9 Match Star Ratings For WWE WrestleMania 36 (Night Two)
8. Rhea Ripley Vs. Charlotte Flair - NXT Women's Championship Match
A match worked for its own context, as opposed to the peculiar and farcical misfires that made out like they were in a packed stadium, this was a damn good and thoroughly immersive effort, which excused the sheer amount of times the words "deep" and "waters" were uttered throughout.
This was all the more impressive because it was a pure wrestling match, and not a heightened cinematic experience. Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley proved that it can be done in WWE, even if the forced trash-talk early compromised the tone.
The match was built around Flair using her viciousness and experience to decimate Ripley's knee, and it was an intelligent choice. It felt like a strategy deployed in a fight, striking the only viable tone for the occasion, but not every overtone of performance was stripped away. In another astute move, Ripley sold that knee - convincingly - with relentless, tortured howls. Perhaps the awful experience endured by Tegan Nox informed this decision. Her career almost ended to stunned, saddened silence. Her agony echoed between the Full Sail walls.
Ripley's screams worked to convince the at-home audience that she was in similar peril, and her comebacks felt earned with a prodigious sense of timing. This ruled.
Once they stopped talking.
Star Rating: ★★★¾