In his first WWE match in eight years, The Rock emerged a winner.

The Rock competed in his first WWE match since 2016 at WrestleMania 40 on Saturday night, teaming with Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns against Cody Rhodes and World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins to determine the stipulations on Sunday night’s championship match.

‘The Final Boss’ came out with an epic entrance that included his brahma bull logo lit up on fire and him walking into the flame and holding up ‘The People’s Champ,’ a title given to him by Muhammad Ali’s wife, Lonnie, at the Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday night.

After the legendary entrances, all the stars faced off in the middle of the ring before Reigns and Rollins started the match. The crowd was ready to explode before a single move.

The former SHIELD members tangled for a bit before Rhodes entered the match in a preview of Sunday’s main event match. Then Rollins and The Rock came in and locked up.

Finally, we got Rhodes and The Rock facing off. It turned to chaos after that, with Reigns and Rhodes going at it on the ramp and The Rock and Rollins battling it out near the announcer’s table. The Rock and Rollins got back in the ring, but that happened just after Reigns had brutalized Rhodes, so the champion attacked Rollins and the two members of The Bloodline did damage. Rhodes later got back to the ring, but Reigns took him out to prevent Rollins from getting any help.

Reigns went for the finisher with a spear, but Rollins countered it. Still, Rollins couldn’t tag in Rhodes after The Rock came in and continued the assault. The Rock tried the sharpshooter on Rollins’ bad knee, but Rhodes came in and slapped The Rock, and Rollins got up in just enough time to curb stomp The Rock. Rhodes became the legal man and then went to work on Reigns, landing a Cody Cutter and a near pin. Rhodes went for another one, but Reigns Superman punched him and went for the pin, only for Rhodes to kick out.

The Rock grabbed the ‘Mama Rhodes’ belt and taunted Rhodes’ mother. Rhodes was able to recover in that time and then used his dad’s signature moves on The Rock, but then The Rock landed a spine buster. He stared over Rhodes, took off his elbow sleeve and went for the People’s Elbow, but Rhodes got up and hit a Cody Cutter.

Reigns again tried a spear on Rhodes, but Rollins moved Rhodes and he instead got The Rock. Rollins and Rhodes then went for the pin, but The Bloodline kicked out. The Rock and Rhodes went on the announcer’s table, and Rhodes used The Rock Bottom on the man himself to send him through the table in an absolutely insane moment.

Rhodes tried doing a Three Cross on Reigns, just like last year, but The Rock used the belt to whip Rhodes and Reigns speared him. The Rock got the tag back into the ring and hit Rhodes with a Rock Bottom, then the People’s Elbow. The Rock pinned Rhodes for the win.

The match was a thriller and it lived up to the massive hype. It never had a dull moment. The Rock looked like he had never taken time away from the ring.

And now it will be Bloodline rules for Rhodes vs. Reigns Sunday night. The story Rhodes has wanted to finish, may not be happening.

A perfect season.

It’s what every team and coach dreams of, but it’s nearly impossible to achieve. You need exceptional talent, excellent coaching, an aversion to injuries and the ability to focus and not get distracted by what’s ahead. But you also need a great deal of luck. Everything has to fall your way.

The South Carolina women’s basketball team has a chance to join some elite company if it wins the national title Sunday. The Gamecocks would finish 39-0 and become the 10th women’s team o record a perfect record. But first, they have to get by Caitlin Clark and Iowa.

The 1972 Miami Dolphins went 17-0, winning Super Bowl VII. Coached by Don Shula, those Dolphins are the only team in America’s four major leagues to have a perfect regular and postseason. Three NFL teams have had perfect regular seasons:  the 1934 Chicago Bears, the 1942 Chicago Bears, and the 2007 New England Patriots.

In the three other major sports leagues – the NBA, MLB and NHL – no team has run the table. The number of games (82, 162 and 82, respectively) in the regular season make the feat a near impossibility.

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In men’s college basketball, eight teams have notched perfect seasons that include winning the NIT or NCAA Tournament. UCLA has done four times.

In women’s basketball, 10 teams make that list with UConn appearing six times.

Which men’s college basketball teams have gone undefeated?

