WWE WrestleMania 37: 5 Big takeaways from Night Two
WrestleMania 37 is officially in the books. The second installment of WWE's biggest event of the year featured a great card, but didn't quite live up to the standard set by Night One on Saturday.
The opening night of this year's WrestleMania was always going to feel special. Marking the first opportunity for WWE Superstars to perform in front of a live crowd in more than a year, the evening will go down in company history forever.
Just 24 hours later, though, it was tough to recapture the same vibe. With new champions crowned and a shocking storyline twist, Night Two of WrestleMania 37 still managed to generate plenty of talking points. Here are five big takeaways from the event.
#5 WrestleMania works best as a two-night event
No matter who is involved, no professional wrestling show ever needs to last five hours. When WrestleMania 35 went nearly 20 minutes over that mark in 2019, many fans argued 'Mania needed to be split into two nights.
When COVID-19 forced WWE to move WrestleMania 36 to the Performance Center, the switch was made to a two-night format.
The company (rightly) felt that a closed set with nobody in attendance was not the setting to be putting on long wrestling matches. With this in mind, both nights of WrestleMania 36 clocked in around the three hour mark.
The call to split WrestleMania in half was positively received last year - and WWE chose to keep the same schedule in 2021.
Night One of WrestleMania 37 showed why two nights are better than one. Even with a 45-minute weather delay at the start of the event, the show was still wrapped up in just over three and a half hours.
Saturday's card received huge praise from fans, with none of the seven matches on the night lasting more than 20 minutes.
Realizing that longer doesn't always equal better, WWE kept a similar pacing on Night Two of WrestleMania 37. Only the main event between Roman Reigns, Edge and Daniel Bryan ran past 20 minutes on Sunday - and WrestleMania as a whole was more enjoyable for it.
The size of the modern day WWE roster makes it impossible for the promotion to properly feature all the superstars it wants on a single night at WrestleMania, without the show becoming far too drawn out.
The two-night option is best for fans, performers and production staff. By holding two events instead of one, WWE can also double its live ticket sales.
WrestleMania 38 has been confirmed for AT&T Stadium in Texas next year. The date of the event was not mentioned in the commercials that have aired for it this weekend though.
Hopefully, WWE will stick with the dual-night model for WrestleMania going forward.