Cook’s WrestleMania Backlash 2021 Gambling Picks

I’m going to be 100% honest with you guys.

I’ve been watching most WWE shows. My schedule has opened up more on evenings when the local baseball team is out of town, and I can catch Raw, SmackDown & NXT more often than not. The issue? It often serves as background noise while I’m working on Internet writing, and rarely holds my interest when I look up from my laptop. Smackdown does the best, with NXT second and Raw a very, very distant third.

So am I the most informed person to get your WRESTLEMANIA Backlash betting tips from? Probably not. But if there’s one thing we know about predicting things, it’s that sometimes it’s better not to go in thinking you know everything about everything. That’s when you lose big. This month, we’re going to go with our gut. Our gut knows more than we give it credit for sometimes.

As always, we’re getting these odds from BetOnline and remind you that these picks are for entertainment purposes only.

Lumberjack Match
Damian Priest (-400) vs. The Miz (+200)

Priest dropped from -700 to -400 within a day, so there’s some money coming in on Miz here. Is there good reason for there to be? Sure there is. The story could definitely lead to Miz using the chaos of having tons of lumberjacks at ringside to come out on top and foil Priest’s plans to move on to bigger things.

But the smart play is hoping that Damian Priest price drops even further, since he’ll be the one winning here. He needs to beat Miz to move up in the world, Miz is going to be just fine doing his thing no matter what happens here.

SmackDown Tag Team Championship
Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode (+150) vs. Rey & Dominik Mysterio (-200)

BetOnline knew this match was coming at some point, as they had odds on it for the WrestleMania card even though it was never announced and obviously didn’t happen there. Obviously WWE was making us wait for this one with bated breath. I think Rey & Dominik are bound to be champions at some point, but Dolph Ziggler losing to them two weeks in a row tells me that the Dirty Dawgs are due for a rebound on Sunday.

How do we feel about the “Dirty Dawgs” name? WWE obviously doesn’t like it, but at least Dolph & Robert are trying.

SmackDown Women’s Championship
Bianca Belair (-950) vs. Bayley (+500)

Yeah, there’s no real reason to be throwing money on this one. You could put the title on Bayley to get some heat, but Bianca Belair needs to have a nice long run with this championship. She’s a great person to have out front representing WWE in its various endeavors, and her in-ring is solid. I wouldn’t think of taking the strap off of her until SummerSlam at the earliest. No need to get cute here.

Raw Women’s Championship
Rhea Ripley (-200) vs. Charlotte Flair (+175) vs. Asuka (+500)

Nothing against Rhea or Asuka, who are stellar competitors who don’t have the best of chemistry with each other, but they’re not even in the top three of Raw women’s storylines right now. What are they? Glad you asked:

1. Alexa Bliss possessing people
2. Eva Marie’s Eva-Lution
3. The existence of Charlotte Flair

I mean, there’s a reason Asuka is such an underdog here. The Internet loves her, WWE creative moved on months before she lost the championship. I’m a big Rhea fan and wouldn’t be shocked if she retains, but any time you give me a chance to make money off of Charlotte Flair I’ll take it. It’s time for the Queen to reclaim her throne.

WWE Championship
Bobby Lashley (-200) vs. Drew McIntyre (+175) vs. Braun Strowman (+500)

These days, Raw is all about the three-ways. People didn’t want the same match they saw at WrestleMania, so WWE has added Braun Strowman to the proceedings for WrestleMania Backlash. I assume some people are more interested now. Me, I liked the first Bob/Drew match and wasn’t really interested in Braun mucking up the rematch. Not as much an issue now that Raw has run Bob vs. Drew two weeks in a row.

I see absolutely no reason to take the title off of Bobby Lashley. Drew’s cooling off by the week and Braun’s nowhere near the level he was at back when people wanted him pushed to the moon. They tried with the go-home segment this week, but I’m still not sold. Roll with Lashley until you’ve got somebody better.

Universal Championship
Roman Reigns (-600) vs. Cesaro (+350)

I think it’s really cool that Cesaro is finally getting a shot at a major title on a PPV/Peacock event. Long overdue, and I’m excited to see what he can do with Roman in a match that will get plenty of time.

Do I expect him to win? Absolutely not. We don’t bet against Roman Reigns around here.