10 Fascinating WWE WrestleMania 36 Facts

1. Who Needs Epic World Championship Matches?

Braun Strowman Goldberg
WWE.com

WWE made championship history at WrestleMania 36. Never before in the history of the Show of Shows had the two shortest matches been the two male world title bouts, but that is exactly what the premier professional wrestling promotion on God's green Earth achieved in 2020. Braun Strowman beat Goldberg in two minutes and 10 seconds, while Drew McIntyre defeated Brock Lesnar in four minutes and 35 seconds. That all adds up to six minutes and 45 seconds worth of world championship competition.

Considering the names involved, six minutes and 35 seconds is a real achievement. Goldberg shouldn't have been anywhere near a ring in 2020, while Brock Lesnar has developed into the sort of wrestler who can only deal with short stories and novellas. Braun Strowman is Braun Strowman. Drew McIntyre is an elite-level pro wrestler, but nobody wants to see him go 15 minutes with Braun or Goldberg. With all that in mind, the short match times were the right way to go.

Still, the combined length of two world title matches at WrestleMania amounted to less than the entire running time of a throwaway match between Lashley and Aleister Black (remember that guy?), while only slightly beating out the dark match between Liv Morgan and Natalya. Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena went twice as long, and that was essentially a video package.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.