This year's WrestleMania 36 was a very different affair compared to previous years due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Alongside more traditional in-ring matches, WrestleMania 36 also offered two cinematic clashes in The Firefly Fun House matchup and The Boneyard match, which featured AJ Styles and The Undertaker.
Fans watching were spurred for the impending physical encounter by music provided by none other than Metallica. It turns out, however, that the band wasn't simply approached to provide music for the cinematic matchup. Had WWE been able to deliver WrestleMania 36 as intended, plans were in place to have Metallica actually perform on "The Grandest Stage of Them All."
In an interview with Ad Age Remotely, WWE's Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon revealed "The Boneyard match was like a 20-minute movie sequence and it was cut to Metallica because Metallica was going to be a part of WrestleMania, their music was going to be apart of Undertaker's entrance." She added, "When everything changed, they said 'we still want to be apart of this if we can, we're not backing out.' We were very grateful to Metallica for helping score the entire sequence."
Although Metallica was not able to play The Undertaker to the ring in front of the WWE Universe at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida as planned, their song helped immediately set the scene for fans watching at home as it accompanied 'Taker's dramatic bike ride approach to the graveyard where he would face off against -- and ultimately defeat -- AJ Styles.
(via Fightful.com)