The Undertaker and AJ Styles closed out WrestleMania 36 Night One with a cinematic masterpiece in their Boneyard Match. The pair’s battle at an abandoned warehouse had everything — open graves, the return of “American Badass” Undertaker, gangs of druids, fire, explosions, lazers, chokeslams off of rooftops, the list goes on. But one thing some fans quickly picked up on was that the match felt eerily similar to the Hardy Compound matches Matt Hardy has been producing since 2016 when he introduced his “Broken” persona. Given the camera tricks, rural setting and insane supernatural aspects, it wasn’t hard to see why people made the comparison.
Hardy responded on Twitter shortly after the match was over.
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My twitter feed exploded.
Thanks for all the love, folks.. I’m truly honored. Cinematic matches 100% work with the right characters, scenario & fanbase – I envisioned them as a new branch of pro wrestling years ago.
Much like TLC did, The #BROKEN Universe will leave its mark.
— #BROKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) April 5, 2020
Hardy first introduced the concept of a Hardy Compound match with “The Final Deletion,” a battle between Hardy and his brother Jeff. The pair would go on to have several more of the matches in TNA [Impact] Wrestling before jumping back to WWE, where Matt eventually reintroduced the concept in The Ultimate Deletion against Bray Wyatt. Unfortunately the gimmick was never used again, and Hardy left the WWE back in early March and quickly signed with All Elite Wrestling.
Check out the full results from WrestleMania 36 Night One below:
- WWE Universal Championship: Braun Strowman def. Goldberg (New Champion)
- Boneyard Match: The Undertaker def. AJ Styles
- Raw Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch defl Shayna Baszler
- SmackDown Tag Team Championships: John Morrison defl Jimmy Uso and Kofi Kingston (Ladder Match)
- Intercontinental Championship: Sami Zayn def. Daniel Bryan
- Women’s Tag Team Championships: Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross def. The Kabuki Warriors (New Champions)
- Kevin Owens def. Seth Rollins
- Elias def. King Baron Corbin
And here’s the lineup for Night 2, which will air at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday night on the WWE Network.
- WWE Championship: Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre
- Firefly Fun House Match: John Cena vs. “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt
- Last Man Standing: Edge vs. Randy Orton
- Raw Tag Team Championships: The Street Profits vs. Angel Garza and Austin Theory
- NXT Women’s Championship: Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair
- SmackDown Women’s Championship: Bayley vs. Lacey Evans vs. Sasha Banks vs. Naomi vs. Tamina Snuka
- Otis vs. Dolph Ziggler
- Aleister Black vs. Bobby Lashley
