WrestleMania 38 Night 1: Live results and analysis

The biggest event in professional wrestling is ready to touch down at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. WrestleMania 38, a two-night affair at the home of the Dallas Cowboys, will spotlight the superstars of WWE with all of the promotion’s titles on the line. The Saturday festivities include three title matches, the return of an icon and the first match for a social media star.

WWE Raw Women’s champion Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair will face off in a rematch after Belair stunningly dropped her title to Lynch in just 26 seconds at SummerSlam last August. Other standout matches include The Miz teaming up with social media star Logan Paul to take on the father-son duo of Rey and Dominik Mysterio and Seth Rollins facing an opponent that Mr. McMahon will introduce once Rollins is in the ring.

The other two title fights on the Saturday card: The Usos will look to retain their SmackDown tag team titles against Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs, and Ronda Rousey will aim for the SmackDown women’s championship, as she chose a match with Charlotte Flair after winning the women’s Royal Rumble in January.

Also, in what is expected to be the main event of Night 1, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin will walk down the ramp for an appearance on the “KO Show,” hosted by Kevin Owens. The assumption is that hands will be thrown, beer will be chugged and someone will be on the wrong end of a stunner.

Haven’t watched WWE in a while? Find out all you need to know about the card from our lapsed fan’s guide, then follow live as we break down every match on the card.

Match in progress: SmackDown women’s championship: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Ronda Rousey

Results:

Cody Rhodes def. Seth Rollins

🚨🚨🚨🚨@CodyRhodes IS BACK and facing @WWERollins at #WrestleMania! pic.twitter.com/ST3B1EmfCx

— WWE (@WWE) April 3, 2022

“The American Nightmare” helped give us the dream matchup we didn’t know we needed.

It had been six years since Cody Rhodes stepped into a WWE ring, and his match against Seth Rollins served as a reminder of what two dynamic personalities with technical in-ring excellence can do when paired together.

It felt like Rollins would be set up in a throwaway match, due to the unknown quantity of who he’d face Saturday night, but in being paired with Rhodes, the two put on a match that looked like something out of The Attitude Era of the late ’90s. Less aerial exploits, more counters and bear hugs. Compared with Belair-Lynch, the pacing of Rollins-Rhodes was slowed, but the drama remained high and tense.

To be fair, the pacing might’ve been the thing that gave us the true tension of the contest, as an ironman match broke out between two of the best performers in a generation of professional wrestling. Rollins broke out an inverted suplex from the top rope and linked it with a second slam, only for Rhodes to kick out. Then Rhodes landed a flying DDT from the top rope, only for Rollins to kick out.

The combination of the night went to Rhodes, who linked back-to-back Cross Rhodes on Rollins, and then decided to channel “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes with multiple jabs and that iconic Bionic Elbow to make his dad proud. A third Cross Rhodes would end Rollins’ night, scoring a…