Mr. Tito’s PHAT WWE Backlash 2025 Review with Thoughts, Match Ratings, and Show Grade
Before I begin, REST IN PEACE to Sabu who passed away at the age of 60. The biggest shame is that someone THAT talented who had a unique look and could just dazzle inside the ring probably didn’t earn that much despite the heightened risks he took. It was a shame that WCW during the 1990s and then the WWE during the 2000s couldn’t wrap their arms around him and push him harder, but he played to the tune of his own beat, too. Should have been a much bigger star instead of doing high risks maneuvers for much smaller crowds. I’ll never forget the many entertaining matches that I’ve seen him in and my condolences go to his family.
Now, let’s talk WWE Backlash 2025, as it was a superb show. Isn’t it funny how WWE can put on such a strong show with just 5 matches and also without the likes of The Rock, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, CM Punk, Bron Breakker, Jey Uso, Rhea Ripley, Alexa Bliss, Liv Morgan, Tiffany Stratton, Bianca Belair, and Charlotte Flair? It’s also funny to me how GOOD John Cena vs. Randy Orton was in comparison to Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena at Wrestlemania 41. Cody didn’t appear to be up for the moment, whereas Randy Orton looked like a mega star in comparison.
History is going to show two specific things when we look back on 2024-2025. For one, Cody Rhodes CLEARLY peaked at Wrestlemania 40 and should have been a brief champion at best. Extremely favorable booking covered up the reasons WHY WWE didn’t previous push him through the mid-2000s. Cody couldn’t hang with John Cena both on promos and in the ring, while a more experienced main event worker like Randy Orton easily could. SECONDLY, Roman Reigns has peaked and we’re not getting those prime years back. By not ending the Bloodline properly, the thing that helped make Roman effective as a heel (the Bloodline) didn’t help make him a strong babyface.
But nothing from the new Seth Rollins/Bron Breakker/Paul Heyman stable, either, on this Pay Per View.
No World Heavyweight Champion in Jey Uso, either. His match with Logan Paul will be on NBC’s Saturday Night’s Main Event. Feels like we’re already not taking his World Title reign seriously with that.
Just one female match on Backlash 2025 and it was featuring one of the older stars on the roster. Yet, Becky Lynch KILLED IT out there, perfectly working with Lyra Valkyria and putting on an electric match that the fans were totally into.
Say, didn’t the online community PUKE about the WWE releasing so many female wrestlers recently, in comparison to released male wrestlers? Yeah, watch that Becky vs. Lyra match and you’ll see why. WWE doesn’t need a deep female roster of similar looking and performing females who don’t bring something unique to the table. Becky and Lyra obviously do, both in their look, presentation, in-ring ability, and ability to perform well on the big stage. That’s a 38 year-old female worker with a ton of mileage on that body that just KILLED IT on Saturday night and made a younger wrestler, Lyra at 28 years old, look fantastic.
Before I get into my review, I just want to say that today’s Backlash 2025 review is brought to you by the fine folks of Morgan & Morgan. Are you in need of a sponsor for your big Premium Live Event in St. Louis to place something right in the middle of the ring? Well, contact the nationwide legal firm who advertises that their service is “free unless we win your case” while boasting $25 billion in cases won. That’s right, instead of using the Mom & Pop legal firms with lawyers who invest time into local community events, go for the guys with over 1,000 attorneys nationwide who are ready to serve you instead. They are like the “Aspen Dental of lawyers”.
By the way, the replacement for Samantha Irvin is fantastic. Sammie, why did you give up such a great gig? Don’t let a man tell you what you should do…
First match was Jacob Fatu defending and retaining in a Fatal Four Way against Drew McIntyre, LA Knight, and Damian Priest. Let’s be totally honest here… The LA Knight experiment was fun, but he’s clearly a Rock imitation and has been exposed ever since the REAL Rock decided to return to the WWE and show him how the imitation is truly done. Knight is a 42 year-old with a ton of mileage on his body, and it’s starting to somewhat show… WWE can keep trying to push Damian Priest on me, but he still looks like the most SCARED 6’5” wrestler out there. He should be imposing his physical will, yet he tries to work like a lighter wrestler. Just baffling…
Fatal Four Ways are examples of lazy booking and usually have too much deadweight in the match rather than focusing in on a better one-on-one match. WWE has never learned why Wrestlemania 16 was such a LAME Wrestlemania, particularly from its LAME Fatal Four Way with a McMahon in every corner. Maybe it’s a placeholder for maybe Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre digging deeper into a one-on-one feud, but if these PLEs are going to keep having just 5 matches per show, then we need to keep moving. Being on a PLE shouldn’t be a participation trophy, it should be earned… Real money would be pushing Drew McIntyre, who had a fantastic 2024, against Jacob Fatu to see how good Fatu really is on a bigger WWE stage. Good for Jeff Cobb getting a WWE gig, but everyone will be held down if Solo Sikoa is their leader. Jacob needs to break himself free from the shambles of the old Bloodline gimmick.
