WWE Backlash Review 05/06/2018

Hello Misfits! It’s the Wrestling Classic here with my review for Backlash 2018. This is the WWE’s first attempt on having the monthly PPV’s excluding the big four be join PPVs again between Raw and Smackdown since 2016. Its heavily noticeable as there are many superstars and angles that aren’t on the card as now they have to make room the stars and angles for both shows. Also, the fact that there was much more hype in the promotion for The Greatest Royal and not a substantial amount of time between the two events, the card for this event felt rushed and underwhelming. The superstar shake up did not help with the anticipation for this event as well. It made some of the outcomes of the matches predictable. There was also the feeling that you knew some of these matches were just happening to tie up loose ends but not really significant. I mention all these things because the PPV was not that bad but due to that reason it suffered. Lets get into my review now.

Image via WWE.com

This show is coming to us from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey

– Michael Cole, Corey Graves and Jonathan Coachman are the announcers for the Raw matches and Tom Phillips, Corey Graves and Byron Saxton are the announcers for the Smackdown Live matches.

Intercontinental Championship
Seth Rollins (C) def. The Miz
in 20:30 by pinfall
This might have been the match of the night. These two tore it down. After working together a lot during the past eight months they built great chemistry with each other even though they wrestle two completely different styles. Although I was certain that The Miz was not going to win, I still fell for the false finishes because they were done so well and were believable. Rollins started selling a knee injury which always gets us Rollins fans because he’s hurt his knee twice in the past few years and its scary to think he’d hurt it again. It seems to be his go-to and it always works. These two did the Intercontinental Champion proud. The finish was creative and it was a stomp out of nowhere to close off this back and fourth battle. The crowd was hot for this and it was a perfect way to kick off this event. The Miz really has elevated the prestige in the IC Championship over these past few years and to have a work-horse like Seth Rollins be the one holding it now and treating it the way he does continues to make the Intercontinental Championship feel important again.

Raw Women’s Championship
Nia Jax (C) def. Alexa Bliss
in 10:20 by pinfall
This was perfectly good match that has great in-ring psychology and just enough drama to have you think that Alexa Bliss could steal a win. Nia Jax actually looked like she was working from under trying to come back from all the creative ways that Alexa would find to take her down. The one thing this match really made me notice is just how much better Alexa Bliss has gotten over the past year. I think I’ve noticed that alot during her matches in 2018. I’ve always been a fan but when she first won the championship on Smackdown Live, I felt like she wasn’t really that effective as a in-ring wrestler. However shes really gotten better in my opinion. The finish came when Bliss went for Twisted Bliss but Jax caught her for the Samoan Drop and the victory.
Nia Jax cut a promo of positivism and hope after the match about not apologizing about being different and saying her victory was for anyone who has ever had to overcome bullying. I know Nia Jax meant it but something about it didn’t feel genuine and it felt kind of forced. It also didn’t help the moment that the fans were booing during this entire promo.

United States Championship
Jeff Hardy (C) def. Randy Orton
in 12:00 by pinfall
Is it weird that match between Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton felt like a nostalgia act? The announcers mentioned that the last time these two wrestled each other was in 2008 and boy did it make me feel old because it did not feel like that was ten years ago. I was still in high school then. That is insane. The match was good and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. It just felt like it was lacking any reason for us to really be invested in it other than it was Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy. This build up for this match wasn’t anything special besides two guys trying to one-up each other and the fact that they were both babyfaces might have taken away from it too. I definitely see Orton turning heel soon which would be great because I’ve always preferred him as a heel. A loss here didn’t hurt either guy because they’ve both already made their mark in the business and their legacies have been cemented, Solid match but just missing something.

Elias Concert
Elias says he is friends with Bruce Springsteen. Elias says Bruce hates NJ and everyone who lives there. Elias says he is going to sing a special song just for him. Elias tells the crowd to hold their applause so of course, everyone claps. Elias says he is going to leave. Elias fake leaves multiple times before settling on singing his song. For some reason, New Day interrupts. Each member of New Day has an instrument. Woods praises Elias and his musical skills. Elias asks New Day if they want autographs or something. Kingston asks Elias if he wants to jam out with the New Day. Woods says they want to walk with Elias. Elias says he is a solo act. Big E. says they enjoy a solo act. New Day starts playing to the New Day Rocks theme.
Elias says maybe one day they can open for Elias but it won’t be today. Elias asks JoJo to start over. JoJo introduces Elias again but Aiden English comes out and sings that today is Rusev Day. Rusev comes out and calls Elias a bootleg Bob Dylan. Elias tells JoJo to start again. No Way Jose and his conga line dance out to the ring. For some reason, Titus World Wide and Breezango are dancing to the ring as well. Elias tells JoJo to start again. Bobby Roode appears behind Roode and hits the Glorious DDT. Roode tells Jose to get the Conga line going again and he dances along with them all the way up the ramp. I was sports entertained.

