New Intercontinental Champion AJ Styles recently spoke to Sports Illustrated to discuss a number of topics, including that amazing Boneyard Match at WrestleMania. Now believed to be the Deadman's final bout in WWE, it was widely praised as a highlight of the Show of Shows, and the Phenomenal One has now shared some new behind the scenes details about the match.
"I don’t know if everyone knows how long it actually took," he started. "We started around eight o’clock, and we didn’t get finished ‘til about 4:30 in the morning. It was basically a movie, so we needed to get cameras in the right spot and walk through some stuff that was going to happen. I have a lot more respect for actors after working on those fight scenes."
Styles went on to say that he didn't realise the match would take that long to shoot, and admitted that he wasn't sure how to prepare for such a match.
"It was difficult to stay up that late, but we pumped each other before the fight scenes. Undertaker and myself, we did our fight scenes in one take. That’s all it took. But at one point, Undertaker had his scene with the minions, so we were waiting for our spot to come up. The waiting, that part was long, but it was still good. The way it all turned out was unbelievable."
It was an incredible cinematic match which may be a game-changer for WWE moving forward (this year's Money in the Bank match also ended up being shot in that style). Moving forward, it's unclear whether WWE will continue doing those sorts of matches, but it will be tough for them to ever top that Boneyard Match...