411’s WWE 24: WrestleMania 38 Report

-As usual, WrestleMania week brings out new content for Peacock. This time they dust off WWE 24 and cover last year’s WrestleMania. Let’s get to it!

-Season 9: Episode 1
-Run Time: 01:12:20

-Drew McIntyre starts us off as he is inside AT&T Stadium and says this is the first real WrestleMania in 3 years. While talking, Austin’s music hits which pops Drew as he notes that everyone is here including Austin.

-Back to Austin going through his entrance and Drew and Ronda Rousey are marking out. Drew says this is the one time he is jealous of Kevin Owens.

-Speaking of Kevin Owens, he is checking out the souvenir chairs at ringside that have an image of Austin giving him a Stunner. He tells us he is in the right place at the right time and he is grateful for it. He says Austin is the wrestler he admires and looks up to as we see pictures of a young KO wearing an Austin 3:16 shirt (the blood red one).

-RAW: March 7, 2022: Kevin Owens tells the crowd that it is official that he has no match at WrestleMania. Back to Fan Axxess as KO spray paints over an Austin poster and then destroys some Austin merchandise as the Super Store. Back to KO out of character: “Yes, I am in the Main Event, but Stone Cold Steve Austin is the Main Event.” He knows how lucky he is and how amazing it is to be in the ring at WrestleMania with Steve Austin. He is going to soak in and treasure this moment.

-Bianca does a run through of her entrance while Piper Niven takes photos. I enjoy seeing these guys and girls have fun with their friends.

-Boogs is next as we see pictures of him in his younger days. He has been playing guitar for years and loves demonstrating strength. Oh man, he talks about how you can’t have doubt doing some of these feats and your brain will protect your body by tearing muscles or whatever it may be. Poor guy and now I see why they featured him on this. He and Nakamura run through their entrance. Boogs says as a kid he was obsessed with The Ultimate Warrior and that totally makes sense. “I am just trying to be an intense, jacked dude.” We see video of his YouTube channel where he did crazy lifting spots and just acted well, like Boogs. He loved entertaining and decided to try-out for WWE. He didn’t hear anything back for a bit but Briscoe got him a chance and he ended up in NXT.

-He then got a chance to be The Night Panther in Old Spice commercials. Old Spice wanted a man who was a wrestler, but had no real exposure on TV and that was Boogs. Vince saw the commercials and that is what led him to calling Boogs up from NXT. The idea was for him to play the guitar and introduce Nakamura. Great pairing actually as it made sense for Nakamura’s rock star persona. They cover how the entrance always popped McAfee who would dance on top of the announce table. Nakamura talks about Boogs and says he is a good hype man, but very humble. Boogs says it is another day and just another match.

-Becky Lynch is backstage carrying around her daughter and she runs into The Undertaker. She tells him that since she has returned she has been kind of lost and not sure how to put one foot in front of the other. Taker gives her some advice and notes he always treated Mania as his first as he didn’t know if he would get another. She is out on The Stadium floor and pops over her entrance video as she tells us she has never had a special entrance at WrestleMania. I guess the one with the Mack Truck doesn’t count since it was an empty building.

-Becky talks about WrestleMania XXV and carrying the title for over a year, and then her baby girl came along. She always knew she wanted to come back better than ever. She made her surprise return at SummerSlam and had the same doubt that the fans wouldn’t remember her that seemingly all wrestlers do. She mentions she beat Bianca in 26 seconds and took the air out of the stadium as she had “buried their girl.” She knew they were on to something special. For Becky she needed the balance as she wanted her career and family life to both be done very well. Bianca puts Becky over for showing the women you can have it all and not have to choose.

-The fans are lined up outside and talk about what WrestleMania means. Man, this is just making me want to go again. It has been 12 years for me now and the plan is to make the drive across the State and head to Philly for Mania XL next year.

-Back to Boogs as his tag match with Nakamura gets to kick off the show and he knows what that means. Boogs shreds on the guitar while Nakamura does his thing and McAfee loses his mind dancing on the announce table. The Usos make their entrance and a year later and they are still Champions, but that ends this weekend. Now for the downer of the weekend as Boogs does one of his feats of strength as he carries both Usos and he destroys his knee. That sucks! He makes the tag to Nakamura and rolls to the floor as people in Gorilla realize something is wrong. Jason Jordan is the producer and tells everyone Boogs is injured but they don’t know the severity.

-Boogs gets carried to the back and put on a cart as the poor guy looks to be in an insane amount of pain. Boogs: “I’m fucked.” His wife is with him as the trainer tells him not to think that way as they aren’t there yet. Boogs ended up tearing his quadriceps to patella tendon and was gone for nearly a year.

-Becky Lynch gets a pep-talk from Stephanie McMahon as she tells her to take the moment and own it. Seth gives her a kiss and she gets loaded into the SUV for her entrance. Becky says she felt great and confident and felt like a bad ass. They tease ending the match early in the same manner as SummerSlam but then settle into a darn fine match. Becky puts Bianca over clean as a sheet to finish off the story and Bianca has been Champion ever since. Lynch runs into Austin backstage and he tells her that she ripped it up and could not have done it any better. She is pumped hearing that from Austin and nearly cries. KO plays peek-a-boo with Becky’s little girl while she talks to Seth. That’s awesome!

-Back to Boogs as he gets checked out by the trainers and doctor. He tells us he has lifted a lot of heavy weight in his time and didn’t think this was a problem. “The biggest moment of my career and I was riding high for months and it all came crashing down.” That’s heart breaking! He confirms the tendon ripped off the bone on both sides and ripped all the way through. That means 3 100% tears. He is told the timetable is 6 months to get back to being himself and the ortho doctor tells him he will get there. Boogs admits he has to look at it as coming back better than ever or he will go into depression. I am glad to see Boogs back as that was awful for him.

-HHH gives Logan Paul some last minute advice while Rey Mysterio tells us this is for Eddie Guerrero and Art Barr. Nice! This is the night everyone realized Logan Paul had it and was made for pro-wrestling.

-Next Ronda and Charlotte have a disappointing match with Charlotte getting the surprise win.

-Next Seth Rollins is out to face his mystery challenger and oh yeah, we haven’t heard about that AEW guy who returned home to WWE. We see Cody dressed in all black, with a hoodie getting off the bus he was hidden in. THE CODY-VATOR and the crowd explodes. They have the classic match they needed and now a year later, Cody has the chance to be crowned WWE Champion. Wrestling is wild! Cody gets emotional backstage talking about his dad and how he believed in him.

-Now the Main Event of Night One as Kevin Owens host The KO Show with Steve Austin as his guest. KO notes he pictured wrestling Austin hundreds of times, but never at WrestleMania. KO is just giddy as HHH and Steph talk to him in Gorilla. That is so great that he found that much joy with this match. Everyone tells him this is history and needs to enjoy it. “Thank you. I will.” He sure did!

-Kevin Owens heels on the crowd as he doesn’t want to bring Austin out but the glass shatters and the place goes insane. Sami Zayn is on the floor watching it all because of course he is going to be out there for his best friend. I LOVE WRESTLING! KO tells Austin he is looking for a fight and while it wasn’t advertised, we all knew where it was going: Austin vs. Owens! The bell sounds and Austin finally makes his in ring return and they have a tremendously fun brawl where Steve played the hits and took some bumps that he doesn’t have to take. Seth Rollins marks out in Gorilla as Austin takes the suplex on the floor and calls him “a fucking animal.” Again, Austin didn’t need to take a bump like that, but that’s Steve Austin. Owens hits himself in the head with a chair off a missed shot near the ropes Stunner, and Austin gets the win. Tremendous!

-KO gets a standing ovation back in Gorilla and Sami is there to greet him first and then Becky Lynch. HHH and Steph look so happy for him. KO notes he is speechless and nothing will top what he felt in the ring tonight and doesn’t know if anything will even come close. “I was the wrap on WrestleMania night one.” Seth tells Sami that he has work cut out for himself tomorrow to try to top what KO just did.

-April 3, 2022: Night Two! Hey, it’s Matt Riddle! Bianca shows off her swollen eye and says people stated they had the match of the night and hope to have match of the weekend. The Jackass Crew is here as production loads in all the gimmicks for that match. Sami notes he welcomes the pressure of being the one that has to put together this match. Wee Man says the fans are going to love this. Sami says he wasn’t a Jackass fan growing up but was wrong and learned the allure was the friendship of all the guys.

-Knoxville says he was shooting stuff for WWE to promote Jackass Movie and Prichard threw out the idea of Knoxville being in the Royal Rumble. Sami quickly realized the fans loved Knoxville and knew they had something and this would be fun. Knoxville enters The Rumble and gets eliminated by Sami and a Heluva Kick. AJ then tosses Sami. Sami says this can’t end at The Rumble because of how popular Knoxville was and he puts Knoxville over for his commitment as he was more than just a celebrity making an appearance.

-They go all in as Sami crashes the movie premiere and Knoxville tosses him out while hitting him with a stun gun. Knoxville flies Sami’s phone number on a banner over Los Angeles. Oh, I forgot about that and it was great. I never tried calling the number though. Sami says the calls and texts just poured in and he had over 62,000 texts. He decided to have fun with it and started answering some of the calls. He could only think of himself as a kid having Bret Hart answering a call. Sami says he was kind of sad when it ended.

-Knoxville says he knows outsiders aren’t always accepted, but the WWE has welcomed him in with open arms. We see them test the mousetrap several times and it works and looks much more impressive than what we got sadly. Sami is kind of freaked out by it and how fast it closes.

-Pat McAfee talks about his family and life growing up. Pride of Plum High School here in SW PA! McAfee says he dreamed of being Steve Austin as a kid, and we see him shaking hands with Austin. He just wanted to not act like a mark though he was freaking out on the inside. We see highlights of McAfee in the NFL with The Colts and then he broke off with The Pat McAfee Show which started as a twitter account, then a weekly show, and then what it is today. Cole says he knew Pat was a media guy and fan, so he invited him to do some of the NXT kick-off shows. CHARLY CARUSO! Good Lord! McAfee puts over how great the NXT shows were and he had a front row seat. He loved the energy and realized he needed to be in the ring. He got the chance at NXT XXX against Adam Cole.

-McAfee becomes the color commentator for SmackDown and says Cole is going to need to carry him. Cole knew how great McAfee would be. I love Barrett, but I miss Pat on commentary. He was basically a fan getting to call SmackDown. Cole says working with Pat made him feel young again and reminds him why he loves the business so much.

-Vince McMahon appears on Pat’s show and offers him a match at WrestleMania. We learn on an episode of SmackDown that it will be against Austin Theory. McAfee runs through his entrance as Cole says seeing his friend compete at Mania will be a highlight of his 26 year career. The smile on McAfee’s face is infectious!

-Now to Roman as he says this is the 6th Main Event of his WrestleMania career and is the most prestigious. Again, I understand marketing and hype, but nothing is touching Hogan/Andre WM III as far as biggest WrestleMania Match of all time.

-The fans are pouring into AT&T Stadium for Night Two. HHH gets a special entrance and leaves his boots in the middle of the ring to officially retire as Steph watches from Gorilla.

-GEORGE KITTLE! As a Niner fan it makes me happy to see him as she meets up with Pat backstage. He wants Pat to throw him a beer and promises to catch it. He passes by Knoxville and gives him a fist bump.

