Wrestlemania: Backlash or as I like to call it, Backlashimania, gets an enthusiastic thumbs up for me. I enjoyed the hell out of this PPV overall.
Images via WWE.com
The opening intro was narrated by the greatest of all time, Batista and it was straight badass despite the fact it was pretty much a promotion for Zack Snyder's new film, Army Of The Dead.
If you've read my about page, then you'll know that I ain't talking about Zack Snyder movies because his fans are…… never mind.
Rhea Ripley vs Charlotte Flair vs Asuka For The RAW Women's Championship.
Charlotte with the Cruella De Vil inspired ring gear was to quote Dolph Ziggler's old theme song, "perfection".
The opening bout was fast-paced, high octane action that didn't have a slow/dull moment.
All of these women utilized quick grapples and strikes to their advantage.
Charlotte was this close to capturing the title but she was pushed to the outside, nailed the riptide to Asuka and that's how Ripley retained the championship.
I expected the match to be decent but not THIS decent. What a Goddamn opening act. This might be one of my favourite matches of the year.
The Miz and John Morrison were discussing Miz's match with Damian Priest.
A further tease in a possible breakup of the Dirt Sheet.
Dolph Ziggler And Robert Roode vs Rey And Dominik Mysterio For The SmackDown Tag Team Championship.
Dominik Mysterio was attacked by the tag champs backstage at the pre-show.
His father, Rey, was checking on his son and told Dominik that he'll face the champs alone.
And going solo, he did.
Rey handled himself pretty well within the first 10 minutes or so in this match but the 2 on 1 advantage was too much for the luchador.
Dominik, with bad ribs and all, showed up and somehow led his father to tag team championship victory.
How old do you feel knowing that this 4/5/6-year-old kid ended up winning tag team gold with his father mere years later?
Michael Cole telling the story of Dominik Mysterio inspiring his father to still compete in the ring, is such good f**king storytelling.
Cole doesn't get his flowers very often and his commentary in this match is an example of how good this man is at his job (the same cannot be said to Adnan Vik).
Overall, a good match that told surprisingly an engaging story.
Zombies run wild on the Thunderdome. I surprisingly do not hate it.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Uso had a talk with his brother Jey and he reminded him that they should be pursuing the tag team championship and not for Jey to serve Roman Reigns.
Damian Priest vs The Miz.
The zombies have literally invaded this match which is way more effective than Retribution's invasion last year.
Corey Graves, with the line of the night, said that ECW isn't relaunching.
The match was fine for what it was.
Was this campy? Yes. Was this cheesy? Absolutely. Did I hate it? Nope. It was just kinda there for me.
The next PPV for WWE is Hell In A Cell and I had to check my calendar and see whether we're in October.
Bianca Belair vs Bayley For The SmackDown Women's Championship.
This match was okay. It maintained a slow pace throughout the encounter.
They went with an old school, 1980s type of match in the sense that as mentioned earlier, it was slow-paced.
Big move then recover. Big move then recover. Sprinkle in few minimal heel tactics and you got this match. All in all, it wasn't offensive to me.
Bianca Belair rolled Bayley up to retain the championship which means we're getting a rematch (no f'ing sh*t, Omar).
Drew McIntyre vs Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley For The WWE Championship.
During the match, both Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley worked together for a bit to execute a huge double suplex to Braun Strowman.
That led to both McIntyre and Lashley fighting outside of the ring and it was followed by Drew putting Bobby Lashley through the LED board.
McIntyre and Strowman had a great back and forth as the Scotsmen delivered a Michinoku driver to the big man.
Then, Strowman put McIntyre through an announcement table with a powerbomb (Drew sold it perfectly).
The match ended with a spear from out of nowhere courtesy of the almighty and Bobby Lashley retained.
Just like the RAW women's championship match earlier in the night, this one was fast-paced, high octane action.
The build was a dud but the match itself was a completely different story. I had a blast watching this minute by minute, second by second.
Cesaro vs Roman Reigns For the Universal Championship.
The Swiss superman nailed a corkscrew moonsault on the outside to Roman Reigns with f**king ease. Moves like this remind me of how good Cesaro is inside the squared circle.
When Cesaro was down for a bit, Roman Reigns said something along the lines of "I'm really good at wrestling" which made me laugh really f**king loud.
Roman gave it all after hooking in the guillotine to walk out of Backlashimania as the universal champion.
Jey Uso gave Cesaro a BEATING to which Seth Rollins (staring at Roman for a bit) gave Cesaro an EVEN MORE BEATING.
I describe this main event contest as "well structured".
You can tell that they gave this match in particular, a LOT of thought put into it. The match felt like it was played out in a symmetrical way and I appreciated it as a whole.
So, to recap for all of you slow mofos.
Like: Raw women's championship match, WWE championship match, Smackdown tag team championship match
Didn't like: Nothing really.
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