WrestleMania 36: Thank you, WWE, for a weekend of distraction

If WrestleMania 36 highlighted anything, it’s why we should appreciate the staff and roster of WWE for regularly risking their lives, especially in troubling times like these.

It’s no secret that even prior to the events of WrestleMania 36, WWE Superstars (and frankly, wrestlers in general all around the world) risk their health and safety, putting their bodies on the line for our enjoyment every week, but that fact was never so heightened until these recent events.

Such events almost go without saying at this point, but obviously, the events I’m referencing relate to the novel coronavirus outbreak. An outbreak that we’re all certainly dealing with the best ways we can, but ultimately, we’re all struggling and hurting in one way or another.

Many of us are scared, many of us are anxious, many of us are going through unsuromountable stress and many of us are dying. And it all started to kick into high gear mere weeks before WrestleMania 36.

As several states and even entire countries went into lockdown and just about every sports spectacle was being cancelled before our eyes, WWE made the bold decision to carry on the show as planned.

Obviously, this was a risky decision in every sense of the word. Risky in the potential backlash from the public eye and, most importantly, risky for the wrestlers and staff involved. The past few weeks, we watched as several changes were made to accomadate such risks.

Most notably, Mania was made into a two night event to minimize the number of staff/wrestlers on hand. Both shows were relocated from the massive, packed Raymond James Stadium to the Performance Center with no crowd. Meanwhile, critics (myself being one of them) shook their fingers at WWE for risking their staff’s health and blindly ignoring social distancing rules.

All things considered, the closer we got to the event, WrestleMania just didn’t feel like WrestleMania and if it did, more pressing matters were on our minds than wrestling heading into the weekend.

But then the weekend came and WrestleMania provided a much needed distraction for all of us.

For three hours a night, suddenly, our minds stopped being so frantic and the craziness of the world wasn’t planted as nerve wrackingly strong as it’s been in our brains the past few weeks. WrestleMania was, well, WrestleMania, and it lived up to its name.

Even without a crowd, both shows bursted with memorable moments packed with emotion from start to finish. Of course, it wasn’t perfect. Some fans will take umbrage with some finishes and some matches suffered without a crowd reaction, but for the most part, under these circumstances especially, everything was so worthwhile.

For many of us, we jumped to our feet from our living rooms at the sight of Otis finally getting the girl. We cried tears of joy for Drew McIntyre as he pressed one hand to the camera, while his newfound WWE Championship laid in the other. And don’t even get me started on the ludicrous amazingness that was both the Boneyard Match and the Fun House match.

Moments like these are moments I am going to cherish for a long time, especially while in quarantine. Self isolation hasn’t been the easiest thing for any of us, but moments like these in front of our television/laptop screens, especially with a sufficient lack of content elsewhere, these are worthwhile moments that make quarantine a little more tolerable. If only for a moment.

Such moments are why we fell in love with wrestling to begin with.

I cannot extend my thanks enough to every single wrestler, referee, camerman, stagehand, production crew member, producer, booker, writer, editor, sound operator, catering staff … EVERYONE who played a part in making WrestleMania possible.

Many wrestlers laid it in with their performances as if there was still a packed crowd of 80,000 watching them. Production wise, this is some of the best work anyone behind the camera has done for WWE in years and, in some cases, ever.

With the world maddening before our eyes, everyone came into work despite the risk and were ready to give their A game no matter what. For that, myself and fans around the world will be eternally grateful.

We can debate till the end of time if pushing the show forward was the right call or not, but now that we’ve got it, it could not have arrived at a better time.

So thank you, WWE, for being there when we needed you most. Thank you for making the most out of an awful situation and creating something special.

Thank you. Every single one of you. Thank you.