5 Baffling booking decisions from WrestleMania 36 - 7-time world champion turns heel, Big issue with Edge vs Orton?

WrestleMania 36 took place over two nights and mostly from the WWE Performance Center thanks to the Coronavirus. However, that show itself was very good overall despite some baffling booking decisions we will now look into.

We look at two of the women's title matches - Ripley vs Flair as well as Lynch vs Baszler. I'll also take a look at why I feel that Edge versus Orton was a disappointing match despite being one of the most hotly anticipated matches from the show.

We also take a look at a WWE legend challenging the new WWE Champion in a dark match.

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#5 The finish of the SmackDown tag title match

The SmackDown Tag-Team Championship match ended up being a singles match after The Miz had to pull out of the match. It ended up being John Morrison defending the Tag titles against Jimmy Uso and Kofi Kingston in a ladder match. The match itself was incredible with all three men pulling out all the stops to give fans a great match. I'd go as far as to say it was one of the best matches over both days this year.

However, I didn't like the finish of the match. The finish saw all three men on two ladders, fighting over the suspended belts. Morrison ended up falling off the ladder with the belts in his hands, leaving the babyfaces on the top of the ladder looking on in shock.

In my opinion, the finish of the match could have been a lot better, and the match deserved it. It was great action from start to finish. The finish ended up making the babyfaces look weak as they stood on the ladders after losing the match by what was essentially a fluke. It didn't make Morrison look any stronger either.

#4 Big Show challenges Drew McIntyre in a dark match after WrestleMania main event

We move on to something some fans reading this might find a little nitpicky on my part. That has to do with the dark match after WrestleMania 36 with new WWE Champion Drew McIntyre defending his title against WWE legend, The Big Show.

The segment was shown on last night’s episode of RAW and here’s how it played out. McIntyre was on the podium cutting a promo after his win when Big Show came out. To almost no one’s surprise, Big Show turned heel once again, leading to a title match with McIntyre. McIntyre promptly put away Big Show to retain his title.

Now, let’s get to why I had a problem with this. In my opinion, having McIntyre defend his title again right after vanquishing ‘The Beast’ Brock Lesnar, plays down the magnitude of his win. Secondly, WWE have a number of talented workers backstage, which begs the question as to why Big Show was the one to face McIntyre.

#3 Becky Lynch retaining her title

Day 1 of WrestleMania saw the RAW Women’s Championship match. RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch defended her title against former NXT Champion Shayna Baszler. Lynch is one of the top stars in WWE’s current era and after holding the title for almost a year, was expected to drop it to Baszler. However, that did not happen and Lynch retained her title.

Baszler was booked as a killer in NXT and even on the main roster for the most part, despite failing to win the women’s Royal Rumble match. Losing to Becky Lynch will definitely derail the momentum Shayna Baszler had, especially because we don’t know when things can return to normal and when Baszler will be able to challenge Lynch again.

Lynch main-evented WrestleMania last year and is a made woman. She didn’t need the win here, while Baszler did, to cement her as the destructive force she can be in the eyes of more casual fans. Why did this happen? There were some reports last week that stated that Vince McMahon wasn’t particularly impressed by Baszler despite her massive push.

#2 Rhea Ripley losing to Charlotte Flair

My problem with Rhea Ripley losing to Charlotte Flair is similar to the one I had with Lynch beating Baszler. Charlotte Flair is one of the most successful women in the history of WWE and there’s no doubt that she’s a fantastic wrestler.

However, like Becky Lynch, Charlotte is already a star in the eyes of WWE fans and this was the chance for WWE to build another new star in Rhea Ripley. Ripley has been a dominant force as NXT Women’s Champion and WrestleMania was the chance to create another star. The match itself was excellent, as Charlotte and Ripley threw everything they had plus the kitchen sink at each other.

I get why WWE did it. They want Charlotte Flair back on NXT to help in the ratings war with AEW Dynamite. However, as Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer stated, there is a better way of doing this. Charlotte could have lost and after what happened at Survivor Series and now at Mania, it would make sense for her to get obsessed with beating Ripley and following her down to the black and yellow brand.

#1 Edge and Randy Orton should NOT have gone 36 minutes

Edge versus Randy Orton was the hottest feud heading into WrestleMania 36. Fans expected the last man standing match to be one of the best of the night but it ended up to be disappointing.

The main reason for this was that the match was just too long. The match ended up going for 36 minutes which is the second longest match in the history of WrestleMania. The only match longer than this was the Iron Man match between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart at WrestleMania 12 which went over an hour because it was an Iron Man match.

Edge vs Orton started off decently enough but it ground to a screeching halt as they brawled across the PC. There was too much downtime between moves and fans not being there to react definitely did not help. However, despite what I said, the finish of the match was booked to perfection with Edge hitting Orton with the conchairto. This match could have been brilliant if it was shorter, perhaps closer to 20 mins.