WWE’s annual follow up PPV to WrestleMania, ‘Backlash’ took place over the weekend in front of an insanely electric crowd in Lyon, France. The show started with the absolute most chaotic match of the night as Kevin Owens and Randy Orton took on the new Bloodline, Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga. This was the first time of the night, right off the bat, when I discovered this French crowd was something special and was going to be great fun throughout the show. They sang Randy Orton’s theme song word for word as he made his way to the ring and you could feel that he was just basking in it, soaking it in, and it almost brought a tear to my eye to see such a veteran getting a moment like that with a foreign crowd who doesn’t get to do this with the WWE as much as we do. It’s really an event and something special when WWE comes to town in these foreign countries because it isn’t all that often, and with this crowd in France they really helped make it feel special. What was something of a predictable and just rather decent card was made much more by the audience and that is why I love pro wrestling. It’s all about aura, vibes, energy, and the wrestlers and the audience share in that space together and feed off each other and it’s really something special when you can even feel that through the TV set at home as well. Anyways, this match was chaotic before the bell even rang and Nick Aldis came out to feed into that chaos and officially declare it a Street Fight. Kendo sticks, garbage cans, steps, tables, and chairs were flying and breaking as these 4 men battled in the crowd and around the ringside area with the crowd going absolutely nuts for all of it. Owens dropped Tonga with a brainbuster from the middle rope onto 4 chairs he had set up in a truly wild and awesome spot, before Tanga Loa arrived. He broke up the pinfall and smashed the steel steps into Orton and Owens, before Solo hit Owens with a Samoan Spike and ended the match. Tanga Loa is the newest member of the new Bloodline with Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga, who have been running rampant on Smackdown since WrestleMania, so it’ll be interesting to see how this story continues to build and play out in the coming months with Roman and Rock’s absences. Next, the WWE Women’s Championship was on the line as champ Bayley took on her pal Naomi and the thorn in both their sides, Tiffany Stratton, in a triple threat. The crowd was into all 3 of these women and popped during all their entrances before the bout started. Dancing, vibing, and lighting up the arena with phone flashlights during Naomi’s entrance and Bayley garnering a few “Heyyy Bayley!” chants throughout the match as some quick action and near falls that had the crowd roaring and chanting different things every several moments. All 3 women stayed relevant and active throughout this bout and each had their different moments to shine, but in the end, Bayley outwrestled Naomi and countered a pinning combination to pin her herself and retain the Women’s Championship.
Next, Damian Priest defended his World Heavyweight Championship for the first time live on a PLE against Jey Uso. The crowd went ballistic during Jey’s entrance, hitting the ‘Yeet’ harder than maybe any crowd ever has before and played into it more as the match begun, chanting “yeet!” any time Jey hit or dodged a punch as a frustrated Damian looked to gather himself. Later into the match, after a few back and forths and some power moves by each man involved, Finn Balor showed up ringside (against Damian’s wishes after asking his Judgment Day brothers to stay out of it) and ate a superkick from Jey, before Damian planted Jey with a South of Heaven off the distraction and got a close 2 count. Jey had a hot comeback though, flying Superkicks all over Damian’s head before landing a hard Uso Splash, but Damian’s other Judgment Day brethren JD McDonaugh showed up just in the nick of time and put Damian’s foot on the ropes to break up the pin. This led to Priest eventually hitting a 2nd South of Heaven on Jey from the middle rope for the pin to retain the title. After the match, Finn and JD started to jump the downed Uso before Damian ripped them both off of him and scolded them for coming down and getting involved in his business. Next up, The Kabuki Warriors put their Women’s Tag Team Titles on the line against the intimidating force of Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill. The crowd was behind the babyfaces here pretty heavily for sure and seemed excited for the opportunity to see Jade live. The duo controlled the match a lot as you would expect given their size and strength, but Asuka and Sane are no dummies and used their numbers advantage with Dakota and overall ring psychology to gain the upper hand multiple times throughout the match. This match was a bit rough at times though and felt very sloppy in moments, Kairi tried going for a pin when she wasn’t the legal woman and there seemed to be overall confusion from all parties from then on on who was legal and when they needed to tag in and out. Jade also, while impressive in physique and strength, still looks like she has some in ring things to work on because her timing and pacing at moments throughout this match was just off as well and made things feel unintentionally slowed down and awkward. Regardless, in the end, Jade caught Sane coming off the top rope and leveled her with a Jaded, before Bianca dropped Asuka with a KOD onto Sane for the 3 count to officially crown the new women’s tag champs.
