9 Live Observations From WWE WrestleMania 38 Night 2

1. Brock Lesnar Vs. Roman Reigns

Stone Cold Steve Austin
WWE.com

On the go-home edition of Monday Night Raw, Roman Reigns invoked memories of Brock Lesnar opening his head up in their controversial WrestleMania 34 main event.

He noted how his family and friends didn’t recognise him. They certainly didn’t acknowledge him, and nor did the crowd that night - the contest was profoundly rejected by the crowd despite the man responsible for the disdain changing the structure and the finish on the day to try and wrong foot them further.

It was, atmospherically, tonally and critically a complete mess.

It turned out to be foreshadowing the eventual quality of their bout.

A lot of generous takes may suggest this was perfectly fine, or predictable in the right way, or important to do simply because gives Reigns his decisive victory over 'The Beast' once and for all but is this even true? They could just decide on the spot to run this back but actually develop the far more interesting strand Reigns' on-screen acting was trying to achieve.

WrestleMania punters left with something of a whimper rather than a roar, and not for the first time, it was because of a Brock Lesnar/Roman Reigns main event.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett