13 Ups & 9 Downs For WWE In 2022
2. WrestleMania 38, Night Two
Despite Vince McMahon's best efforts to tinker with his unique selling point from the day he bought the company off his own Father, WrestleMania is still the centrepiece of professional wrestling. Once a great promoter, he promoted the sh*t of that thing long enough and loud enough that he had to deliver action befitting of the entire industry's "Show Of Shows".
It's a high pedestal; when it goes badly, it's illuminative of the company's biggest and most egregious faults. It was particularly weird this year, when the very best of what he had to offer was on display just 24 hours earlier. But more on that later because this show needs an absolute kicking.
The two-night WrestleMania format was the right answer years before WWE was forced into it by a pandemic, but future structuring cannot be so lopsided. You were absolutely instructed not to care about Sasha Banks and Naomi's tag title win, nor The Brawling Brutes' victory over The New Day by virtue of match agenting and run-time respectively. Sami Zayn's loss to the Jackass lot was a smoke-and-mirrors triumph but it needed to be following a sluggish Omos/Bobby Lashley showdown and slotted before an interminably rubbish and over-thought AJ Styles/Edge snoozer.
The Roman Reigns character looked cooked in victory over Brock Lesnar. The Bloodline's development alongside Sami Zayn has saved this entire run, or at the very least protected it from what felt like torturous oblivion over WrestleMania weekend. There was a finger in the air to the fans but it didn't feel much like the index one.
Oh, and Vince McMahon completely and utterly humiliated himself in victory over Pat McAfee before selling fear at the wrong entrance music and botching his last and worst-ever Stone Cold Stunner.
But all that feels positively charming compared to what was to come just months later...