READY TO RUMBLE
Here are the biggest takeaways from Wrestlemania 38 in Arlington
Apr 4, 2022, 10:53 am
Roman Reigns took the belt. WWE.com.
After 19 years of being sidelined by injury and show business opportunities, Stone Cold Steve Austin finally opened one last can of whoopass at WrestleMania 38 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Austin was supposed to be a guest on heel wrestler Kevin Owens’ in-ring “talk show,” but Austin went all Will Smith on the host when Owens got lippy about Austin’s beloved state of Texas. A referee jumped between the ropes, a bell rang, and the interview turned into Saturday night’s main event.
Austin won by smashing Owens pillar to post while drinking several cans of his signature beer, Broken Skull IPA. Austin promptly announced his retirement, this time for good, after the match.
This was my 19th WrestleMania, including Mania 17 at the Astrodome and Mania 25 at NRG Stadium. This trip had some bonus excitement. I booked two nights at, let’s say an inexpensive motel a few miles from AT&T Stadium. I’m not a hotel guy. As long as the toilet flushes and the place has cable, I’m good. When I woke up Sunday morning and opened the door, the first thing I saw was bumper-to-bumper police cars in the parking lot. I asked someone with the motel what’s up? He said “the usual.”
The AT&T Stadium press box was packed with 125 esteemed journalists from across the U.S. and around the world. There were hard-hitting reporters from BILD newspaper in Germany, Al Jazeera, Mundo Deportivo, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Muscle and Fitness Magazine, Hollywood Life, The Athletic, Sirius XM, Bleacher Report, and Comicbook.com.
The Kelly Clarkson Show? Once I was in Germany and read a headline on the front page of BILD saying that Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury was ill. He died the next day. Not all press is good press.
WWE always packs a goodie bag for the working press — this year a souvenir program, commemorative WrestleMania hoodie, premium weight T-shirt and ball cap. It's not the Academy Awards.
As always, the Mania press box was catered: hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, mac ‘n’ cheese, quail (at least I think/hope it was quail), slaw, cookies, and cake. Unlike the Houston Astros, WWE doesn’t charge reporters to eat. If you’ve ever bumped into the sports media, you understand why the Astros would go broke feeding that bunch for free.
The night before Mania, Madcap Moss won the prestigious Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Madcap also dabbles in standup comedy.
Samples: “I hear that Atlanta is the biggest city in Georgia. It’s funny, though, I didn't know they were basing that on weight.
“What do you call a Battle Royal named after the smartest Texans around? A Cattle Royal.”
Shecky needs to stick to wrestling.
With 77,899 fans crowding AT&T Stadium, here are the results from Night One (Saturday) of The Showcase of the Immortals:
Jimmy and Jey Uso successfully defended their Smackdown tag titles by turning back the challenge of Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs. I missed most of this match because I went back to catering when I heard they had hot dogs with sauerkraut, the unsung hero of the condiment industry.
Charlotte Flair retained her Smackdown women’s title by pinning former MMA superstar Ronda Rousey in a controversial match. Rousey locked in an arm bar on Flair which caused the champ to tap out. However, the referee didn’t hear Flair quit because he was busy being unconscious from an earlier collision.
When he regained his senses, Flair kicked Rousey in the head and earned the victory. I smell a rematch.
Seth Freakin’ Rollins fell to the returning Cody Rhodes, who was Mr. McMahon’s handpicked surprise combatant. Rhodes has spent the past few years with a rival organization before signing with WWE several weeks ago.
Bianca Belair won the Raw women’s title by defeating Big Time Becks Becky Lynch in a brutal match that absolutely stole the show at Mania.
The Miz and Logan Paul upset the father-son team of Rey and Dominick Mysterio. I’d be wearing a barrel with nothing under it today if I had bet on this match. While celebrating their victory, The Miz sucker shot Paul and stomped back to the dressing room. Thanks for nothing. Sorry, not sorry.
This year’s inductees of the WWE Hall of Fame are: the Undertaker, Queen Sharmell, the Steiner Brothers and Vader. Queen Sharmell and her husband Booker T (also HOF) live in Houston.
Night Two (Sunday) on the Grandest Stage of Them All:
Raw tag champs RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) kept their belts in a slobberknocker against the Alpha Academy and the Street Profits.
The Almighty Bobby Lashley speared and pinned the previously undefeated giant Omos.
Jackass star Johnny Knoxville continue reading on CultureMap.com.
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Jul 8, 2025, 12:03 pm
Adding a player of Kevin Durant’s caliber was too valuable an opportunity for the Houston Rockets to pass up, even though it meant moving on from Jalen Green just four seasons after they drafted him second overall.
Durant was officially acquired from Phoenix on Sunday in a complicated seven-team transaction that sent Green and Dillon Brooks to the Suns and brought Clint Capela back to Houston from the Hawks.
General manager Rafael Stone is thrilled to add the future Hall of Famer, who will turn 37 in September, to a team which made a huge leap last season to earn the second seed in the Western Conference.
Asked Monday why he wanted to add Durant to the team, Stone smiled broadly before answering.
“He’s Kevin Durant,” Stone said. “He’s just — he’s really good. He’s super-efficient. He had a great year last year. He’s obviously not 30 anymore, but he hasn’t really fallen off and we just think he has a chance to really be impactful for us.”
But trading Green to get him was not an easy decision for Stone, Houston’s general manager since 2020.
“Jalen’s awesome, he did everything we asked,” Stone said. “He’s a wonderful combination of talent and work ethic along with being just a great human being. And any time that you have the privilege to work with someone who is talented and works really hard and is really nice, you should value it. And organizationally we’ve valued him tremendously, so yeah very hard.”
Green was criticized for his up-and-down play during the postseason when the Rockets were eliminated by the Warriors in seven games in the first round. But Green had improved in each of his four seasons in Houston, leading the team in scoring last season and playing all 82 games in both of the past two seasons.
Pressed for details about why Green's time was up in Houston, Stone wouldn't get into specifics.
“It’s the NBA and you can only do trades if a certain amount of money goes out and a certain amount comes in and there’s some positional overlap or at least overlap in terms of on ball presence,” he said. “And so that’s what the deal required.”
In Durant, the Rockets get a veteran of almost two decades who averaged 26.6 points and six rebounds a game last season and has a career average of 27.2 points and seven rebounds.
Houston loves the veteran experience and presence that Durant brings. Stone noted that the team had arranged for some of its players to work out with him in each of the past two offseasons.
“His work ethic is just awesome,” Stone said. “The speed at which he goes, not in a game … but the speed at which he practices and the intensity at which he practices is something that has made him great over the years and it started when he was very young. So of all the things that I hope rubs off, that’s the main one I think is that practice makes perfect. And I think one of the reasons he’s had such an excellent career is because of the intensity with which he works day in day out.”
Durant is a 15-time All-Star and four-time scoring champion, who was the Finals MVP twice. The former Texas Longhorn is one of eight players in NBA history to score at least 30,000 points and he won NBA titles in 2017 and 2018 with the Warriors.
Now he’ll join a team chasing its first NBA title since winning back-to-back championships in 1994-95.
“Everything has to play out, but we do — we like the fit,” Stone said. “We think it works well. We think he will add to us and we think we will help him.”