WrestleMania 38

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WrestleMania 38
WrestleMania 38 poster.jpg
Promotional poster featuring Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns
Tagline(s) "The Most Stupendous Two-Night Event In WrestleMania History"
Information
Promotion WWE
Brand(s) Raw
SmackDown
Date April 2–3, 2022
Venue AT&T Stadium
City Arlington, Texas
WWE Network event chronology
NXT Stand & Deliver WrestleMania 38 WrestleMania Backlash
WrestleMania chronology
37 WrestleMania 38 39

WrestleMania 38 is the upcoming 38th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling live event produced by WWE. It will be held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event will air on pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide and will be available to stream through Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network internationally. It is scheduled to be held as a two-night event, taking place on April 2 and 3, 2022, at the AT&T Stadium in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex city of Arlington, Texas.

The event will be the fourth WrestleMania to be held in the state of Texas (after X-Seven, 25, and 32) and the second in AT&T Stadium after WrestleMania 32 in 2016. It will also be the third WrestleMania to feature Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns in the main event (after 31 and 34), with WWE billing the match as "The Biggest WrestleMania Match of All-Time", which will see the unification of the promotion's two world championships, Raw's WWE Championship and SmackDown's Universal Championship, held by Lesnar and Reigns, respectively.

Production

Background

WrestleMania is considered WWE's flagship live event, having first been held in 1985. It is the longest-running annual professional wrestling event in history and is held between mid-March to mid-April.[1] It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views (PPVs), including Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, which were originally dubbed the "Big Four",[2] WrestleMania is ranked the sixth most valuable sports brand in the world by Forbes,[3] and has been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment.[4] WrestleMania 38 will feature wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. In addition to airing on traditional PPV, it will air on Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network in international markets.[5] The official theme song for the event is "Sacrifice" by The Weeknd.[6]

On January 16, 2021, in addition to announcing the date and location change of WrestleMania 37, which had to be rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the promotion revealed the dates and locations of the next two WrestleMania events. WrestleMania 38 was announced to be held at AT&T Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.[5] It was originally scheduled to be held solely on April 3, 2022; however, on October 25, 2021, it was revealed that, like the previous two WrestleMania events, WrestleMania 38 was expanded to take place over two nights: Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, 2022.[7] It will be the fourth WrestleMania to be held in the state of Texas (after X-Seven, 25, and 32) and the second to be held in this venue, after WrestleMania 32 in 2016, which set the attendance record for a WrestleMania event at 101,763,[5] which was, however, disputed.[8] Travel packages became available on November 8, 2021,[9] while general tickets went on sale on November 12.[7]

Storylines

The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portray heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results are predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,[10][11] while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.[12]

Main event matches

For many years, Paul Heyman had been the advocate for Brock Lesnar. After Lesnar took a hiatus following WrestleMania 36 in April 2020, Heyman became the special counsel for Roman Reigns that August, guiding him to win SmackDown's Universal Championship.[13] After Reigns retained the title at the 2021 SummerSlam, Lesnar returned to WWE and confronted Reigns, also implying that Heyman was still his advocate.[14] Two months later at Crown Jewel, Reigns defeated Lesnar to retain the Universal Championship with help from The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso).[15] A rematch was scheduled for the New Year's event Day 1,[16] and Reigns fired Heyman as he believed Heyman was working with Lesnar behind his back.[17] The Day 1 match, however, was canceled as Reigns tested positive for COVID-19.[18] Due to his status as a free agent, Lesnar was instead added to Raw's multi-person WWE Championship match at Day 1 and won the title.[19] On the following SmackDown, Lesnar, who reunited with Heyman, challenged Reigns to a champion vs. champion match, but Reigns declined.[20] At the Royal Rumble, Lesnar lost his WWE Championship after interference from Reigns and a double cross from Heyman, who realigned with Reigns. Later that night, Lesnar entered into the Royal Rumble match and won to earn himself a world championship match of his choice at WrestleMania 38.[21] On the following episode of Raw, Lesnar announced that he would challenge Reigns for the Universal Championship. Still wanting it to be a champion vs. champion match, and also wanting a rematch for losing his title, Lesnar was also added to the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match at Elimination Chamber,[22] which he won.[23] It was then confirmed that their WrestleMania match would be a Winner Takes All match for the WWE Championship and Universal Championship,[24] which was further stipulated as a championship unification match.[25]

At the Royal Rumble, Ronda Rousey, in her first appearance since WrestleMania 35 in April 2019, made a surprise return and won the women's Royal Rumble match to earn a women's championship match of her choice at WrestleMania 38.[21] After pondering her choices due to having heated history with both reigning champions,[22] on the following episode of SmackDown, Rousey announced that she would challenge Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women's Championship.[26]

