9 Match Star Ratings For WWE WrestleMania 38 Night 2
1. Brock Lesnar Vs. Roman Reigns: Anything Goes Match
A great pro wrestling match should take the audience and manipulate the sh*t out of them with its storytelling. They are the authors, you are the audience. You should be whipped into a frenzy with the various twists, creative last-gasp counters, the emotional turmoil of the babyface's struggle.
How great can a wrestling match be if you, the person with no trained skill in how to craft such a thing at the supposed highest level possible, can lay the entire thing out beat for beat?
If you haven't learnt an instrument, you won't be able to write a song. It's a weird indictment that a cynical fan could have agented this match in literally two minutes.
This was the signature Paul Heyman signature and finisher spam-fest, his old and very worn take on a prizefight, and literally nothing more. It was a cliche of a match conceived eight years ago that was always very minimal in content by design.
Spears, Germans, Superman punches. A bonus kimura. Also the barricade was destroyed.
The difference is that it was very much over in the stadium, which helped enormously. It felt familiar, but not in a way that damned it to the point of disaster. And, beyond one glaring blown spot and a thoroughly anticlimactic finish, what little it was was worked very well and with a major league intensity.
Star Rating: ★★★