I’ll go about *** for that match, as it suffered from the usual Fatal Four Way stuff of being either a cluster and/or too many people selling for too long before re-entering the match.
I pretty much already stated my thoughts on Becky Lynch vs. Lyra Valkyria. Well executed match, as Becky played the perfect heel and sold like a champ while Lyra played the babyface incredibly well and sold for the sympathy. LOVED THIS MATCH and I’ve gone from saying “WHO” with Lyra to “WHERE” can I see more of her matches? But damn, Becky is so silky smooth as a dance partner and she’s truly what the WWE Women’s Division has been missing. She makes EVERYBODY look amazing, in addition to looking amazing herself. Remember, Becky made Tiffany Stratton look like a million bucks when the overrated Charlotte couldn’t. ‘Nuff said.
**** for this Becky vs. Lyra match. LOVED IT. We need more Becky in the WWE and working to get all of the younger talent over.
I was fine with Dominik Mysterio vs. Penta. First and foremost, both Penta and his brother look like much bigger stars in the WWE. Why? Because WWE focuses more on the mystery around their characters rather than focusing in on them being spot machines inside the ring. Sure, they are still spot machines, but more emphasis has been placed on how unique looking both brothers are and it’s working. Characters draw money before the matches even happen, folks. Dominik is so smooth inside the ring, though. The guy has really learned how to work as a heel and his selling abilities are pristine now. While the match was slightly too short, both men got enough in and I appreciated the match.
***1/4 is about right for Dom vs. Penta. Happy for Dom getting a bigger spotlight, while I’m happy that Penta is killing it as a free agent signing.
Sigh, Gunther vs. Pat McAfee… I’m a huge fan of Pat McAfee and watch his daily show regularly… But doing everything else has over-exposed his brand, from ESPN’s Gameday college football show, commentating for WWE, and now doing more as a wrestler. I don’t want to hate on the guy too much because he’s incredibly generous as a human being and I actively root for him to succeed… It just felt for this match, it should have been Gunther physically mauling him without much retaliation from a non-full-time wrestler like Pat McAfee. It’s been years since he wrestled and even then, the opponents weren’t former World Champs like Gunther. The roadmap for this should have been Cena vs. Lesnar from SummerSlam 2014 rather than what happened. While Gunther still mostly dominated and overcame some interference with Michael Cole, the better way would have been to maul him even worse and then have Cole begging for mercy.
The problem with Gunther is the LACK of heat that he’s had as a Main Eventer beyond his Intercontinental Title run. He needs to be pushed as a monster, much in the vein of Brock Lesnar. He’s too big, too dangerous, and lacks that personality to make him otherwise. For him to let Pat McAfee to get in any offense was, well, offensive. While Pat McAfee pretty much took an extended squash, it should have been much more violent and used as a means to get Gunther over as a monster. Instead, he’s still that cocky heel that caused him to lose to Sami Zayn for the IC Title and then Jey Uso for the World Title. In my opinion, Sami and Jey should NEVER defeat a man like Gunther, ever. But instead, he has a big weakness that is easily exploited and makes him look like a doofus because he lets his opponents survive and have a real shot at defeating him. While I 100% understand that’s how a heel works, there’s a difference between someone who looks like Ric Flair and begs for mercy like him versus someone who looks like a machine without a conscience like Brock Lesnar or Gunther.
Eh, **1/2 for this… Would have preferred that Gunther just destroyed Pat McAfee. Maybe Michael Cole could have thrown in a towel or something? THOUGH, I did appreciate Michael Cole performing the Wrestlemania 5 finish of Rick Rude vs. the Ultimate Warrior. Mad respect for that.
The MAIN EVENT of WWE Backlash was ***** (5-stars), best WWE match of 2025. You had REAL grown men out there with legitimate star power in John Cena and Randy Orton, along with clearly defined roles with Cena clearly as the heel and Randy Orton as the babyface. Helps that Randy was from St. Louis, and thus he had like a “home court advantage”. I wish that WWE would push that option more often, as wrestler locations or hometowns aren’t always known or taken advantage of to help get a wrestler over. Cena and Orton, both in their 40s, worked perfectly together and both worked as their roles should be. Cena was clearly the heel and Orton was clearly the face. Loved when fans were chanting “you can’t wrestle” aimed at Cena to troll him, and the Orton fans were chanting “but Randy can”. Loved it.
