WRESTLING REVIEW: WWE WrestleMania XXXVIII
With the most stupendous night of wrestling popping off with a slow simmer, it appeared that by the time the festivities came to the Raw Women’s Championship match that things that couldn’t boil over, but boil it did.
Following the cues of longtime storytelling jettisoned from last year’s Summerslam, Bianca Belair was able to take advantage of the opportunity to gain retribution for losing her title to a returning Lynch at that time. The video vignette prior to this match showed a Lynch that blamed her villainous ways on the WWE Universe for sympathizing with Belair after she was robbed of her title by Lynch. This vignette transitioned into Lynch channeling the energy of the promo into an intro befitting of a Marvel movie, completely deflated by pulling up in a soccer mom van and hopping out with a cloud of darkness following at the heels of her ebony attire. The challenger came out though with a emphatic marching band from a Texas HBCU, TSU, decisively marched all over the champ’s pompus and lackluster entrance.
Once the bell rang there were shades that Belair would suffer the same fate she did at Summerslam the minute she extended her hand to Becky and ended up seconds later on the mat with Becky on top of her. Miraculously, lightning did not strike twice and Becky was forced to pull out all the stops to shut down Belair early in the match. It was counter after counter on both ends of the spectrum. Sure it was special earlier in the men’s division to finally see someone kick out of Corbin’s finisher, but never have I witnessed somebody kick out of three consecutive Becksploder’s until Bianca Belair came to Dallas. The spots didn’t stop as Belair modified a KOD into a 450 as well as her signature pulled off from the second rope.
With such athleticism, it makes since that the competition would eventually get cocky; which led to Belair earning some rope burn by getting her throat caught up in the ropes and suffering from various vicious kicks to the face leading to a rolling thunder kick from the top rope that only could be pulled off by a Big Timer this side of Louisiana. With many more near falls and limbs being placed on the ropes to break pin counts, the action all came down to the outside of the squared circle as Lynch Man-handle slammed Belair into the steel steps, busting the steps apart and setting the ref to count off to see if Belair would be able to make it back in the ring before 10. The ref got to 8,there was another Man-handle from Lynch that then got countered into a K.O.D. and a bruised and beleaguered Belair won the (Raw) Women’s title at the Grandest Stage of Them All for the second year in a row -leaving Becky Lynch titles and kissing not only canvas, but the backside of Belair’s tights where Becky’s name and lip imprints were sewn in. Art once more imitates life.
Pro-Wrestling doesn’t get the respect it deserves. The first thing people think of when 2K games are mentioned is the NBA. Charlotte Flair knows this. When water cooler talk revolves around the “big fight”, whatever what Dana White is promoting is at the forefront of those conversations and once again Charlotte Flair knows this. This is why, love or hate one of the most entitled heir’s to one of pro-wrestling’s most recognized dynasties, Charlotte Flair took all that knowledge and turned that into animosity for her challenger: the part-timer Ronda Rousey, who came back with some impressive tricks since her first foray into the wrestling business, but ultimately came up short in her quest to snatch away the Smackdown Women’s Championship from the most winningest player in the women’s division today. The competitor’s reached the ring with nothing really special – Flair showing up in the blue representative of her brand as fireworks erupted around her, while Rousey showed up in an eye-catching black and white pleated kilt, as opposed to her usual red and yellow “Rowdy” colors. With the vignette prior to the match leaving the world wondering if Rousey had any new tricks in her arsenal, Ronda started things off with tried and true MMA strikes and kicks to the champ.
