Cody Rhodes returns to WWE in the most complicated work in history, Stone Cold does way more
than just a talk show segment (he also advertised his beer), Bianca and Becky steal the show
and more.
It’s time for my review of WrestleMania 38 Night One Part B forward slash section
6a… in about 5 minutes.
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Apart from a recap package of when Baron Corbin was sad for a few weeks, which is still the
best thing he’s ever done, absolutely NOTHING HAPPENED on the pre-show!
It was two hours of just video packages and panel discussion, not hosting a single match.
Which, you know what, I like.
Let’s finally past feeling like we have to watch the pre-show in case we miss some
super important match like the Dirty Dawgs vs the Hurt Business.
The main WrestleMania card opened with America getting its own entrance music, the national
anthem, WWE getting its own entrance video, where Mark Whalberg, the respected serious
actor of Transformers: Age of Extinction, said the word ‘stupendous’, and even the
stadium getting an entrance, with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders doing their thing.
The first match of WrestleMania 38 weekend went to the SmackDown tag team championship
match of the Usos defending against Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs - meaning The Bloodline
will neatly open and close the whole two night affair, with Roman Reigns surely main eventing
Part Deux.
Unfortunately, this match never got to what it could be, getting cut short after 7 minutes
due to Boogs tearing his quad and patella tendon while trying to squat both members
of the Usos.
Apparently he’ll need surgery and could be out between 6-12 months.
The Usos retained by pinning Nakamura.
Even if the match hadn’t been derailed by injury, though, it still mostly felt like
just a normal SmackDown match.
Speaking of…
Next up came Happy Corbin vs Drew McIntyre - highlight of which was the video package,
where we got the clips of Sad Corbin again.
The bit where he talks about having to open the tin of beans on the ground is the best
thing that man has ever done.
This was another filler match, more to set Drew up for something big after Mania, than
serving any real purpose here.
Moss got in Baron’s way again, furthering their eventual split, Drew had a great comeback
- including kicking out of Corbin’s End of Days, one of the most protected moves in
the industry - and hit a Claymore to win.
McIntyre then tried to kill a guy, swinging his sword down at Moss, thankfully missing
because, you know, murder, sliced the top two ropes open instead, making for a fun visual.
The first Raw match came next - of the Mysterious vs The Miz and Logan Paul, who came out wearing
a $6 million Pokemon card round his neck that he’d bought.
A Pokemon card, kids, is what an NFT looks like in real life.
It is also ultimately useless.
It was the beginning of what I thought was an impossible task.
It made me like Logan Paul.
Paul was incredible here - working like a proper tag team with The Miz, distracting
the referee, taking bumps off the apron, doing actual impressive moves and letting his natural
douchebag charisma fill in any gaps.
In his best sequence, Logan hit the three amigos, an unassisted kip up, then a top rope
Frog Splash on Rey Mysterio.
The faces made a comeback on him, but then Miz stole a win.
I was suddenly really excited.
In this one match, The Miz and Logan Paul had become one of my favourite tag teams.
So of course WWE immediately broke them up.
Miz turned on Logan, presumably setting up a Miz vs Logan feud, with Logan as the babyface.
That’ll be an uphill struggle, because his appeal is definitely in wanting his face to
get punched in.
Stephanie McMahon then came out to thank everyone for coming, and to introduce WWE’s new signing,
Gable Steveson.
Who just raised his arms and then left.
If he loves professional wrestling, he must be taking the Ronda Rousey approach of making
it look like he’s actually really, really bored by it.
Then came the match of the night, and probably the match of the weekend.
Despite WWE’s allergy to long term feuds, and the fans not really wanting Becky Lynch
as a heel, both her and Bianca Belair have told a really solid eight month story since
SummerSlam.
Before the match even began, this had the context, the drama, the star power of the
night’s main event.
And then came two excellent entrances - Becky with her own Marvel opening sting just full
of Becky Lynch clips, and Bianca with a marching band.
The perfection continued throughout the entire match, with Bianca immediately going for a
KOD, which Becky reversed into a Man Slam near fall - referencing her SummerSlam return
that started all of this.
Then she tried a pin with her feet on the ropes, referencing every heel win Becky had
over the Winter.
Becky’s character work was sublime, obviously desperate to just get this over with to retain.
The pace never let up, but it never felt choreographed.
There wasn’t a single rest hold.
Whereas last year’s Bianca vs Sasha match more felt charged with social history, this,
for me, was far more effective - as it was driven by character and story and just the
two of them hating each other.
Like when Becky legit just booted Bianca in the face.
Lynch went for one more Man Slam, but Bianca flipped out and hit the KOD to become the
new Raw Women’s Champion.
The right result, a fantastic match.
Even with the nostalgia joys of Stone Cold’s return, this should’ve main evented Night
One for me.
There was no time to recover, though, as Seth Rollins came out - complete with a Pitch Perfect
choir singing his ooooh oh oh Kingslayer bit - as he awaited his mystery opponent.
The production held on this perfectly, waiting for ages, building the anticipation, then
cutting all the lights, hitting a load of pyro for…
Here comes the money!
Nah, I’m kidding.
Cody Rhodes to WWE confirmed.
Coming out to his AEW Cody Cody Cody Rhodes entrance music, and his Codyvator lift, but
sadly without Arn Anderson and his glock, Cody Rhodes made his not so surprise return
to WWE after six years.
