WWE Backlash 2018 Final Rating: The Architect Steals The Show
WWE Backlash 2018 was the first co-branded pay-per-view post-WrestleMania 34 and served up many of the biggest matches Raw and SmackDown had to offer.
There wasn’t much hype leading into WWE Backlash 2018, but the show was able to kick off the new pay-per-view format with a pretty decent overall show. In fact, there was even a match of the year candidate that came from this show.
That would-be match of the year candidate kicked off the main card with Seth Rollins defending the Intercontinental Championship against The Miz and what an excellent match this would be. The wide array of action and counters these two broke out were outstanding before Rollins retained his title to continue his incredible wave of momentum.
The Raw Women’s Championship match followed with Nia Jax defending her title against Alexa Bliss and these two had a pretty good match that probably outdid their WrestleMania 34 encounter. Bliss got her offense in, but The Irresistible Force proved to be too much and retained her title.
Photo by WWE.com
Two veterans squared off next when Jeff Hardy defended the United States Championship against Randy Orton in what would turn out to be a slower-paced, decent at best match. It wasn’t bad, but the pace just never got going and the ending felt a bit rushed when Hardy pinned Orton clean to retain his title.
Daniel Bryan’s battle with Big Cass was the next match lined up and it didn’t do much in the grand scheme of things. The match was very so-so with Bryan making the seven-footer tap out in about two seconds after applying the Yes Lock, but Cass predictably attacked Bryan after the match to get the last laugh.
New SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella was up next as she defended her title against Charlotte Flair in what would turn out to be a pretty good match. Carmella did more great heel work and took advantage of Charlotte’s dinged up knee to retain her title in a legitimate, yet still cowardly heelish way.
The WWE Championship was on the line next when AJ Styles defended against Shinsuke Nakamura for the third time in approximately one month, but this match ended up being the best of the three with no disqualification rules helping out. Both men got in impressive action with many tense moments, but the ending was a big letdown when both got counted out and Styles kept his title. Can we just have a normal match between these two where everything clicks?
The beast of a team featuring Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley battled Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn up next and this match’s position on the card told the whole story. It was nothing more than a Raw match that didn’t accomplish much for anybody with Strowman and Lashley getting the win while Owens and Zayn’s friendship took more twists and turns.
The main event of the night closed out the show when Roman Reigns battled Samoa Joe in a rekindled rivalry of sorts. Joe wasted little time to take it to Reigns and beat him down before the bell even started. That dominance continued throughout much of the match before Reigns got back in it and eventually hit Joe with a spear to get the win in a decent match that wasn’t main event worthy.
Photo by WWE.com
Overall, Backlash was a bit of a weird show. There were a few positives to take away, but there were also several non-beneficial matches that just seemed thrown together. The WWE didn’t do a good job of making this pay-per-view feel important and gave more attention towards the Greatest Royal Rumble event, and it showed.
Rollins vs. Miz was excellent, both women’s title matches were pretty good, and despite a crappy finish, Styles vs. Nakamura was very good. But outside of that, every other match was nothing more than decent and some were even more on the throwaway side. But now with the Money in the Bank pay-per-view on deck next month, expect a much better showing from the WWE.
New feuds should be starting soon in many cases and the WWE Championship feud could remain the same, but potentially add someone like Samoa Joe to the mix. But from top to bottom, Backlash was an inconsistent show that never stood much of a chance to be great given how it was built up.
Next: WWE Backlash 2018 Review