Ranking WWE's Best and Worst Booking Decisions of WrestleMania 38 Season so Far

This should be the best time of the year for WWE fans. The Road to WrestleMania 38 should be filled with nothing but the brightest Superstars shining in iconic, history-making feuds, cutting career-defining promos and wowing audiences left and right with twists and turns to set up the most interesting matches possible.

Unfortunately, for everything good WWE has done to make this year's Showcase of the Immortals feel special, there have been plenty bad decisions that render it as dull as an average episode of Raw.

While there are still a few weeks to go, time is running out to turn around the bad and make the good even greater.

Let's rank WWE's best and worst booking decisions for WrestleMania 38 so far and call out what's working and what's making The Grandest Stage of Them All feel a lot less grand.

10. Worst: Matches Are Happening Just to Have Matches

Over the past few years, WWE has gotten far too comfortable with the idea that WrestleMania matches can be announced with zero effort.

Once in a while, this can work, but it has to be two big enough names with an interesting hook (such as it never being done before) and on a card where that strategy isn't in place for the bulk of the lineup.

The Usos recently cut a promo about how they have no challengers for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. They were interrupted by Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs, who said, in so many words, "What about us?" The match was declared official, and that's the entirety of that feud. The Usos are defending the belts simply because they're champions, and those two are the challengers simply because they put out a challenge.

Why did Ronda Rousey choose Charlotte Flair after winning the Royal Rumble? No proper explanation has been given. She could have just as easily picked Becky Lynch but merely didn't.

Rousey and Flair have history together only in the sense that they've fought twice before. Rousey also fought Lynch and lost the title to her at WrestleMania 35, but she opted to pick The Queen "because."

Edge is fighting AJ Styles "because." The Rated-R Superstar put out a challenge, The Phenomenal One accepted, and the match was on before anything else resembling a feud even started.

It's as if WWE wrote up a spreadsheet with everyone's names on it, paired people up and decided to call it finished without remembering these are supposed to have storylines.

9. Worst: Drew McIntyre vs. Happy Corbin

By themselves and with the right opponents, both Drew McIntyre and Happy Corbin are great. The former is a two-time world champion who was long overdue for his main event status, and the latter is one of the most underrated heels WWE has had in a long while.

But this feud has been trash and has gone on what feels like forever, only for WWE to decide to drag it out even further.

It should have ended around Royal Rumble. Then, both parties could have moved on to something else.

Instead, each week has been the same thing. Madcap Moss and Corbin are scared to fight The Scottish Warrior, who looks angry while holding his sword as they run off and he beats up some other sacrificial lambs like Jinder Mahal and Shanky.

If this were pulled from the lineup, the only thing fans would be upset about is that neither Superstar has something else to do. But saying "it could be worse" to justify a boring program is a horrible promotional tactic.

If "it's better than nothing" is the best you can say about this feud that has revolved around no central problem until McIntyre was legitimately injured, where is the creativity in WWE Creative?

8. Worst: The Miz and Logan Paul Are Just Facing Dominik and Rey Mysterio

A lot of this card is something that WWE apologists will argue "looks good on paper" because of some sort of hook. Case in point, Logan Paul will be wrestling.

Ignoring all the criticism WWE is inviting by being associated with him and the fact that celebrities rarely ever put on a great performance when they step between the ropes, the problem here, strangely, isn't even Paul. It's his opponents.

Teaming up with The Miz is perfect. Both can be loud mouth heels the crowd will love to boo. The Miz has his Hollywood connections and fashions himself an A-Lister, making their pairing a natural fit. He's also a perfect patsy to work the bulk of the match and ham it up in WWE's trademark over-the-top style.

But why couldn't those two have been given more dynamic opponents like The Street Profits? Then, their promos would have been entertaining and a younger tag team would be given a spotlight in the mainstream media coverage this will get.

Instead, they're up against Rey and Dominik Mysterio. Rey is a legend and first-ballot Hall of Famer, but he's never been an upper-echelon talker. Dominik is nowhere near his father's status in any regard and has a long way to go before he's out of Rey's shadow.