-Sami Zayn vs. Johnny Knoxville: I know traditional fans hated it, but the match was a blast and that crowd was loving every second of it. My friend is a massive Jackass Fan and when I told him what happened in the match, he signed up for Peacock just to watch this match. The entire Jackass crew gets involved and this is the match McAfee was born to call as he is like every fan watching. Wee Man gets a slam on Sami and THE GIANT HAND spot was fantastic! Sami boots Wee Man in a hilarious spot. Sami gets his balls hit and gets tossed through a table full of mousetraps. Then they get to the giant mousetrap spot and it doesn’t work as well as in testing, but Knoxville quickly figures it out and Johnny gets the win.

-Everyone backstage gives Knoxville his props and even Sami notes he is proud of him and all the boys. Cole and Miz give Sami his flowers for putting that match together and getting it over. Sami says it was a piece of art though it was a different kind of art. “What is a match? What’s the point of a match? To take people on a ride and those people were on a ride and it’s a hard ride to take them on. I am very proud of that.”

-Hey, it’s Naomi and Sasha winning the Tag Titles! RK-Bro! Edge vs. AJ which was a dream match as Edge notes not wrestling AJ was a regret he had and he wanted to scratch that itch.

-Now to McAfee as he admits he has some anxiety and nerves. “Ehh, it will all work out.” He has done this a million times in his head. He enjoys there being a lot of people in a place and feels there needs to be more people as nothing is better than people sharing a moment. The crowd loves McAfee and he even does some commentary during the match as he calls Theory a douchebag. McAfee hits his jump up superplex which shows how great of an athlete he is. McAfee gets the win with a roll-up and then things get a little wonky as Pat prods Vince and it leads to a match between the two of them. For Pat this had to be surreal and Vince gets the win thanks to an attack from Theory. It was voted Worst Match of The Year by WON. The whole point though is to get Austin out there for the fans who weren’t there at Night One. Theory takes an amazing Stunner as he springs in the air and Vince takes his final Stunner and it was awful though McAfee laughs and calls it the best stunner ever. McAfee then gets to drink beer with Austin as he lives out the dreams of every kid raised on The Attitude Era. McAfee takes a Stunner and does a spit take to sell it and calls it an honor to get stunned by that man.

-McAfee thanks everyone in Gorilla and meets up with Steve who tells him it was amazing and credits him for his composure. They bond over their love of pro-wrestling and then Pat meets up with Lita and Trish later. Pat often says he has had a stupid life and watching this it’s easy to see why he says that. He runs through kicking off a Super Bowl and building a business with his friends and then this moment at WrestleMania. He doesn’t know how he can top this moment and he will always be grateful.

-HHH and Taker bust Vince’s balls for the way he looked. Taker notes it was all downhill when Vince took his shirt off and Vince says he lost his shoes. Taker: “I wish you would have lost your way to the ring.”

-Now to Roman vs. Brock III and Roman wants to build his legacy to a point where it may be impossible to follow. Again, it was better than the New Orleans match, but not as good as one match in San Francisco (Santa Clara). Roman gets the win and becomes Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, and he still has that belt a year later. Lot of that going around in the WWE these days.

-Austin meets up with Roman backstage and tells him he put all the pieces together. Roman notes it felt damn good out there.

-We wrap up with Boogs getting healthy and a quick rundown of The Hall of Fame class. Becky says the two nights felt like a love letter to wrestling. McAfee: “I have beer in both of my ears.” KO: “It sounds like a John Cena T-Shirt, but you can never dream too big.”

-As always the WWE crushes shows like this where they can show off how spectacular and great they are at doing spectacles. The fun stuff is all the backstage/Gorilla footage and seeing these men and women outside the ring preparing for the biggest two nights of the year. I enjoyed the stories they shared and appreciate the Boogs feature as his injury was a big part of the weekend and it showed the tough side of wrestling. This also showed that KO had the time of his life like everyone assumed. This is definitely worth watching and I hope they continue to produce these each year. Thanks for reading!