The Case Of The Missing Mania 38 Star Rating Plus More

The current edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter was published this morning. It features Dave Meltzer's reviews of the shows from WrestleMania weekend. However, there was something missing from Meltzer's report of the first night of WrestleMania which could potentially affect some bets that were placed on the Seth Rollins versus Cody Rhodes match.

Back on March 16th, Kambi released a Wrestling Observer Over/Under star rating market for the match with the line set at four-and-a-quarter stars. As you can see below, the market appeared to have been fairly active with the price of the 'Under' dropping as the weeks turned into hours ahead of match-time.

The reason why there is potential controversy over this market (and others) is due to Meltzer's report accidentally missing a star rating despite the writer's sentiment that Rhodes and Rollins had arguably the best match over the two nights with the Becky Lynch .vs. Bianca Belair contest also being in the running.

Belair's win over Lynch was graded four-and-a-half stars by Meltzer. Therefore, I felt that it was safe to guess that Rollins/Rhodes would get at least a similar number. If not more.

A lot of people have been discussing the missing rating on the Wrestling Observer message board and on Twitter today. The official Wrestling Observer Newsletter Twitter account has, within the last few minutes, revealed that Meltzer was meant to have given the match four-and-a-half stars.

The review has not been amended as of the time of writing. Per Kambi's rules the results are 'settled according to the Wrestling Observer star ratings as published on the next edition issued following the completion of the listed event(s)'. Therefore, the official channel of the Observer's Twitter account may not be a factor for settlement.

Without knowing for sure how the Rollins/Rhodes market will be settled, for the remainder of this post, I'll focus on the markets that have no ambiguity over the missing star rating.

As you can see, in the results table above, Sami Zayn versus Johnny Knoxville also didn't receive a rating. This, I surmise, is due to the way it was presented. Any Over/Under wagers on that meeting should end up voided along with any bets in an head-to-head special which asked customers whether Zayn/Knoxville or Bobby Lashley versus Omos would get the most stars in the review.

The above head-to-head has a winner with Becky Lynch .vs. Bianca Belair beating Charlotte Flair .vs. Ronda Rousey by two-and-a-half stars.

Lynch .vs. Belair (and Rollins .vs. Rhodes, if you want to consider that match as well) became the 'Highest Rated WrestleMania 38 Match' in the market which had WWE's best contest of the weekend going up against the best Ring of Honor could offer.

To tell the story of the win for 'Highest Rated ROH Match', I should point out that Kambi also had Over/Under markets for a selection of matches that were on the line-up for Supercard of Honor XV which took place the night before the first act of WrestleMania 38.

A score of five stars was awarded to the match which saw FTR beat The Briscoes to win the ROH tag straps.

Another event from the weekend, which had Over/Under star ratings markets, was Saturday's NXT Stand and Deliver 2022. All of the results can be found in the table below.

The main show opener, which saw Cameron Grimes win the North American Championship in a multi-man ladder match, was given the most stars for that show. Its four-and-a-quarter stars secured a win over the WrestleMania closer - Roman Reigns .vs. Brock Lesnar - which scored three-and-a-quarter stars.

All three selections were 5/4 each for that market.

The final head-to-head for WrestleMania asked customers whether AJ Styles and Edge would get match of the event over all of the other contests.

When it opened, the eventual winner - 'Any Other WrestleMania 38 Match' - was a 5/2 underdog. It was backed into 2/1 within a day.

Styles versus Edge received three-and-three-quarters in the report.

There were three prop bets available for the show. All of them asked about the possibility of matches graded four stars or higher.

The first asked whether at least two night one matches would receive four stars or higher in Meltzer's write-up. Due to the confusion over how Kambi will grade the Rollins .vs. Rhodes meeting, it could go either way because the Lynch .vs. Belair was also on that night's card.

I believe the other two markets are less confusing to call.

In the second, customers were once again asked whether there would be over one-and-a-half matches graded four stars or higher. This time the focus was on Sunday's portion of the event.

'No', which was a 27/25 underdog to the 4/6 for 'Yes', should be declared the winning selection because only one contest from Sunday received at least four stars.

The match in question was the opener which saw RK-Bro successfully retain the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship against Alpha Academy and The Street Profits in a three-way. It scored four-and-a-quarter stars.

Proposition three was specific to the entire event. It asked whether there would be over three-and-a-half matches rated four stars or more across the two nights.

Even if Kambi were to add or subtract Rollins/Rhodes from the equation, WrestleMania 38 had under four matches with a rating of four stars or higher. Therefore, 'No' should clearly win.

8:30PM BST UPDATE

The **** 1/2 rating has now been added to the review. Therefore, the following results should now become official: