Welcome to our coverage of WrestleMania 36 Night 2 from the WWE Performance Center.
Immediately following the show, Wai Ting and I will be going LIVE for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café.
RESULTS
*Liv Morgan over Natalya in 6:24
*Charlotte Flair over Rhea Ripley to win the NXT women’s title in 20:29
*Aleister Black over Bobby Lashley in 7:16
*Otis over Dolph Ziggler in 8:10
*Edge over Randy Orton in 36:41 of the Last Man Standing match
*The Street Profits over Angel Garza & Austin Theory in 6:23 to retain the Raw tag titles
*Bayley over Lacey Evans, Sasha Banks, Naomi & Tamina in 19:16 to retain the SmackDown women’s title
*The Fiend pins John Cena in the Firefly Funhouse match
*Drew McIntyre over Brock Lesnar in 4:28 to win the WWE title
The kickoff show begins at 6 pm Eastern and we will have coverage throughout the night.
The kickoff was hosted by Corey Graves and Peter Rosenberg again.
NATALYA VS LIV MORGAN
Tom Phillips is calling this match alone.
There was a lot of talking back-and-forth between them with Natalya egging on Morgan to show her what she’s got and playing the heel.
Natalya hit a discus lariat knocking Morgan off the apron and used a surfboard inside the ring. Morgan fought back and hit a weird version of the Code Breaker that Natalya kicked out from.
Morgan landed a knee strike and then countered a wheelbarrow and they traded roll-ups ending with Morgan catching her for the count.
WINNER: Liv Morgan at 6:24
Natalya’s talent shined through here and Morgan has made noticeable improvement ever since being brought back on television. There was nothing wrong with this in its position on the show.
Dolph Ziggler was leaving a voicemail apologizing to Mandy Rose. Sonya Deville walked in and Rose hasn’t responded to either. They gave a ‘no comment’ to Kayla Braxton.
Corey Graves gave a warning to never mix business with your personal as Rosenberg was speechless and was a funny moment.
Renee Young, Booker T. & Christian previewed Randy Orton vs. Edge.
Once again, Stephanie McMahon opened the show with the exact same message as night one. The opening video was also the exact same from night one.
Rob Gronkowski opened the show and knows about dropping the championship hammer on a Sunday.
RHEA RIPLEY VS CHARLOTTE FLAIR FOR THE NXT WOMEN’S TITLE
Tom Phillips is joined by Byron Saxton.
Ripley was doing her best Amy Poehler impression with the number of times she asked Flair, ‘Really?’
Ripley hit the Riptide in two minutes and Flair kicked out and rolled to the floor.
Ripley was dominating her and mounted Flair’s back and used the body scissors. Flair snapped the leg on the rope to targets the left knee. Flair wrapped the knee around the post until Ripley pulled Flair into the post.
Ripley fought with the injured knee, landed a missile dropkick and got a two-count. Flair chop blocked the knee again but kept kicking away to avoid the figure-four. Ripley applied the standing cloverleaf as Flair posted on her arms and broke free.
Ripley was knocked off the turnbuckle and Flair went for a moonsault but Ripley got her feet up. Flair hit the spear and Ripley kicked out.
It took two attempts but on the second, Flair applied the figure-four and bridged for Figure 8 and Ripley tapped.
WINNER: Charlotte Flair at 20:29 to win the NXT women’s title
I thought this match was great and engaged throughout. This was as good as any of the matches on the first night. It was ambitious with the length and by eighteen minutes, I thought it was ready to wind it down and they did two minutes later.
ALEISTER BLACK VS BOBBY LASHLEY
Black came out in an elaborate outfit with horns on his shoulders. Lashley was in full tights with Lana in his corner and is a brunette, probably for the movie she had been shooting.
Black missed a moonsault off the buckle to the floor and was hit with a belly-to-belly. Lashley was in control for a long time and set for the spear but ran into a knee strike.
Lashley lifted Black and was yelled at by Lana to hit the spear. He went for the spear and ran into a Black Mass and Black won.
WINNER: Aleister Black at 7:16
They are playing up Lashley’s continued frustration with Lana. This was closer to a match from Raw than a big pay-per-view style but the two worked a physical style and better than Lashley has looked in some time but a match designed for Black to get a nice win.
Braxton spoke with Bayley and Sasha Banks and said everyone is trying to put a wedge between them ‘just like the people on Twitter’ and Bayley walked away. Banks was left alone with Braxton and said we would have to wait and see how badly she wants to be SmackDown women’s champion and smiled.