Daniel Bryan def. Big Cass
in 07:45 via submission
This is Daniel Bryan’s first single match on PPV since being cleared. Big Cass put up a solid performance as a big mean heel who kept cutting Bryan off when he started gaining momentum. Cass had most of the offence in this match which worked in his favour character wise but the live crowd wasn’t buying into it.Some of Cass’ selling was poor, but it wasn’t bad enough to really hurt the match. It felt like a TV match due to the lack of time it was given. That tells me that WWE isn’t sure what they have in Cass yet if they don’t feel confident enough to put him in a longer match with somebody as good as Bryan. Its either that or this was just the predecessor of a handful of matches we’ll see between these two so they wanted to make it quick and simple. Bryan made Cass tap out to the Yes Lock which the live crowd popped for.
Cass attacked Bryan after the match while the fans chanted “you tapped out” at him. Cass ended up laying out Bryan with a big boot and the announcers sold it as if Cass just murdered a man. It was a smart way to continue the angle and give Cass more heat.

Smackdown Women’s Championship
Carmella (C) def. Charlotte Flair
in 10:10 via pinfall
I’m a huge fan of both of these women but this match never clicked for me. I absolutely love the Carmella character and I thought that Charlotte would be able to give Mella her best match to date here but it just wasn’t that. It was disappointing to say the least. There was a lack of drama and no sense of aggression. Carmella screamed a lot and put Charlotte in weak looking submission holds that Chartotte tried to really sell for to put Carmella over. I actually really enjoyed the build up to this match as I am a fan of both women and their characters so I was looking forward to this match but it didn’t live up to expectations. The finish came out of nowhere too and there wasn’t much of a reaction to it either. Carmella beat Charlotte fair and I understand wanting to validate Mella as champion but I would have rather seen her win in a sneaky way than clean to validate her spot as Smackdown Live’s top female heel. I dont think it should have ended in a clean win. I hope they get a re-do that’ll make us all forget about this match.

No DQ Match
WWE Championship
AJ Styles (C) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
in a no contest due to double count-out 21:05
If it wasn’t for the cop-out finish to continue this angle rather than having a clean finish this match had the potential of being the match of the night. If the finish didn’t bother you, than it really does give Miz/Rollins a run for their money for the match of the night spot. This was the best Nakamura and Styles match in the WWE so far in my opinion. I was fully invested and the No DQ stipulation really enhanced the sense of drama in this match. Also the fact that Nakamura is a full fledge heel now, we had a clear good guy against bad guy dynamic which also helped getting me invested in the match. There was some cool stuff that happened here and there were times where it looked like either guy could win. I remember one deadly kick Shinsuke laid on Styles which I thought was the turning point in this match but it wasn’t. The way the chair ricocheted into AJ Styles face after he threw it at Nak’s knee looked really rough too. This match really just suffered from the finish. They had all the cards in place but it just didn’t payoff. The crowd reaction was the same as all of us at home. It was a lame finish I can’t defend. I do believe this means one more go between Nakamura and Styles in this saga of their rivalry and I’m curious to see what the stipulation will be.

Braun Strowman & Bobby Lashley def. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
ended in 08:40 by pinfall
I really felt like this match was really to get Braun on the PPV since he’s one of the most over acts in the WWE today. Of course it’s great that Owens and Zayn were featured on the PPV. I have nothing against Bobby Lashley but  I dislike the fact that they havent had him explain on television why he’s back or what his goals are. He’s been back for weeks now and just sort of been there. This was a basic tag match and it was something you could expect on Raw. Braun looked great. Lashley existed. Owens and Zayn yet again teased another break-up but I really don’t want to see that happen. I’ll never be against Zayn and Owens facing off against each other in a feud but I still want to see them together since there arent so many top spots on Raw. Imagine Zayn and Owens feuding with Wyatt and Hardy. It could be WONDERFUL.

Roman Reigns def. Samoa Joe
in 18:10 by pinball
I dont know what the other option could be considering the booking of every other match on the card but this shouldn’t have been the main event. Similar to Wrestlemania the crowd was just not into it most of the time and chanting random stuff. From home I was really into it but once I realized that Joe was on the offence most of the match, the writing was on the wall. It started off great with Joe attacking Reigns right off the bat and being malicious but it soon went into a ton of headlocks and rest holds. I think we just expected this to be a much better match. It really had the potential to be a really good match too considering the two guys involved. I’m pretty sure they have had better matches against each other on Raw over the past year. The fans are over the Roman Reigns experiment and I agree that Joe should have picked up the victory here. It didn’t elevate Roman at all by winning but it could have done wonders for Joe. This was poor choice for the main event.

Final Thoughts
This show was decent. It wasn’t as bad as most people are claiming it was, but it definitely wasn’t that great either. I think I was spot on with my predictions which shows that it was fairly predictable but we still got a couple of good matches out of it. Seth/Miz and Styles/Nakamura (with exception of its finish) were really good matches. I do think this will be a rather forgettable PPV and the most forgettable of 2018 thus far. All the reasons I explained in the intro contributed to that so I have to cut the WWE some slack because they still managed to put on a decent show even though it’s a transitioning time for them with the roster shake-up and the major global tours that usually come after Wrestlemania which included the extremely hyped GRR just last week. If you’re going to watch anything from this show, make sure you watch the two matches I mentioned earlier in this section and maybe the Elias segment because that was fun but thats about it.
Final Rating – 6/10

What were your final thoughts on Backlash? What final grade would you give the event? Where would you rate it on a scale of ten? Do you agree with my review? Leave your comments, opinions and thoughts below in the comments section.