Wrestlemania 38 – Night 2

Welcome back brothers and sisters, let’s break down Night 2!

1. Randy Orton and Riddle defeated The Street Profits and Alpha Academy  for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship in 11:30

Randy and Riddle seemed to be an unlikely duo since forming a team last year, but they’ve really jelled together nicely. I’d love to see them in singles competition again. The match concluded with Riddle delivering an RKO to Montez from the top rope intercepting his Frog Splash. Gable then tried a top-rope cross body, but Orton intercepted him with an RKO in midair for the win. After retaining the Street Profits celebrated with RK-Bro. They even invited the new addition to RAW, Olympian gold medal winner Gable Steveson. Gable wasn’t too happy with this and after disrespecting Stevenson got a suplex for his troubles. 7/10

2. Bobby Lashley defeated Omos in 6:35

Bobby defeated Omos after playing the underdog for the first half of the match. There was a real nasty part where Bobby cracked the back of his head on the ring post but luckily, he seemed fine. Not sure why this match needed to happen though. Usually matches are built up for months before Wrestlemania. So I was genuinely surprised to see this on the cards. Bobby defeating the 7-foot giant makes him look strong which he already was, and it does nothing for Omos. My guess is they’ll team up like most single competitors do after a few more matches but who knows. 5/10

3. Johnny Knoxville defeated Sami Zayn in 14:25

For some this was either torture or a fun filled few minutes if you love Jackass. Filled with absurd props and the cast of Jackass taking part in the match Sami Zayn suffered a humiliating loss being pinned in a giant mouse trap, I kid you not. Kudos for Zayn taking a massive bump off the top rope through a table covered in mouse traps. Another good spot in the match saw Wee-man taking the offence to Zayn and even managing to body slam him. 6.5/10

4. Naomi and Sasha Banks defeated Carmella and Queen Zelina, Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley, and Natalya and Shayna Baszler for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship in 10:50

See this is why tag teams have names. So that you don’t have to type out every single name.  Having eight people compete resulted in a fast-paced match with lots of excellent spots and big moves. None more so than the combination finisher by Naomi and Banks on Carmella to win the titles. It will be exciting to see them together in action defending their titles in the coming days. I really feel for Baszler though. She had one of the most dominant Elimination Chamber matches ever two years ago only to be stuck in tag team limbo. Hopefully the same won’t happen to Rhea, Sasha and Naomi. They all deserve better. 7/10

5. Edge defeated AJ Styles in 24:05

Stunning new entrance by Edge makes me lament the fact that he’s been out of action for so long. Emerging sitting on a throne surrounded by flames, looking like a villain from
Castlevania you think back on what could’ve been. At 48 years old he’s no spring chicken making what he does in the ring even more awe inspiring This includes participating in the longest match of Wrestlemania. Great moment in the match saw AJ Styles delivering a superplex to Edge on the ring apron. Edge got the victory delivering a spear to AJ Styles mid-air, thanks to a distraction by Damian Priest with him and Edge celebrating the victory together. 9/10

6. Sheamus and Ridge Holland (with Butch) defeated The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) in 1:40

Not sure what went on here. Maybe they needed to save time somewhere. The New Day came out wearing the colours of Big E paying tribute to their injured friend. The result was a squash match with Sheamus and co. picking up the win. Odds are if you went to the bathroom at the start, you would’ve missed this one. 4/10

7. Pat McAfee defeated Austin Theory in 9:40

A surprisingly good match. McMahon offered Pat a match at Wrestlemania against his protégé Austin Theory. Pat wrestled once in NXT against Adam Cole and I wasn’t sold back them but boy has Pat improved. Some of the spots were terrific, during the match Theory pushed McAfee off the top rope but McAfee did a back flip to land on his feet. He then jumped from the canvas straight up to the top turnbuckle and landed a Superplex almost winning there and then. In the end Pat picked up the win rolling up Theory as he was going for his finisher. 7/10

8. Mr. McMahon defeated Pat McAfee in 3:45

After the match McAfee jaw boned a bit too much for McMahon’s liking. Ordering the ref to ring the bell McMahon defeated McAfee thanks to constant interference by Theory. After the match the humiliation continued until the sound of glass breaking followed by Austin’s music had him coming down to the ring to raise hell, drink beer and stun everyone in sight including McAfee and McMahon in the biggest botched stunner I’ve ever seen. Just happy that McMahon seemed okay afterwards.

9.Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar in 12:15

Honestly if I remember anything from this year’s Wrestlemania it wouldn’t be this match. Billed as the greatest match of all time it was anything but. It featured a yawn inducing amount of superman punches, spears (even a botched spear, how the hell do you hit someone in the back?), suplexes and F-5s. Heck they even dropped the ref like it was 2012 so that Roman can work in a low blow and a headshot with the title. Rumours are the match was cut short because Reigns got injured. This seemed to happen when Lesnar applied his Kimura Lock but who knows? He looked fine afterwards. The ending happened so abruptly it seemed to be the case. 2.5/10

Now if you think I’m just hating on them then compare it to either of the woman’s championship matches on night 1 and tell me in all honesty that this match deserved to be the final match of Wrestlemania. This was milk toast in comparison. They’re seemingly dead set on protecting Reigns. He probably moves more volumes of t-shirts than Putin does gas to Europe. Roman succeeded in unifying the titles, the question is what’s next and honestly, it’s very hard to pick a contender from the current roster.

And that’s all folks, a terrific Wrestlemania with many feel good moments and some fantastic matches. Thanks for making it this far, I tried to keep it short but there was a lot that happened over two nights.