With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic having decimated the sports landscape and forcing wrestling promotions to get creative with how they put out content, it has been a strange few months. There’s still no end in sight for the United States as the country re-opens and cases begin to rise. And while this hasn’t been the wrestling year any of us were anticipating (RIP my WrestleMania trip), WWE and AEW have undoubtedly given us the Pandemic Era’s hidden gem in cinematic matches.
Cinematic matches refer to those matches that rely heavily on camera and cinematography work to make them look more dramatic or movie-like. Since the pandemic started, we’ve had three big cinematic matches: WWE WrestleMania 36’s Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and the Undertaker, AEW Double or Nothing’s Stadium Stampede between the Inner Circle and the Elite and Matt Hardy, and NXT In Your House’s Backlot Brawl between Adam Cole and the Velveteen Dream.
And in my opinion, all three of these cinematic matches were amazing. The Boneyard Match went from being endlessly mocked to being the most talked-about match of WrestleMania 36. The Stadium Stampede was a chaotic yet well-done car crash of wrestling and gimmick work. And the Backlot Brawl was a fitting end to a charismatic rivalry.
Ironically, the lack of an audience is what makes these types of matches. Because only the wrestlers and production crew are in attendance, sequences can be redone and edited as necessary. If something doesn’t work or the match runs a little too long, the power of television production can fix it. This also allows more usage of effects like Undertaker’s lightning or Matt Hardy’s multiple drownings. With no audience and the suspension of belief higher, especially since many of us have been stuck at home for months, these matches come off better than they would if we were simply watching them on the trons in the stadiums.
Good, bad, or indifferent, the Pandemic Era is something we’ve all had to adapt to. Unfortunately that means that some things have had to change. People have had to cancel trips. Shows are being taped with no audience or the other roster members acting as the audience. But a hidden gem in these uncertain times has been the usage of cinematic matches. Hopefully we’ll go back to some semblance of normalcy (whatever that means in a post-Rona world) but for now at least we can enjoy some small things.
