Recap and Review of WWE WrestleMania Backlash

Tonight, WWE had the fallout from WrestleMania last month. They stated with the WrestleMania theme and called their WrestleMania Backlash.

Kickoff Show- Sheamus defeated Ricochet to retain the WWE United States Championship
-Rhea Ripley defeated Asuka and Charlotte to retain the Raw Women’s Championship
-Rey and Domink Mysterio defeated The Dirty Dawgs to become the new Smackdown Tag Team Champions
-Damian Priest defeated The Miz in a Zombie Lumberjack Match
-Bianca Belair defeated Bayley to retain the Smackdown Women’s Championship
-Bobby Lashley defeated Braun Strowman and Drew McIntyre to retain the WWE Championship
-Roman Reigns defeated Cesaro to retain the WWE Universal Championship

During the Kickoff Show, Sheamus issued an Open Challenge for the WWE United States Championship. I was surprisingly shocked when Ricochet came out to answer. Ricochet has not been featured on WWE Television in many months, so It was great to see him appear on the show. Many consider him one of the most underutilized talents on the entire WWE roster. Even though he didn’t win the match, this one of Ricochet’s best showings in quite some time. I really hope WWE officials took a long hard look at this match and realize Ricochet can be a main event player in WWE.

The opening match was a Triple Threat Match for the Raw Women’s Championship. Rhea Ripley had two challengers in Asuka and Charlotte Flair. When Asuka and Ripley faced each other at WrestleMania, I felt like they didn’t click together and the chemistry was off. I don’t know if it was the addition of Charlotte Flair or not, but this match was really great. All three women brought their best and it was a great way to open the main show. Rhea Ripley stood tall at the end of the match, but she has not beat Charlotte Flair in a single match. I have a feeling that these two still have a lot of unfinished business heading into this summer.

Rey Mysterio and his son Dominik looked to become the first ever father-son team to ever win the Tag Team Championships in WWE. During the Kickoff Show, The Dirty Dawgs beat up Dominik backstage, which left Rey starting the match by himself. Rey took a lot of punishment and kept going until Dominik showed up to help his father. Rey was reluctant to tag in his injured son, but Dominik eventually tagged himself in to buy his dad some time. In the end, it was Dominik who hit the Frog Splash to win the Tag Team Championships and make history with his legendary father.

Following an emotional championship win, we had a Lumberjack Match between The Miz and Damian Priest. The Lumberjacks were Zombies like Priest made reference to this past Monday on Raw. From the reactions on Social Media, the WWE Universe did not think too much of Lumberjacks. It made for an interesting dynamic during the match. John Morrison did everything he could to help The Miz, but he was overtaken by the Zombie. After the match was over, it appeared that The Miz was devoured by the zombies. Now that this feud is over, I would love to see Priest move on to something bigger and better. He’s got the charisma and skills to be a major star in the company, so they need to start using him in such a way.

Bianca Belair had an incredible match at WrestleMania with Sasha Banks, but defending the title is harder than winning it. Bayley is a tough first challenger due to how great she’s been over the last couple of years. This was another solid match for the Women who have been having some awesome matches on pay per views as of late. I really like that Bianca’s braid is becoming a factor in her matches even if it’s not being used as a whip. She used her braid to pin Bayley in a unique predicament. Now that Belair has gone through Banks and Bayley, one has to wonder who she will face next.

One of the feuds that continued past WrestleMania was Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre, but they added Braun Strowman to the mix for a WWE Championship Triple Threat Match. This match was as hard hitting as you can get. Each man gave their best shots and took each other’s best shots. This match really could have gone either direction. All three men proved why they are some of the best heavyweights in pro wrestling right now. All three also brought the big fight feel to the match.  Lashley has now beat McIntyre in one-on-one competition and pinned Strowman in tonight’s match. Its another situation of who do you throw at the champion? The one thing WWE lacks is building credible challengers who are waiting in the rings.

The Main Event of the evening was for the Universal Championship between Roman Reigns and Cesaro. This is the first time that Cesaro has gotten a one-on-one WWE Heavyweight or Universal Championship Match in his 10-year career. Many have wanted Cesaro in this spot for a very long time, and tonight he proved why he deserved to be there. The match was very solid with a lot of great psychology. Even though Cesaro didn’t win the championship tonight, I don’t think this is the last you heard from him. After the match was over, Jey Uso beat down Cesaro some more until Seth Rollins came down and did even further damage. It appears that the Rollins-Cesaro feud is not over and could work it’s way to Roman Reigns Universal Championship.

WrestleMania Backlash was a very solid show, but I have to give it a 7.5 out of 10. The Zombies really hurt the value of the show and the fact that there wasn’t really anything unpredictable that happened. In a weird change of events, the next show is Hell in a Cell, which usually takes place in October. One has to wonder if they’re going to establish some new feuds or the WrestleMania and Backlash feuds continue. Over the next five weeks, I guess we will have to wait and see what happens heading into Hell in a Cell.