Backlash Review

BAYLEY VS. RUBY RIOTT
Bayley is extremely athletic and is a solid technical wrestler. Ruby is also awesomely athletic and has a more exotic offensive attack. It makes for a nice clash of styles and a really good match. Bayley hit that pretty cool springboard cross body, not something we normally see from her. The Riott Squad did their job and used their numbers to pull out a win for Ruby. I thought and hoped Sasha would be more involved but all we got was more annoying bickering between her and Bayley. DO SOMETHING WITH THE DAMN STORY!
Rating: 6 Gold Medals

INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP: THE MIZ VS. SETH ROLLINS
Rollins got LAUNCHED off the turnbuckle. That looked awful. Miz does his normal heel wrestling, using a lot of rest holds to set up Rollins’ comebacks and bring the crowd to life. Seth is excellent at selling. Not being a high-flyer, Miz is really good at grounding Rollins and keeping the match mostly as his pace. He uses effective counters whenever Rollins gets some momentum, very similar to how Drew Gulak wrestles against the luchadors and high-flyers on 205 Live. Miz does things like tossing Rollins off the turnbuckle, pulling him off the apron and hitting his face, and blocking his suicide dive with a forearm to the face. A critical moment was when Miz dodged Rollins’ knee attempt on the apron so that Rollins’ knee smashed into the ring post, and Miz immediately put him in the figure four. Each man reversed the figure four once with the crowd going crazy. They smartly continue to sell Rollins’ knee injury, I’ve often mentioned in this blog how guys don’t continue to sell injured body parts as matches go on. Miz continues to attack it and Rollins continues to limp and have his knee give out. Rollins kicking out of two Skull Crushing Finales and wrestling with one good knee gives a narrative that they are pushing his heart, determination, and toughness going forward. That match was one of the best told stories from start to finish that I’ve ever seen.
Rating: 9 Gold Medals

RAW WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP: ALEXA BLISS VS. NIA JAX
I certainly do not envy Alexa Bliss’ job, getting smushed into the corners by Nia and getting ragdolled. She got in a lot more offense that I think she should have. Alexa’s attacks should not hurt Nia that much. Someone that size should be able to withstand Alexa’s strikes and slaps. Their Wrestlemania match had a lot more flow and seemed a lot more logical in how it was done. You can’t make everything a squash with Nia, but Alexa’s offense in this match was just not very believable for the most part. Alexa dumping her from the second turnbuckle to the outside is something that made a lot more sense and could have been done earlier on to injure Nia and make it more believable that Alexa would get a lot of offense in. Same with kicking her off the turnbuckle. As the match went on, Alexa’s attacks got more logical. Great catch by Nia on the Twisted Bliss attempt, and she was smart enough to not climb the ropes again after getting hurt twice, and laid Alexa out with a Samoan drop for the win. The match started out poorly but definitely got better. Still, not as good as their mania match. Fuck the people who booed Nia’s post-match promo. Definitely a bunch of sexist male assholes, and exactly the kind of people she is speaking out against. Shit heads.
Rating: 4 Gold Medals

UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP: RANDY ORTON VS. JEFF HARDY
It seemed like this one had more wrestling outside the ring than inside. Love to see that the crowd now chants “Rusev Day” randomly during other people’s matches. Fuck New Jersey almost as much as Montreal. I really don’t understand the need to disrespect the guys who are putting their bodies on the line to entertain you so that you can try to get yourselves over. Fuckers. This is why I won’t go to televised shows anymore, because these crowds are all they get. HEY LET’S PAY $100 TO GO TO A SHOW SO THAT WE CAN SHIT ALL OVER EVERYTHING! They didn’t miss much in this match though. The ending seemed sloppy. No real build to the finish. I thought Jeff could carry the match a bit more, but Randy really dragged it down.
Rating: 2 Gold Medals

Elias with another expert troll job. New Day has run it’s course a year ago. Please make them stop. The only reason I’m upset to see Aiden English is because it gives these idiot smarks another excuse to chant “Rusev Day”. This whole segment seemed like one big clusterfuck and didn’t make any sense.
No gold medals.

DANIEL BRYAN VS. BIG CASS
These fuckholes are chanting “We want Enzo.” I seriously considered turning off the show. I’m sure the women in the audience appreciated that almost as much as when they booed Nia Jax for standing up for women with body issues. I hate that I have to keep addressing awful fans, I’d rather just focus on the match, which is awesome. Bryan hasn’t missed a step, and Cass can really move for a seven footer. Bryan gets the submission, but Cass gets the last word with a post-match attack. I like that it happened that way. Best decision was a Bryan win, but Cass shouldn’t just walk away after a loss.
Rating: 6 Gold Medals

SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP: CHARLOTTE FLAIR VS. CARMELLA
I was surprised that it was Carmella getting the upper hand from the get go before Charlotte finally got going. I love Charlotte’s spear. I really thought Charlotte was gonna hit a pile driver on that reversal of the Code of Silence. The match was mostly good but the ending absolutely sucked. That pretty much ruined the match. A kick to the hamstring? Really? What the hell? The woman who beat Asuka lost because she tweaked her knee then got kicked in the leg. Holy shit.
Rating: 3 Gold Medals

WWE CHAMPIONSHIP NO DISQUALIFICATION MATCH: SHINSUKE NAKAMURA VS. A.J. STYLES
Frenetic pace right from the start. A.J. flipping over the ring steps looked gnarly. Way too much in-ring technical wrestling for a no DQ match in my opinion. Nakamura was able to counter of block nearly everything that A.J. attempted for much of the match. God damn, that suplex onto the chair was nasty. Also nasty, A.J.’s cheek is ripped open. That was a really good match, not their best, but when are they going to fight to a finish? They have to be setting up a cage or ladder match. I love to see these guys go at it but a feud has to have a payoff at some point.
Rating: 7 Gold Medals

BRAUN STROWMAN & BOBBY LASHLEY VS. KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN
I still don’t understand the logic in Strowman never starting tag matches. Let’s leave the guy who won the tag team championships by himself on the apron for 10 minutes before he gets in, makes sense. I get that they want to build up the anticipation for him to get into the match, but have him start, tag out, and THEN have his partner struggle. I’ll never get tired of seeing Strowman steamroll Kevin Owens on the outside. Anyone else hear Sami say “Steen, come on”? We knew this wouldn’t be a catch-as-catch-can style match. We wanted to see Braun and Lashley destroy stuff, and that’s what we saw. It got the job done.
Rating: 5 Gold Medals

SAMOA JOE VS. ROMAN REIGNS
Referencing my article about what makes a good heel, Samoa Joe doesn’t do enough to be a true heel. Even before being paired with Roman, which gets anyone cheered, he seems to want to be the “cool” heel. The answer I got the most about what makes a good heel is 100% commitment to being the bad guy. In his feud with Roman, Joe has done and said things that are obviously meant to get him cheered. That’s not a good heel. Sometimes you can be the biggest bastard on the planet and people will still cheer you, but Joe seems to eat it up when the crowd chants for him, and in his promos to Roman says we all knew this about you and that. You don’t identify with the crowd as a heel. His pre-match attack on Roman was brutal and he controlled the match for about 5-10 minutes from there. In fact, he holds him in sleepers and arm bars while putting us all to sleep. Finally the match picks up after about 10 minutes. And the crowd is so FUNNY! HEY WE DON’T LIKE THIS, LET’S CHANT RUSEV DAY! LOLOLOLOL!!!! DELETE!! Roman showed fight and didn’t pass out from being choked. BOO HIM! Boo him all you want, Reigns wins. Believe that. Still, a shitty match.
Rating: 1 Gold Medal