The WK's LIVE WWE Backlash 2018 PPV Coverage!!!

Welcome to The Wrestling Kennection's LIVE Backlash 2018 Pay-Per-View coverage!!!

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Kickoff Show
Singles Match
Bayley vs. Ruby Riott w/Riott Squad

RESULT: Ruby Riott wins via pinfall; Riott won after hitting a Riott Kick on Bayley off a distraction by Liv Taylor.

TIME: 10:10

THOUGHTS: A few miscommunications aside, this was a perfectly okay match between Bayley and Ruby to kick off Backlash. Bailey looked to be a few steps off her game, which actually makes sense when you think about how both she and Sasha have been less focused on their in-ring work and more on the slow-burning  disintegration of their friendship; I can appreciate that sort of subtle change when it comes to a wrestler's in-ring psychology. Riott looks to step up to the plate as the next challenger to the RAW Women's Title with her victory over two former champions in Banks and Bayley.

WK KING OF PPV

Dan - 1 pt
Ken - 1 pt
Alison - 1 pt
Greg - 1 pt
Nick - 1 pt

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WWE Intercontinental Championship
Singles Match
"The Kingslayer" Seth Rollins (c) vs. "The A-Lister" The Miz

RESULT: Seth Rollins wins via pinfall; Rollins pinned Miz after reversing a roll-up cradle into a Curb Stomp for the three count.

TIME: 20:33

THOUGHTS: It is no surprise that you would leave it to two of WWE's most seasoned workhorses in Rollins and Miz to open up the main show, and boy did they deliver. Great intensity and energy from both men, no lack of flow between them, and fluid transitions, like Miz slamming Rollins' knee into a ring post on a counter, then going right for a Figure Four Leglock. Miz upped his reputation as a great counter-wrestler as well, stopping Rollins' momentum at every turn with simple counters, strikes and holds. Rollins showed off in his role as the valiant babyface champion, kicking out after not one, but two Skull-Crushing Finales and finally finding a way to put the Miz away despite only working with one good leg. All in all, a great opener between Rollins and Miz, and Miz will have to learn to live without his precious IC Title for the time being.

WK KING OF PPV

Dan - 2 pts
Ken - 1 pt
Alison - 2 pts
Greg - 2 pts
Nick - 1 pt

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RAW Women's Championship
Singles Match
"The Irresistible Force" Nia Jax (c) vs. "The Goddess" Alexa Bliss

RESULT: Nia Jax wins via pinfall; Jax wins after catching Bliss on a Twisted Bliss attempt and hitting a Samoan Drop for the win.

TIME: 10:17

THOUGHTS: This was an okay match to bring the Newark audience back down from the hot Rollins-Miz opener. Bliss played the aggressor here, looking to capitalize on the mind games she inflicted through her "Moments of Bliss", but it proved to be her undoing as Nia proved too resilient to stay down for very long, even after she took a bad tumble to the ringside floor. While her post-victory message felt rather forced and more like an advert to reinforce WWE's "Be a Star" anti-bull campaign, Jax has established herself as RAW's top female competitor after knocking off the former champion and looks to the rest of the RAW Women's roster for more competition.

WK KING OF PPV

Dan - 4 pts (LOCK)
Ken - 1 pt
Alison - 4 pts (LOCK)
Greg - 3 pts
Nick - 1 pt

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WWE United States Championship
Singles Match
"The Charismatic Enigma" Jeff Hardy (c) vs. "The Viper" Randy Orton

RESULT: Jeff Hardy wins via pinfall; Hardy caught Orton with a Twist of Fate out of a cradle, then hit a Swanton Bomb for the victory.

TIME: 11:50

THOUGHTS: A pretty middle-of-the-road match here; whereas you had Miz and Rollins ramping up the pace of their match and having a roller coaster affair of a match, Orton and Hardy played a  more methodical pace, Orton going through his methodical paces in grounding Hardy, getting a slight bit overconfident near the end, and paying for it by getting hit with a Twist of Fate...OUTTA NOWHERE...followed by a Swanton to rein in an overall solid defense for Jeff after a dismal outing against Mahal at Jeddah.

WK KING OF PPV

Dan - 5 pts
Ken - 1 pt
Alison - 4 pts
Greg - 4 pts
Nick - 1 pt

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Singles Match
Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass

RESULT: Daniel Bryan wins via submission; Bryan won after hitting a number of crossface strikes and locking in the "Yes!" Lock for the submission.

TIME: 7:40

THOUGHTS: This was a match that served as little more than a "re-proving" ground for Daniel Bryan, playing his "greatest hits" here and showing he's gained no rust during his time off and is more than ready to resume as a full-time singles competitor. Cass, on the other hand, looked somewhat exposed here, as he did little more than pose and sling Bryan around without showing any sort of real in-ring prowess he might have picked up during his time off. His post-match attack, however, indicates this feud MUST continue, so hopefully we'll see more of what Cass may be capable of as a potential "big man" on Smackdown.

WK KING OF PPV

Dan - 5 pts
Ken - 1 pt
Alison - 5 pts
Greg - 5 pts
Nick - 1 pt

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Smackdown Women's Championship
Singles Match
"Princess of Staten Island" Carmella (c) vs. "The Queen" Charlotte Flair

RESULT: Carmella wins via pinfall; Carmella pinned Charlotte with a jackknife cover after super-kicking the back of Charlotte's left leg.

