‘WrestleMania Backlash’ Delivers Some Good Matches but Not Much Else
WrestleMania Backlash 2022 from the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence was a tale of two shows. If you simply enjoy a Sunday night of mindless pro-wrestling action for $4.99 on Peacock, there were some good matches and two great matches. If you’re looking even a little deeper, to find out who the next challenger for Roman Reigns is, what the major feuds are going to be heading into the summer or any big angles, well, you got nothing resembling that.
The show didn’t look particularly promising going in. Even though there are eight active championships on Raw and SmackDown (if you exclude the 24/7 title), there was only one title defended on the PPV. You’d have to go back a long, long time to find a WWE PPV where only one title was defended. The irony is that for weeks WWE advertised a unification match with RK-Bro and The Usos squaring off with both the SmackDown and Raw tag team titles on the line, and then, just over a week ago, the company shot an angle to add Reigns and Drew McIntyre to the match, making it a six-man tag. Fans speculated that perhaps WWE would add a stipulation where all the belts were on the line in the match (Roman holds the unified world and universal titles), but no, it was changed to just a six-man tag team match with no stipulations. What was amazing about this decision is that it was not the usual “plans change”; instead, the idea from Day One was that it would just be a nontitle six-man, but the company still spent weeks teasing a title unification match it had no plans to deliver. It’s especially weird because years ago, The Miz and Daniel Bryan had a great feud building up on Talking Smack, but Vince McMahon immediately nixed it, because he doesn’t like to tease matches that he cannot deliver (Bryan was considered permanently retired at the time). Here, he had no issue teasing the match and not delivering, and at this point it’s not like the match is just delayed; as of this weekend, it was off the books altogether.
The only title match saw Ronda Rousey beat Charlotte Flair in an “I Quit” match to win the SmackDown women’s title. The match was great, the best Rousey match since she returned after having a baby, and the best Charlotte match in months and months. They pummeled each other in a very physical match, using gimmicks such as kendo sticks and even ringside cameras. The key spot was Charlotte sarcastically wishing Rousey a happy Mother’s Day. Ronda, who left wrestling to start a family and has talked about how she wants her child to watch her to learn what a strong woman is all about (like her own mother), got fired up, put Charlotte in an armbar through a steel chair and forced her to say “I Quit.”
WWE announced that Charlotte had suffered a fractured arm in the match, which is a story line reason to take her off TV so that she can get married to AEW star Andrade El Idolo and enjoy their honeymoon.
The decision to headline with the six-man over a Ronda Rousey championship title win was bizarre largely because while the six-man was a great wrestling match, nothing happened. Roman Reigns has been the unstoppable champion who has run through everybody, beaten Brock Lesnar to unify the titles and is pushed at a level far above anyone else on the current roster. There are two challengers who have been teased. WWE has hinted at Shinsuke Nakamura twice. The first time, he was beaten up and left for dead. The second time led to his being beaten on TV by Sami Zayn. McIntyre has also been teased. The obvious finish to WrestleMania Backlash was for Drew to hit Roman with the Claymore kick and actually pin him, setting up a challenger for this summer. Instead, not only did Reigns win, pinning Riddle, but he also put Drew through a table outside and took him out of the match.
Suffice to say, this leaves us with no viable contenders for Roman Reigns.
WWE’s philosophy was, well, Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre were laid out on the outside when Reigns pinned Riddle, so they were “protected” for title matches this summer. The problem is that Reigns is so dominant that I don’t think there is a fan alive who thinks either of them has any chance whatsoever of beating the unstoppable Roman. Would it be different if Drew or Randy had pinned Roman in the tag match? Probably not appreciably, but it certainly would have helped.
Whether you liked the rest of the show goes back to what we discussed above. If you were one who feared WWE leaving PPV and moving to a streaming service because, ultimately, WWE doesn’t really have to do anything anymore on these “premium live events” because they’re available for a $4.99 monthly subscription to Peacock, well, it didn’t do anything outside of aligning Rhea Ripley and Edge, which could have happened on Raw. If you’re perfectly happy as long as you get some good wrestling, then it delivered. Cody Rhodes beat Seth Rollins in a match that was not quite as good as their WrestleMania match, but very good nonetheless. Omos vs. Bobby Lashley was not good largely due to Omos, but Lashley worked very hard, and it was probably the best match Omos has ever had. Edge beat AJ Styles in a match where Damian Priest, who was banned from ringside, literally ended up brawling with Finn Bálor in the ring, leading to Ripley showing up and costing AJ the match. The finish was preposterous but the match was good. Rousey vs. Charlotte was excellent, and Reigns and The Usos vs. McIntyre and RK-Bro, despite nothing happening of note, was an excellent six-man tag that the crowd loved. Madcap Moss also beat Happy Corbin in a match that should have just aired on SmackDown.
Overall, it will be remembered as a WWE special on Peacock in May. Coming up next on June 5 is Hell in a Cell, and with Charlotte out of action, there was nothing on this show that even hinted at what we might see there, with the exception of perhaps AJ and Edge in the Cell to prevent outside interference. But when it comes to angles, I suppose that’s what Raw and SmackDown are for.
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