WrestleMania Backlash: Three things that WWE got wrong

Despite receiving a lackluster build — a common theme among B-level WWE pay-per-views — WrestleMania Backlash by and large delivered from a quality standpoint.

However, it was far from perfect. Of course, a perfect show is an impossible standard to hold any promotion to, but it’s still important to look at what didn’t work on shows and what made the match/angle/decision such a misfire.

These were the three things WWE got wrong at WrestleMania Backlash

The zombies

Watching this match, it was hard not to think of that “Be Sure to Drink Your Ovaltine” scene from A Christmas Story: “A crummy commercial?”.

Look, wrestling is no stranger to shameless advertising by the bigger companies, particularly for upcoming films, but almost none of the other examples — from Robocop backing up Sting in the early 90s to Rick Steiner feuding with Chucky to WWE having characters from movies (not the actors playing the characters) guest host Raw — were any good, and having zombies serve as lumberjacks in the Damian Priest vs. The Miz match to hype up Army of the Dead, unfortunately, belongs in that dump heap.

With the lumberjack stipulation, WWE had a chance to give Priest a definitive win and move him up the card. And yes, Priest ultimately got the win (thank goodness), but he gained little from it; the only thing fans will remember about this match is the zombies that somehow retained enough brain activity to adhere to the lumberjack rules.

To be a little fair, WWE has booked worse things in their recent history, so it wasn’t the end of the world, and sure, some fans probably enjoyed the inherent silliness of the whole experience, but it felt like a waste of time, especially when it comes to Priest.

The structure of the SmackDown Tag Team Championship match

At some point before WrestleMania Backlash, Vince McMahon and his creative team decided that The Mysterios vs. The Dirty Dawgs needed an extra umph to make Rey and Dominik Mysterio’s SmackDown Tag Team Championship win more of a heartfelt moment.

(To be clear: WWE did NOT need to add an extra umph here, but it is what it is)

This led to them scripting an angle where Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode attacked Dominik on the WrestleMania Backlash pre-show, which set up a scenario where Rey had to take on Roode and Ziggler by himself.

Now, you could argue that it would’ve made more sense for Ziggler and Roode to take out Rey instead (and you would be right), but clearly logic wasn’t the priority here. If it were, the TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS — the best tag team on the brand, in-storyline — wouldn’t have had so much trouble beating one man (no matter how good that one man is) in what was a glorified handicap match until Dom came out to help his dad.

In the end, it didn’t matter too much. The strong work from all four parties made this compelling and the right team won in the end, but this was another case of WWE taking the most arduous route to get to their desired destination.

Cesaro and WWE’s neverending pursuit of heat

As mentioned in a previous piece, Roman Reigns and Cesaro collaborated to create a fantastic main event for the Univeral Championship. While the challenger came up short, the match proved that “The Swiss Superman” should be a mainstay as a featured babyface on SmackDown.

Then WWE used the remainder of their PPV time to temper those expectations.

Following the loss to Reigns, Cesaro suffered beatdowns from Jey Uso AND Seth Rollins, with the latter’s being the more vicious of the two. It was almost as if WWE said “Thanks for your service, Cesaro. Now it’s time for you to head back down the card while we focus on the storylines we actually care about” (they made sure to advance the familial story with Reigns and the Usos and tease Reigns/Rollins before both beatdowns).

The Uso beatdown felt unnecessary if the only goal was to establish his loyalty to Reigns: him coming out with the lei illustrated that well enough. Had someone made the save for Cesaro — which also could’ve set up Reigns’ next challenger — it would’ve been a different story.

But instead, because the well-respected Cesaro apparently has no friends, we got Rollins coming out to beat him down in a segment WWE could’ve held off on until Friday’s SmackDown. Seriously, would it have been that hard to draw up an angle where Cesaro — with his arm taped up — addressed the audience for a bit before Rollins showed up and attacked him with the same vigor that he had tonight? That way, you still get your set up to, presumably, Hell in a Cell, without making Cesaro look like a chump as WrestleMania Backlash fades to black.

Also, considering how thin the babyface side is on SmackDown right now, booking this angle is an, uh, interesting choice.