WrestleMania 36: Edge beats Orton, McIntyre new WWE Champion; results, highlights from night 2

After The Undertaker carved a special tombstone for AJ Styles to close the show on the first night of WrestleMania, fans were eager to find out what the rest of the card would look like in night two of the Show of Shows. The WWE Universe was certainly not disappointed at the end of this year's edition of the Showcase of the Immortals, as the performers gave them their share of thrill in what will be a Wrestlemania remembered for a variety of different reasons.

From the historic return of the Rated-R Superstar, to the Scottish Psychopath ascending to the very pinnacle of sports entertainment, here's what happened on night two of the Grandest Stage of them all.

Pre-show: Liv Morgan defeated Natalya

Seasoned veteran Natalya took on young up-coming talent, Liv Morgan, who is fresh off her character remodel, and the stage was perfectly set for Morgan to show the world what she could do. The two women had a very physical match, with the Hart dungeon graduate stretching Morgan in a painful surfboard submission hold. After catching a brutal running knee to the temple by Morgan, Natalya looked to lock-in the iconic Sharpshooter, which was countered into a pinning attempt by the former Riott Squad member. After back and forth pinfall counters, Morgan was cleverly able to catch Natalya into a cross-legged roll-up to score the win. This was Morgan's debut singles match at Wrestlemania, and the millions watching worldwide took notice of what she was capable of.

NXT Women's Championship: Charlotte Flair defeated Rhea Ripley (c)

After winning the third edition of the women's Royal Rumble in January, Charlottle Flair did the unthinkable, and became the first ever superstar to win the Rumble and challenge for the NXT Championship. Rhea Ripley held the third brand of the company, the Gold Standard of professional wrestling in the highest level possible by defending her title against all odds, and Flair's challenge was gladly accepted.

'The Nightmare' Ripley, and 'The Queen' Flair are two of the most naturally gifted athletes in all of WWE. They are two of the most physically superior wrestlers across all brands, and their showdown was not short of epic. Ripley brought the fight with her brute force and sheer passion, while Flair kept it calm with her experience of being in big matches for her entire career.

The contest was as evenly matched as possible with both women looking to one-up each other with a display of skill matched with raw power. Flair seriously injured Ripley's left leg, working on her knee and ankle to minimize her offense and to have the advantage to lock-in her signature submission hold. Ripley screamed in agony as Flair locked in the Figure-four leg-lock made famous by her legendary father, 'The Nature Boy' Ric Flair and although Ripley fought at first, she tapped out once Flair bridged into the Figure-eight leg-lock, her own invention to better the effective hold. The bell was rung as Ripley's left leg could not bare the agony, and The Queen left Wrestlemania with the NXT Championship. It will be very interesting to see where this story goes from here and what will Flair's role be in NXT.

Aleister Black defeated Bobby Lashley

In the months leading up-to Wrestlemania, Aleister Black roamed the RAW arenas looking for a fight. And although everyone who stepped-up were put down with Black's precise Black Mass kick, Bobby Lashley issued a challenge for the show of shows in confidence that he could beat the Dutch destroyer and the match was made official. With Lana in Lashley's corner, Black was ready to fight an uphill battle, eager to prove that his myth was real; while Lashley's motivation was to once again rise through the ranks he had fallen, and both superstars locked-horns with the intention of establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with on Monday Night RAW. The theme of the bout revolved around Black's striking ability being put to the test against Lashley's pure strength in grappling. When lining him up for the Spear, Lashley was met midway with Black's sudden wrath of the Black Mass and it was lights out for the Almighty One. This was Black's first one on one match at Wrestlemania, and he left with the W.

Otis defeated Dolph Ziggler

The love triangle between Heavy Machinery's Otis, Dolph Ziggler, and Mandy Rose began back in February where Otis was scheduled for a date with Rose, but allegedly received a text from her phone asking her to come late. Of course, upon arriving on location, the blonde bombshell was seen with the dazzling Ziggler, who had himself previously shown interest in 'God's Greatest Creation'. This erupted a series of run-ins between Heavy Machinery (Tucker Knight and Otis) and Ziggler. On the go-home show of Smackdown, an anonymous hacker revealed backstage camera footage during the show where it came to light that Sonya Deville, Mandy's best friend and partner as part of team Fire and Desire had used Rose' phone to send Otis the text after an arrangement with Ziggler. This infuriated Mandy and a one on one match between Otis and Ziggler was announced for Wrestlemania. Deville was in Ziggler's corner but that could not save him from the onslaught received at the hands of an aggressive Otis who bounced the Show-off all over ringside, sending him face first into the ring post. Desperate to help, Deville distracted the referee allowing Ziggler to capitalize with a low-blow on Otis. When things seemed down and out, Rose's music hit as she stormed down the ramp, took out her former best friend, delivered a low-blow of her own to Ziggler, and allowed Otis to hit him with his jumping elbow-drop to pick up his debut Wrestlemania victory. A delighted Rose leaped into the hands of Otis, giving him a congratulation kiss and the couple went off stage with a Wrestlemania moment created and sweet revenge was served.

