The night 1 of WrestleMania 38 finally took place. It came out with a lot of surprises. But WWE kept their best for the last. Most of the better matches of this year’s WrestleMania has been saved for night 2. But night 1 did not disappoint at all. There were some great matches as well as some disappointing matches as well. Let us go through everything that happened at the night one of the grandest stage of them all.
Match 1 – WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship – The Usos defeated Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs to retain
WWE WrestleMania 38 Night 1 Review & Results
This might have been the worst match of the night but we cannot blame WWE for it. Rick Boogs picked up a nasty knee injury during the match. He was about to power lift both of the Usos together and he hurt his knee in the process. The match had to be cut short because of it. It was also the shortest match of the night. Since they were forced to change the outcome of the match, we cannot call it a bad match, it was just unfortunate. We hope Rick Boogs gets well soon.
Match 2 – Drew McIntyre defeated Happy Corbin
It was more of a normal Friday Night Smackdown or Monday Night RAW standard match. We did have some expectations from this match since both athletes can deliver good matches. But unfortunately, it was not as good as everybody expected it could be. It was a dominant victory for Drew McIntyre and an easy one as well. This match was also booked for less than 10 minutes.
Match 3 – Logan Paul and The Miz defeated Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio
There were not enough expectations from this match, but surprisingly it was a good match. The low level of expectation was definitely because of the involvement of Logan Paul, but it has been proved tonight that he is a natural talent and he could be a good fit for WWE. The Miz came out with the cheeky victory after he hit Skull Crushing Finale on Rey Mysterio. After the match, Miz betrayed Logan and beat him down.
Match 4 – WWE RAW Women’s Championship – Bianca Belair defeated Becky Lynch to become the new champion
It was also a very predictable match. Bianca had to win it right? We could not see anything beyond Bianca winning this match and she needed to win it. Indeed it was a great match, potentially a match of the year candidate, both of the performers did really well. Becky dominated the most part of the match. But there was no reason behind protecting KOD which was the finisher of Bianca. Becky lost in only one KOD.
Match 5 – Cody Rhodes defeated Seth Rollins
It was one of the most anticipated matches of WrestleMania 38 as well as the best match of night 1. It was booked for over 20 minutes and what an amazing magic was! The Epic entrance of Cody Rhodes was excellent as well, they just brought the American Nightmare theme, which was quite shocking. Nobody in particular dominated the match and that was the reason why it was more fun to watch. Both wrestlers were amazing, Cody pinned Seth with back to back three Cross Rhodes. Hopefully he will be pushed as a main event star.
Match 6 – WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship – Charlotte Flair defeated Ronda Rousey to retain
This was also a very good match but ended in a weak way. Maybe WWE tried to make it unpredictable, but there is actually no logic behind Charlotte Flair retaining the Championship by beating Ronda Rousey. All the spotlights had to be given to Vince McMahon’s golden child. It was quite a disappointing outcome. Maybe by cheating but Charlotte pinning Ronda with only one Big Boot does not make any sense.
Match 7 – No Holds Barred Match – Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Kevin Owens
This might have been the biggest shocker of the night. Stone Cold Steve Austin is back in action after 19 years. This might have been the biggest dream come true moment for each and every 90s and 2000s wrestling fans. There were definitely rumors of Austin having a match but who could have thought he could deliver such a cool 15 minute long match. Kudos to Owens too for carrying the match to such a level.
It started as a KO Show segment and during the segment Owens challenged Austin in a No Holds Barred match which Austin accepted. They had a very entertaining match. It was really nice to see Austin coming back to action after such a long time. The only thing missing from the whole scenario was the Good Old Jim Ross.
Overall, the night 1 of WrestleMania 38 was pretty good, even though there were not enough expectations from it. The match card of night 2 looks better than night 1, but night 1 did not fail to deliver. There were definitely some weak bookings as well as some unfortunate events. But the return of Cody Rhodes and Stone Cold Steve Austin had been the biggest attractions. This WrestleMania will always be remembered for these amazing events in WWE history.