This Sunday, WWE will present the first edition of Backlash since 2009. Backlash used to be the inaugural post-WrestleMania PPV featuring fall-out from WrestleMania. After the brand split, however, WWE has chosen to bring back some of the PPV names from the Attitude/Ruthless Aggression Eras, and this PPV officially rings in the separation of RAW and Smackdown as independent brands. Now, the card as of this moment seems light in content and to be quite honest, it looks underwhelming on paper. However, let’s not count the match quality before the show, as the saying goes. With that said, barring any other matches announced, here is my predictions for the current card for Backlash.
Smackdown Tag Team Tournament Semi-Finals: The Hype Brothers vs. The Usos
You couldn’t imagine the amount of comments in all caps because of excitement I saw in the discussion thread last night because of the heel turn from The Usos. I didn’t think The Usos were particularly exciting and the only thing we knew about them was that they were a part of the legendary Samoan bloodline. However, as heels, they have a new attitude, and a turn to the dark side was just what the doctor ordered for them. They took out Chad Gable form the favorites to win the tournament, American Alpha, making a clear statement to the rest of the division. On the other hand, The Hype Brothers are coming off a loss against the team of Heath Slater and Rhyno, but now have a chance to redeem themselves. The tournament up to this point has been sort of lacking in terms of match quality, aside from the American Alpha/Breezango matchup, and I’m not keeping my expectations high for this match. After The Usos’ heel turn and removing American Alpha from the finals in the tag tournament, I can’t see any scenario where the Hype Brothers, who lost to a team already in the final match beats The Usos here. Book The Usos on this one.
Winner: The Usos
Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt
Randy Orton is coming off a humiliating beat down courtesy of Brock Lesnar at Summerslam, so rest assured he needs to get back on track with some sort of victory, but I’m not sure a win against Bray Wyatt will get him back to prominence. Meanwhile, Bray Wyatt is in a rut of his own, getting left off the Summerslam card. Then, Bray proceeded to undergo his ritual of randomly choosing an opponent to take his time and find a reason to hate him. With Roman Reigns, we were told, “Anyone But You Roman”, with a disturbing picture of him with his daughter being posted in a wall filled with an assortment of photos. With Randy, he just told Randy that he’s a god and Randy’s a human. Okay, then. Honestly, I don’t think we were given much reason to care for this match, because we don’t have an indication of why they are fighting. To add to that, there are no stakes in this match so no one’s really affected with a victory or a defeat here. For me, my natural inkling here is to go with The Viper here, because I can’t think that he would get destroyed by Lesnar and then lose to Wyatt in his two PPV matches returning from his injury. However, I also can’t think that WWE would continue to degrade Bray Wyatt as opposed to building him up as a top heel on Smackdown. I’m also thinking that with news that Luke Harper being set to return to the WWE Performance Center this week to possibly get cleared for action, perhaps they may do a repeat of the match between Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt and have Luke Harper interfere on his behalf and cost Orton the match? It’s a toss up here, but I’ll go with my gut and say that WWE gives Bray Wyatt an important victory. This is a choice of no confidence though.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
Becky Lynch vs. Naomi vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Nikki Bella vs. Carmella vs. Natayla – Smackdown Women’s Championship
I liked and disliked some things about how Smackdown have treated their women, but for the most part, I think they’ve built up each women to make a case for getting the gold. Natayla serves as the veteran of the female roster, continuing her hatred for Becky Lynch and serving as a foil for all of the faces on the roster. Naomi has brought energy, and twerking, glow in the dark edition. Carmella started off slow with her entrance, with her character being as dull as a doornail without Enzo and Cass, but after she started beating on the returning Nikki Bella, her character has taken a turn for the better, and save for her awkward submission hold, she’s been a good heel for the roster. Alexa Bliss is your dark horse. She has pinned Becky Lynch twice and she’s been protected in all of her matches for the most part. She’s green in a lot of areas, but she’s a come a long way, has a great look and could perhaps be the top heel for the Smackdown women’s roster. Nikki Bella was brought to Smackdown to bring some much needed star power after her long run as Divas Champion last year. While may hate on her for the Bella moniker she has credentials and can go in the ring. Her mini program with Carmella may factor in to the finish of the match. Then, of course, there’s the face of the Women’s division on Smackdown, Becky Lynch. With Becky living under the shadow of Sasha Banks and Charlotte before the brand split, a women of her caliber is more than fit to take a leadership role, which is why she is considered the favorite by many to be the first Women’s Champion for Smackdown. I think this match can be entertaining because of how thin the card is. Each women has some sort of case here, but if I have to pick now, I’ll take Becky Lynch. It’s been a long time coming for her to be a champion, and I don’t think WWE can afford to limit her any longer. She deserves it, and I think Smackdown’s roster and their title will start off the right way with Becky as champion.