Edge defeated Randy Ortan (Last Man Standing Match)

It was in the year 2011, the night after Wrestlemania 27 where Edge was forced to relinquish his World Heavyweight Championship after successfully defending it the previous night against Royal Rumble winner, Alberto Del Rio due to a fatal neck injury. Given Edge's track-record with multiple serious injuries to the neck, he was forced to retire in what was a disturbing and anticlimactic ending to the career of one of the finest heels of the modern era. Nine years later, the rumors came true as Edge made an emphatic and surreal comeback when he entered the 2020 Royal Rumble match at entry number 21.

After having an overwhelming outing, Edge was eventually eliminated by Roman Reigns. The next night on RAW, in an attempt of recreating their days from the early 2000s, Randy Ortan welcomed his friend with an offer to reform team 'Rated RKO' and as the audience began to cheer, the viper struck with an RKO, before brutally attacking The Rated-R Superstar with chair shots, and the audience went dead silent as Edge was sent away for a month to nurse the devastating attacks. In the meanwhile, Ortan delivered an RKO to Edge's wife, former Women's Champion Beth Phoenix who had come to address the fans with a medical update of her husband and Randy's reason was that he was saving and protecting Edge and that he wanted him to go away as he had no business in a wrestling ring. Upon his return, the arena exploded with cheers as Edge delivered an RKO of his own to Randy and issued a Wrestlmania challenge for a Last Man Standing match, vowing that his grit would put Randy's jealousy to rest. A Wrestlemania card is usually designed to have title matches, dream contests, debuts, retirements, and then there are fights; and that's what this match was aiming to be, a blood-thirsty and personal rage-fueled competition between two men who looked to destroy each other with all the bad blood and animosity between them.

The match began unexpectedly as Randy ambushed Edge with an RKO from behind before the opening bell was even rung, and delivered another one few seconds after the contest was officially started. The performance center is essentially a training facility, and a few different equipment ranging from resistance bands, to weight plates were used as weapons by the two who brawled throughout the venue, giving fans a tour of what the WWE PC looks like. Edge delivered multiple leaping elbows to Randy, including one from the ceiling of what appeared to be a boardroom but neither man stayed down for the ref's 10 count. They brawled onto the top of a pick-up truck where Edge caught Randy off-guard with a vicious spear, Randy caught Edge with an RKO, but neither of them refused to stay down. Randy looked to hit Edge with the menacing con-chair-to which was countered by Edge into a arm-triangle choke before hitting the Viper with the con-chair-to himself and a very emotional Edge won his first match since returning at the Showcase of the Immortals.

24/7 Championship

As usual, a sea of challengers appeared to be chasing the current 24/7 title holder, Mojo Rawley, who was blinded by Wrestlemania host, Rob Gronkowski after he took flight for the championship off a perch and successfully landed on Rawley to score the pin and become the new 24/7 Champion.

RAW Tag Team Championship: Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins (The Street Profits) (c) defeated Angel Garza & Austin Theory

The newly formed duo of Angel Garza and Austin Theory looked to lay claim to their first tag titles when Theory planted Angelo Dawkins with a TKO. Theory, however, was unable to capitalize in the moment as Montez Ford leaped over the top rope with a splendid frog splash, allowing Dawkins to roll onto Theory and regain the titles. Out of frustration, Garza and Theory charged an assault on the Street Profits and were joined by their associate, Zalina Vega in the beat down. That's when 'Watch Me Shine' hit the sound system and much to everyone's surprise, NXT's Bianca Belair came out to save the tag champs, laying waste to Vega. Belair is married in real life to Montez Ford, and it will be intriguing to see how this on-screen pairing develops over the next few weeks. The entire crew involved in this match were performing at the Show of Shows for the first time.

Smackdown Women's Championship: Bayley (c) defeated Naomi, Tamina, Lacey Evans and Sasha Banks (Fatal Five-way Elimination Match)

The story of this fixture centered around the past breakups of best friends, Sasha Banks and Bayley where-in Banks has always betrayed Bayley when a prize was up for grabs to further solidify her selfish boss persona. Namoi, Tamina, and Lacey Evans were also announced to be in the match by former diva's Champion and former Smackdown General Manager, Paige. Using the obvious strategy, the rest of the women ganged up as a pack to take out the much bigger and stronger Tamina, who initially fought off the odds strongly, but soon became the first of the five women to be eliminated when all wrestlers pilled onto her for the pinfall. Naomi and Evans paired up for a few moments on the double team threat of Banks and Bayley, but the next elimination occurred courtesy of the Bank Statement locked in on Naomi.

