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WWE: Backlash PPV – Comments & Critique

Ahmed Shah·
WWE
·2 Comments·

Smackdown Live and Raw united for the first co-branded WWE pay-per-view (not counting the ‘big four’ PPVs) post the 2016 superstar draft in what many are already calling the worst pay-per-view of 2018, and we are only in the fifth month of the year…

Unless you count the Greatest Royal Rumble event (and I most certainly do not) that took place two weeks ago in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this was the first WWE pay-per-view post-WrestleMania 34. The event saw most titles on both the rosters being defended – with the exceptions being the SD Live tag-team belts and, of course, Raw’s Universal championship, as Brock Lesnar was on his occasional-but-now-regular holiday.

Kick-off show:
Bayley vs. Ruby Riott

There was only one match on the kick-off show as the leader of the Riott squad, Ruby Riott, defeated Bayley. The pre-match build-up saw Bayley ask former best friend Sasha Banks to be her backup against Logan and Morgan at ringside, but Sasha did not show for the match.

This was clearly more about building even more to the already drawn-out Sasha-Bayley feud with neither woman a definitive ‘baby-face’ or ‘heel’ at this point. Despite all that, it was good to see Ruby Riott get a win and move up in the Women’s division.

Winner: Ruby Riott

Main show:
Intercontinental Championship: Seth Rollins © vs. The Miz

This may have been one of the greatest opening matches to any WWE PPV in history and I wish I could say that it was a sign of things to come on this show.

Seth Rollins and The Miz absolutely tore the house down and exceeded expectations. No one expected The Miz, being a SD Live superstar now, to walk out as the IC champ – but that second SCF had me for a second.

Winner: Seth Rollins, still Intercontinental Champion.

RAW Women’s Championship: Nia Jax © vs. Alexa Bliss

Alexa Bliss invoked her rematch clause after losing the title at ‘Mania. This was not a bad match by any means but the ‘bullying’ storyline has become stale. A couple of cool spots, especially the finish, but nothing to write home about.

Nia Jax’s bullying promos just do not come across as organic and the crowd was not buying it post-match.

Winner: Nia Jax, still RAW Women’s Champion.

United States Championship: Jeff Hardy © vs. Randy Orton

Ten years after their clash for the WWE Championship, Hardy and Orton rolled back the years with a not-so-vintage performance.

The match was decent at best, with Hardy winning clean. Many expected a heel turn for Orton after his ‘mutual respect’ shtick with Jeff had ended but it did not happen – not on this night at least.

Winner: Jeff Hardy, still US Champion

Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass:

Daniel Bryan’s first one-on-one PPV match in three years ended in victory over Big Cass.

Cass is clearly in the middle of a big push on Smackdown Live and although it was surprising to see the big guy tap out clean to Bryan’s ‘Yes Lock’, he got his heat back thanks to a post-match assault on Bryan.

Hopefully, the WWE still sees Bryan as a top main-event level star after his injury because there are tons of great matches to be had between Bryan and others with the WWE Championship at stake.

Winner: Daniel Bryan

Smackdown Women’s Championship: Carmella © vs. Charlotte Flair

Carmella defeated Charlotte, the woman who ended Asuka’s unbeaten streak, clean on PPV. Yes, you read that right.

Admittedly, Charlotte sold her knee really well in this match but it was still a clean victory. Carmella needed to win heel, not just for the sake of Charlotte’s credibility, but for her own character. Charlotte is without a doubt the best women’s wrestler in the company, if not the world, right now. This was a cheap way to extend Carmella’s reign as champion.

Winner: Carmella, still SD Live Women’s Champion

WWE Championship: AJ Styles © vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

This was arguably the best of Styles and Nakamura’s three-match series so far (okay, yes, I am counting their match in Jeddah for this).

Despite that, it was still nowhere near the level fans know the two to be capable of performing at. The finish to this match was cheap and a disgrace to the ability of the two competitors, as well as the fans paying money to see them perform. As soon as it became apparent that this match was not going on last, there was a feeling that there might be some shenanigans towards the end and that’s exactly what the WWE did. A great match ruined by dreadful booking.

Winner: AJ Styles, still WWE Champion due to a double-countout.

Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn

In what world was this match going to have any other outcome than the one that it did?

The writing team clearly has no clue how to book Lashley. Instead of being pushed as a monster, he is getting put in tag-team matches with Braun Strowman. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are too good on the mic to be wasted in what was virtually a squash tag-team match. RAW should be built around KO and Sami as the biggest heels. They are THAT good.

Fans were still hopeful going into this, thinking we might get to see a Lashley heel turn or a massive brawl between the two behemoths – but no. There was nothing. The only controversy here was Braun pinning Owens, who was not the legal man. Strowman and Lashley got along like buddies.

Winners: Braun Strowman and Nich-I mean, Bobby Lashley

Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe

Nothing surprises anymore when it comes to WWE and their love for Roman Reigns. Why was this match the main event? So Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe is more important than the WWE Championship, the most prestigious championship in all of wrestling, being defended?

The fans were leaving even before the match had begun. No one wanted to see Roman win clean over Joe. The purpose of this match was to put Roman over again after he had lost a few big matches in a row. So the creative team came up with this. After weeks of Joe hyping his match up with Roman and reiterating how he was going to put him to sleep, Roman simply shuts him up with a clean victory. Joe’s counter to Reigns’ drive-by move outside the ring was a cool spot.

Joe’s momentum got buried. He is too good and too talented to stay down, but there is no way that loss does not hurt his credibility.

Winner: Roman Reigns

Overall show rating: 3/10

The only reason Backlash 2018 even gets a rating this high is because of Seth Rollins and The Miz.