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WrestleMania 36 was a historic event as WWE presented its biggest show of the year over two nights and from three different locations. The show was the first to be presented in front of an empty arena and was also the first to be pre-recorded.
Even though WrestleMania wasn't able to be presented in front of 70,000 fans inside the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, WWE still put on a show that was full of surprises and swerves. It was a night that the WWE Universe needed, after what has been a tough month for fans around the world.
Whilst many fans are aware that this weekend made history in several ways, here are some interesting stats and facts coming out of the show that many fans may not have noticed.
#5. Charlotte Flair becomes only the second female wrestler to win a Championship on her birthday
Of course, WrestleMania was pre-recorded, but Charlotte Flair still lifted the NXT Women's Championship on April 5th, which also happened to be her 34th birthday. The former Women's Champion battled Rhea Ripley in the curtain-raiser for the second night of WrestleMania, and was able to come out on top.
Ripley tapped out to The Figure 8 to allow Flair to become just the second woman to hold the NXT Women's Championship on two separate occasions, and allowing her to pick up her 12th Championship in WWE.
The only other female wrestler in WWE history who was able to win a Championship on her Birthday was Paige, who was given the opportunity when she defeated AJ Lee at SummerSlam back in 2014. The show was streamed live on August 17th, which was also the British star's 22nd birthday.
Male superstars who have won Championships on their birthday include The Big Show in 2010, as well as Sheamus and Rusev in 2018. The Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania also began on his birthday back at WrestleMania 7.
#4. Michael Cole makes history behind the desk
Whilst all eyes were on the action in the ring as part of WrestleMania this past weekend, one man who was in the background throughout the show was broadcast legend Michael Cole. The play-by-play commentator has been behind the announcers' desk for around two decades now, and last night at WrestleMania, he was able to make history himself.
Michael Cole provided play-by-play for WrestleMania this past weekend for the 19th time, which is the most of any other English play-caller in WWE history. He was joined by JBL on the night, as the two stars commentated on SmackDown's matches, whilst Tom Phillips and Byron Saxton covered Monday Night RAW.
The only other star who has managed to broadcast at more WrestleMania events than Michael Cole is WWE Hall of Famer Jerry 'The King' Lawler, but Lawler works as a color commentator, which means that he's considered to be providing something completely different to the show.
Carlos Cabrera has provided play by play commentary for 25 different WrestleMania events in Spanish, which is more than anyone else in WWE history.
#3. Becky Lynch makes history
Over the past year, this statement has been used more times than ever before regarding The Man, and once again she was able to make WrestleMania count when she reversed the Kirofuda Clutch into a pinning predicament.
Lynch managed to retain the Raw Women's Championship in her match against Shayna Baszler, more than a year after she was able to defeat Ronda Rousey to lift that Championship. Whilst Lynch won both the SmackDown and RAW Women's Championships as part of the match at WrestleMania 35, she has only managed to keep hold of the red brand's title.
Saturday night's Championship win for Lynch makes her the first woman to win a Championship at WrestleMania and go on to defend the same title at the next WrestleMania event. Trish Stratus was able to do a version of this when she won the Women's Championship at WrestleMania 19, but she didn't defend the Championship until WrestleMania 21.
Lynch is the first woman to do it as part of a consecutive Championship reign.
#2. Goldberg's Hall of Fame Championship defense
Goldberg defended the Universal Championship against Braun Strowman as part of the first night of action at this year's WrestleMania, and as ever, it was a short match that saw The Monster Among Men become the eighth Universal Champion in its short history.
This was the shortest Universal Championship match in WrestleMania history, but the match itself was able to make history for another reason, since Goldberg became the first-ever WWE Hall of Famer to defend a Championship at WrestleMania.
This record can be scoped out even further, since he's the first WWE Hall of Famer to ever defend a World Championship, which is a fantastic record for Goldberg to have at this point in his career.
Strowman was a late addition to the match, and was able to put in an impressive performance against the former WCW star, before he went on to lift his first World Championship and his second title at WrestleMania. His first title came when he partnered Nicholas to win the RAW Tag Team Championships from The Bar back at WrestleMania 34.
#1. Edge and Randy Orton go the distance
One of the most personal matches on last night's card came in the form of a Last Man Standing match between Edge and Randy Orton. The former Rated RKO teammates were on opposite sides of the ring after The Viper decided it was his duty to end The Rated R Superstar's comeback in order to save him from any more heartache.
In his mind, Orton thought that he was protecting Edge, but obviously this wasn't the case, and after he victimized his wife Beth Phoenix, Edge decided to take the fight to his former friend. Last night's match saw the two men battle it out around the ring, before the climax of the bout saw Edge finally deliver a Con-Chair-To to Orton to bring the story full circle.
The two men battled for almost 40 minutes last night, with their actual timing coming in at 36:35, which means that this is the second-longest match in WrestleMania history. The bout just beat WrestleMania 2000's main event by seven seconds, but is still more than half an hour shy of the record, which is the Ironman match from WrestleMania 12 that clocked a time of 1:01:53.
