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From Braun Strowman defeating Goldberg for the Universal Championship to one of the most unique WrestleMania matches featuring AJ Styles and The Undertaker, Night 1 of WrestleMania 36 featured several contrasting moments.
As an overall event, Night 1 was a mixed bag of moments from start-to-finish. The former half of the Pay-Per-View lacked the most important aspects of what makes WrestleMania special in the first place.
However, the event did pick up in quality from the Triple Threat Ladder match onwards.
What were your thoughts on WrestleMania 36 Night 1? Let us know your opinions in the comments section below.
Here are the five biggest news stories from WrestleMania 36 Night 1 (April 4, 2020).
#5: Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross defeated The Kabuki Warriors to become two-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champions
The Women's Tag Team Championships had been relegated to nothing more than background props in the past few months.
However, WWE invested some time into building a program surrounding the former champions (The Kabuki Warriors) as WrestleMania Season arrived this year.
Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross faced Asuka & Kairi Sane to kick-off Night 1 of WrestleMania 36. The match itself was a decent contest that could have benefited from the presence of a live crowd.
The same can be said for most of the matches that occurred last night, but the women involved did a fine job under the circumstances.
The Goddess delivered a Twisted Bliss to capture the titles for her team.
As good as The Kabuki Warriors work together, their title reign didn't do any wonders for the Women's Tag Team Championships in the end.
Hopefully, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross can bring the right amount of flair needed to elevate the Women's Tag Team Division as a whole.
#4: John Morrison, Kofi Kingston, and Jimmy Uso put on a creative Triple Threat Ladder Match together
The SmackDown Tag Team Championship scenario only became apparent during the last two weeks heading into WrestleMania 36. Their go-home segment was pretty straightforward as well.
But even with an average buildup, we all knew that The Usos and The New Day always put on a great matchup together. The Miz had to pull out of this contest, which meant that a Triple Threat Match between each team member would determine the fate of the SmackDown Tag Team Titles.
John Morrison's presence elevated the quality of this match to a great extent.
The Prince of Parkour put on some of the most creative spots of the night, and the finish itself was quite creatively executed when you think about it.
All three men found themselves high above the ring together on two ladders, and this led to a tug of war for the titles between all parties involved. John Morrison pulled the titles for an accidental victory when Kofi and Jimmy headbutted him at the same time.
As good as this was, a live crowd would have been amazed during some of the bigger spots of this match.
#3: Kevin Owens pulled off Night One's biggest spot inside the Performance Center
For Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins, the Road to WrestleMania 36 kicked into high gear just a few weeks ago.
Both men have been involved in multi-man rivalries since the past year, but their story lacked a personal nature to it. That changed when Owens and Rollins started cutting lengthy, passionate promos against each other during WWE's recent empty PC shows.
Out of every match featured on the WrestleMania card this year, it made perfect sense for this bout to occur inside the Performance Center.
Last night, both Superstars battled towards a rather disappointing disqualification finish. But that finish was only a ploy to restart the whole match under No Disqualification rules.
This led to the most exhilarating spot inside the Performance Center, where Owens would jump off the WrestleMania logo and crash through Seth Rollins on the announcer's desk.
Kevin Owens earned a WrestleMania victory and a WrestleMania moment. He also shattered The Monday Night Messiah's perfect image of himself on the Showcase of Immortals, which should be a reasonable conclusion to this long-running rivalry.
#2: Braun Strowman became the new Universal Champion in an unexpected victory against Goldberg
Roman Reigns winning the Universal Title from Goldberg seemed to be the original plan heading into WrestleMania 36.
However, plans changed when Reigns had to pull out of the event amidst a global pandemic.
Braun Strowman was inserted into a prime slot against Goldberg at The Grandest Stage of Them All. Remember, this bout never had any buildup whatsoever, so it became natural to assume that Goldberg would retain the Universal Title after all.
In a battle of finishers, The Monster Among Men picked up a surprise victory against the clear favorite, Goldberg (judging by recent booking). The former champion wrestles on a part-time basis, and it may have been possible that WrestleMania 36 had to be the last possible appearance for Goldberg this time around.
That way, he would have dropped the title no matter what happened. Strowman just happened to be the lucky Superstar in this case.
In the end, we can finally look forward to another Strowman-Reigns feud, and with all options considered, it was a sensible decision to get the title off a part-timer at the Showcase of The Immortals.
#1: The Undertaker "buried" AJ Styles in one of the best WrestleMania main-events of all time
The internet is buzzing with Night One's main-event classic between The Undertaker and AJ Styles.
I love Cinema, Pro-Wrestling & Metallica. So the Boneyard Match had to be the perfect recipe for success for fans like me.
"Cinematic Wrestling" has to be the fastest-growing category of Wrestling Matches nowadays. Matt Hardy pushed this concept in front of a mainstream audience a few years ago. And, no one would have predicted that fans would get to witness a match of cinematic proportions at a showcase like WrestleMania.
The production team led an amazing effort to make this look as polished as possible.
If you haven't seen it yet, then this is the perfect opportunity to do so. There are too many spots to break-down in one slide, but it looks like The Undertaker is now the coolest he has ever been in years.
AJ Styles also got to be a part of something completely different from a traditional, in-ring match.
Although Night Two sounds more exciting on paper than Night One, it will be hard to top this main event in a few hours from now. More importantly, I sincerely hope that WWE has put the same quality of production effort in Bray Wyatt and John Cena's highly-anticipated Firefly Fun House Match.
