteresting, walk-n-brawl, huffin' n' puffin' action. Cut 20 minutes off of this thing & it wouldn't have been, but as it stands, this was so damn boring. That ending with Edge EMOTING~! by crying before he finishes Orton off... Gawd DAMN. Not good. Not good. *

Austin Theory & Angel Garza vs. Street Profits

Now here's a random match on paper. And it certainly came off as a total RAW match. The post-match w/ Bianca coming out & beating Zelina up was pretty cool though. *

Bayley vs. Lacey Evans vs. Naomi vs. Sasha Banks vs. Tamina

Solid, yet very forgettable wrestling throughout. The highlight, for me, was hearing Bayley's new heel theme for the first time. Absolute banger. *3/4

Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena

This sure was WILD. The Vince puppet/doll, that Cena debut, Bray singing the Bella Twins theme, them going to the 80s & cutting a helluva 80s promo while pumping iron -- JOHNNY LARGEMEAT, Thuganomics Cena, Bray as Bischoff, Cena in the NWO shirt, that recreation of their 2014 match... I was definitely entertained by all of it. Extremely silly & ridiculous, yes, but I was entertained by the craziness that I witnessed. FUN

Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre

They do the big movez & go home. Definitely cool seeing Drew win the big one after all the trials & tribulations, and Brock put him over pretty big w/ all them F5 kickouts. For sure a pretty good, fun match for what it was, but it's maybe the one that suffered the most from these shows not taking place like they originally would've. **3/4