Top 5 all-time matches from WWE Backlash/WrestleMania Backlash

Best Backlash matches of all time No. 2: Roman Reigns vs. Cesaro- Universal Championship (WrestleMania Backlash 2021)

For years, WWE fans yearned to see Cesaro receive a sustained singles push, and in 2021, it looked like it would finally happen. Fresh off of pinning Seth Rollins in a good match at WrestleMania 37, Cesaro became the number one contender to Roman Reigns’ Universal Championship.

Sure, the program came with the usual WWE issues, such as centering it more around Jimmy Uso’s allegiances to The Bloodline or the framing of the 41-year-old Cesaro as a “young upstart”, but some were still hopeful that this would lead to “The Swiss Superman” becoming a fixture at the top of the card.

Well, as evidenced by Cesaro’s departure from the company, that didn’t happen, but at least we got to see this great match at WrestleMania Backlash. Despite the two not having a crowd to play off of, they told the story of the challenger fighting from underneath despite a shoulder injury well.

Yes, you could argue that the match leaned a bit too much into melodrama, but that’s to be expected in a WWE main event, and Reigns and Cesaro were so good in their respective roles that those bits still resonated with most viewers.

Of course, Reigns would win this match clean and Cesaro would tumble down the card immediately after this bout, but for a moment, it was great to watch this talented worker demonstrate how broad his in-ring skills were (after all, how many wrestlers can execute a corkscrew plancha and deadlift a 280-pound man in the same match?).