WWE WrestleMania 36 ended what will go down as the most unique, bizarre, depressing and at-times elating WrestleMania weekends in history.

John Cena and Bray Wyatt offered a formidable follow-up to the universally praised Boneyard Match, with a zany montage of a match that ended with The Fiend pinning John Cena and Bray Wyatt counting the three. As polarizing as the match will be, it’s further evidence that cinematic wrestling remains far more compelling than live wrestling at the moment.

Especially with the right stars involved.

WrestleMania was headlined by a hard-hitting main event between Drew McIntyre and Brock Lesnar. McIntyre defeated The Beast in a very proud, quiet signoff of a COVID-19-impacted WrestleMania.

Last week’s broadcast of WWE Raw drew the second-lowest non-holiday viewership in history with just 1.924 million viewers. SmackDown didn’t fare much better historically, with just 2.367 million viewers.

WWE Raw Viewership—Last Five Weeks

• March 30, 2020—1.924 million viewers
• March 23, 2020—2.006 million viewers
• March 16, 2020—2.335 million viewers
• March 9, 2020—2.163 million viewers
• March 2, 2020—2.256 million viewers

WWE Friday Night SmackDown Viewership—Last Five Weeks

• March 27, 2020—2.367 million viewers
• March 20, 2020—2.569 million viewers
• March 13, 2020—2.588 million viewers
• March 6, 2020—2.456 million viewers
• February 28, 2020—2.687 million viewers

WWE WrestleMania 36 Key Competition

• Coronavirus (COVID-19) Mainstream News Coverage

From the Forbes WWE Vault

WWE Total YouTube Viewership for WWE Raw this Past Monday

4,254,890 views (Down from 6,229,786)

• Most-Viewed: Shayna Baszler Slams Becky Lynch Head-First into the Announce Table (963,681 views) 
• Least-Viewed: Aleister Black vs. Jason Code (190,786 views)
• Median Viewership: 442,061

WWE Total YouTube Viewership for WWE Friday Night SmackDown 

2,992,582 views (Down from 3,815,342)

• Most-Viewed: Otis Finally Hears the Truth on Valentine’s Day (1,165,230 views) 
• Least-Viewed: Ziggler Heartlessly Attacks Tucker Ahead of WrestleMania Clash with Otis (151,499 views)
• Median Viewership: 251,693

WWE WrestleMania 36, Night 2: Sunday, April 5, 2020

Opening Segment with WrestleMania Host Rob Gronkowski

WrestleMania’s first 10 minutes were almost identical to Night 1’s first ten minutes, right down to Rob Gronkowski’s goofy jacket.

The Jack Sparrow-like narrator telling viewers to “literally forget everything you know” was a very on brand mandate from WWE.

Charlotte Flair def. Rhea Ripley—NXT Women’s Championship

I predicted Dolph Ziggler vs. Otis would open Night 2 of WrestleMania 36. So much for that.

Early in the match, Charlotte Flair kicked out of Rhea Ripley’s Riptide finisher, which many main roster viewers are seeing for the first time and now consider it anything but a finisher.

Rhea Ripley’s voice is certain to be raspy tomorrow as she bellowed throughout the match while selling her left knee.

The trash talk in this match made me realize that this storyline shares similarities to the Seth Owens-Kevin Owens feud where each of them lay claim to building the Performance Center. This feud takes “Performance Center” and replaces it with “NXT.”

This match really put over the possibility of Rhea Ripley being unable to continue due to a knee injury and it only added to an already good match.

Aleister Black def. Bobby Lashley

Bobby Lashley joins the exclusive lineage of WWE Superstars who switched to tights at WrestleMania.

These two worked their butts off. This match made me that much certain that Aleister Black’s potential as a credible, babyface world champion.

Lana decided to assume a coaching role toward the end of this match and Coach Lana is now 0-1.

Otis def. Dolph Ziggler

Sonya Deville used her newfound infamy to score a WrestleMania entrance by accompanying Dolph Ziggler to the ring, thereby securing a WrestleMania bonus. Good on her.

Boy did this feud, and this match, deserve a crowd.

Edge def. Randy Orton—Last Man Standing Match

The lack of a crowd allowed viewers to hear Randy Orton whisper “stay down,” which was the exact type of savagery this match called for.

This match should double as WWE’s recruitment video for the Performance Center.

This match featured Randy Orton trying to hang Edge with weight equipment which is sure to rile up Twitter.

Rob Gronkowski wins WWE 24/7 Championship

Rob Gronkowski makes so much sense as 24/7 champion. Hopefully he’s on SportsCenter every week. .

The lineage of the 24/7 Championship is currently dominated by former NFL athletes.

The Street Profits def. Angel Garza and Austin Theory—WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

This match was marred by nonstop shout outs of “WrestleMania!!” by both teams.

The best part about this match was Bianca Belair’s surprise appearance. Hopefully she doesn’t leave NXT without winning that title.

Bayley def. Sasha Banks, Lacey Evans, Tamina and Naomi—Fatal 5-Way for WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship

Tamina was built into Godzilla for weeks only to suffer the first pinfall loss of this match. To be fair, WWE protected her in defeat.

Tamina, Naomi and Sasha Banks performed their “Unity” handshake and I didn’t hear one reference to Team B.A.D.

As much as WWE aggressively hinted toward a Sasha Banks-Bayley split, Bayley accidentally kneeing Sasha still came out of nowhere—and was a satisfying plot twist.

Sasha Banks sold the hell out of that Woman’s Right from Lacey Evans by laying on the mat for the remainder of this match.

WWE will have a lot of great footage to build to another epic Bayley vs. Sasha Banks showdown. Hopefully WWE will not give the match away until there’s a crowd.

“The Fiend” Bray Wyatt def. John Cena (?)—Firefly Fun House Match

Given the fact that “Bray Wyatt” was trending last night after. the cinematic Boneyard Match, I’m sure many were disappointed to see John Cena’s entrance take place inside the Performance Center.

This match lived up to the Boneyard Match hype the moment John Cena called back to his WWE debut, which was about 30 seconds into the match.

The Fiend technically this match. But after watching that, I feel like I won in life. This will be a polarizing match and I will spend the rest of eternity defending it.

Drew McIntyre def. Brock Lesnar—WWE Championship

This match deftly balanced the Claymore Kick and the F-5.

Drew McIntyre kicking out of the F-5 at one popped millions of people watching at home.

Paul Heyman did not disappoint as a ringside trash-talker with a hot mic.

This is one of those rare moments in wrestling where you can say “good for Drew” and “poor Drew” in the same sentence.