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Credit: WWE
WrestleMania is the grandest stage in all of professional wrestling and with it comes certain expectations of match quality. WWE fans demand the best, holding the annual extravaganza to a level higher than any other premium live event, as do the Superstars who take to the squared circle.
Sometimes that leads to epic encounters that stand the test of time. Others? Not so much.
In recent years, the enormity of WrestleMania has lent itself to a Match of the Year candidate here or there, with other solid matches sprinkled in, the spectacle of the showing overshadowing its match quality.
That was the case again this year as two matches carried the load.
Which ones were they and what star ratings did the rest of the 13-match card earn along the way?
Find out with this look back at the 2022 edition of The Showcase of the Immortals.
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The opening match of the weekend could have spelled disaster for the entire show.
Rick Boogs and Shinsuke Nakamura challenged The Usos for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. Just as the match picked up and it appeared as though the babyfaces were building momentum, a significant injury derailed the bout and robbed all four men of the opportunity to kick off the festivities with a hot match.
Boogs tore his quadriceps muscle, rendering his obsolete from the remainder of the match, which saw Nakamura fall short of capturing the gold, despite a valiant effort on his part.
It was a shame, too, because it felt very much like a match that would set the tone for the rest of the evening in a positive way.
Rating: *
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Perfectly acceptable wrestling.
That is the best way to describe the battle between Drew McIntyre and Happy Corbin that took to the squared circle second Saturday.
A feud that centered around a sword and some tasteless jokes culminated with McIntyre kicking out of the End of Days, which WWE billed as the first time that had happened, and delivering a Claymore to (hopefully) put an end to the program.
Both men exhibited solid in-ring chemistry and their styles meshed well. It may not have been up to the level that a star of McIntyre’s stature has earned, but the match exceeded expectations en route to the right man going over, so there is that.
Rating: **1/4
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The first match on the card that felt like a WrestleMania-worthy bout saw Bianca Belair defeat Becky Lynch to capture the Raw Women’s Championship.
The crowd inside AT&T Stadium was red-hot for everything The EST and Big Time Becks did in a match that started with rapid-fire near-falls and only got better from there. Dramatic near-falls, great high spots and a fantastic finish helped make it a genuine Match of the Year candidate.
Lynch was great, proving her excellence in defeat, and Belair undeniably established herself as the present and future of women’s wrestling in WWE.
For a match that was billed under Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey from SmackDown, it certainly had fans on the edge of their seat and totally invested in the story its participants told.
Rating: ****
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Everyone and their mothers expected Cody Rhodes to be the mystery opponent for Seth Rollins Saturday night, but that did not lessen the impact of the former All Elite Wrestling Executive Vice President’s return to WWE.
The American Nightmare was greeted with an enormous ovation, second only to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, proving that sometimes going with the predictable is the right call. Once the pomp and circumstance of his entrance was over, Rhodes proceeded to deliver another Match of the Year candidate against a guy in Rollins who has been the steady workhorse for the company since his initial main event push back in 2015.
A hard-hitting, physical encounter that left Rhodes with a knot on his forehead, the match refused to be overshadowed by the initial surprise. Rhodes and Rollins capitalized on the emotion in the air and delivered a match that put an exclamation point on the former’s homecoming.
Rhodes went over, Rollins still looked damn good in defeat, and WWE had another tremendous match on its hands.
Rating: ****1/2
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Given the quality of its predecessors, it was going to be mighty difficult for the SmackDown Women’s Championship Match between Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey to live up to the bar set by Rhodes vs. Rollins and Belair vs. Lynch, but it certainly tried.
Not always the prettiest match, and certainly suffering from a lack of flow early on, it recovered nicely down the stretch en route to The Queen successfully retaining her title following a referee bump a big boot to the face.
The fans struggled to get invested early, if for no other reason than being burned out by the previous two encounters. Flair, in particular, won them back. The second-generation star is an all-timer and worked overtime to make sure the match lived up to its billing as one of the main events of the night.
Even if it was obvious that there is a better match to be had between the two down the road.
Rating: ***1/2
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“Stone Cold” Steve Austin did not have to take a bump on the unprotected arena floor, but he did. He did not have to deliver two big suplexes to Kevin Owens on the unforgiving WrestleMania stage, but he did. Why? Because Austin does not do anything half-assed, including returning to the squared circle for the first time in 19 years for a Texas-sized sendoff.
Austin worked hard, overcoming early hesitation to deliver a damn fun, Attitude Era brawl with Kevin Owens in a match most assumed they would never see. In the same city that he had his very first match, Austin capitalized on an errant steel chair swing from Owens and dropped him with a Stone Cold Stunner to win the match and send the fans home happy.
The Texas Rattlesnake very easily could have delivered the hits and instead, he put in the work and ensured fans did not feel cheated by the main event of the biggest show of the year. For what he accomplished Saturday, Austin is in a league of his own.
Rating: ***
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Take three uber-talented tag teams, put them in the opening match spot on night two of WrestleMania and turn them loose. The outcome will almost always be a fantastic match and this was no different.
