The only way to follow an incredible first night of WrestleMania was with an epic part two — and WWE hit this one out of the park once again.
The Firefly Fun House was perfectly bizarre, the Scottish Psychopath won his first WWE heavyweight title, and the women stole the show on multiple fronts. All in all, it made for a perfect second night to the two-night extravaganza of WrestleMania 36.
We couldn't have said it better ourselves, Kurt. And now, let's recap what was a spectacular night of sports entertainment, shall we?
The main card heated up immediately, as we opened with Ripley defending her NXT title against The Queen, decked out in Dragonball Z-inspired ring garb:
After an early Riptide by Ripley failed to put away Flair, Charlotte took control of the match, focusing on Rhea's left leg with stomps, submission holds, attacks via the ring post, and a vicious chop block to the back of the leg.
These two women laid it in, beating the heck out of each other for nearly 30 minutes in a physical, violent fight of a match, with Ripley seeming to turn the tide as time went on:
But Flair's attention to detail proved the difference, as she locked in the Figure Four, bridged into the Figure Eight, and became a three-time NXT Women's Champion as Ripley tapped out:
Aleister Black and Bobby Lashley stepped into the ring next, in a match that Lashley had in hand, until Lana told him to change course and finish Black with a spear. Lashley listened, but ran right into a Black Mass that gave Black the win.
From a battle of beef to romantic beef, the saga of Otis, Dolph Ziggler and Mandy Rose took center stage.
Otis exacted a much-deserved bit of vengeance on Ziggler, throwing him all around the ring and setting up The Caterpillar, prompting Sonya Deville to distract the official. Dolph capitalized, hitting Otis with a low blow — but that summoned Mandy Rose, who slapped Sonya, hit Ziggler below the belt, and left in the arms of the victorious Otis.
Awwwwwww! What a magical moment. You know, minus all the low blows, anyway.
The good times came to an abrupt end, however, as Randy Orton ambushed Edge by disguising himself as a cameraman before their Last Man Standing match, unleashing an RKO out of nowhere:
The two friends turned enemies battled throughout the Performance Center, leaving carnage in their wake and utilizing every inch of the space, including Edge using a ladder to drop a massive elbow on Orton through a table:
Edge and Orton brawled their way to the loading dock, where the Viper panted the Rated-R Superstar with a DDT atop a pickup truck. Edge recovered, however, as the two battled to the top of a trailer, exchanging spears and RKOs.
Orton climbed down to grab a pair of chairs, ostensibly to set up a Con-chair-to on Edge. But the Hall of Famer countered, locking Orton into a choke hold and rendering him inanimate, before picking up the chair and delivering the devastating blow of a steel chair to Orton's head atop another steel chair himself:
That lethal fight between former tag title holders gave way to a title change, and a title defense.
First, Gronk became a WWE Champion for the first time, winning the 24/7 Championship:
Then, The Street Profits defended their Raw Tag Team Titles against Angel Garza and Austin Theory, with a little help from Bianca Belair, an NXT Superstar and Montez Ford's better half, who neutralized Zelina Vega:
Perhaps inspired by the Profits (probably not, but still), Bayley next defended her WWE SmackDown Women's Championship in a five-way elimination match that included her best friend, Sasha Banks.
Despite some tension and miscommunication between the two, Banks returned to the ring after being eliminated to help Bayley put away Lacey Evans for the win:
Now, with all due respect to all of the outstanding matches on the card, next up is what many of us were anticipating with bated breath — the Firefly Fun House match between John Cena and The Fiend.
Cena made his standard entrance, only for The Fiend to overtake the broadcast, summoning Cena to the Fun House, where he walked through a door and met ... a Vince McMahon puppet.
The former Doctor of Thuganomics was in for quite the trip. First, Wyatt (and not THe Fiend) made Cena relive his WWE debut, which the former cult leader called Cena's greatest failure. Then, the two joined forces for an 80s style, cliche-filled Saturday Night promo:
Speaking of the Doctor, his time to speak his mind followed, although he was limited to rhymes as he poked fun at Wyatt:
Our journey through modern wrestling history continued through the original version of Bray Wyatt:
And an homage to Cena as Hogan, nWo-style:
Truly, it was poetic. Cena was held to account for each of the stages in his career, before The Fiend made his presence felt, literally grabbing hold of the face of the company with the Mandible Claw:
That left just one match on the WrestleMania 36 card — the WWE Championship clash between Brock Lesnar and Drew McIntyre.
The two behemoths immediately went to war, trading Claymore Kicks and F5s:
But it was McIntyre who got the upper hand, leveling Lesnar with several Claymores in a row to win his first WWE Championship:
And with that, WrestleMania 36 is in the books! We hope you enjoyed the two-night extravaganza!
