MVP hosted the VIP lounge and talked about his guest, who was supposed to be Bobby Lashley, but Drew McIntyre came out instead. McIntyre said he was worried they weren’t friends anymore, but after that intro he’s glad they’re back on the same page. This guy.
He said Lashley and Lana were arguing backstage, and he knows how the full nelson feels, but MVP knows how the Claymore feels. Drew called MVP Lashley’s Yoda (huge pop) and yet, he never won any world titles. Drew said he’ll give a countdown and can either take the Claymore like a man or run away.
Lashley popped up but Drew was smart enough to know it was coming. He headbutt MVP and begged Lashley to come after him, but the Viking Raiders came out for their match with Lashley and MVP. We’ll be talking about that later.
My goodness, in another WWE world I would absolutely love for Drew to be in a war with MVP. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of their segments together. Don’t get me wrong now - MVP is doing wonders for Lashley. I’m more interested in him than I have been since he came back to WWE. And his role in this has been done very well, too.
But Drew and MVP have great chemistry together on the mic. MVP is fully dedicated to not only just putting Lashley over, but committed to Drew as well.
Drew, he’s on another level as a babyface champion. This is Drew in his best form. Now, Lana was mentioned but never showed up ringside. I don’t think that’s the same story at Backlash.
Rey Mysterio’s last chance
Poor Rey Mysterio. He was given the short end of the stick promo-wise for this segment.
Seth Rollins came out and kicked Byron Saxton off commentary so he could be present for the interview with Rey Mysterio.
Rey will be giving that son of a bitch Seth the 619 in the beginning of the match! Uh… okay. Thanks for letting him know. His doctor hasn’t cleared him yet but his eye is healing. Rollins got big mad at Rey and said he is spreading misinformation, and calmed down and said he’ll give Rey one more chance to walk away. Rey of course, didn’t take it. Suddenly surprise ALeister Black and immediately a commercial break follows. Who in their right mind goes to commercial there? There’s only so much I can say about WWE production before this just becomes a full fledged attack on Kevin Dunn. I’ll refrain this time.
Back from commercial, Humberto Carrillo came out and we had a tag match. Carrillo and Theory were really great together. A nice springboard crossbody by Carrillo followed by a great dropkick by Theory. Aleister and Murphy tagged in and Aleister with a knee strike and won.
REy Mysterio’s music hit and Seth came out in Rey’s mask. Theory and Murphy took out Carrillo and Aleister and Seth curb stomped him. I don’t know what they’re doing with Carrillo but it shouldn’t be constant losses and beat downs. I would have liked to see Seth vs. Rey at Backlash, but that won’t be happening so I guess there won’t be anything for Seth which is sad. Maybe they’ll throw in a surprise Seth vs. Aleister match?
My feed started messing up during this segment, and continued on and off throughout the night.
THE GREATEST WRESTLIblah blah blah
Did you know that this could be the GREATEST WRESTLI… I can’t do it. So I mentioned that my feed messed up because during this segment, I barely saw any of it. So I’m enlisting the help of our lovely Rev. Claire and the live blog for this one.
Christian gave Edge some serious tough love and told Edge that the (name of the match) are high expectations and if Edge thinks he can live up to that, he’s lying to himself. Edge told him to imagine what he’s going through, not having wrestled a regular match for 9 years, while Randy was in WWE the whole time , so he is certainly allowed to have self doubt. He doesn’t know how many cylinders he has under the hood.
Christian brought up Edge’s mom and said that she’ll be there like she always has been, and if the real Edge doesn’t show up he should go home. Randy appeared on the tron and thinks it’s pathetic that Edge says he’ll try. He’ll embarrass and humiliate him, and put the redemption story to bed.
I really liked Christian’s role here. Getting Edge to perk up and get emotional, and have him visibly angry thinking about getting in his own headspace and psyching himself up. Randy was Randy and killed it as usual, no surprise there. Will this be the greatest wrestling match? I doubt it, but they’ll give it the ol’ college try. I love Edge and I love Randy so I’m hoping for a surprisingly great match like Brock vs. Goldberg at WrestleMania.