Then came the big dog, for all the marbles, as Cody Rhodes had his first defense for the Undisputed WWE Championship against none other than AJ Styles. A long overdue matchup, these 2 delivered in a grand fashion, hitting each other with everything in their arsenals and then some to try and prove who the better man was on that night. After a long fought battle, the 2 men stood opposite of each other and agreed to go back in toe-to-toe once again, firing off strikes on one another before Cody went for a Cody Cutter which was reversed, the men then traded off reversals to one another before Styles hit a snap suplex in the corner, followed by a 450 that nearly won him the match and the title. Rhodes had his Hulk up moment though, kicking out at 1 and firing himself up, begging Styles to bring the fight to him. He connected with a Cross Rhodes moments later and set up a Cutter, but AJ countered with a Pele kick that dazed Cody. Rhodes countered a Phenomenal Forearm into a Kimura Lock (which was pretty rare and cool to see him pull out of the bag) but Styles wiggled his way out of it. After a few more moments of back-and-forth Cody connected with a Cutter and his signature Cross Rhodes for the pin to retain the title. This was a fun show, although entirely predictable which is a common problem with Backlash, that was made so much better by the absolutely electric environment made by the crowd in Lyon, France. These foreign country PLE’s have been a major success thus far and none of the crowds have disappointed and that tells me we will see more and more of them done in foreign countries as time goes on, maybe until only the big 4 are left in America if that. A selfish part of me is sad about that as an American because I’ve had less and less opportunity to catch a live show and especially a live PLE in the past few years and as a wrestling fan I want WWE in town more, but when you see how happy and excited these foreign country’s fans are to have WWE in town and how invested they are from start to finish in everything it can’t help but leave a smile on my face. Those fans deserve it just as much as I or anyone else does and it’s a smart, smart move on the part of WWE to spread the wealth some and give their fans in other parts of the world their “fix” and something to get excited about.
Now, quickly onto my favorite and least favorite matches of the show. I am a fan of all 4 women involved so it kind of hurts me to say this, but the tag match for the Women’s Tag Team Championships was the weakest performed match on the card to me, pretty easily. It was the most awkwardly paced and the least fluent match on the night and even the women involved seemed lost as to what they should be doing a time or 2 throughout the contest. I have high hopes for this title run with Jade and Bianca though, I think this will be good for Jade to kind of have Bianca by her side as she continues to polish and perfect her craft, to have someone to bounce off of and help her get where she needs to be. Hopefully this will end with a big match between Bianca and Jade at like Summerslam or something because the thought of that matchup just sounds like it could really kick some ass and that’s a great matchup and rival for both of these women. Now, my favorite match on the card had to be the main event between Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles. Although the outcome was predictable, that was still a highly anticipated matchup just because of who these 2 men are and what they bring to the ring, plus they had never had the opportunity to face each other in the squared circle yet. Long overdue. AJ wrestled Dusty back in the day and still hadn’t wrestled Cody till this weekend, isn’t that a wild statistic? AJ, you’re getting old buddy but man you still look “phenomenal”. Pun fully intended, but I meant it. They delivered on the hype though and put on a banger of a main event in front of a very game and ready crowd in France. I’m excited about the upcoming King of the Ring and Money in the Bank shows, lots of big things coming up and lots of opportunity to elevate talent to the big time so it will be fun to see how things fall when those shows are said and done. Stay tuned!
