Most of the show last night was perfectly fine, but it ended very well. Nothing really stood out other than the fact that the main event was good. I’m going to try and keep it a short article for this one, because there really isn’t a lot to say about the show. I’m glad that the shows are generally shorter throughout all of this, but that is about it. Just a heads up, I feel like most of my reactions are opposite of the general consensus and that is pretty rare. Here are the results and my reaction to each match.

- Men’s Singles Match: United States Championship

Apollo Crews (C) over Andrade (with Zelina Vega)

Heading into the show, I felt like if there was going to be one title to change hands on the show it was going to be this one. I was wrong and I’m glad I was. It looks like Crews could get a legitimate run with the title and I thought this match was really good for a kickoff show. Andrade and Crews work really well together and to be honest, I wouldn’t mind seeing more from these two.

GRADE: 8.4/10

- Women’s Triple Threat Tag Team Match: WWE Women’s Tag Team Match

Bayley and Sasha Banks (C) over Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, The IIconics

A lot of the reviews I saw for this match thought highly of the match, but I personally didn’t like. It. I feel like it never got started and it seemed like there was a lot of confusion in the ring. Maybe I’m missing something here, but I didn’t really like it. Before the match started, they wanted to pull a little swerve, trying to get us to believe that Sasha and Bayley were going to drop the titles, but that didn’t happen. They will eventually drop them, but now isn’t the time.

GRADE: 6.5/10

- Men’s Singles Match

Sheamus over Jeff Hardy

This wasn’t the result that I was anticipating, but I think in the end, Hardy will ultimately end up on top. This was probably the worst rated match among the consensus of fans, but I liked it. For everyone wanting to go back to the Attitude Era and complaining about this storyline is contradicting themselves. These sort of things happened all the time in the 90s. I’m not a big fan of this storyline, but I’m not one of those people crying about how things aren’t how they used to be either. With all that being said, I thought the match was good, but not great and I also think that this feud isn’t over.

GRADE: 8.3/10

- Women’s Singles Match: RAW Women’s Championship

Asuka (C) vs. Nia Jax (Match Ended in Double Countout)

A lot of people didn’t like this match because of Nia Jax’s last few weeks and felt like she didn’t deserve to be in the match. I overlooked that and I thought the match was good, but it had a bad ending. I think PPV matches should always have a definitive winner. Some think otherwise, but I guess that’s why I’m writing reaction articles instead of booking shows. Fans would’ve absolutely hated if Nia Jax walked out the winner, so I’m glad that Asuka retained, but I don’t understand why Asuka can’t get legitimate wins as champion. Her only legitimate win that I can think of was against Becky Lynch at the 2019 Royal Rumble. If the match had Asuka going over cleanly, I would have put it in the 9/10 range.

GRADE: 8.2/10

- Men’s 2-on-1 Handicap Match: Universal Championship

Braun Strowman (C) over The Miz and John Morrison

I still hate handicap match stipulations for a singles title, but I thought the match was decent. It had a finish and The Miz and Morrison couldn’t have executed their plans any better than they did. They got a lot of offense in on Strowman, but it just wasn’t enough. This match was just a time buyer for Strowman vs. The Fiend coming up, but I thought it was fine for what it was. Not much to say about this one.

GRADE: 8.4/10

- Men’s Singles Match: WWE Championship

Drew McIntyre (C) over Bobby Lashley (with MVP)

They didn’t advertise MVP accompanying Lashley to the ring, but I think it was to be expected. Lashley was great in this, but just came up short. I think down the line, Lashley needs to get a run with one of the major belts, but they didn’t set him up to beat McIntyre. Lana was a big factor in Lashley losing the match, so look for a Lana and Lashley split coming up in the near future, possibly tonight. I don’t know what is next for the WWE champion, but I’m anxious to see him keep building the great reign. I thought this match was solid.

GRADE: 8.7/10

- The Street Profits/The Viking Raiders segment

I’m not going to give this segment a grade, because it wasn’t a match. I will say despite a lot of people disliking it, I thought it was awesome. Was it corny? Sure, but these two teams made the most of it and it was very entertaining. It was a cinematic segment and I was laughing almost the whole time. I want to see a match between the two teams, but for now they’re united as The Viking Profits.

- Men’s Singles Match

Randy Orton over Edge

Was this the Greatest Wrestling Match Ever? Probably not, but was it good? Absolutely. My biggest complaint about the match is that it was absolutely way too long. I forgot more about the match than I remember and in 5-10 years, I’ll forget even more. They used fake crowd noise and they tried new camera angles in the match, but it wasn’t cinematic like I was expecting it to be. They tested a lot of different things in this match and I think it worked out for the better. Edge and Orton sprinkled elements of a lot of classic wrestling and it worked out great. They used finishers of other wrestlers (i.e. The Rock, Triple H, Eddie Guerrero) and I thought that was a cool tribute to former wrestlers. The production of this match is unlike anything we have seen in a while and I liked it. The match was 45 minutes long, so if you have an hour of free time, it is well worth a watch. It literally felt like watching an archived match in the best way possible. There are reports that Edge possibly has a torn triceps and if that is true, I really hate it for him. I hate it even more that he is putting his heart and soul into these matches and they aren’t in front of a crowd. I think he is in the best shape of his life and you can tell it in the ring. He moves very well and his moveset is way more diverse than it used to be. Hopefully his injury isn’t that serious and he can keep going strong.

GRADE: 9.3/10

Yacs

Backlash (2020) Results and Reaction