WWE: AJ Styles is absolutely right about approaching cinematic matches

At WrestleMania 36, AJ Styles and The Undertaker blew everyone away with their Boneyard Match, but The Phenomenal One knows WWE needs to keep these types of matches special.

Since WWE couldn’t broadcast WrestleMania 36 live and in front of fans due to a pandemic, they took advantage of a unique way to present matches that the likes of Jeremy Borash, Matt Hardy, and Lucha Underground have utilized before.

They went the cinematic route.

Each of the two nights of WrestleMania had a cinematic match. The second of them was a bizarre “match” that was more of a skit involving John Cena and Bray Wyatt, which blew everyone’s minds.

But the first was the main event on Saturday night, featuring AJ Styles and The Undertaker in a “Boneyard Match”.

It was excellent. Styles and Taker showed great chemistry, bantering as they sought to bury the other wrestler. The cinematic effects were splendid, the story was easy to digest, and The Undertaker was at his best in years.

WWE fans thoroughly enjoyed the Boneyard Match, which was better than it had any right being. For fans who hadn’t seen cinematic performances before, it may have even transformed the way they viewed how stories can be told by pro wrestling – well, WWE, more specifically.

One of the participants in this wonderful match, Styles, weighed in on how often he thinks the company should use cinematic matches going forward after the successes of Take vs. Styles, Cena vs. Wyatt, and Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa in NXT.

A legend of the business, Styles nailed it with his remarks.

Here’s the quote from Styles on his Mixer channel, via Fightful.com’s Carlos Toro:

"“I think as far as cinematic matches go, I think less is more. If we do these all the time, then it’s not as special. We got to watch out how many matches we do. I think every now and then, it’s good. As great as [the Boneyard Match] was, I don’t think we should do it a lot or else we ruin it. It’s special.”"

There’s that magical cliche that proves to be true in most cases in pro wrestling. Less is more.

We loved the three cinematic matches WWE recently put on, and we’re looking forward to Matt Hardy’s Elite Deletion in AEW soon. But what helps make this form of presentation so special is its rarity. It works brilliantly when it makes sense, and WWE needs to make sure the right stories, such as Taker and Styles, have this format. And in the cases of the three cinematic matches over the past week, all of them told a completely different story and thus had distinct cadences.

Styles knows how special these matches can be as a participant in the first one of the week. But he also realizes that keeping them special is just as crucial.