AJ’s WrestleMania Backlash Results & Review 5/16/21

Here we go everyone, the Backlash of WrestleMania also known as WrestleMania Backlash for tonight, oh my God. I am smart.

Al lthat being said we have 5 title matches and a unique Lumberjack Match to boot so let’s get the show on the road!

…and hopefully I don’t get any Backlash on these bad jokes.

Results

• Asuka vs Charlotte Flair vs Rhea Ripley (c) for the Raw Women’s Championship – Rhea Ripley wins via Riptide – *** – TITLE DEFENSE!!
• Los Mysterios vs Dirty Dawgs(c) for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships – Dominik Mysterio wins via Frog Splash – ** ¾ – TITLE CHANGE!!!
• LumberJack Match: The Miz vs Damien Priest – Damien Priest wins via The Reckoning – N/A(?)
• Bayley vs Bianca Belair(c) for the SmackDown Women’s Championship – Bianca Belair wins via Roll-Up – ** * ¼ – TITLE DEFENSE!!
• Braun Strowman vs Drew McIntyre vs Bobby Lashley (c)(w/ MVP) for the WWE Championship – Lashley wins via Spear – *** ½ – TITLE DEFENSE!!
• Cesaro vs Roman Reigns(c) (w/ Paul Heyman) for the Universal Championship – Roman Reigns wins via Guillotine Choke – **** – TITLE DEFENSE!!

Review

Asuka vs Charlotte Flair vs Rhea Ripley

All three women go around, sizing each other up until Charlotte rolls out and the other two give chase and catch the Queen, removing her early before we get a WrestleMania rematch. Rhea gets the upper hand and gets rid of Asuka and we get a Backlash of WrestleMania two years ago with Rhea and Charlotte. Listen… you know I’m gonna make these jokes because adding BackLash to the end is a joke. Bear with me.

Asuka gets in the middle of it and now the match inside the ring revolves to Asuka and Charlotte as Flair gets the advantage early on until the barrage of Asuka rocks Charlotte with strikes and gets an armbar in to take it to Charlotte’s arm. Rhea breaks the submission attempt and each woman gets a burst of offense in until Rhea gets the offense going and taking the Queen down. Asuka and Rhea give each other and make everything an even ground.

After back and forths and teetering for who can get the advantage, Rhea in the end hits a Riptide on Asuka, no Charlotte in sight, on the outside of the ring and we get the Nightmare retaining the championship.

Los Mysterios vs Dirty Dawgs

In the Preshow, the Dirty Dawgs punked out then took out Dominik Mysterio so Rey is going to go at it alone.

Mysterio takes incentive and attacks both guys but gets distracted by both champions. Whenever he attacks Dolph, Roode comes in to intercept and vice versa when they come in. Once the energy goes those, Rey is taking a massive beating since it’s two against one. When it looked like Rey was going for a comeback but the numbers game is getting to the underdog.

Frequent tags into the champs keep causing Rey unable to mount a comeback really and it’s a losing effort it seems as he gets a Wheelbarrow Fame-asser, Superkick in the outside and barely get a breath in from countering a double team attempt. Dominik comes out after that to make sure Rey can tag and get a breath but it’s worrying Rey since Dominik is hurt. Roode still taking it to Rey though as Rey gets some offense started and once creating seperation from Roode, Dominik tags himself in and tries to take it to Roode hits a Spinebuster and tags Ziggler in to try to put Dominik away.

Robert Roode tries to trash talk Dominik in his corner and Dom catches Ziggler with a superkick. Roode and Rey are in now as Rey comes in like a house of fire, tags Dom back in and takes care of Ziggler so Dominik can hit (His Real Dad’s) Frog Splash to give the win to the Mysterios.

The Miz vs Damien Priest

Now to clarify as to why the Lumberjacks are Zombies, it’s to promote Batista’s newest movie ‘Army of the Dead’.

The match starts off with Miz getting freaked out by the “Lumberjacks” and runs as Damien gets attacks this time and actually fights them off. Miz plays up the fact that Zombies are… well fucking Zombies. Nobody wants to fuck with Zombies without a shotgun or Barbed Wire Bat… and gets this a different. Zombies don’t typically interfere until Priest breaks a Figure Four attempt and… actually… fight the zombies… together.

Alright, I’m gonna need a beer for this one or… more. Priest gets an advantage and because Miz cleared the way for him. John Morrison actually fights off the Zombies until he gets captured in the outside. Priest lands the victory shortly after and Zombies come in to devour The Miz in the ring… Hopefully to record to be Johnny Cage.