From the bell, Ronda was all business. But Flair was no slouch and quickly synched in a figure 8, which Rousey incredibly countered with an Ankle Lock- displaying that her time training with Shayna Baszler wasn’t for naught! Ronda ended up throwing tornado DDT’s on the table, sitting up in a tree of woe just to stare down the champ, and turning her famous arm drag into something as awe-inspiring for the crowd as her opponent’s flurry of chops. Those patented Flair chops weren’t enough for the champ to cover-up two sloppily executed moonsaults though, something that Amari Miller easily could accomplish on any upstart WWE brand, which is embarrassing for the champ here on WWE’s biggest annual show. These mistakes of course could be covered up (like Flair’s nipple when it popped out) by the in-ring story, and as that progressed, the competitors were becoming visibly fatigued. This fatigue coupled with spots of showboating, saw Ronda cockily throwing on armbars just to get hit with a spear. Rousey redeemed her signature by climbing up Flair for an armbar spot that was eventually broken. It was submission exchange after submission exchange – Ankle Lock’s vs. Figure Eight’s, and nasty spots which found Rousey with her face in a turnbuckle and Flair using her ring awareness to not become victim to a Piper’s Pit. With the two going blow for blow this match all boiled down to Flair accidentally spearing the ref. With the ref knocked out momentarily, Flair had the time to tap without the ref catching wind, since the wind was knocked out of him. By the time Ronda went to complain to the ref, Flair caught her in a successful pin attempt from behind and kept her title away from the shoe-horned part-timer.
The question of Rousey’s abilities from the feud have been answered, and she has visibly improved since her first run in the company showing off her fresh skills, but it was not enough for Flair’s classics. Despite this, Flair v. Rousey was far from a classic while Belair and Becky put on a clinic that became match of the night for for the first part of this year’s Wrestlemania.***
Wrestlemania Weekend though had no time for pause and the women’s division capped off the second night with a battle for the tag team championships. Arriving in a foreign car were the clear favorites of Team Legit Glow : Sasha Banks and Naomi. Impromptu teams popped up in their wake including Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan (who looked like they came straight out of a sex dungeon), Natalya and Shayna Baszler (who looked like they came straight out of the eighties) all to challenge the champs Queen Zelina and Carmella, who arrived with such undeserved arrogance and pomp they instantly became the most hated in the ring.
Ripley and Banks started things off with a test of strength. Despite Banks’ obvious height disadvantage, she was able to reverse a Riptide into a Backstabber, leading to Morgan sliding in and performing an Oblivion on Banks to get the favorite out of the ring. Shayna Baszler replaced Banks and started technically dismantling Morgan while the champs slid in for a second… and then cowardly slid out and allowed Shayna to continue to wreak havoc on her chosen victim. At this point both Naomi and Natalya were oddly absent, until Naomi popped up and started Rereviewing everyone. Banks played off her teammate by Backstabbing Baszler and making room for Zelina to pull off a crazy Code Red that caused a white-knuckling near fall. Zelina didn’t allow her momentum to be stopped and hit a marvelous Moonsault on Ripley, undoubtedly for weeks of humiliating roll ups that became internet meme gold. Great timing too, because this match produced one viral moment after another, such as Ripley and Morgan stacking their opponents on either side of the ring posts… just to drop them in the middle of the ring for the reset !
From Naomi to Carmella, everybody started getting near falls, but things eventually had to wrap up, so Sasha was tasked to hit a frog splash like she was with The Mysterios during Night 1, and transitioned a pin attempt on Carmella that was broken by Zelina through an interesting tug of war against Naomi outside of the ring. Zelina then took a Meteora to the face to clear Naomi to put her boot to Carmella’s grill and perform a modified wheelbarrow/Codebreaker, which allowed both Naomi and Sasha Banks to pin Carmella on either side of her body to secure the win and become the new tag team champions!
Another Wrestlemania moment for Sasha Banks for the second year in a row. Plus with Naomi in tow, the right workhorse from the Divas era was put over in this match while Natalya took a backseat to the overall action, having not one notable spot in the entire match. Naomi and Morgan sold the best, Ripley was a powerhouse, and Banks and Baszler were the technicians with the most memorable spots of this tag match, that though had some odd rules, easily ended up being one of the best matches on a follow up night of Mania that had a tough time competing with the previous night’s extravaganza. As a whole Banks beat her ‘Mania curse, Naomi earned respect for an often embarrassing era, Belair redeemed herself and Flair maintained the image of pro-wrestling. Wrestlemania 38 was a spectacle, as any Mania should be and though faced with a lack of hype for a majority of the card out of fear of disappointment, the women’s division worked every match like they were main evening each night and that spirit translated well in the eyes of the WWE Universe and pro-wrestling heads worldwide.
Score : 4/5
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