5 Biggest Headlines From WWE WrestleMania 36 Night One

Going into WrestleMania 36, we'd all pretty much prepared ourselves for a unique experience. Not even weeks of empty arena Raws, SmackDowns, NXTs, and AEW Dynamites were going to set us up for a truly harrowing sight: pro wrestling's Super Bowl run without any fans in attendance, inside an upscale training center. We resigned ourselves to this fate, and tempered our expectations accordingly.

Thus far, in spite of the obvious hindrances in place, the consensus for night one seems to be one of pleasant surprise. Fans expecting something with a bargain-basement feel got something far greater, and even a few of those with tempered expectations came away with an impressed nod. From some ambitious performances to a bit of surreal imagery, what we've gotten thus far has been a WrestleMania that's making the most of the hand it was dealt.

Night one featured five title matches, some long-simmering grudges, and a "Boneyard Match", the vagueness of which was enough to create some mild dread in most of us. While it's not sniffing WrestleMania 17 on the tier list, it's safe to say that halfway through, WrestleMania 36 is still miles above rock bottom.

Going into WrestleMania 36, we'd all pretty much prepared ourselves for a unique experience. Not even weeks of empty arena Raws, SmackDowns, NXTs, and AEW Dynamites were going to set us up for a truly harrowing sight: pro wrestling's Super Bowl run without any fans in attendance, inside an upscale training center. We resigned ourselves to this fate, and tempered our expectations accordingly.

Thus far, in spite of the obvious hindrances in place, the consensus for night one seems to be one of pleasant surprise. Fans expecting something with a bargain-basement feel got something far greater, and even a few of those with tempered expectations came away with an impressed nod. From some ambitious performances to a bit of surreal imagery, what we've gotten thus far has been a WrestleMania that's making the most of the hand it was dealt.

Night one featured five title matches, some long-simmering grudges, and a "Boneyard Match", the vagueness of which was enough to create some mild dread in most of us. While it's not sniffing WrestleMania 17 on the tier list, it's safe to say that halfway through, WrestleMania 36 is still miles above rock bottom.

5. Bliss And Cross Become The First Two-Time Women's Tag Team Champions

Well, provided you're willing to pretend that Velvet McIntyre and The Glamour Girls never existed, that is. But when it comes to the modern belts that were commissioned over a year ago, yes, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross are the first two-time holders of the straps, following their victory over The Kabuki Warriors in the pay-per-view opener.

Bliss pinned Kairi Sane to end a 15-minute bout, one of the longer matches on the evening, it turned out. The match is also historic, marking the first time that women worked the opening match of any WrestleMania.

4. Becky Lynch Retains The Raw Women's Championship

Call it the upset of the night for many. The trajectory of the angle seemed to pit Lynch as the Rocky Balboa to Shayna Baszler's Clubber Lang: the popular champion gets a little too full of themselves, buying into their own hype, until the snarling bad ass comes along and humbles them in brutal fashion.

Instead of following that exact Rocky III arc, Lynch managed to turn the Kirifuda Clutch into a pinning combo, eking out the win. They could always get back on track by having this win inflate Lynch's ego even further, before Baszler rips her apart in a rematch, but most had WrestleMania tabbed for the title switch.

3. Ladder Match, Owens Vs. Rollins Kick The Show Into High Gear

After about four matches, WrestleMania 36 was what you'd call "fine". The Women's Tag Title match, Lynch vs. Baszler, Daniel Bryan vs. Sami Zayn - all fine matches. Nothing great, nothing terrible. Once Kofi Kingston, John Morrison, and Jimmy Uso took to the ring, however, the curve was wrecked for the night, as all three men crashed and burned and twisted and contorted in a wild ladder-based stunt show for SmackDown's Tag Team belts.

Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins followed with a match that was pretty solid for a while, but really turned up the heat when Owens refused to accept a DQ win, and the match was restarted, with disqualifications thrown out. Suddenly, we were watching a pretty good WrestleMania, all things considered.

2. Braun Strowman Is The New Universal Champion

The stopwatch clocked this one at two minutes and nine seconds, a match that was literally just the spamming of spears and powerslams. What was once meant to be The Fiend vs. Roman Reigns became Goldberg vs. Braun Strowman, and it resulted in Strowman becoming a triple crown champion, finally winning the big one after a series of his patented slams.

Between Strowman and Jon Moxley, camouflage pants seem to be all the rage for World champions, so we'll see if Brock Lesnar or Drew McIntyre follow that trend. Speaking of, McIntyre would become a triple crown winner as well, if he were to beat Lesnar on Sunday's broadcast.

1. Undertaker Hits 25 Mania Wins In Unusual "Boneyard Match"

Certainly it wasn't as strange or esoteric as one of Matt Hardy's fever dreams come to life, but it was plenty off the beaten path in its own right. Hearses, Metallica, fight sequences out of a Charles Bronson B-movie, an unholy army of Druids, teleportation, Bikertaker kinda reborn - it was definitely a change of pace from textbook wrestling inside an empty gym.

The unconventional Boneyard Match between The Undertaker and AJ Styles was necessary zest on a show needing something very different in its composition. Understandably, it's a polarizing match, much like those Hardy creations, as some will love it because it's so different, and others will hate it because it's so different. It was definitely a unique way for Undertaker to notch that 25th WrestleMania victory.