TIME: 10:12

THOUGHTS: There was an interesting dichotomy to this match going into it, with Carmella standing out as the heel underdog champion going up against the confident veteran face in Charlotte. Carmella looked desperate at times, trying to walk out or get DQ'ed at different points in the match, only for Charlotte to cut her off at every corner because she, as a second-generation Flair, knows those tactics all too well. Her overconfidence would prove to be her downfall, however, missing a moonsault and landing badly on her left leg, allowing Carmella to capitalize with a superkick to the bad leg and jackknifing Charlotte for the win. Surprising that the IIconics didn't factor in here, but Carmella silences some of her doubters here with an effectively clean win over a veteran performer in Charlotte.

Looking over this match again, however, I almost feel like the heel-face dichotomy got mixed up here with Carmella and Charlotte, as it seemed like Carmella was the overly confident but spunky underdog champion whereas Charlotte was the supremely confident veteran challenger who felt like winning the title back was an afterthought at that point. That sort of matchup would've worked if the heel and face alignments were reversed. As it was, it came off rather awkward and only made both women look bad here, especially Charlotte on losing out to a simple misstep on her moonsault rather than any real nefariousness on Carmella or the IIconic's behalf.

WK KING OF PPV

Dan - 6 pts
Ken - 2 pts
Alison - 5 pts
Greg - 5 pts
Nick - 1 pt

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WWE World Championship
No-Disqualifications Match
"The Phenomenal" AJ Styles (c) vs. "The Artist" Shinsuke Nakamura

RESULT: The match ended in a double KO (Styles retains); Styles and Nakamura hit each other with low blows, and neither man could make the official's 10 count.

TIME: 21:10

THOUGHTS: This was a far better outing than either their Mania or Jeddah encounter, as the No-DQ stipulation allowed Naka and Styles to take things out of the ring and provide a more in-your-face physical style that both men are better accustomed to. While I was expecting Shinsuke to abuse the stipulation, he was surprisingly subdued here, only going to weapons a couple times through the match, including a reverse exploder onto it and having it turned on him by Styles (though AJ paid for it with a nasty gash on his left cheek after the chair ricocheted back into his face).

While I usually frown on non-finishes for PPVs, this one actually worked for me and fit within the storyline being told, that being Shinuske resorting to simple, brutal low blows and AJ looking to get revenge, with both men laid out after stereo low blows (stiff-looking ones too, YEOWCH) and not being able to answer the ten count. Styles retains, but the feud rages on, possibly now with Samoa Joe in the mix, in the coming month.

WK KING OF PPV
(No winner, results remain the same)

Dan - 6 pts
Ken - 2 pts
Alison - 5 pts
Greg - 5 pts
Nick - 1 pt

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Tag Team Match
Bobby Lashley & "The Monster Among Men" Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn

RESULT: Braun & Bobby win via pinfall; Lashley pinned Owens after a stalling suplex.

TIME: 8:50

THOUGHTS: There's not much to say about this, other than it serving as the cool-down comedy match between Styles-Nakamura and Reigns-Joe. Braun and Bobby dominated, Owens and Zayn look more and more like a dysfunctional pair of goofballs, and Lashely REALLY needs a new finisher. Does Ron Simmons have a stranglehold on "The Dominator" slam or something?

WK KING OF PPV

Dan - 7 pts
Ken - 2 pts
Alison - 6 pts
Greg - 6 pts
Nick - 1 pt

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Singles Match
"The Big Dog" Roman Reigns vs. "The Destroyer" Samoa Joe

RESULT: Roman Reigns wins via pinfall; Reigns countered out of a Muscle Buster and hit a Spear for the three count.

TIME: 17:55

THOUGHTS: Surprise, surprise, I have mixed feelings coming out of a Roman Reigns match. Firstly, I liked the pre-match aggression from Joe, as a way of both assaulting Reigns physically and demoralizing him further since his two big losses to Lesnar. On the flip side, it also served to establish Reigns as the wounded underdog battling from the ground up...a gimmick which in itself has been established as not working for someone of Reigns' stature and character, and thus the audience really couldn't buy it or get behind it, turning on the match with "CM Punk" (which is getting into "What?" territory, if it hasn't already) and "This is Boring" chants.

None of this is an indicator of how good or bad the match was; it was a solid match, but both I and the crowd expected more hard-hitting, back-and-forth action for a main event rather than the methodical pace we got here, only picking up into second gear near the end of the match.

I can also understand the logic of placing this in the main event slot; it's all well and good if Vince was dead-set on the Double DQ finish for Styles-Nakamura (you NEVER want to send a PPV crowd home scratching their collective heads on a non-finish for a main event), but if you do place a non-title bout like Reigns-Joe in the main event position, you have to have your competitors put on a balls-to-the-wall kind of main event, one that leaves an impact on the live audience and sends them home thinking, "WOW! What an amazing ending!", not having them filing out of the arena without a care as soon as the referee counts three.

We didn't get the former here, instead we ended up getting the latter. Would it be fine for a TV main event? Sure, I guess. A PPV main event? Most definitely not. My personal recommendation? Re-watch purely for the IC Title opener. It stole the show at Backlash, and for all intended purposes it WAS the show at Backlash.

WK KING OF PPV

Dan - 8 pts (WINNER)
Ken - 3 pts
Alison - 6 pts
Greg - 7 pts
Nick - 1 pt

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