WrestleMania 38: Top 3 things that went right at the two-night event

Man, WWE really likes producing enjoyable shows when no one expects it, don’t they? For a lot of fans, the promotion’s build to its biggest pay-per-view (or, sigh, “premium live event”) of the year left a lot to be desired, but that ultimately didn’t hamper the enjoyment of the show itself.

To be clear, the two-night supercard was far from perfect (especially Night Two) and there are still plenty of macro concerns that no amount of part-timers or celebrities can obscure, but for at least two nights, WWE put together an entertaining show that satiated plenty of diverse wrestling tastes.

Even the most cynical, jaded fans found themselves entertained by the two-night WrestleMania. Particularly, these were the top three things that went right during both shows.

Bianca Belair wins the Raw Women’s Championship

Of all the underwhelming stories going into WrestleMania 38, the one for the Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch Raw Women’s Championship match stood out as the most compelling.

Aided by the months of backstory the two had to work with (even if some of it flew in the face of reality), WWE kept things simple here: a fast-rising star who’s passed every in-ring test with flying colors has her chance at redemption against the one obstacle she hasn’t overcome: the once-beloved champion who’s slowly descending into madness over the former’s ascent.

The fans rewarded this relatively sound storytelling with a round of applause seconds into the Belair vs. Lynch match at ‘Mania Night One and in turn, they witnessed not only the best match on the two shows but one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time. They also got to see Belair finally overcome that last obstacle and pin Lynch to win the Raw Women’s Title.

Given how things ended between Belair and Lynch at SummerSlam 2021, there was no other satisfying option for the finish, so kudos to WWE for going the right thing here by putting the belt on Belair. We’ll see if WWE does a better job of lining up the challengers for her this time around, but that shouldn’t take away from them nailing this moment.

Cody Rhodes returns to WWE

Over the last few weeks, rumors of Cody Rhodes’ potential return to WWE led to lots of speculation over 1.) whether those rumors were true and 2.) what this possible return would look like. In the latter case, would WWE keep the “American Nightmare” aesthetic intact or would it dust off one of Rhodes’ old WWE midcard gimmicks from the 2010s, once again pigeonholing him as just another guy on the roster?

Well, we got our answer at WrestleMania: as Seth Rollins paced the ring awaiting his mystery opponent (this was the payoff to that idiotic “Will Seth Rollins make it the WrestleMania card?” story), darkness washed over the Dallas crowd, which was only initially filled with the familiar (to fans who watch more than WWE) phrase “wrestling has more than one royal family”.

From there, we saw and heard everything else — the blonde hair, “Kingdom” as his entrance music, that ridiculous jacket that he likely stole from Homelander of The Boys, and that awful neck tattoo. Every bit of how you remembered Rhodes from All Elite Wrestling (AEW) was copied and pasted as much as possible into the WWE ecosystem, and given that this was the first major star from the young promotion to jump ship to WWE, it was the correct decision, as was Rhodes beating Rollins clean in what was a good match.

The company could’ve easily gone the petty route and defined Rhodes down as part of some weird point that AEW is a “minor league” federation, but they instead gave the former NWA and Ring of Honor World Champion a treatment fitting for whatever big-money deal he signed.

As a result, WWE now has an instant main event-level babyface on its hands at a time when it only has a handful of those between Raw AND SmackDown.The follow-up will be key, of course, but so far, so good when it comes to the debut.

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin returns to the ring

When WWE announced that “Stone Cold” Steve Austin would appear on “The Kevin Owens Show” at WrestleMania to confront the eponymous host’s constant derision of Texas, many fans wondered what WWE had up its sleeve for this segment. Would it be the usual stuff we see Austin do on WWE TV or would it turn into an actual match? And if it became a match, would it be a real back-and-forth encounter or would Owens sell the whole time before taking a Stunner?

Much like with the Cody questions, we got our answer at ‘Mania: Owens challenged Austin to a No Holds Barred match and, surprisingly, this wasn’t an “Austin plays the greatest hits” affair. For crying out loud, the man took a vertical suplex ON THE CONCRETE FLOOR.

Seeing Austin work an actual match for the first time since 2003 was a pleasant surprise and the spontaneity of the moment made it even more memorable while keeping it free of the expectations that would’ve come if WWE had advertised the match beforehand. Also, WWE could’ve asked for a better worker than Owens to keep Austin — Owens’ childhood idol — safe.

Yes, this one-off moment is indicative of WWE’s inability to make new stars and using older stars to main event their big shows will eventually catch up to the company, but that doesn’t change how fun it was seeing Austin wrestle one last time.