WrestleMania 38 was a 2022 two-part professional wrestling premium live event (PLE) produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 38th annual WrestleMania and took place as a two-night event on Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, 2022, at the AT&T Stadium in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex city of Arlington, Texas.
This was the fourth WrestleMania to be held in the U.S. state of Texas, after WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001, WrestleMania 25 in 2009, and WrestleMania 32 in 2016, and the second at AT&T Stadium after the latter. It was the third WrestleMania to feature Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns in the main event, after WrestleMania 31 in 2015 and WrestleMania 34 in 2018. WWE billed the match as "The Biggest WrestleMania Match of All-Time", which was a Winner Takes All match for the promotion's two world championships at the time, Raw's WWE Championship and SmackDown's Universal Championship, which were held by Lesnar and Reigns, respectively, going into the event. This was also the first WrestleMania to livestream on Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, after the shutdown of its version of the WWE Network in late January, and it was the first WrestleMania to be branded as a "premium live event", a term the company introduced at the start of the year to refer to its events airing on traditional pay-per-view (PPV) and via WWE's livestreaming platforms. This was also the last WrestleMania in which Vince McMahon, who created the event, had creative control over WWE before his resignation as the company's chairman and chief executive officer later in the year, although he returned the following year in an executive role.
The card comprised a total of 16 matches, with seven on the first night and nine on the second. In an impromptu match that served as the main event for Night 1, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin defeated Kevin Owens in a No Holds Barred match, marking Austin's first match since WrestleMania XIX in 2003 and the final match of his career overall. This encounter had originally been advertised as a special edition of Owens's "KO Show" with Austin as the special guest. Other prominent matches saw the surprise return of Cody Rhodes, who had left WWE in May 2016, defeat Seth "Freakin" Rollins, Charlotte Flair defeated Ronda Rousey to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship, and Bianca Belair defeated Becky Lynch to win the Raw Women's Championship, beginning her record-setting reign of 420 days.
In the main event for Night 2, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Brock Lesnar to claim both titles and become recognized as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. In other prominent matches, Jackasss Johnny Knoxville defeated Sami Zayn in an Anything Goes match and Edge defeated AJ Styles. Night 2 also featured Vince McMahon defeating SmackDown commentator Pat McAfee in an impromptu match after McAfee had defeated Austin Theory, marking McMahon's first match since 2012 and the last match of his career. Also on Night 2, the team of Sasha Banks and Naomi won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship in a fatal four-way tag team match, which was Banks' final WWE PLE match before she and Naomi legitimately walked out of the company the following month over creative issues; Naomi later returned in January 2024 while Banks, under the ring name Mercedes Moné, wrestled in Japan before signing with rival American company All Elite Wrestling, debuting in March 2024.
The event received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised the Raw Women's Championship, Raw Tag Team Championship match, Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn, Edge vs. AJ Styles, Pat McAfee's and Logan Paul's performance, Cody Rhodes vs. Seth "Freakin" Rollins, and the in-ring return of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, while criticizing the main event for Night 2, Sheamus and Ridge Holland vs. The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods), and panning Vince McMahon vs. McAfee.
Production Background
WrestleMania is WWE's flagship professional wrestling premium live event (PLE), having first been held in 1985. It was the company's first pay-per-view (PPV) produced and was also WWE's first major event available via livestreaming when the company launched the WWE Network in February 2014. It is the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of WWE's original four PPVs, including Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four", and as of August 2021, it is considered one of the "Big Five", along with Money in the Bank. WrestleMania was ranked the sixth most valuable sports brand in the world by Forbes in 2019, and has been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. Much like the Super Bowl, cities bid for the right to host the year's edition of WrestleMania.
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 and feature wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. 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. Travel packages became available on November 8, 2021, while general tickets went on sale on November 12. The official theme songs for the event were "Sacrifice" by The Weeknd, "I Feel Good" by Pitbull, Anthony Watts, and DJWS, and "All Nightmare Long" by Metallica.
This was the fourth WrestleMania to be held in the U.S. state of Texas, after WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001, WrestleMania 25 in 2009, and WrestleMania 32 in 2016, and the second to be held at AT&T Stadium, after the latter, which set the attendance record for a WrestleMania event at 101,763, which was, however, disputed. It would also be the second WrestleMania since WrestleMania III at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1987 to be hosted in a FIFA World Cup venue as it is one of the venues hosting matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This was also the first WrestleMania to be branded as a "premium live event", a term the company introduced on January 1 to refer to its events that are available on PPV and via WWE's livestreaming platforms.
Broadcast outlets WrestleMania 38 was broadcast on traditional pay-per-view worldwide. It was also available to livestream on Peacock in the United States, Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, and the WWE Network everywhere else. This was the first WrestleMania to livestream on Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, following the shutdown of its version of the WWE Network in late January. Additionally, WWE partnered with Fathom Events to air both nights of WrestleMania 38 in movie theaters across the United States.
Celebrity involvement
Celebrities from the entertainment field took part in the event in various capacities. Social media personality Logan Paul, who appeared at WrestleMania 37, participated in a tag team match on WrestleMania Saturday, teaming with The Miz against The Mysterios (Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio). Jackass actor and stuntman Johnny Knoxville competed in an Anything Goes match against Sami Zayn on WrestleMania Sunday. The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders also appeared on stage to cheer Pat McAfee to the ring for his match against Austin Theory on WrestleMania Sunday. Additionally, country music singers Brantley Gilbert and Jessie James Decker performed "America the Beautiful" to open the event on Saturday and Sunday night, respectively, while DJ Valentino Khan had musical performances on both nights.
Other WrestleMania Week events As part of the WrestleMania festivities during the week of the event, WWE held a number of events throughout the week. The week kicked off with a special "WrestleMania Edition" of Monday Night Raw, held at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The night before WrestleMania 38 on April 1, WWE kicked off WrestleMania Weekend itself with a special "WrestleMania Edition" of Friday Night SmackDown, which hosted the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, won by Madcap Moss, as well as a triple threat match for the Intercontinental Championship. Immediately after SmackDown, the 2022 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony commenced. The day of WrestleMania Saturday, WWE's NXT brand held its annual WrestleMania Week event, Stand & Deliver, which aired at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. WrestleMania Week concluded with the Raw after WrestleMania on April 4. All of the weekend events were held live from the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Storylines The event consisted of 16 matches, with seven on the first night and nine on the second, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.
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. After Reigns retained the title at SummerSlam in August 2021, Lesnar returned to WWE and confronted Reigns, also implying that Heyman was still his advocate. Two months later at Crown Jewel, Reigns defeated Lesnar to retain the Universal Championship with help from The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso). A rematch was scheduled for the New Year's event Day 1, and Reigns fired Heyman as he believed Heyman was working with Lesnar behind his back. The Day 1 match, however, was canceled as Reigns tested positive for COVID-19. 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. On the following Raw, Lesnar reunited with Heyman. On that week's SmackDown, Lesnar challenged Reigns to a champion vs. champion match, but Reigns declined. 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 the Royal Rumble match and won to earn himself a world championship match of his choice at WrestleMania 38. 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, which he won. With Reigns also retaining his title at the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber, it was confirmed that their WrestleMania match would be a Winner Takes All match for the WWE Championship and Universal Championship. On the following episode of SmackDown during the contract signing for the match, it was further stipulated as a Championship Unification match, and scheduled for the main event of Night 2.
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.
Undercard matches