Looking for a sports fix? Aside from sports channels rebroadcasting classic games from the past, the next closest thing might just be professional wrestling. This weekend WWE will hold its annual flagship show, WrestleMania 36. It will certainly be an unusual show, given the COVID-19 pandemic.
This week, we highlight five things you need to know about this year’s WrestleMania.
It will be a bit lonely
The original plan was for WrestleMania 36 to be hosted in in Tampa Bay, Florida at Raymond James Stadium. Each year, thousands of fans from across the world attend WrestleMania weekend, but travel restrictions soon made that impossible. Eventually, the city of Tampa Bay shut down large-scale events. As a result, the entire event has been moved to WWE’s Performance Center, which is where aspiring grapplers train. No fans will be in attendance. That means there will be no roar from the crowd when superstars win, nor boos when villains try to gain the upper-hand by cheating. WWE is even poking a bit of fun at the situation by selling an official t-shirt that proudly says, “I wasn’t there.”
An ever-changing line-up
Initially, WWE superstar Roman Reigns was to challenge Goldberg for the Universal Title. Goldberg, a top star in the 1990s in WCW — which was at one time WWE’s main rival — has had a career resurgence at age 53 by making sporadic appearances for WWE over the past few years. Although Roman Reigns issued a challenge to Goldberg on Feb. 28, the match will not take place.
Reigns is immunocompromised. Back in 2018, he stepped away from the ring for a short time as he battled leukemia. Although he is in remission, Reigns felt it wasn’t in his best interest to perform, given the current public health crisis. As a result, Goldberg is set to take on someone else. The rumour is that Braun Strowman will fill in as challenger.
This is not the only announced match that has changed. First, Dana Brooke was announced as one of the six participants in the Smackdown Women’s Title match. She has since been pulled from the show and is now in quarantine. The match is now a five-way contest instead.
Meanwhile, The Miz was set to defend his tag titles alongside his partner, John Morrison, although he too is now in quarantine. The match is still going ahead…in some form.
Finally, the other tag title match was supposed to feature the champs, The Street Profits, defending against the duo of Andrade and Angel Garza. Andrade has since been injured and has been replaced by Austin Theory.
“Card subject to change” indeed.
Two nights of action
For the first time ever, WrestleMania will not be held on just one night. Rather, the show will now be split up into two, with half of the card taking place on Saturday, while the remainder of the matches will be shown on Sunday. A total of 16 matches are scheduled to take place, so there will be lots of wrestling content to sate even the most hardcore fan.
Marquee matches include Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre, Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair, John Cena vs. "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt, The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles, Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins, and Randy Orton facing Edge. This will be Edge's first singles match in WWE since retiring from a neck injury back in 2011.
Your host for the evening(s)
WWE recently signed former New England Patriot tight end Rob Gronkowski, better known as “Gronk.” A lifelong WWE fan, Gronk is also good friends with WWE performer Mojo Rawley. Gronk even made a brief appearance at WrestleMania 33, helping Rawley win the “coveted” Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale that year.
With Gronk now under a WWE contract, he is set to “host” WrestleMania. What exactly that means is unclear. Regardless, expect Gronk to bring his unique energy to the broadcast.
A lack of spectacle
For many years now, WrestleMania has turned into a weekend-long affair. The event typically includes autograph signings and meet and greets for fans, an annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony, a special PPV event for the company’s NXT brand (which is essentially the company’s developmental system), as well as WrestleMania itself and the live broadcast of Monday Night Raw the following evening. This year, the Hall of Fame ceremony has been postponed, the NXT Takeover special has been cancelled, and Monday Night Raw has already been pre-recorded.
One thing is for sure — this year’s show will certainly be memorable.
WrestleMania 36 will be broadcast on pay per view. It is also available through the WWE Network, which is available by subscribing through your cable provider.