They aren't interesting opponents. This has nothing tying in to Mysterio being on the cover of WWE 2K22, and Paul has no outstanding beef with them to justify his involvement.

Why else was a segment dedicated not to The Mysterios, but Jerry "The King" Lawler getting heat for Paul and The Miz to badmouth Cleveland?

If Paul wasn't involved, this wouldn't be on the card.

7. Worst: Cold Feet for Splitting Up RK-Bro

Riddle vs. Randy Orton absolutely should have happened at this show, but WWE decided it wasn't time to split them up.

One can argue that's because they're so fun as a team, which means they'll continue to steal the show as RK-Bro. But that's the one and only positive of this scenario.

What would have been a bigger match: The Viper turns on The Original Bro and they have a heated rivalry wherein Riddle is put over and can take a step toward main event status going into the rest of 2022, or RK-Bro wins the tag titles back and fights two of the teams they've had several matches with in the past few months?

That's all that is happening. They've fought Alpha Academy and The Street Profits in both tag team and singles matches for weeks. Every possible pairing has happened. There is nothing of interest in watching those six Superstars fight when we've seen it all.

Much like how WWE is bombarding everyone with the word "stupendous" and telling audiences how great it all is, Orton's promo on Raw tried to play this off as the most important WrestleMania for him just because he's holding the tag titles.

More important than facing The Undertaker during his streak years, walking in as champion in the main event, winning the WWE Championship and so on? Please! Nobody on this planet actually believes that.

If WWE's game plan for RK-Bro was only to mash up the teams that have already fought on repeat for months, that could have been the tag title match without, and Riddle vs. Orton could have been a featured grudge match.

The boost this match gets with the two bigger stars being added is nowhere near an equivalent to not having Riddle vs. Orton, which could have stolen the show.

6. Worst: Random Women's Tag Teams

WWE has never prioritized the tag team divisions for more than short stints when the belts are on Superstars Vince McMahon is personally invested in. It's been obvious for years. What's also been obvious, sadly, is that the Women's Tag Team Championship means even less to the overall picture.

Raw and SmackDown have their men's belts on the line, with the leftover teams fighting the champions, and that's supposed to be good enough. The women's tag team division didn't even have tag teams to contend for these belts until two weeks ago, though. 

The positive about this is that it gets several women on the card. It would be a shame if WWE somehow couldn't think of anything for Sasha Banks, Naomi, Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan and the tag team champions to do.

However, these teams exist out of necessity to get those names on the card and not to service a story or the titles. Even then, there are still many talented women who aren't in the mix, like Natalya, Xia Li, Alexa Bliss and Doudrop.

Why not just bring back the Women's Battle Royal and give it some purpose and flair, such as renaming it the Chyna Memorial Battle Royal? She's the Ninth Wonder of the World in homage to Andre the Giant's Eighth Wonder of the World moniker. At least then, all the women could participate instead of a handful being tossed into random tag teams that will split right after this show.

5. Mixed Bag: Both Belts Are on the Line with Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns

Credit: WWE.com

On the one hand, having both top titles on the line with the two highest-profile names that have been the most protected over the past eight years does make this worthy of the "biggest WrestleMania match of all time" moniker.

On the other hand, putting all the eggs in one basket has made it so not only are two other Superstars missing an opportunity to fight for a world championship, it also an injury or COVID diagnosis could see the event fall to pieces.

Was The Ultimate Challenge worth sacrificing an Intercontinental Championship match to have Ultimate Warrior hold that belt going into WrestleMania 6 against Hulk Hogan? Probably.

But that doesn't mean the same will apply here. If you're not interested in seeing Reigns vs. Lesnar again after watching it so many times since the build to WrestleMania 31, this entire show feels like a waste.

For some, WWE has knocked it out of the park in making this feel epic. Those who aren't into it, though, likely will look back on this particular booking decision as one of the main things that killed their excitement for the biggest show of the year and will toss out plenty of suggestions of who could have fought for the WWE Championship without attaching it to The Beast Incarnate.