Eight teams have posted perfect marks since the NIT began in 1938 and the NCAA Tournament started in 1939. This includes regular season and postseason games.

1939: LIU Blackbirds (24–0, NIT)
1956: San Francisco Dons (29–0, NCAA champion)
1957: North Carolina Tar Heels (32–0, NCAA champion)
1964: UCLA Bruins (30–0, NCAA champion)
1967: UCLA Bruins (30–0, NCAA champion)
1972: UCLA Bruins (30–0, NCAA champion)
1973: UCLA Bruins (30–0, NCAA champion)
1976: Indiana Hoosiers (32–0, NCAA champion)

What women’s college basketball teams have gone undefeated?

Nine teams have posted perfect marks since the NCAA Tournament began in 1982. This includes regular season and postseason games.

1986: Texas Longhorns (34–0)
1995: UConn Huskies (35–0)
1998: Tennessee Lady Vols (39–0)
2002: UConn Huskies (39–0)
2009: UConn Huskies (39–0)
2010: UConn Huskies (39–0)
2012: Baylor Lady Bears (40–0)
2014: UConn Huskies (40–0)
2016: UConn Huskies (38–0)

CLEVELAND — As she’s rewritten the record books over the course of her brilliant four-year career, Caitlin Clark has sparked numerous debates about if she is, in fact, the greatest of all time (GOAT) when it comes to college women’s basketball. 

No offense to Clark, who earlier this season became the all-time leading scorer in Division I history regardless of gender, but Staley thinks that title belongs to former UConn standout Brenna Stewart. 

It’s hard to argue against her. 

Stewart won four consecutive championships at UConn from 2012-16 (the last time the NCAA had a repeat champion on the women’s side), earning Most Outstanding Player honors in each of those championships, too. She was the first woman to win four MOP awards. 

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“I was really good in college, never won a championship,” said Staley, who led Virginia to three Final Fours, losing the only national championship she played for, in 1991. “You’ve got to win a championship. That’s (my opinion) personally. Like I had a great career. But it’s always, did you win a championship?” 

For her part, Clark said Saturday she won’t measure success on if she gets a ring or not.

‘I don’t think so at all,’ Clark said. ‘I’ve played basketball at this university for four years, and for it to come down to two games and that be whether or not I’m proud of myself and proud of the way I’ve carried myself and proud of the way I’ve impacted people in their lives, I don’t think that’s a fair assessment.

‘I don’t want my legacy to be ‘oh, Caitlin won X amount of games or Caitlin scored X amount of points.’ It’s, I hope, what I was able to do for the game of women’s basketball. I hope it is the young boys and young girls that are inspired to play this sport or dream to do whatever they want to do in their lives.

‘To me, for it to come down to 40 minutes and for me to validate myself within 40 minutes, I don’t think that’s a fair assessment.’

With all that in mind, Staley knows that if Clark wins the championship Sunday with another surprising victory over the Gamecocks, she’ll be in the GOAT conversation considering all her other accomplishments. 

“I mean, she’s really damn good regardless,” Staley said of Clark. “But winning the championship would seal the deal.

“I hope to the dear Lord she doesn’t.”

Five players scored in double figures and No. 1 Connecticut’s quest for back-to-back national championships continued with an 86-72 win against No. 4 Alabama in the Final Four.

The Huskies will next face No. 1 Purdue on Monday night (9:20 p.m. ET, TBS). The Boilermakers beat No. 11 North Carolina State 63-50 in the first national semifinal behind 20 points from All-America center Zach Edey.

‘I think it’s just great for college basketball,’ Connecticut coach Dan Hurley said. ‘Us and Purdue have clearly been the two best teams in the country the last two years. It’s just great for college basketball to get the two big dogs playing on Monday.’

The win was the program’s 11th in a row in tournament play for the defending national champions, all by double digits. The closest margin of victory during this span is 13 points against Miami (Fla.) in last season’s Final Four. Amazingly, UConn has trailed for a total of 55 seconds in the second half during this two-year run.