There was a promo for the Money in the Bank event that is being advertised for Sunday, May 10th but didn’t promote a city or venue. It was scheduled for the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore.
Charly Caruso asked Gronkowski about Mojo Rawley stealing the 24/7 title and said he’d like to win that title tonight.
DOLPH ZIGGLER VS OTIS
Sonya Deville was out with Ziggler. There was no Tucker or Mandy Rose.
Ziggler landed a superkick early and Otis fell to the floor and drove him into the post.
Ziggler flew into the corner from a catapult. Otis started firing up and attacked with clotheslines. JBL said Otis is Ivan Putski if he ate Bam Bam Bigelow.
Otis was dominating Ziggler and it was going on for a long time. He went for the caterpillar, but Deville got on the apron and led to Ziggler kicking Otis low.
Mandy Rose came out and attacked Deville. Shew ran in and hit Ziggler with a low blow leading to Otis hitting the caterpillar for the win.
WINNER: Otis at 8:10
Rose hugged Otis and celebrated with him. Otis lifted her and they kissed.
The match was average and was all built around Rose’s appearance and the kiss at the end.
RANDY ORTON VS EDGE IN A LAST MAN STANDING MATCH
Orton’s music played, and he didn’t come out. He was disguised as a cameraman and jumped Edge with an RKO from behind.
The bell rang, and he hit another RKO. Orton attacked him with the camera on the floor and they fought to the backstage area and into the gym equipment area. Orton had a plate and Edge kicked him down and the plate dropped. Edge then leaped on the pull-up bars and launched himself into a seated senton while Orton was in a chair.
Orton was complaining about his elbow as they made their way into the production section and back to the arena portion on the stage.
From there, it was into the boardroom. Edge held onto the chain link fence over the boardroom table and dropped an elbow. Orton was selling his left arm as they brawled into a storage area. Orton stomped Edge’s hand as he had taken over control.
Orton was set up on a table and Edge climbed onto a structure and came off with an elbow drop that broke the table. Orton got to his feet and beat the count. Orton’s shoulder was sliced and bleeding.
Next, they fought onto a pick-up truck, where Orton hit a draping DDT off the roof of it. Edge then climbed onto a production truck and Orton joined him. Orton set up for the punt kick and was stopped with a spear. Both got up, Edge went for another and was caught with an RKO.
Orton brought two chairs on top of the production truck and said, ‘this is it’ and time for him to go back to his girls. Orton lifted the chair and Edge caught him with the arm-triangle and choked Orton unconscious, but Edge stopped the referee from counting.
With Orton out cold on a chair, Edge started getting emotional as he lifted the other chair and hit Orton with the conchairto and the referee counted to ten.
WINNER: Edge at 36:41
From the opening RKO, they had me and I found this super intense and engaging for the first 15-18 minutes. But this was a story of a match that went way too long and should have been edited down given its taped nature.
I think it was a struggle through the 20-30 minute mark and was tough without commentary or a crowd to try something so long.
I liked the ending and they played up the significance of Edge’s actions to stop Orton.
Mojo Rawley was being chased for the 24/7 title as Rob Gronkowski leaped off the perch with a trust fall and pinned Mojo to win the title.
THE STREET PROFITS VS ANGEL GARZA & AUSTIN THEORY FOR THE RAW TAG TITLES
Dawkins was thrown to the floor allowing Garza to superkick him behind the referee’s back.
Ford received the tag and fired up onto Garza and landed a tope con giro on Theory and Dawkins. This was followed by Garza hitting a top rope moonsault to all three on the floor and continued with a quebrada to Ford in the ring for two.
Theory hit Dawkins with a TKO and was broken with Ford’s From the Heavens that allowed Dawkins to roll on top for the pin.
WINNER: The Street Profits at 6:23 to retain the Raw tag titles
It was short and sweet and each got their chance for a spotlight and the standout was Angel Garza, who is a great talent.
Garza and Theory jumped Montez Ford and appeared to set up a feud with Theory remaining with Garza. It ended with the two holding Ford and Zelina Vega attacked Ford prompting Bianca Belair to run in and attack Vega and hit the KOD.
Titus O’Neil took over as the host after Gronkowski left with the 24/7 title.
BAYLEY VS SASHA BANKS VS LACEY EVANS VS NAOMI VS TAMINA FOR IN AN ELIMINATION MATCH FOR THE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S TITLE
The four ganged up on Tamina at the start of the match and she powered her way free. Tamina went to the floor and it turned into a tag match with Bayley & Banks against Evans & Naomi and a lot of tandem spots.
Bayley and Banks kept saving each other from harm.
Tamina, Banks, and Naomi were alone, and they referenced Team BAD and did the unity sign followed by Tamina hitting Banks with a superkick. Banks came back with a 619 on Tamina, Bayley hit her with an elbow, Banks with a frog splash, Evans with a moonsault off the top, and a split-legged moonsault by Naomi and they all jumped on top to pin Tamina.
Bayley and Banks attacked Naomi in the corner. Naomi fought back and hit the Rear View on Banks and applied the crucifix-style submission that Bayley broke up.
Bank Statement was applied to Naomi and she tapped out.
Evans was hurt on the floor and struggled back to the ring where Bayley and Banks attacked.
Bayley went for a running knee to Evans in the corner, missed and nailed Banks by mistake. Bayley attacked Evans until Banks grabbed Bayley and was upset.
Bayley shoved Banks away as Evans came at them. She ended up hitting Banks with the Woman’s Right to eliminate her while Bayley just watched.
Evans was driven into the post shoulder first. Bayley attacked the shoulder and then tied Evans’ right arm to the turnbuckle. Evans untied herself and fought back, she got on the turnbuckle, made a salute and hit the twisting moonsault that Bayley kicked out from.
She was teasing the Woman’s Right when Banks returned and hit Evans with the backstabber. Bayley hit the one-percenter and pinned Evans.
WINNER: Bayley at 19:16 to retain the SmackDown women’s title
Banks started at the title before wrapping it around Bayley’s waist and holding her arm up. They set up a lot for the future between Bayley and Banks and highlighted the other three in the match.
The match was good just long for this late in the show and there was a lull coming off the last man standing match.
JOHN CENA VS BRAY WYATT IN THE FIREFLY FUNHOUSE MATCH
Cena entered the Performance Center and then the video cut with old WrestleMania clips with Vince McMahon and Gene Okerlund and then transitioned to Bray Wyatt in the Firefly Funhouse.
Bray says Cena is about to face his most dangerous opponent ‘yourself’. Cena then appeared on the set and walked into the door.
The Vince McMahon puppet appeared asking Cena if he had enough ruthless aggression.
Bray Wyatt recreated Kurt Angle’s promo from 2002 and his open challenge.
Present-day Cena came out in his 2002 trunks and redid the segment. Bray calls this embarrassing and Cena’s biggest failure and how Cena almost got fired.
The Saturday Night’s Main Event began playing followed by Bray behind the blue colored steel cage cutting a promo. Cena played ‘Johnny Large Meat’ lifting barbells and doing campy promos out of Southpaw Regional Wrestling.
Cena was thrown out of the shot and into his Doctor of Thuganomics character. Cena can only speak in rhyme as they put sound effects of crickets over it. He runs down Bray with his rap.
Bray says John is a bully and a horrible person who takes the weaknesses of others and turns them into jokes. He does anything for fame. Cena came back with more lame rhymes, but they were designed that way.
Bray nailed him with a chain, and we cut to Bray Wyatt in his Wyatt Family persona. He said the people needed him in 2014 and Cena was supposed to be a man of the people and was his grandest failure losing to Cena. They redid the chair spot from that match, but Bray disappeared when he swung the chair.
Bray morphs into Eric Bischoff and introduces John Cena, who came out as part of the N.W.O. acting like Hulk Hogan. Vince yelled, ‘this is good shit’.
The Fiend attacked and hit Sister Abigail while playing John Cena’s words from SmackDown against him putting an end to the most overhyped and overprivileged star in WWE history and he pinned Cena.
They cut to Titus O’Neil, who was stunned.
BROCK LESNAR VS DREW McINTYRE FOR THE WWE TITLE
McIntyre hit the Claymore in the first twenty seconds and Lesnar kicked out.
He set up for another and Lesnar avoided it and started hitting German suplexes. He hit the F-5 and McIntyre kicked out at one.
Lesnar hit another F-5 and McIntyre kicked out at two. Then, he hits a third and McIntyre kicked out again. Paul Heyman says he’s good but to keep hitting him with it all night long.
McIntyre avoided a fourth and landed a Claymore, he came out of the corner with a third Claymore and hit a fourth to win the match and the title.
WINNER: Drew McIntyre at 4:28 to win the WWE title