The energy RK-Bro, Alpha Academy and Street Profits brought to the first match of Sunday’s card was palpable. It helped elevate a match between three teams fans had seen compete against each other countless times before to a level befitting the biggest show of the year.
The high-risk dives from Ford and Gable, the stadium-shaking hot tag to Orton and the finishing sequence that saw The Viper deliver the RKO to the aforementioned Gable in mid-flight made for a hell of a match that captivated the Dallas fans throughout.
The perfect example of the multi-man matches WWE so well, with everyone shining and the right team going over.
Rating: ***1/2
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This one lived down to expectations as Omos was nowhere near ready to excel on a stage of this magnitude as a singles competitor, and Bobby Lashley was not the miracle worker needed to get a passable match out of him.
An ugly encounter that exposed Omos while leaving fans questioning what Lashley did to take on such a challenge, it was mercifully quick and saw The All-Mighty pick up the win after a pair of spears.
The less said about it, the better.
Rating: DUD
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One’s opinion of Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn is dependent upon their ability to accept a fun, inoffensive garbage wrestling match. Chock full of Jackass stars and spectacle, the Anything Goes Match between the Hollywood celebrity and former Intercontinental champion had the fans in Dallas entertained from start to finish.
Knoxville provided the gags, Zayn shined in one of his best performances ever and the result was harmless fun that would not have been out of place in the Attitude Era hardcore division.
Of course, there are those who will denounce the style of match they had, claiming it made a mockery out of professional wrestling and that everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves. That subset of fans were never going to like anything Zayn and Knoxville accomplished Sunday night.
The fact that they held onto the audience no matter how ridiculous the props became is a testament to the quality of performers Zayn and Knoxville are. Lesser-skilled workers than Zayn, and anyone but a consummate showman like Knoxville, would have folded in spectacular fashion.
They did not and the result was one of the wildest, most fun matches in WrestleMania history.
Rating: **1/2
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In the weeks leading into WrestleMania, we saw the eight women involved in Sunday’s Fatal 4-Way for the Women’s Tag Team Championships deliver some strong in-ring content on both Raw and SmackDown. Unfortunately for them, the layout of the championship clash in Dallas would not allow that trend to continue.
The effort from all eight performers was there, and the fans seemed to be into the many spots throughout, but that is really all that the match amounted to. There was no flowing narrative or story, just eight women doing moves until Naomi and Sasha Banks did the most emphatic one and pinned Carmella to win the tag titles.
Natalya and Shayna Baszler, Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan, Queen Zelina and Carmella were all game to deliver something a bit more special but in the end, the match really only amounted to a string of moves before giving way to the finish and that is unfortunate because the talent was in place for something a lot more meaningful.
Rating: **
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Originally scheduled for Saturday’s show, the tag match that saw Sheamus and Ridge Holland defeat New Day did a disservice to everyone involved.
First, it made them look like an afterthought. Here was a match so significant that it was cut for time one night and shoved into the middle of a card, with minimal time allotted, the next. Worse, the same team that had dominated the story to this point went over again, leaving some to question why WWE did not just stick it on the WrestleMania edition of SmackDown and call it even.
There was nothing to the match outside of Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods that was WrestleMania-worthy. It was the same match we have seen between the two teams each Friday night, with the same heels going over.
So why bother?
Rating: *
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Anyone familiar with Pat McAfee’s work in NXT was fully prepared for the SmackDown color commentator to show up and show out Sunday and he did just that. Showcasing his athleticism and charisma as a performer, McAfree grabbed hold of the WWE Universe’s attention and did not let go for the entirety of his battle with Austin Theory.
The match, elementary in some ways but still reflecting McAfee’s enormous personality, saw the mainstream media star secure the win over Mr. McMahon’s hand-picked protege with a rollup and handful of tights.
The crowd was into it, fully investing in McAfee’s character and story, and the result was a really good match to break up a string of not-so-great in-ring action.
The “match” that followed it between the commentator and McMahon was not-so-great but “Stone Cold” Steve Austin arrived on the scene, rectified that situation and stood tall one last time on the WrestleMania stage.
Rating: ***1/2
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For three-quarters of Sunday’s main event, Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar delivered a suitably epic encounter full of big blows and dramatic near-falls. A referee bump teased shenanigans from The Usos and/or Paul Heyman, but the match remained a one-on-one encounter for its entirety.
Reigns attempted to cheat, using a low blow and a title to the face, but Lesnar continued to fight.
And there is where things went a little haywire.
An ugly spear, which appeared to be the result of The Beast being out of position, came first. Then, an abrupt finish that saw Reigns rake the eyes of his opponent, allowing him to escape an F-5 before delivering a spear for the win.
The suddenness of the finish led to somewhat of an anticlimactic finish in a match that deserved an emphatic and decisive one. Everything leading to that moment worked and reflected the heavy-hitting, throw-everything-at-each-other main event this should have been. It is just a shame the finish came across as a bit flat because the feud earned something much more definitive.
Rating: ***1/2
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