DALLAS — Edge made good on his promise to turn WrestleMania into AJ Styles’ “judgment day,” but the record will show that the scales of justice were out of balance.
Watch WrestleMania 38 On Demand on Peacock in the United States.
For if Edge was the judge, then that would make Damian Priest — who arrived at the end of the match to swing the tide in the Hall of Famer’s favor — the jury, if not the executioner too.
Even before Priest’s surprise appearance, the long-awaited, first-time-ever showdown between The Ultimate Opportunist and The Phenomenal One felt more like a nightmare than a dream match as Edge emerged from the darkness on the WrestleMania stage seated on an ominous throne.
Channeling his inner pit bull, Styles was ready to throw down at the opening bell, but it soon became apparent that Edge was going to dictate the pace, using The Phenomenal One’s highly charged emotions against him whenever possible.
Case in point: Edge got his knees up just in the nick of time to counter Styles’ high-flying springboard 450 Splash. Styles’ miscalculation gave The Rated-R Superstar an opening to unleash a targeted attack on Styles’ left shoulder. Later, when Styles ran full-steam-ahead at his rival, Edge sidestepped the attack, causing Styles to crash into the turnbuckles.
Styles’ tenacity nonetheless shined through. When his shoulder appeared to be popped out of its socket, Styles bravely put it back in place and kept fighting. Despite being limited to using only one arm, The Phenomenal One scored a near-fall off a Torture Rack Bomb and, in a pivotal moment, hit the Styles Clash, but still came up short.
As Styles prepared for a Phenomenal Forearm, the massive Priest appeared ringside. The momentary distraction was enough to throw off Styles, who still took flight but was cut down by a mid-air Spear that sealed his fate on The Grandest Stage of Them All.
As Edge and Priest raised their hands in the center of the ring, Corey Graves summed up the scene best, wondering aloud what the new unholy union means for WWE.