Alabama gave UConn trouble in transition and from 3-point range, making 8 of 11 attempts from deep, to trail 44-40 at halftime. At the same time, the Huskies went only 5 of 15 from beyond the arc but overcame that inaccuracy by converting 11 of 14 shots from the line.

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The two teams traded 7-0 runs early in the second half and were tied 56-56 with 12:41 left after a short jumper by Alabama forward Grant Nelson. UConn took over from there, stepping on the gas with a 15-5 run to lead 71-61 with five minutes left.

The Crimson Tide’s stroke from deep disappeared in the second half. The Tide went 3 of 12 on 3-pointers while UConn made 5 of 10 attempts in the final 20 minutes.

The exclamation points came from a pair of dunks by sophomore center Donovan Clingan to make it an 80-68 game with 1:49 to go.

‘It feels good, but the job’s not done yet,’ Clingan said.

After shutting down Illinois guard Terrence Shannon Jr. in the Elite Eight, freshman guard Stephon Castle flashed the growing offensive game that makes him a potential lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft. He made 7 of 13 from the field for a team-high 21 points.

‘They made the decision to play him with one of their frontcourt players,’ Hurley said. ‘They played him real soft. He really made them pay for that. He was awesome today and he was awesome defensively. He’s been a winning freshman the whole year.’

After winning MVP honors in the East Region, Clingan added 18 points with five rebounds and four blocks. Cam Spencer and Alex Karaban had 14 points and Tristan Newton had 12 points.

Mark Sears led the Crimson Tide with 24 points. Grant Nelson had 19 points and 15 rebounds.

With the win, the Huskies move one step closer to a place in college basketball history. Beating Purdue would make UConn the eighth program to win back-to-back championships and the first since Florida in 2006-07.

Purdue beat the North Carolina State 63-50 Saturday at the Final Four, breaking open the game with a surge midway through the second half.

No. 1 seed Purdue will play fellow No. 1 seed Connecticut for the national title Monday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

The only other appearance in the championship game for the Boilermakers came in 1969, when they lost to UCLA.

Zach Edey, Purdue’s 7-4 center who is the two-time national player of the year, had 20 points and 12 rebounds, becoming the first player in tournament history to record six consecutive games of 20 point and 10 rebounds.

‘It’s all we’ve been talking about for the whole year,’ Edey said about reaching the title game. ‘It’s what we’ve been talking about for four years now. Just to be able to play and accept that challenge. Whoever comes out of this next game is going to be a great team. But we’re going to lock in our game plan and execute.’

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Lance Jones had 14 points with four important 3-pointers, and Fletcher Lawyer had 11 points for the Boilermakers, who last year were just the second team to lose as a No. 1 seed to a No. 16 seed in the first round. Now they’re one win from a national title.

‘It feels great,’ Purdue coach Matt Painter said. ‘That’s what (Zach) always talked about. He didn’t come back to win a couple games in the tournament. He came back to compete for a national championship but you’ve got to put yourself in position first. Obviously, we’re here now.’

DJ Horne led NC State with 20 points and DJ Burns, the Wolfpack’s dynamic center, was held to 8 points after some early foul trouble. NC State struggled from the field, hitting 36.8% from the field and just 26.3% from the 3-point line.

NC State (26-15) was making its first appearance in the Final Four since 1983, when the Wolfpack upset Houston on Lorenzo Charles’ dunk in the final seconds.

The Wolfpack had won nine consecutive games before Saturday.

On Saturday, Purdue led by as many as 12 points in the first half, but NC State fought back and pulled within three points before the teams entered halftime with Purdue leading, 35-29.

In the first half, Edney had 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting and eight rebounds. But he also had three turnovers, and collectively the Boilermakers had eight turnovers – one reason their lead shrunk.

Horne led the Wolfpack at the break with 13 points. Burns played only 12 minutes in the first half, in part because he’d picked up two fouls. He managed only four points but also had four assists.

NC State point guard Michael O’Connell, who leads the team in assists with an average of 3.2 per game, suffered a hamstring injury in the first half and played only nine minutes.

Purdue’s capitalized on its size advantage with a 21-12 edge in rebounding.

In the second half, Purdue led by as many as 13 points and by no fewer than six.