The end of Wrestlemania is basically the season finale for WWE’s storylines. Not including the Greatest Royal Rumble, Backlash is the first PPV of the new “season” of WWE! Now that my Infinity War marathon is over, I’m trying to write something once a week, and I’ve decided that I’m going to include a WWE section on my blog! Primarily I’ll be recapping PPVs from both the main roster and NXT! Nevertheless, here’s a recap and my personal opinion of each match on the Backlash card! Reminder, these are my opinions, I’m not some wrestling guru; just a guy that loves some wrasslin’!
Bayley vs. Ruby Riot
This was a pretty generic match with the outcome you’d expect. Before the match Bayley asked Sasha to bury the hatchet and be ringside to give her some backup against the Riot Squad. Sasha turned down the offer, and as expected there were a bunch of moments where Baylet got hit by the other Riot Squad members while the ref wasn’t looking. Besides Ruby Riot’s move where she threw Bayley into the turnbuckle, there wasn’t much that stuck out. It was a kickoff show match though so you can’t expect much out of it. 6/10 Ruby Riot wins via pinfall.
Seth Rollins (Champ) vs. The Miz – Intercontinental Championship Match
Similar to Wrestlemania, Backlash decided to start the night off with the Intercontinental Title match! No Finn Balor this time though, only Rollins and the Miz! These are two of the most popular superstars on the roster so putting them together is instant success. Miz continues to be the ultimate heel and had some great spots with Rollins. I’m not sure if it’s possible for Rollins to have a bad match he’s just so versatile with his moveset which makes all his matches so exciting. At one point he pulled a Shane McMahon and nearly jumped the entire length of the ring to frog splash Miz, it just shows how athletic he is. The most dramatic point came when Rollins hit his knee off the post and Miz put him in the figure four lock. Rollins though gets an evil look in his eye and turns the lock on the Miz. The two go back and forth on the lock until Rollins makes it to the rope. Going into the match it was obvious that Rollins would win. If Rollins lost, both the Intercontinental and US titles would be on Smackdown making RAW super boring, but this fight did a pretty great job of making you second guess what the outcome would be. 8.75/10 Rollins wins via Pinfall.
Nia Jax (Champ) vs. Alexa Bliss – RAW Women’s Championship Match
Speaking of ultimate heel, Alexa Bliss holds that title proudly for the Women’s Division. These two had a great match at Wrestlemania, and the two again had a pretty decent showing at Backlash. Nia Jax repeatedly tossed Bliss around like she was a piece of paper, but Bliss responded with some smart moves such as attacking Nia’s legs and knocking her off the top post when the opportunity presented itself. In the end though, Nia was never in any real danger of losing the title so the match as a whole wasn’t as exciting as one would hope. 7/10 Nia Jax wins via Pinfall.
Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (Champ) – United States Championship Match
Next to Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe, this is the match I was most excited for! A championship match where either of the two could win because they were on the show (yay proper booking)! These two put on a solid match. Hardy got to do some nice aerial moves while Orton countered with his slower style. There weren’t any RKOs though which is always a downer. Nevertheless, Jeff Hardy had a sweet finish to close out the match to retain the title. Considering a year ago Orton was fighting Jinder Mahal, I’d say this year was an improvement for Mr. Orton. 8/10 Jeff Hardy wins via Pinfall
Filler in a Pay Per View is never a good sign, but this one might just get a pass since it included some of WWE’s best Superstars.
At this point of the show Elias came out with guitar in hand, called New Jersey a toilet and did what he does best: piss the crowd off. Seriously why hasn’t this guy gotten more wins/title opportunities. New Day interrupted him with instruments (and pancakes) of their own and played their own song. Elias was about to restart when Aiden English broke out into a rap announcing Rusev Day! Elias tried to restart AGAIN, but was interrupted by No Way Jose who had Titus Worldwide in his entourage of dancers along with the Fashion Police. After everyone stopped, Elias YET AGAIN tries to start only to get interrupted by the GLORIOUS Bobby Roode and then hit with a Glorious DDT. As far as fillers go, this one was at least funny. Rusev deserves better though.
Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass
And now the fight everyone has been waiting for! Daniel Bryan vs. The Mi… wait. Big Cass? BIG CASS!? WWE has been building heat between Daniel Bryan and The Miz for months and months and now that Bryan can fight again we are gonna have him feud with BIG CASS!? The story behind this feud is pure silliness: both were medically cleared the same day and Big Cass was overshadowed by Daniel Bryan (shocker). That being said, just seeing Daniel Bryan in the ring again is a treat. Big Cass isn’t a bad wrestler by any means, he has some good moments in the fight, but the story is just something the WWE Universe doesn’t want. This match up really is kind of a lose lose situation. Daniel Bryan wins, then Big Cass looks weak just after his return to the ring. Big Cass wins then the WWE Universe hates Big Cass for beating Daniel Bryan. Overall it was just an OK match that nobody really cared about. 7.5/10 Daniel Bryan wins via Pinfall, but Big Cass attacks Bryan from behind. Unfortunately this probably isn’t the last we’ll see of this feud.
Carmella (Champ) vs. Charlotte Flair – Smackdown Women’s Championship Match
Since winning Money In The Bank nearly a year ago, Carmella really hasn’t had any time to shine so seeing her steal the Women’s Title from Charlotte after Wrestlemania was a breath of fresh air. Going into this match I was almost positive it was going to end in a DQ via the Iconics attacking Charlotte, but I was gladly proven wrong! I hate that Carmella is being portrayed as one of those champions that avoids fights and literally screams in terror at the competition, but thankfully we only had to deal with a small portion of that. The rest of it was a genuine match between the two and I am shocked to say that Carmella had a clean win! 7.75/10 Carmella retains via Pinfall.
AJ Styles (Champ) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura – WWE World Heavyweight Championship, No DQ Match
Why isn’t this the main event of the night? Seriously we have a pointless tag match happening after this! Also, why is Nakamura obsessed with hitting AJ Styles in the balls? Besides the constant nut crushing, I’ve been happy that Nakamura is a heel and I’m even happier to see these two feuding still. A No DQ stipulation usually leads to a pretty epic match and this was no different. There were some great moments like Styles taking the nastiest crash into the steps I think I’ve ever seen, Nakamura getting hit with a chair and said chair deflecting back to AJ’s face, and AJ FINALLY getting revenge and smashing Nakamura’s balls. Then the ending happened. AJ and Nakamura exchanged nut shots again and both were unable to get up after a 10 count so the match was declared a no contest. An awesome match with the absolute stupidest ending I’ve seen in a long time. The feud could’ve continued with a much better ending aka anything other than that. 7/10 No Contest.
Bobby Lashley & Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
What’s the story of this match? All these big names didn’t have a match so they decided to put this together. Braun deserves so much more than being in a glorified filler match. The match was exactly that until the ending where Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens began fighting and throwing each other into the ring meaning soon we’ll (hopefully) be getting a feud between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn soon. This was just a match filled with superstars that should be doing bigger and better things. 6.5/10 Bobby Lashley & Braun Strowman win via Pinfall.
Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe
I’m sure the WWE Universe loved the beginning of this match. Before the bell even range Samoa Joe unleashed hell on Roman Reigns and beat the snot out of him throwing him into all three announce tables at ring side. After the bell rang it was more of the same, Joe smacked Reigns around and the crowd (and myself) loved it. However it wouldn’t be a Roman Reigns match without a miraculous comeback from him with his signature, spear, Superman punch, and “OOOOOOOH” yell. They’re all there, but what brought the match down was the overuse of Joe putting Roman in dragged out submissions. It’s OK to have them, but these were dragged out for way too long where it seemed like nothing was happening. I get it’s part of their “story building” but the story shouldn’t bring down the actual match. The ending had some great back and forths but unfortunately the wrong person won. 6.75/10 Roman Reigns wins via Pinfall
Final Thoughts
I didn’t expect much from this PPV, and sadly my fears were right. It was overall a pretty mediocre PPV. The only great match from start to finish was Rollins vs. The Miz. The US Title match was good, but the other matches were all just average at best. Daniel Bryan should be in a better feud, or at least be making Big Cass look good. Instead we got the exact opposite. Styles vs. Nakamura ended up being a complete waste, and the final match had some spots that dragged on forever. I’ve only been watching WWE for four years, but I don’t think I’ve ever watched a Backlash PPV where I thought “Wow that was really good!” Maybe someday that’ll change, but not today. 7.25/10
The Magical World of Dids 