When it came down to Evans, Banks, and Bayley, the fight seemed uneven and yet Evans give it a tough shot. The inevitable happened as Bayley accidentally landed a running knee on Banks who began an argument over the strike possibly not being an accident after all. While the pair bickered, Evans smashed Banks with a Women's Right and eliminated the Boss. Down to the final two, Banks showed her solidarity when she came in with the Back-stabber on Evans to help Bayley retain her Championship, after which she also wrapped it around her waist and the two best friends stood tall in the ring. It will be compelling to see how Bayley's reign is built from this point, and what will Banks' role be in it.

'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt defeated John Cena (Firefly Fun House Match)

Bray Wyatt's Fiend is an abomination, a vengeful demonic representation of all that is wrong with this world, always seeking to even the odds with those who previously wronged Bray in the past. Finn Balor, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Kane, one by one, The Fiend took them all out. The next man on Bray's hit-list was John Cena, who had a long rivalry with Bray back in 2014-15 where the two clashed at Wrestlemania 30, in New Orleans, Louisiana and Cena defeated Wyatt, a loss The Fiend never forgot. Cena has not been an active wrestler for over two years, and by not being in the wrestling card of the Show of Shows last year, fans hoped for Cena's long awaited return to be worthwhile and a restart of the rivalry with Bray Wyatt was not a bad idea. Cena was challenged to a 'Firefly Fun House' match which much like Undertaker and AJ Style's Boneyard match from the previous night, was pre-taped in a studio with the only exception being that this one was much more bizarre. To even call this a match would be injustice to the creative concept involved as we have never seen anything like this before. This seemed like a nightmare that Cena had to battle where in Bray's words, the 16 time World Champion would have to face himself instead. It was an expose by Bray, taking Cena to different phases of his illustrious career, and focal points of wrestling history where Bray narrated tales almost like riddles to help Cena look at things from another perspective where he appears to be a selfish egomaniac who's success was a consequence of other people's failures, people like Bray Wyatt who were sacrificed to build the legend of John Cena. In the end, we did get some action as The Fiend choked Cena with the Mandible Claw, as the Firefly Fun House characters counted the 1,2 and 3 to right the wrong that was done to Wyatt by Cena all those years ago.

WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre defeated Brock Lesnar (c)

In the 2020 men's Royal Rumble match, WWE Champion, Brock Lesnar displayed the most dominant performance in Rumble history. Entering at number one, Lesnar eliminated 13 superstars in record time, making quick work out of all entrants. But his time of wreaking havoc was over when Drew McIntyre entered the match at number 16 to Claymore Lesnar over the top rope to set the Minute Maid Park on fire with fans roaring aloud. McIntyre went on to win the Rumble and with no surprise challenged The Beast for the WWE Championship.

This rivalry quickly turned personal with Lesnar's blinding attacks on McIntyre combined with Paul Heyman's verbal banter on the microphone. The Scottish Psychopath however, had the entire WWE Universe rally behind him as his encounter with Lesnar felt like the final fight in a redemption story dating back to his exit from the WWE in 2014.

The tension between two of the most physical competitors in the current roster could be cut with a knife as both men squared-off face to face before the fight had officially began. Lesnar immediately got to work, driving McIntyre into the corner with rapid shoulder barges, before the latter fired back with a Claymore kick for a near fall. Orlando was turned into Suplex City as Brock hit multiple German suplexes on the challenger. Lesnar hoisted McIntyre up on his shoulders for a thunderous F5 but shockingly was only able to get a one count. Lesnar went on to execute two more brutal looking F5s but McIntyre kicked out at two on both occasions. "He can't keep kicking out!" Heyman yelled from ringside, imploring Lesnar to keep hitting his face-busting maneuver.

Upon trying again, the contender slid out of the Champ's grip to hit three perfectly placed Claymore kicks and McIntyre was crowned the new WWE Champion in what was one of the shortest title matches in the history of Wrestlemania, especially for the Main Event. McIntyre's reign may not have began as fans would've hoped, but the moment he extended his arms towards the camera to thank his supporters tuned in from around the world created a heart-warming Wrestlemania moment to draw the curtains on the Grandest Stage of them all for 2020.

Also Read: Wrestlemania 36: The Undertaker buries AJ Styles, Strowman new Universal Champion; results, highlights from night 1