I gotta hand it to AEW, this is one hell of a work.
Cody gave his weight belt to a kid in the front row (he’s still a babyface!), and
then had a really good match with Rollins, playing into their shared father figures of
Dusty Rhodes and Triple H, trading Pedigree attempts.
But it was ultimately four CrossRhodes and a Bionic Elbow that would win Cody the match.
Because that finisher is not going to be super effective in WWE either.
This was an incredibly surreal experience, and the tonnes of pyro, the presentation,
the objectively huge pop Cody got from the crowd, all felt like the first real big onscreen
shot from WWE at AEW.
It’s interesting how much influence context has on how you perceive someone, though.
I loved the debut, I loved the match, but I must admit, the more I saw Cody in a WWE
ring, the more I felt what I had invested in him sap away.
Because rooting for Cody over the last six years was inherently tied to rooting for a
man making it on his own, against the machine that disrespected him and his family.
Suddenly, that was no longer underpinning how I felt about him.
He’s brilliant enough to find a new appeal, though.
Now it’ll be a character story about working inside the machine for redemption.
It’s in WWE’s best interests that they help him do that, as his success is the greatest
tactical move they can make in their war against All Elite Wrestling.
In true Cody style, his debut was immediately followed by a carefully curated burst of PR,
where his official statement confirmed he’s “inked a multi-year deal” with WWE, and
was quickly followed by big name interviews with Variety and the Ringer where he explained
why he decided to leave AEW, saying it “was the easiest decision I have ever made…
it was just time for me to move on.
I had wrestled everybody that I wanted to wrestle.” and that he didn’t want to become
a 15-time TNT champion, with the stipulation that he could never wrestle for the World
title.
He also said one driving factor behind his WWE return was how Vince McMahon and Bruce
Prichard flew down to meet him, where he told them he had to be his American Nightmare character
- to which Vince said “well, it’s not broke.
That’s what we’re buying.”
Yeah, Cody’s American Nightmare character was definitely not broken over the last year
in AEW…
Vince does not watch Dynamite confirmed.
Cody made sure to put over the AEW team, saying there’s no “bad blood”.
Which led to a response from his former AEW Co-Executive Vice President buddies the Young
Bucks, who’s updated bio read: “WTF I thought we were doing All In 2”.
We then got the Hall of Fame inductees come out onstage, complete with a mini Undertaker
entrance for Mark Calloway.
This was the send off he really deserved, not Survivor Series 2020.
The official attendance was announced at 77,899.
Sure.
And then we got the final pre-announced match of the night, Charlotte Flair vs Ronda Rousey.
Unfortunately, these two never properly clicked.
There was intensity in their exchanges, with Rousey’s strikes and submissions clashing
against Charlotte’s wrestling, but there’s no chemistry between them.
It felt like a heel vs heel dynamic, and had a fraction of the emotional investment Bianca
and Becky had.
It felt like a long 20 minutes, and by the end it had become Ronda vs Charles Robinson,
who first counted three off a Piper’s Pit, until he saw Charlotte’s foot on the ropes,
then got bumped into the corner so he missed Charlotte tap out to an arm bar.
Charlotte followed that confusion getting the three count off a big boot.
The match was fine, but what was far more disappointing is the thought that this feud
is going to continue.
Then with 45 minutes left of the show, Kevin Owens came out for the KO Show: Hometown Heat
Special.
He ragged on Texas until Austin’s glass shattering entrance interrupted, and hot damn,
I was totally worked by the nostalgia pop.
Austin didn’t look that old.
It must be a bald head and goatee thing, because Goldberg doesn’t look that old either.
Luke’s freaking 58.
Stone Cold milked his entrance, even adding in his dune buggy, and then sat down for the
interview about whether Texas is good or not - which was all a rouse for Owens to challenge
him to a No Rolls Barred match, thinking he’d be easy pickings because he’s old and has
so many injuries.
Austin agreed, and we got a legit match.
Initially it was slow.
Mudhole stomps, punches, pretty much Sting wrestling in a t-shirt back in TNA.
But then Austin became Sting wrestling on weekly TV on AEW.
He took a suplex in the crowd on the concrete floor.
He put Owens through a table.
They brawled up the ramp and hit more suplexes up there.
Ultimately, KO hit himself in the head with a chair by mistake, and Austin hit a Stunner
to win.
Which then, in true WWE branded content style, became a ten minute advertisement for Stone
Cold’s Broken Skull Beer, where he just kept drinking cans while the camera lingered
on the beer’s logo.
Bryon Saxton got another stunner for good measure.
At least this time he wasn’t kicked in the dick.
This was undoubtedly fun, and parts of it made me feel like I was a teenager cheering
for Austin again.
But I’d be lying if I said this was executed to the fullest of its potential.
If you knew Austin was going to wrestle, this could’ve been an actual proper feud based
KO wanting to kill his legend, rather than a lazily hashed together script on how Canada
is better than Texas.
What did you think of WrestleMania 38 Night One?
Let me know in the comments!
Cody’s return, the Austin main event and the show stealing Bianca vs Becky match were
three incredible highlights, enough to make this a thoroughly sports entertaining show.
Rousey and Logan Paul added main stream star power too.
This was a very fun WrestleMania, so I’m giving it 80%.
See what Adam Blampied, Luke Owen and Andy Datson thought by watching their live reactions
on the WrestleTalk Podcast channel!