4. Best: Pat McAfee Interviews Vince McMahon

A year ago, if you had asked fans to fantasy-book the next year's WrestleMania, it's doubtful anyone would have Pat McAfee vs. Austin Theory anywhere in their minds. Even a few weeks back, that would sound ridiculous.

But since it's happening, for whatever reason, at least WWE kicked it off with something interesting, merely having Vince McMahon do an interview on McAfee's show.

It is so rare for McMahon to do interviews that his appearance alone was newsworthy. Nothing at all happened to set up this storyline, but fans were speculating on just what might happen and how it could tie into WrestleMania.

That got people talking about something that could have easily been written off as worthless.

If Theory had simply attacked McAfee and that was the way this started, would you have cared?

It was smart to have McMahon on McAfee's show, if not just to ensure it didn't get lost in the shuffle.

3. Best: Bianca Belair Earns the Right to Challenge Becky Lynch

As painful as it is when WWE keeps beating the same drum, if there can be a justifiable reason for doing something again, that makes it easier to stomach.

Lynch arguably shouldn't have taken the title off Bianca Belair at SummerSlam at all, let alone in under 30 seconds. That derailed The EST of WWE's momentum considerably and did more to upset people than to build interest in a rematch.

Sadly, the rematches happened. Multiple. The damage has been done, and this feud is not going to feel as grandiose now that we've seen them fight several times.

But if you're willing to treat this as the true rematch where Belair will get her revenge, WWE did right by her with Elimination Chamber.

As the babyface and the underdog who was humiliated, Belair needed a win to not only give her some momentum but also justify why she's able to challenge yet again for the title she failed multiple times to win back.

Winning Elimination Chamber was a feat that proved she's the top contender on Raw and the most worthy of fighting Big Time Becks.

Now, while fans can question why WWE is going back to the well with this, they at least can't question why Belair is getting another title shot in kayfabe.

2. Best: Edge Turns Heel

Edge vs. Styles is the only match on this card that fans would have been pumped for even with no story. 

Since it is one of many matches to be booked like that, though, it needed something else to spice things up.

Turning Edge heel was exactly the right call. The execution of that turn and its follow-up could have been better, but at least the right person will be playing the villain in this feud.

Styles had been heel for quite some time and had only recently turned babyface. Likewise, The Rated-R Superstar has been a babyface for his entire post-retirement career. It was time to freshen things up with a heel turn, which allows him to work with other people on the roster after Styles, too.

1. Best: Championships Actually Seem to Matter

Championships are props, but when done well, they are more than just heavy objects Superstars carry to the ring.

These are trophies everyone should want to win at all times. When you're champion, you are etched in the history books, you receive an increase in pay (at least in storyline) and notoriety, and you can call yourself the best.

At its core, professional wrestling stories are about someone seeking money, pride and revenge, or some combination of those three. But so many WrestleManias have ignored the titles.

This year has been a rarity in that a lot of attention has been put on winning titles. Big-time main event stars like Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins even went after the Raw Tag Team Championship to ensure they had a belt heading into WrestleMania.

Being champion is being treated as a guaranteed ticket to WrestleMania and not as an afterthought.

WWE made the right call in taking the Intercontinental Championship off Sami Zayn to avoid having the title lose credibility by potentially going on Johnny Knoxville. Instead, it is now with Ricochet, who will hopefully have his career highlight defending it at this show.

Losing the United States Championship just prior to WrestleMania is what sent Damian Priest over the deep end. He's since spiraled into a full heel turn and seeking revenge on Finn Balor.

More than anything else, what gives WWE the ability to at least try to claim Lesnar vs. Reigns is the biggest match in WrestleMania history is that both titles will be on the line and unified. If not, it would just be the third time they were fighting and nothing special.

WWE should remember this for future years. The belts should always be a top priority for WrestleMania and never again put on the sidelines or left off the card.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.