Wrestle Review: The Backlash Submitted by Andy Sullivan on 06/13/2020 at 12:16 PM
That's a two-fold title to this piece. Yes, WWE Backlash is tomorrow. What I'm also referencing, however, is the backlash WWE will likely receive as a result of replacing Paul Heyman as head of Raw and Smackdown with Brother Love, I mean Bruce Pritchard. I call this the changing of the puppets. Bruce is much more of a Vince stooge than Paul. I figure that's why the change was made. Vince wants stooges and not free-thinking people.
Before I get to Backlash, I have to give a shoutout to AEW. They have been killing it the past few weeks! This past week's TNT Championship match with Cody and Marq Quen was great! I mentioned it on Twitter and got a reply from Cody! It's pretty cool when wrestlers actually respond to their fans. Also, we have our second match made for Fyter Fest. Along with Mox vs Cage for the AEW Championship, we get Cody vs Jake Hager for the TNT Championship. Pretty cool and different that the champ actually laid down the challenge.
As for Backlash, it looks like we start out with that storyline that makes everyone except Vince McMahon(apparently) uncomfortable: Jeff Hardy vs Sheamus. This whole thing started innocently enough, with Jeff beating Sheamus in the IC Championship tournament. Speaking of which, Daniel Bryan and eventual new IC champ AJ Styles had a masterful 38 minute final for the championship. I'd love to see these two go again. Plus, it's pretty cool to see AJ win the one WWE title that he'd previously never won. Now, back to Sheamus/Hardy. We even got a Vince p*ss fetish thing on Smackdown with the "urine" test. I imagine it was Mountain Dew or something. I have such low interest for this match but I will make this prediction: Since Jeff beat Sheamus the last time they met, I say Big Red gets his win back.
Apollo Crews defending the U.S. title against Andrade should be a good one. I'm thinking Andrade gets the win and the title here, somehow. I say that because this won't be the last match between the two and a clean sweep for Apollo would just make Andrade look bad.
Announced just this week was the triple threat women's tag championship between the champs Bayley and Sasha, the Iiconics and Bliss-Cross. I think Sasha might cost her and Bayley the titles because, let's face it, we're headed for Bayley vs Sasha and they have to get this thing moving for their SummerSlam match in a couple months. I pick my ladies Alexa and Nikki.
We have a handicap match for the Universal Championship. Good grief.... Braun Stroman defends against Miz and Morrison. Stroman is retaining, isn't he? It's ironic how we all at one point wanted Braun to win the championship and now, after two months, we want him to lose it. Same goes with Drew. I think people just want a new champion every week. Then, however, people would cry about WWE having no stability.
You really won't want to hear this: Nia Jax will beat Asuka for the Raw women's championship. I just feel like that's such a Vince and Bruce move. "The fans hate Nia. Let's make her champ, pal"!
As for Edge and Orton in the "greatest wrestling match ever"( even Edge and Orton are making fun of the moniker), Orton probably gets his win back, don't you think? That way, they can have a third match sometime. Let's see, first was a fight, this is a wrestling match...what will the third match be?
The WWE Championship is on the line when Drew McIntyre defends against the channel changing, the yawn-inducing, the uncharismatic and not so enigmatic Bobby Lashley. Do you guys see what WWE will probably do here? Vince: "well, pal! They're protesting everywhere about lack of diversity and freedoms. Let's have Bobby Lashley, even though he's boring, win the WWE Championship. It's such good sh....."! Don't you figure that's how it went down?
There you have it: my Backlash predictions that will most assuredly not come true. If you want to see what really happens, you probably should just watch the show.
