The opening contest for the first night of WWE WrestleMania 38 saw The Usos defeat Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs to retain the SmackDown Tag Team Titles. 

The tag team match was originally set to be around 15 minutes long, according to Dave Meltzer on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. It only went about 6 or 7 minutes. 

It went short due to a legitimate injury to Boogs, who suffered a torn quadriceps and a torn patella tendon early on in the match. The rest of the wrestlers had to call things on the fly, ending it early.

WWE then had some time to fill, which did lead to more video packages being created. It is unknown whether the finish of the match had to be changed due to this issue. 

Boogs was trying to squat both of The Usos when his knee gave out. Ironically, Boogs had the same knee taped up at one point during the feud, but that was done just to sell during the storyline.

Boogs immediately rolled to the floor and was checked on by the medical team at ringside. Boogs then had to be helped to the back as he was carried up the ramp as he was unable to place pressure on the knee. 

Heis now set to undergo surgery in the near future and it is expected to be somewhere between six-12 months.

Various wrestlers will be in town for WWE WrestleMania weekend and now that includes Shane McMahon. According to PWinsider, the son of Vince McMahon will be in Dallas, Texas. 

As of this writing, it’s unclear whether McMahon will appear on the show, but he’s slated to be in town for the entire Wrestlemania weekend. McMahon hasn’t been seen on camera since the WWE Royal Rumble in January to set up his potential match with Seth Rollins at this year’s Wrestlemania. 

Just two days after the Rumble, he was removed from the company’s creative plans that called for him to be a regular on Raw as a heel. 

McMahon had been pushing to work Austin Theory at Wrestlemania with the idea playing out of Theory’s involvement with Vince. Other officials were pushing for the Shane vs. Rollins match at Mania.  

McMahon was one of the Producers for the Men’s Royal Rumble match. It was reported there was a lot of heat on Shane for the way he acted backstage regarding the bout and trying to put himself over instead of the other wrestlers. McMahon was upset that “he wasn’t being allowed to do what he wanted.”

The belief was Shane receiving the brunt of the heat for the poor reception to the Men’s Rumble match as many considered it to be lackluster. Once the heat blew over then he would be brought back. 

Ronda Rousey will indeed challenge Charlotte Flair for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Title at WrestleMania 38 after she made her return at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event in St Louis, Missouri by being a surprise entrant in the Women’s Royal Rumble match. 

She won the match and earned this title shot. After teasing going after Becky Lynch’s Raw Women’s Title on this past Monday’s Raw, she said she would make her announcement on Friday Night SmackDown this week and that’s exactly what happened. 

However, WWE did try to swerve fans by having Sonya Deville announce Rousey had chosen Lynch and Flair stated that she would face Sasha Banks at WrestleMania. However, Rousey came out to the ring and said that the last time she checked, she got to pick her opponent. She said she plans to teach her daughter the family business of kicking ass and Flair is just one of many who she owes an ass kicking. 

Rousey said Flair isn’t lucky, but just first and she would see her at WrestleMania. She tossed the microphone at Flair, who said that her title is her baby and it’s prettier than Rousey’s child. Rousey attacked like she was about to throw down with Flair. Sonya tried to tell her to back off, but Rousey picked her up and hit a samoan drop before locking in the armbar while staring at Flair. 

As expected, WWE will have Brock Lesnar challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Title at WrestleMania 38 in April. It’s unclear which night the match will take place on – April 2nd or 3rd. 

Lesnar ended up winning the 2022 Men’s Royal Rumble match to earn the right to this bout. Earlier in the night of the Royal Rumble event, Lesnar dropped the WWE Title to Bobby Lashley after Paul Heyman turned on his former client and helped Reigns’ attack on Lesnar when the referee was down as “The Tribal Chief” grabbed the title from Heyman to hit Lesnar with it. 

During the opening segment of Monday Night Raw, Lesnar interrupted the newly crowned WWE Champion. He announced the match with Reigns since it was his choice. However, since he was dressed to fight, he wanted a rematch with Lashley. He said the match with Reigns should be title vs. title. 

After MVP declined the challenge, Lesnar called Lashley a “chicken sh*t.” As a result, WWE on-screen authority figure Adam Pearce announced that Lesnar would be one of those 5 Superstars to be in the Elimination Chamber match where Lashley will defend his title on February 19th in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

There will be qualifying matches including Rey Mysterio vs. AJ Styles and Kevin Owens vs. Austin Theory taking place on Raw to fill out the remaining spots in the match.