Top 10 Best And Worst Of Wrestlemania 38

Talk about starting with a whimper rather than a bang. For whatever reason, WWE decided to open up Wrestlemania with a heel win that killed the vibe. We’ve long complained about Nakamura being underutilized in the E over the years, and this match was clearly beneath him. Unfortunately, things didn’t get much better as Boogs suffered a mid-match injury which caused the rest of the lads to improvise. A two-on-one beatdown ensued, and then a 1-2-3. No heat, nothing spectacular, and not how you want to start a show. Oh, and one of the Uso’s had the audacity to yell “best tag team in the world” after such a poor performance… did they not see Briscoes vs. FTR the night before?

OK, this was more like it.While night one’s opener was kind of a stinker, night two’s was white hot and perfectly got the crowd screaming. RKBro is easily one of the best things going in the WWE right now, and they once again proved it alongside two other fantastic teams in Street Profits and Alpha academy. Non-stop action meant the fans barely had a moment to breathe, and any oxygen they did suck in was quickly expelled when Riddle hit that awesome springboard RKO. Great stuff all around and it definitely set the tone for night two (which was arguably the better of the two).

What the hell have they done to Pete Dunne…I mean Butch? We thought this match wasn’t even going to happen and honestly we wish it didn’t. New Day came out with a fantastic tribute to their injured friend Big E, but that’s where the positives end. Butch is getting the scrappy doo treatment where Sheamus has to hold him back while does the whole why-I-outta thing - and it just sucks because Dunne is one of the best in-ring performers around. The fact that the bout lasted only one minute and forty seconds is a massive slap in the face to all involved. This match honestly had no right being on Wrestlemania. New Day deserves better.

We knew it was going to be a weird one, but nothing could prepare us for this. Sami Zayn, bless his heart, did an incredible job in this one - taking some brutal punishment… particularly downstairs. We got to see a bunch of the Jackass originals pop up for cameos, including the jaw dropping moment where wee-man came out and absolutely unloaded on Zayn with a body slam that would make even Hogan and Andre blush. Seriously, not even Michael Cole’s fake laughing could ruin this one. The match ended with an almost-botched moment where Sami got squashed by a giant mousetrap - and that’s probably the best thing ever.

It’s a little surprising this was so low on the card. Bianca and Becky’s feud had a pretty good run up, including the shocking turn by Lynch back at Summerslam. All it needed now was a solid match to cap it off and that’s exactly what we got. Both ladies looked like stars and put on what is quite simply a Wrestlemania worthy performance. Excellent storytelling and great redemption arc for Bianca Belair. And hey, it was a million times better than the Charlotte vs Ronda match.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how good Edge’s entrance was? If we’re talking about best match of the show from a pure workrate perspective, this has to be it. It’s little surprise these two managed to achieve that feat considering their history in professional wrestling and the fact they had 24 minutes to show what they’re capable of. They billed it as a dream match and it lived up to the hype, letting Edge relight his spark in what has otherwise been a lackluster return (by no fault of his own, of course). The match ended with an earth shattering spear after a distraction from Damien Priest - and we’re pretty damn interested to see where this goes next. Rematch, anyone?

For what was supposed to be the “biggest wrestlemania match of all time” this kind of felt like a nothing match. We’ve seen Lesnar and Reigns battle it out countless times already, so we were really hoping for something special this time around - but they really didn’t deliver. The same spear through the barricade, interference, and finisher spams that each of their encounters prove to be. It wasn’t necessarily a bad match… Just a thoroughly disappointing one. This isn’t how you do the main event to your top show.

The news had been circling the wrestling world, but we still had doubt it would be true. Cody Rhodes was, indeed, Vince McMahon’s handpicked opponent to take on Seth Rollins. Admittedly, the AEW fan in us all felt a little sad to lose one of the OG members, but it appears Cody made the choice that was right for him - evidenced by the fact that he was cheered louder than he has ever been. The match itself wasn’t quite the best we’ve seen these two produce, with a few missed spots here and there, but we could see past it because the atmosphere was electric. Where will Rhodes’ WWE journey take him next? We’re very intrigued.

Alright, we kind of feel bad putting this under ‘worst’ because it was one of the most batshit insane things we’ve ever seen in the company. More like ‘so bad it was good’. But my goodness it was bad. Following a pretty entertaining match between Theory and McAfee, Vince suddenly got in the ring and called for a follow-up contest between himself and the former footballer. Well, it was pretty obvious a 76 year old man should not be wrestling. McAfee lost to Vince after some deadly offense, making him look like a complete geek. Thankfully Austin came down to save the segment by taking out the baddies. Except we bore witness to what was undeniably the absolute WORST Stone Cold Stunner of All Time. It was terrible but it was legendary - Absolute car crash TV.

But hey, it wasn’t all bad for Stone Cold. We thought all we were getting was the KO Show featuring Steve Austin, but thank goodness that wasn’t the case. Instead, we got Austin’s first match in 19 years. It felt like a real spectacle too, seeing some crazy moments like Austin taking a vertical suplex onto concrete. A 57 year old man should not be doing that! Kevin Owens worked brilliantly as the stuntman taking all of Austin’s offense, and you can tell he was probably having the time of his life. Austin put Owens away with the Stunner and we all remembered why Austin defined the most popular generation of wrestling. All in all, this is what you want to see at Wrestlemania.