The biggest annual event in professional wrestling will look and feel a lot different this year, as is the case with just about anything right now.
The global coronavirus outbreak forced WWE to move “WrestleMania 36” from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay to the WWE’s Performance Center. And instead of a one-night marathon session, this year WrestleMania will take place over two nights beginning Saturday night.
Oh, and Rob Gronkowski is “hosting” the entire thing — for better or worse.
WWE has more or less kept the entire card intact but instead of holding the annual tentpole event in front of 65,000 people, they’ll essentially do so inside an empty warehouse. For a few weeks now, the WWE has been forced to hold its “Monday Night Raw” and “Friday Night Smackdown” shows at the Performance Center in front of no fans, and the two-night weekend event will be no different.
Not only that, but coronavirus concerns have also already affected one of the biggest matches on the show. WWE megastar Roman Reigns was originally scheduled to battle wrestling legend Bill Goldberg in a title match, but Reigns — a leukemia survivor — reportedly expressed concerns about continuing to perform and doing so with his health questions. Instead, he’ll be replaced in that title match by Braun Strowman.
Here’s the full card for Saturday and Sunday night (WWE hasn’t announced the individual cards for each night).
Bill Goldberg vs. Braun Strowman (Universal title match)
Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre (WWE title match)
Becky Lynch vs. Shayna Baszler (Raw women’s title match)
Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Naomi vs. Tamina vs. Lacey Evans (Smackdown women’s title match)
Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair (NXT women’s title match0
Sami Zayn vs. Daniel Bryan (Intercontinental title match)
The Street Profits vs. Angel Garza and Austin Theory (Raw tag team title match)
John Morrison vs. Jimmy Uso vs. Kofi Kingston (Smackdown tag title ladder match)
The Kabuki Warriors vs. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross (Women’s tag team title match)
The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles (Boneyard match)
Randy Orton vs. Edge (Last man standing match)
Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena (Firefly Fun House match)
Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins
Aleister Black vs. Bobby Lashley
Elias vs. King Corbin
Otis vs. Dolph Ziggler
When: Saturday, April 4 at 7 p.m. ET
TV: Pay per view
Live stream: WWE Network (first month free) | FOX Sports PPV