Undercard matches

At SummerSlam in August 2021, Becky Lynch, who had been on maternity leave since May 2020, made a surprise return and defeated Bianca Belair in an impromptu match to win the SmackDown Women's Championship in 26 seconds.[14] Over the course of the next month, Lynch would continue to retain the championship against Belair using underhanded tactics before both were drafted to Raw in the 2021 WWE Draft; Lynch and Raw Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, who was drafted to SmackDown, traded their championships to keep the titles on their respective brands, thus Lynch became the Raw Women's Champion. After Belair failed to earn a title shot at the 2022 Royal Rumble and also failing to win the women's Royal Rumble match, Belair won the women's Elimination Chamber match at Elimination Chamber to finally earn a one-on-one match against Lynch for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 38. This in turn scheduled the only two women to win in the main event of WrestleMania against each other at WrestleMania (Lynch at WrestleMania 35 and Belair at WrestleMania 37 Night 1, respectively).[23]

On the January 31 episode of Raw, The Miz defeated Dominik Mysterio.[22] The following week, Dominik and his father Rey Mysterio were guests on "Miz TV". Rey claimed that Miz cheated to defeat Dominik while Miz took issue that Rey had an opportunity to qualify for the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match while he did not and also that Rey was the cover star of the WWE 2K22 video game. Miz also questioned if Rey was truly Dominik's dad, referencing the child custody battle that Rey had with Eddie Guerrero back at SummerSlam in 2005. Dominik then defeated Miz in a rematch.[27] Rey then defeated Miz during the Elimination Chamber Kickoff pre-show.[28] Later backstage, Miz accused Rey of cheating due to Dominik and said he would find a tag team partner who was a "global superstar".[23] On the following episode of Raw, as Miz teased the identity of his partner to face Rey and Dominik at WrestleMania 38, the Mysterios interrupted, stating it did not matter who Miz had chosen. Miz then revealed his partner as social media personality Logan Paul, after which, Miz and Paul attacked the Mysterios.[29]

On the February 21 episode of Raw, Edge made his first post-Royal Rumble appearance where he issued an open challenge for WrestleMania 38.[29] The following week, Edge came out to see who would answer his challenge, which was accepted by AJ Styles. Edge then stated he was glad Styles accepted as it was a match he had been wanting; however, he wanted the "pitbull" AJ Styles who reigned as WWE Champion, not the AJ Styles who had been Omos' tag team partner for the majority of the past year. Edge then turned heel and attacked Styles, after which, a conflicted Edge performed two con-chair-tos on Styles.[30]

On March 3, 2022, WWE Chairman and chief executive officer Vince McMahon made a rare media appearance for a live interview on The Pat McAfee Show. During the interview, McMahon offered Pat McAfee a match at WrestleMania 38. McAfee, who primarily serves as the color commentator on SmackDown, accepted and McMahon stated that he would find him an opponent.[31] On the following night's episode of SmackDown, Raw's Austin Theory, who had been under the tutelage of McMahon for the past several weeks, revealed himself as McAfee's opponent at WrestleMania 38.[32]

After weeks of disrespecting the state of Texas, on the March 7 episode of Raw, Kevin Owens invited the "Texas Rattlesnake" "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, as a special guest on the "KO Show" at WrestleMania 38. A day later, Austin accepted and it was announced that the segment would occur on WrestleMania Saturday.[33]

Matches

Night 1 (April 2)
No. Matches* Stipulations
1 Becky Lynch (c) vs. Bianca Belair Singles match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship[34]
2 Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio vs. The Miz and Logan Paul Tag team match[35]
3 Drew McIntyre vs. Happy Corbin (with Madcap Moss) Singles match[36]
4 The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs Tag team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship[37]
5 Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Ronda Rousey Singles match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship[38]
<templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
  • *Card subject to change
Night 2 (April 3)
No. Matches* Stipulations
1 Queen Zelina and Carmella (c) vs. Sasha Banks and Naomi vs. Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan vs. Natalya and Shayna Baszler Fatal four-way tag team match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship[39]
2 Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn Anything Goes match[40]
3 Pat McAfee vs. Austin Theory Singles match[41]
4 RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) (c) vs. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) vs. Alpha Academy (Chad Gable and Otis) Triple threat tag team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship[42]
5 Edge vs. AJ Styles Singles match[43]
6 Brock Lesnar (WWE Champion) vs. Roman Reigns (Universal Champion) Winner Takes All match to unify the WWE Championship and WWE Universal Championship[44]
<templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
  • *Card subject to change

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Ian Hamilton, Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition. p. 160
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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