The André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal included the surprise participation of former National Basketball Association player Shaquille O'Neal; the match was won by NXT's Baron Corbin in his main roster debut.

[7] Despite its commercial success, critics gave mixed to negative reviews for WrestleMania 32, and rated it worse than the NXT TakeOver: Dallas event WWE held two days prior.

[26] In March 2016, Daniel Van Doom of CNET wrote that WrestleMania 32 would see the culmination of "the biggest story in WWE", which is "establishing Roman Reigns as the top babyface".

Joan Lunden was recognized as part of the 2016's WWE Hall of Fame class, as she won the Warrior Award for her public battle with breast cancer.

Jason Powell of Pro Wrestling Dot Net lamented that "the build to WrestleMania has been a creative mess", and that WWE's injury-hit roster does not excuse "sloppy booking or storylines with massive holes and logic gaps".

[42] At the Royal Rumble, Triple H returned as the #30 entrant and eliminated Reigns en route to winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

As Stephanie was about to do the acceptance speech about the award given to her, Shane McMahon returned to WWE for the first time since 2009, to confront his father and sister in regards to his role in the company.

[50] After controversially defeating Becky Lynch at the Royal Rumble to retain the WWE Divas Championship, Charlotte was ambushed by a returning Sasha Banks.

[52] Explaining that they did not come back to WWE to be a "nostalgia act" and reminding the fans that they are "the baddest tag team on the planet", The Dudley Boyz abandoned using their trademark tables.

[56] After walking out on Big Show and Kane during their six-man tag team rematch against The Wyatt Family, causing them to lose, on the February 22 episode of Raw,[45] Ryback became more aggressive by defeating his opponents in squash matches.

After weeks of feuding between each other, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, and Sami Zayn confronted Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens on the March 21 episode of Raw and challenged him for the title.

[63] The actual pay-per-view opened with the ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship, with Stardust, Zack Ryder, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Sin Cara, The Miz, and Dolph Ziggler as the participants.

[64] After that, WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods), who entered by coming out of a huge "Booty-O's" cereal box (while wearing Dragon Ball Z-inspired attire,[65] with Woods's outfit modeled after Vegeta),[66] then wrestled The League of Nations (Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, and Rusev) in a six-man tag team match, with League teammate King Barrett at ringside.

WWE Hall of Famers Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, then came down and cleared the ring of The League of Nations.

[64] Next was the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal which saw several surprise entrants in the match, including legends Diamond Dallas Page and Tatanka, NXT call-up Baron Corbin making his main roster debut and former basketball player Shaquille O'Neal as a celebrity entry.

[74] The main event also saw the uninterested crowd chanting for various wrestlers uninvolved in the match or storyline: Sami Zayn, Bayley, and Shinsuke Nakamura.

[2] In a conference call in February 2017, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon said, "We were proud to set our attendance record of over 100,000, which includes, by the way, ushers and ticket takers and all of that.

[86][87][88] Troy L. Smith of cleveland.com wrote that "WrestleMania 32 was a night that defied low expectations, thanks in large part a ton of WWE nostalgia", but added that "some of that early goodwill was squandered by odd booking decisions".

[89] Paul Tamburro of CraveOnline wrote that the show was characterized by "inexplicable booking decisions that actively undermined all storyline progression", adding that "WWE routinely swerved its fans with finishes to matches that were less exciting than what had been expected".

He decried the HHH-Reigns main event as a "dull, slow-paced match" and described Reigns's babyface push as "absurd" and "an embarrassing failed experiment for the company", with "the crowd still being given no reason to feel anything for the guy outside of sheer ambivalence or venomous hatred".

Tamburro was also critical of the Shane McMahon–Undertaker match, which he described as "thoroughly pointless", and of the booking of Dean Ambrose, writing that "him losing to Lesnar in such a disappointing manner puts a big dent in his value".

He had further criticism for the company's over-reliance on past stars, writing that "while the implementation of these big names was a lot of fun, it still happened to the detriment of talent currently on the roster".

In contrast, Tamburro praised the Women's Championship match, calling it "triumphant", and described Zack Ryder's unexpected win as "the feel-good moment of the show".

The women's title match was rated 3 stars, "strong" other than the finish, which puzzled Caldwell when apparently "Mania isn't a big enough event to pay off Flair's repeated interference with the face(s) conquering".

Howell noted that when Reigns won the main event, "the crowd mics [were] suspiciously not picking up too much noise for the second or third time during" that match.

This was referencing that "the finishes and character development (or lack thereof)" resulting in older stars (Rock, Austin, Foley, Michaels and Jericho) shining at the expense of newer talent (Styles, The New Day, The League of Nations, and The Wyatt Family).

[92] Aaron Oster of Rolling Stone wrote that "fans witnessed a roller-coaster ride that brought the WWE Universe from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.

After the match, The Usos were attacked by the returning Luke Gallows and the debuting Karl Anderson, who are recognized as two members of the Bullet Club stable in Japan.

[97] After helping Total Divas win their match at WrestleMania, Brie Bella announced that she was taking an extended break from wrestling on April 6, 2016, so that she could focus on starting a family with her retired husband Daniel Bryan.

[106] The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that post-WrestleMania, Roman Reigns became more "reactive" against hostile crowds when "a camera isn't there to capture it", this included "yelling back and swearing at the vocal ringsiders".