Bayley vs Bianca Belair

Both women try to get the advantage in a waist hold but Bianca tosses out Bayley and gets the early advantage with her –ests to the longest reigning SmackDown Women’s Champion. Any time Bayley slides out, Bianca gets back to her and takes it to Bayley. Any tactic that Bayley tries to use, fails until she grabs the earring of Bianca to finally take control. More and more of Bayley’s hubris comes in and actually works in her favor, even puts an exclamation point with damage to the outside and attacks the back of the champ.

Bayley tries to get a pin on her and Bianca actually out powers her to the outside to kick out, getting a comeback going, using the power and speed to get an advantage for a short amount of time until Bayley takes Bianca down and hits the Macho Elbow and keeps the offense going. Bayley failed to listen to Bianca’s warning of “Don’t Touch My Hair” and after Bayley grabs it, does a Ripcord Rose Planter attempt and was caught slipping and was rolled up.

Drew McIntyre vs Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley

Lashley is trying to get Drew on his side to take down Braun Strowman and it works slightly as they hit a double suplex but we got three boy bois in there. They are going to dismantle and beat each other down. Lashley and McIntyre fight on the outside for a bit until Braun makes a massive save and takes down the two guys and takes it to Lashley inside. After Strowman beats down Lashley and Lashley tries to hit a Hurt Lock, Drew comes in and makes everything even to all again. The two former WWE Champions go to take apart Braun.

Each men gets heavy offense and finally with triple threat ruling, weapons are used and even the outside from them. Braun brings the steps in and once Braun is out of the picture, Drew actually threw Lashley into the LED Board. As Drew looks on from the carnage, Braun comes in and takes Drew down and brings him back to the ring for more damage. Braun does some massive damage to Drew until Braun goes to the well too many times with the splash.

After Drew hits a Claymore from reversing a Running Powerslam, Lashley returns to remove Drew and hits a Spear onto Braun for the win.

Cesaro vs Roman Reigns

Both men try to get the upper hand on the other in a collar and elbow and still no true advantage from either man, even making Roman powder out to get a breather and confidence back as he comes back in and gets the fight started on Cesaro but, Cesaro catches Roman with the Springboard European Uppercut and both start to fight each other over and over. Cesaro does something to his arm when getting dumped out and Roman takes firm control of the match now, taking the power out of the challenger and taking it to Cesaro more and more.

Cesaro gets an advantage and sees an opening, actually making the Tribal Chief stumbles and even fall with a Sharpshooter attempt, a suicide dive and crossbody to take down Roman. Roman keeps going to the arm of Cesaro though, cutting the power and even putting more fight to Cesaro and damaging his arm but Reigns keeps damaging it, even shit talking Daniel Bryan with the look at the hard cam. Roman now, getting his hubris going and costs him after a while as Cesaro gets back into it with Upperkicks and strikes, ignoring his arm damage as much as he can and deadlift suplexes Roman from the apron to the ring for a two.

Cesaro keeps going to his offense that he is used to and once he goes for the Neutralizer, his arms gives out and it’s back to Roman’s Empire but he took too much time. Roman gets caught though with the Uppercut and gets caught into a Sharpshooter and into a Crossface. Roman breaks out of the crossface and starts wailing on Cesaro, landing a sit out Powerbomb and continues the punching assault and gets his Guillotine in again and Cesaro tries to use his strength once again to break the Choke but to no avail as it’s locked back in for the end.

Aftermath: Jey runs out after the match to acknowledge Roman as his chief and takes down Cesaro even further after the match. As Jey ascends to the top for a splash, Seth Rollins comes out, laughs with Roman and beats down Cesaro as well now with his Peter Max suit and beats Cesaro down with a chair on the outside to basically break the arm of Cesaro and stomps on him to close the show.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

Well… all the right people won in my opinion. Rhea, Los Mysterios, Roman in a damn good match… I can’t really complain. I mean I can with the Zombie thing because it was basically a giant ad for Batista’s new movie but… it could write off Miz for being in a movie of his own… maybe one with a Hollywood Role perhaps because he’s awesome? I’m saying he should be Johnny Cage in the second Mortal Kombat movie, argue among yourselves on that, I’m not breaking on that opinion.

Everything else though was solid enough. The only gripes I have is some of the matches went on too long but they had a condensed card for once and the fact that Seth Rollins came in to take apart Cesaro more. That was just… off to me but I have been watching a company actually shit on themselves product wise every week for a month so… I can’t really judge on an awkward ending.