WWE WrestleMania 38 review: Best matches, biggest surprises and more (2024)

By Tyler Batiste and Damon Sayles

Apr 4, 2022

ARLINGTON, Texas — WrestleMania 38 went down at AT&T Stadium this weekend, the two-night event culminating with Roman Reigns beating Brock Lesnar to unify the Universal and WWE championships.

Damon Sayles and Tyler Batiste were there to take in the sights, sounds and surprises (click here for the full results), along with thousands of others. Check out the best moments, biggest surprises and more:

Best match of the weekend

Sayles: Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch put on a show for me. Though I really enjoyed and appreciated what Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins did, you could see the passion of the storyline in that Becky-Bianca match. It was main-event-worthy (it’s hard to go against “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in any capacity at a WWE event), and I know the fans left happy with what they saw.

Most shocking match result

Sayles: I’ll be honest: I was not expecting Sheamus and Ridge Holland to beat The New Day. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods to honor Big E with a win on WWE’s biggest stage. Everything was on pace to go The New Day’s way. Kingston and Woods even wore singlets and long jackets to the ring, a la Big E. But … the victory went to Sheamus and Ridge Holland.

Batiste: I figured Sasha Banks and Naomi winning the women’s tag team titles was way too obvious of an outcome for it to actually happen. The two appeared to be thrown together in a team not too long ago (for that matter, the same goes for Rhea Ripley-Liv Morgan and Natalya-Shayna Baszler), but it’s clear they enjoy each other, and more importantly, so do the fans. The women’s tag champions can appear on both “Raw” and “SmackDown.” Hopefully, we see them take advantage of that scenario. The more of that duo, the better.

Sasha Banks (left) and Naomi celebrate after the women’s tag team title win. (Joe Camporeale / USA Today)

Biggest surprise

Sayles: Pat McAfee beating Austin Theory wasn’t a major surprise to me. Watching Vince McMahon, 76 years old and still yoked, get into the ring and have a match with McAfee was a surprise. And then, we saw “Stone Cold” Steve Austin deliver a Stunner to McMahon. Without question, that was the biggest surprise for me. No, wait … Austin gave a Stunner to McAfee. THAT was my biggest surprise. Wrap all of that in a bow. Greatness.

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Batiste: I’ll say something different from Damon, but you know, come on, Vince had a match! … Elsewhere, on some level, Cody Rhodes’ return and some sort of Stone Cold-Kevin Owens confrontation were expected. I did not, however, expect to hear “Time to play the game” blare over the AT&T Stadium speakers. Triple H doing his signature entrance — water-spitting, corner pose and all — and leaving his boots in the center of the ring to signify his retirement was a great way to get the crowd going on Night 2.

Biggest letdown

Sayles: The Charlotte Flair-Ronda Rousey match didn’t bring the energy I thought it would. It temporarily lost the attention of the AT&T Stadium fans, but it did finish strong — just not strong enough. It’s hard to explain, and I don’t know if the letdown is more because of Flair or because of Rousey. Of all the matches, I guess I expected much more, and it didn’t deliver.

Batiste: For me, it was the first match of the two-night event, The Usos versus Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs. Not sure what the planned result was before Boogs’ unfortunate leg injury (The Usos retained their tag titles), but given the experience and talent of the workers involved, it could’ve been so much more.

Best entrance

Sayles: While Pat McAfee’s entrance with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders was great, few things can top a good HBCU band any day of the week. So when Bianca Belair came out with the assistance of the Ocean of Soul, Texas Southern University’s marching band, it had my undivided attention. I was hoping TSU’s drum major would have unleashed a little more, but it was still entertaining.

Batiste: If I typed here how many times I listened to “Kingdom” by Downstait in the past week, you’d laugh at me. Seriously. It’s embarrassing. I didn’t think we’d get anything close to the full Cody Rhodes entrance wrestling fans have grown accustomed to over the past few years — music, ring gear, blond hair and all — but we did. And the crowd went wild.

Pat McAfee, left, and Vince McMahon during their impromptu match Sunday night. (Joe Camporeale / USA Today)

Way-too-early WrestleMania 39 prediction

Sayles: Roman Reigns and The Rock for the title. Reigns has beaten everyone else, and he’s the Head of the Table to everyone — except maybe to his older cousin. WrestleMania 39 is in Los Angeles; why not have a Hollywood type of match?

Batiste: Not sure exactly how we’ll get there, but I think we’ll finally get the one-on-one Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey match. Seemed like it was in the cards three years ago before they went in a different direction. Has to be done before it’s too late. Also, we don’t know what’s in Brock Lesnar’s future, but Lesnar versus Edge is a feud that hasn’t been touched much, if at all. Next WrestleMania, perhaps? Fingers crossed.