WWE WrestleMania 36 Results: The 5 Biggest Takeaways From A Memorable Night One

WWEexperienced plenty of firsts on night one of WrestleMania 36, including the first-ever two-day Mania and the first pay-per-view to air without any live audience, and boy oh boy, was it a memorable show.

There will be more to come tomorrow when Drew McIntyre vs. Brock Lesnar, Edge vs. Randy Orton, and John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt cap off the two-day extravaganza, but first half of the historic event was highlighted by an unforgettable Hollywood-style match between The Undertaker and Styles as well as Braun Strowman’s upset win over Goldberg. All of those aforementioned superstars—and the remainder of the performers on the show—had the very tough task of not being able to feel the emotions of a live crowd, but WWE is hoping that the show was of good enough quality to prevent its plummeting WWE Network subscriber count from tanking even further.

With WWE already missing out on $20 million-plus in revenue after deciding to move the show to the Performance Center rather than postpone it, there was a world of pressure on these superstars to deliver a memorable show that draws in fans to the Network. Did they accomplish that goal?

Well, let’s just say this: The show won’t soon be forgotten. Here are five huge takeaways from WrestleMania 36 Night One.

MORE FROM FORBESWWE WrestleMania 36 Results: The Undertaker Beats AJ Styles, Proves Why He Is So Important To WWEBy Blake Oestriecher

Daniel Bryan’s Immediate Future Is Unclear

Daniel Bryan recently revealed that his WWE contract is expiring soon and he doesn’t plan on being a full-time wrestler anymore.

That may explain why Bryan seems to have taken a noticeable dip down the card as of late, having fallen from being WWE Champion a year ago to losing an Intercontinental title match at this year’s WrestleMania. WWE is notorious for scaling back on the push of stars who have unclear futures with the company, and though it remains a long shot that Bryan chooses to leave WWE—whether for AEW or elsewhere—it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see Bryan remain stuck where he is in a rather unexciting midcard feud for the foreseeable future.

Bryan may be looking for a lucrative and favorable part-time deal similar to that of Edge, but it remains to be seen if WWE will be willing to give him that. If not, things could get very interesting very quickly for arguably the best all-around performer in WWE, especially following his WrestleMania loss to Sami Zayn.

Seth Rollins Vs. Kevin Owens May Be Done

The match between Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens was one of the few WrestleMania bouts that didn’t have an obvious winner, as a case could have been made for either star walking away with the victory.

As it turns out, Owens got the big “W” over his longtime nemesis, which makes sense given speculation that Rollins could be taking a hiatus from WWE programming while Owens badly needed a marquee victory. Rollins was, at one point, apparently planned to be one of perhaps-soon-to-be-new WWE Champion Drew McIntyre’s top contenders at some point within the next few months, but that massive bump he took from Owens in the GIF above—combined with his loss to Owens—may very well have been a way to end this feud once and for all.

The red brand has revolved heavily around Rollins for half a decade, and his character could benefit from a break that allows him to return re-energized and reinvigorated. Likewise, Owens now finds himself back on track following one of the biggest victories of his career, one that sure felt like a “blowoff” to his long-running rivalry with Rollins. For now, it’s best for Owens to move on to a new feud while Rollins takes some time away to rest and recharge.

The Undertaker Won’t Be Retiring

Ever since The Undertaker appeared to (but ultimately didn’t) retire when he lost to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 33, fans have been wondering when he’d hang up the boots for good, especially after his awful Super ShowDown 2019 match against Goldberg.

But Undertaker is making big money to wrestle a very limited schedule and has looked quite dominant in all of his recent matches, where he’s defeated stars like Goldberg, Drew McIntyre, Shane McMahon and now AJ Styles, who he defeated at WrestleMania 36 in one of the most unique matches ever, a cinematized “Boneyard” match that is the talk of the pro wrestling world. Although “The Deadman” of old, the five-star classic machine, is officially a thing of the past, Taker put on an unforgettable showing against Styles on “The Grandest Stage of Them All” and picked up the victory (we think?), two surefire signs that he isn’t going to call it quits anytime soon.

When it comes to “The Phenom,” he’s likely going to wrestle as long as his body will allow it because he’s paid so handsomely to do so and is still booked as perhaps the most dominant superstar in the company. At this point, any chatter of Taker retiring should be put to rest as there are no real indications that he is even considering not wrestling again, especially after his epic “match” against Styles that exemplified why he’s still one of WWE’s most popular stars.

That Massive Push For Shayna Baszler May Not Happen

The moment many Becky Lynch fans have been dreading isn’t here yet: “The Man” is still Raw Women’s Champion after she surprisingly defeated Shayna Baszler at WrestleMania 36.

There has long been uncertainty regarding Baszler’s pushed due to reported differences in regards to how she’s perceived by Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman, but with the latter reportedly being a huge fan of the former UFC star and the mastermind behind her dominant booking at Elimination Chamber, it appeared that WWE was going to go all in on her push with a Raw Women’s title victory at WrestleMania 36. Well, maybe not. Perhaps because McMahon hasn’t been thrilled with Baszler in the past, he made the very questionable decision to have her lose to Lynch at the biggest how of the year.

The fact that Baszler lost that match and her opportunity to end Lynch’s historic year-long title reign just goes to show you that WWE is still unsure about what it has in the former NXT Women’s Champion. Before Baszler’s promotion to Raw, she was highly coveted by main roster officials, but she’s been criticized for lacking charisma and supposedly being “boring” in the ring, which may have played a role in her shocking WrestleMania loss.

While Baszler has shown during her feud with Lynch that she’s a fantastic heel and a great in-ring performer, that may not be enough to prevent her from being the latest NXT stalwart to fall through the cracks on the main roster.

The Universal Title Picture Is Fuzzy

Roman Reigns was probably going to defeat the well-paid Goldberg to win the Universal title at WrestleMania 36 until he pulled himself from the show due to concerns about COVID-19.

So, Braun Strowman was chosen as the last-second replacement for Reigns, and to the surprise of next to many, he quickly and soundly defeated Goldberg at WrestleMania 36. Now, the question remains: What’s next for the Universal title? Given the uncertainty regarding WWE’s TV tapings and its ability to hold live events and pay-per-views at any point in the foreseeable future, it isn’t at all clear what lies ahead for the Universal Championship given that Goldberg was widely expected to drop the title to Reigns had that match taken place but wound up losing it to Strowman instead.

Goldberg is such a limited performer that he didn’t need to have a lengthy Universal Championship reign, but the same could be said of Strowman. Plus, with no indications regarding when Reigns will be able to wrestle again, that means we may be a ways off from getting that reincarnated feud between Strowman and Reigns. In addition, there aren’t any challengers on SmackDown who’ve been built up to be a Universal title contender, which makes you wonder: Is the already messy creative disaster in WWE getting even messier?