Backlash was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It was broadcast on June 14, 2020 with all the matches taking place at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. While the majority of the event aired live, the match between Edge and Randy Orton was pre-recorded on June 7. It was the fifteenth event in the Backlash chronology.
The event was originally scheduled to take place in Kansas City, Missouri; however, the event had to be moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Like WWE's other shows since mid-March, Backlash was moved to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, though unlike the previous shows, Backlash was not announced until after the start of the pandemic, which made it WWE's first PPV event to be announced during the pandemic.
Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Randy Orton defeated Edge in what WWE billed as "The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever". In other prominent matches, Drew McIntyre defeated Bobby Lashley to retain the WWE Championship, Braun Strowman defeated The Miz and John Morrison in a Handicap match to retain the Universal Championship, and Sheamus defeated Jeff Hardy.
Don't worry, this write-up won't be long at all.
Quick Results:
Kick-Off: Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship
Apollo Crews (c) defeated Andrade (with Angel Garza and Zelina Vega)
Triple Threat Tag Team Match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship
Bayley and Sasha Banks (c) defeated Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross and The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce)
I said it on Twitter after the match was over, but I'll say it here too. The IIconics are fucking rotten in-ring workers. Everything they do comes off sloppy or poorly executed and I can't shit on them without pointing out that Bliss and Cross aren't that much better. Bayley and Sasha had their work cut out for them leading these two teams through a barely passable effort for all those involved here. This was the first match in a long time where the IIconics didn't embarrass themselves, so I guess that's something.
Singles Match
Sheamus defeated Jeff Hardy
I dare say this was the best match on the card, even though I'm not a fan of another intoxication storyline for Jeff Hardy, especially when he still has another pending court case coming up later this year.
Singles Match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship
Asuka (c) vs. Nia Jax ended in a double countout
For the love of all things holy, PLEASE send Nia back to the Performance Center to get some proper training. It seemed like Asuka and Nia were butting heads to get anything going in this match, despite the fact that Asuka was able to lead her through some great bouts in the past. Sadly, Asuka was unable to make a miracle happen on this night. (Cringes) With that draw finish, you know that they are dragging this out for another month or two.
2-on-1 Handicap Match for the WWE Universal Championship
Braun Strowman (c) defeated The Miz and John Morrison
I got up during the entrances, warmed up my dinner, and by the time I came back this was over. No one should be surprised to see that Strowman retained.
Singles Match for the WWE Championship
Drew McIntyre (c) defeated Bobby Lashley (with MVP)
Lana walks out and costs Lashley the match just like everyone and their mothers saw coming. Can someone tell Lana to lay off the spray tanning? Just because she's married to a black man in kayfabe doesn't give her the excuse to start looking that shade of Hulk Hogan/Ric Flair burnt orange.
The Street Profits vs. Viking Raiders - Match never started
I couldn't even begin to tell you what the fuck did I just watch with that shit. I didn't like their bullshit segments leading up to this match and I didn't care for this either. At this point, I think we need to all agree that both WWE and AEW are running these "cinematic matches" into the ground. It's not something we need to be busting out on every single PPV now. As much as I loved Hanson and Rowe in Ring of Honor as War Machine, I'm to the point where I can't stand their WWE incarnations.
Singles Match
Randy Orton defeated Edge
Was this the Greatest Wrestling Match... (hold for dramatic pause) Ever? No, but it was good match, despite all of the editing and reshoots for botches. What's ironic about this is that this match was LONGER than their WrestleMania match, but the major difference here was that it wasn't fucking boring from bell to bell. I thought they dove a little too hard into stealing finishers and relying on too many near-falls towards the end like this was a New Japan match, but overall it was much better than their last encounter. Samoa Joe deserves the credit for keeping this exciting on commentary as well. Everything he said added and uplifted the in-ring action, even during those moments where the students in the crowd from the Performance Center were phoning in "This is awesome!" and "Fight forever!" chants. I did chuckle at WWE piping in crowd noise from old shows in there too like no one wasn't going to catch that as well. After Edge's unfortunate injury during reshoots, we won't be getting the third match in this series at Summerslam. That should be a good thing as it would give people time to properly digest these first two matches before rushing into a third in this series.
إرسال تعليق