Winner: Becky Lynch
The Miz (C) vs. Dolph Ziggler – Intercontinental Championship
Hasn’t it seemed liek The Miz and Ziggler has been faced Dolph Ziggler’s build up to Dean Ambrose to their WWE Title match has been awesome. Dolph’s performance over the Intercontinental Championship? Not so awesome. After a one month stint in the WWE Title scene, Dolph seems to be back home to square one where he’s been over the majority of his career, the Intercontinental Championship. Starting with The Miz’s epic rant on Daniel Bryan on an edition of Talking Smack, with Daniel Bryan calling out The Miz’s style of wrestling, Dolph seemed to step in as Daniel’s proxy. This feud is philosophical in a way, because Ziggler is a kindred spirit of D-Bry in that he’ll wrestle like his hair is on fire, and whatever happens, happens. Bryan and Ziggler see more honor in losing by letting it all hang out, than winning by holding back. According to them, The Miz wants to take the easy way out and is not willing to take risks for the sake of his health, although to his credit, it has prevented him from sustaining any serious injury and it has allowed WWE to utilize him in an abundance of roles due to his durability. Now, Dolph has no chance of winning here for the simple fact that The Miz’s Intercontinental Title reign will end by someone formidable and someone who needs it. Ziggler is neither of those two things at this moment in time. The Miz has been portrayed as cowardly in this feud, and usually, they will be the one who wins on PPV, so expect nothing different here. The Miz’s Intercontinental Title World Tour rolls on.
Winner: The Miz
The Usos vs. Heath Slater and Rhyno – Smackdown Tag Team Championships
This is of course if The Usos beat The Hype Brothers, which I believe they will. Heath Slater has not only the tag team title, but a Smackdown contract hinging on this match, and his character from the start of him not being drafted has been wanting to get a permanent spot on Smackdown for his 2-20 kids. Meanwhile The Usos are coming off a successful heel turn by taking out the favorites, and I can’t see why they don’t go all the way to capitalize and win the belts and resuming their feud with AA over the titles once Gable comes back. I think it’s the only thing that makes sense from that standpoint. I’m sure they won’t be done with Slater after this run by him.
Winner: The Usos
Dean Ambrose (C) vs. AJ Styles – WWE World Heavyweight Championship
So, basically, the build to this match has been awful. AJ Styles is coming off the biggest win of his WWE career one of the best matches in his career against the face that runs the place, John Cena. He’s been gloating about it ever since, and rightfully so. Meanwhile Dean Ambrose is coming off a lackluster match against Dolph Ziggler and has reverted back to the cartoon antic character that caused many people to despise him (and what has caused any people to turn on him after winning the title). AJ is white hot right now, and Styles hit it on the money last night. Dean Ambrose is talented, but he’s no John Cena. As he also pointed out in his promo, he beat him clean. So does WWE go from Styles beating the face of the company for the past 15 years clean to losing to Dean Ambrose on his next PPV appearance? Or does WWE capitalize on his momentum and have him do what many thought would never happen? And that’s win the WWE Championship. I hate the fact that their two confrontations have ended in low blows, with Ambrose playfully playing with AJ’s balls (don’t read too much into that) and AJ just randomly kicking Dean to end the show. I can’t help but feel that WWE is factoring that into the finish this Sunday, and with AJ getting the upper hand las week, the law of reverse momentum says that Styles will lose. However, if Summerslam taught us anything, it’s that reverse momentum may not always apply. Vince is reportedly high on AJ Styles, and I see no reason to prevent him from winning this Sunday. Better pull the trigger now than wait longer, risking something serious happening to him in the worst case scenario. Reverse momentum says Ambrose. Logic and reasoning says Styles.
Winner: AJ Styles
Agree? Disagree? Let me know! Until next time.