Also loved how fans are fully singing Randy Orton’s theme song now… I used to hate that theme song, but the fans singing it loudly has upgraded the theme song to me. Orton has been a polarizing wrestler, but we’ve seen the guy for 23 years and we appreciate all of the pain he has endured as a WWE wrestler.
Cena is 48 years old while Orton is 45… Both were jacked and still looking like “larger than life” superstars, which is what the more nerdy looking Cody Rhodes lacks with his smaller build and stupid neck tattoo. Roman Reigns doesn’t look so “larger than life” without Heyman or his Bloodline brothers protecting that image. Both Cena and Orton have proved that you can change them heel or face, and yet they’ll still be great workers IN SPITE of the booking. Other wrestlers are entirely dependent on favorable booking and overpushing to remain relevant whereas Cena and Orton can fit any role at any time, and yet pull off great main event matches. Cody looking clueless at Wrestlemania 41, causing Cena to carry him, is not what the WWE needs in a main event.
Loved the ending and that ending even gets better if you’ve watched the press conference where a naïve R-Truth tries to congratulate John Cena only to take an Attitude Adjustment through the table. It’s a nice long-term storyline, as R-Truth has always loved John Cena and it pays off as the reason why Randy Orton lost his match against Cena. Now, the WWE can go two different ways to keep things strong for Cena. He can have a brief feud with R-Truth, while Randy Orton is definitely deserving of a rematch.
For all of you bashers of Triple H and his Creative Team regarding the hype before and during the Wrestlemania 41 event, watch this PLE… They just put on a GREAT show that had the crowd in the palm of its hand for 3 hours on Saturday night and did so with the absence of many top stars. No problem, as WWE’s bench is DEEP right now and they don’t need to over-expose their top wrestlers as other promotions are constantly trying to do. Reason Cody didn’t look as strong as WWE Champion is because the WWE over-exposed him and made him look puny defending the title against AJ Styles or Logan Paul after taking the title from Roman. Uh oh, Jey Uso is defending his new World Heavyweight Championship against Logan “I apologized publicly to Stone Cold” Paul.
GREAT SHOW that deserves an “A” grade.
Don’t listen to the online wrestling community of pessimists complain about this show. Watch it for yourself and just enjoy it. WWE pulled off a great show without many top stars because they can… The bench is so deep and the creative is good enough to tell great stories with that deep bench.
My takeaways from this event…
– Pat McAfee should stick to announcing and keep his career options simple rather than over-exposing his name and personality everywhere. Love your daily YouTube show and you’re great on commentary for RAW. Stick to that. LESS is MORE, Pat.
– Push Becky Lynch to the moon for the Women’s Division. She can make any opponent look like a million bucks. Much more Becky, and much less of Charlotte, please. Charlotte is too competitive to realize that it’s a team effort that make wrestling great on the midcard of wrestling shows.
– Push Gunther like a monster, stop hesitating. He should go murder Jey Uso (figuratively) to take back his World Title run and become an unstoppable monster. Make it so that a REAL contender, not a former tag wrestler, can beat him for that title.
– Best night for John Cena as his new heel character. I was about to label it as “bust”, but his match with Orton was great and now he has heat with Truth/Orton where he can finally build himself into a stronger heel rather than working circles around Cody that made him look less effective as a heel.
– Drew McIntyre is worth pushing strongly. His 2024 year proved it. He should be a singular threat to Jacob Fatu rather than being forced into Fatal Four Ways. By the way, did I mention that Fatal Four Ways SUCK so badly?
– I’m very happy with both Dominik Mysterio and Penta as performers. Perfect for the midcard and can get that IC Title over.
– I am liking what I see with Lyra Valkyria and she made the most out of this program with Becky.
– Seriously feels like Wrestlemania 41 was last year, based on how GOOD Backlash was on Saturday Night and how strong RAW has been since Wrestlemania 41. Feels like WWE is in a much better position creatively and with their roster than 2024. WWE is no longer as dependent on Roman Reigns as it once was, as the Rock becoming the “Final Boss” and the weak SummerSlam babyface turn are making it appear that the Bloodline gimmick and Paul Heyman were favorable booking to Roman that made him look like a bigger star than maybe he really is.
WWE is in great hands with Triple H. With the “will Rock perform at Wrestlemania 41” drama behind him, he can focus on giving us a strong Spring/Summer version of the WWE and I’m 100% OK with that. Aside from Punk vs. Drew, I really struggled watching WWE as the weather got warmer. This year, I’m looking forward to it.
And THAT is how you review a WWE show. No biases, no conflicts of interest… Just one man with his honest opinion. No Fs given as well…