The Rest
Charlotte Flair and Asuka def. IIconics and Sasha Banks and Bayley - Total chaos for all of this as it was supposed to be Charlotte and Asuka but the new Women’s tag champs, Sasha Banks and Bayley Dos Straps, interrupted. Then Charlotte interrupted them, then IIconics interrupted her, and all of a sudden we got a triple threat tag team match. Not to be lost in any of that though, the most important information was that Sasha and Bayley Dos Straps will be defending their titles at Backlash against both IIconics and Bliss Cross Applesauce.
In the actual match, Charlotte sucked up the spotlight as she didn’t want to tag Asuka in. Once Asuka tagged herself in, she took control in only her way, by being the loveable Asuka she’s been since we started these PC shows. I did not like that IIconics were the ones taking the loss here. They’re in a title match on Sunday but they had to have a clean loss without Bliss Cross interference?
Charlotte Flair def. Asuka - Mid way through the show, Charlotte was being interviewed and and Asuka rolled up dancing. I love her. Charlotte asked her if she takes anything seriously, and Asuka simply slapped her and said “Yes.”
Sasha and Bayley Dos Straps were out on commentary for this and were wonderful. Charlotte and Asuka wrestled like they didn’t have a match early on. Halfway through, IIconics blindsided Sasha and Bayley and took them out. Charlotte really brought it to Asuka, with chokeholds and using the 5 count to her advantage. She went for a backslide and kicked Asuka with force. At one point, they were on the apron on the outside and the ref was at a 7 count and just… stopped counting. Charlotte went for a spear butu Asuka counted with a knee and I thought it would be over, but Charlotte was able to get a spear and Asuka kept fighting.
So Asuka lost and that’s very frustrating. There was no reason for that. That made Asuka weak af going into a title match at Backlash. Why? Charlotte is running rampant over WWE TV as of late and while I’m generally okay with it, having her coming off a title loss pinning another title holder, as that title holder is set to defend on Sunday, is a big no bueno from me. It was by interference, yeah, but who cares? Charlotte didn’t need this win.
Andrade def. Kevin Owens and Angel Garza - This time, Owens flipped it on Zelina’s crew and attacked them on their way to the ring. Garza and Andrade made it more of a two on one for the first half, but then Andrade got greedy and Garza wasn’t happy about it. They started brawling and then Zelina tried to stop them and got taken out. No love between them after that. They traded chops and elbows and Owens dove over the top rope to take advantage. Andrade took advantage off a stunner and pinned Garza.
Well I figured that there would be dissension, but I didn’t expect an all out brawl between Garza and Andrade. In fact I thought that’d lead to Owens winning. So that now makes me think Garza interferes without the ref seeing and robs Andrade of another title reign, and so the feud begins.
Lashley and MVP def. Viking Raiders - There was a bunch of stuff going on, with the Street Profits and Drew McIntyre at ringside. I have no clue what the Profits were doing there. Maybe reminding people they’re the tag champs and involved in silly crap like what I’m talking about below. MVP and Lashley are a nice team together, and depending on what happens after Sunday, I wouldn’t have a problem with them going after the tag team titles.
Raw is Decathalon - Good grief. There were 10 events, 10 of course so that there couldn’t be a decisive winner at the end, and the only one that I enjoyed was the dance off. The editing for the pole vault was amateur level. Maybe NOW we get a… MATCH to decide who the better team is?
So like, is Ivar Raw’s version of Otis?
Robot Kurt Angle picks Edge - Someone recently went to the Robin Gronk school of reading teleprompters.
This was the Backlash go home for Raw, and it was a mixed bag. It felt long tonight. Overexposure of Charlotte didn’t help. Her booking also didn’t help. Asuka should NOT have been losing right before her title match. I’m tired of the Street Profits and the Viking Raiders dragging this crap out for a month, with seemingly no end in sight, unless MVP and Lashley somehow get title shots from them winning against the Viking Raiders tonight. I’d actually like that a lot.
IIconics got pinned, and then took out the Women’s tag champs with no fanfare. I just… don’t get it. IIconics and Asuka were not booked well. I hate that Cedric and Ricochet had to lose to Shane Thorne and Brendan Vink and be off TV for a whole month. I’m looking forward to Drew vs. Lashley at Backlash the most.
Grade: B-
What are your predictions for Backlash and thoughts on Raw, Cagesiders?