WWE Backlash 2017 Review

WWE Backlash 2017
May 21, 2017
Rosemont, Illinois

Jinder Mahal gains the chance of a lifetime as he challenges Randy Orton for the coveted WWE Championship. Also, Kevin Owens puts his United States Championship on the line against AJ Styles.

Match 1: Dolph Ziggler vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Dolph Ziggler is the perfect guy for Shinsuke Nakamura to make his WWE PPV debut against since Ziggler is a proven talent and someone who works well with just about everyone. Unfortunately for him, he's about to be the sacrificial lamb for Nakamura. Great choice to have these two open the night up, get the ball rolling with two guys who know how to work a crowd and let Nakamura showcase himself in a better spotlight instead of having them go at it in the middle of the show with a quieter audience. Pace was pretty slow in the beginning but they were definitely working nicely with the already rowdy crowd. However, once the pace picked up, the ball would not stop rolling. Believable nerafalls and fun action before Nakamura was able to hit a Kinshasa for the win. Great way to introduce Nakamura to the main roster fans in his PPV debut. They had the right match to kickstart the show and also did a fantastic job of displaying how brutal a Kinshasa kick can be.
Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura
Rating: ***3/4

Match 2: WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship - The Usos (c) vs. Breezango
Tyler Breeze & Fandango of Breezango were pretty hot at this point and them making a case as legit challengers against The Usos was serious. This was definitely more of a comedy match above anything but it absolutely worked. Tyler Breeze came into the match dressed up as a janitor with a mop in his hands before later changing into an old lady which certainly had the crowd going. Despite getting the upperhand on The Usos a couple times, The Usos were able to finally eliminate Breeze from the match and isolate Fandango in the ring to score the win. Like I said, more of a comedy match than anything but they made it work and the crowd enjoyed it. Fun would be the right word and there's nothing wrong with that.
Winners: The Usos
Rating: **1/2

Match 3: Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin
Getting through some of these midcard matches can be a chore when it came to the brand-exclusive PPVs. While this is not the most exciting match ever on paper, the two here gave us a quality match and made use of the extended time they were given for the PPV which was definitely one of the upsides to these PPVs. Solid match here between two guys who probably didn't get the love they deserved around this time so they took advantage of having a match here on PPV. Both guys got in a good amount of offense against each other throughout the match with Baron Corbin getting the slight advantage. However, one costly mistake at the end of the match led to Sami Zayn hitting a Helluva Kick in the corner to seal the win. Solid midcard match here to keep the ball rolling for the night, Zayn picks up a big win but seeing how much better he works later on as a heel, it's literally night and day.
Winner: Sami Zayn
Rating: ***1/4

Match 4: The Welcoming Committee vs. Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair & Naomi
I'm probably in the minority when I say that I actually don't mind not having titles defended on PPVs all the time. I almost feel like frequent title defenses make the matches less meaningful and putting the champions in tag matches like this help build up those matches and feuds. With that being said, the champion in Naomi teams up with both Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair to handle some business against Carmella, Tamina & Natalya of The Welcoming Committee. A pretty standard tag match here, just interesting to see how interactions between Natalya and Charlotte, I don't recall the two having a big match against each other. Natalya is able to submit Becky with the Sharpshooter to pick up the win and gain some momentum in her efforts to take down Naomi as the champion. Again, just a standard tag match here, also interesting to see how much Becky and Charlotte have grown since this. 
Winners: The Welcoming Committee
Rating: **3/4

Match 5: WWE United States Championship - Kevin Owens (c) vs. AJ Styles
Kevin Owens' run as "The Face of America" was just so strange to me, the dude went from being the top guy in the company to having such an odd gimmick that wasn't getting over too well with the audience. AJ Styles challenges Owens here for the gold in a match that internet wrestling fans had their panties wet over. Anyway, great match between the two here with Owens doing a fantastic job of constantly working on one of Styles' legs throughout the match. This created some extra drama for the match and Styles did a great job of selling the onslaught. Lots of fun action between the two here that saw some pretty sick spots including Styles suplexing Owens on the side of the ring and Owens hitting a running cannonball to the leg of Styles in the corner. Because of Owens putting his attention on that leg of Styles throughout the match, Styles wasn't able to land a Phenomenal Forearm later in the match and finally, got his leg stuck in the announcers table that led to a countout victory for Owens. Love the finish, reward the fans with smart wrestling. Owens isolated a part of the body and it eventually paid off for him in the end. Many weren't happy with the finish but I thought it worked, Owens picks up more steam going into their rematch. Matches don't always have to end with a pin for it to make sense.
Winner: Kevin Owens (via countout)
Rating: ***3/4

Match 6: Luke Harper vs. Erick Rowan
Such a bummer that these two didn't get a bigger and better payoff for all their years teaming together. As soon as Bray Wyatt stepped out of the picture, these two were left scrambling with a whole lot of nothing. Very physical match between the two but with the crowd having no real reason to care for anyone to win this match, it created a pretty tough environment for the two to work in. Aside from such a dead crowd, I enjoyed watching the two going at it for a bit and doing their best to work with the situation. Luke Harper is able to escape with the victory in a pretty underwhelming match. Just disappointing that these two were sort of tossed in this position. They were teaming for years, why couldn't this feud extend beyond just a quick match here? Why did Bray have to leave so abruptly? Either way, on to the main event. 
Winner: Luke Harper
Rating: **1/4

Match 7: WWE Championship - Randy Orton (c) vs. Jinder Mahal
First off, who would have ever guessed that this would actually happen? Jinder Mahal was propelled into this main event spot shortly after WrestleMania and finds himself in the opportunity of a lifetime. With The Singh Brothers by his side, Mahal looks to take down The Viper for his prestigious championship. There's no way Randy Orton is actually going to lose here, right? RIGHT? Welp, Orton tried to gain the advantage early on when he attacked Mahal from behind in retaliation for all the weeks that Mahal had been tormenting Orton. During the match, Mahal did a great job of working on the left shoulder of Orton and Orton was excellent in selling the injury throughout. The dude is subtly a master at this. Orton gets distracted by The Singh Brothers during the match so he takes things into his own hands by tossing them around before finally eliminating them out of the equation with a double DDT in the ring. However, Mahal capitalizes on the situation and naild Orton with the Kallaus to seal the victory! The camera crew does a great job of finding all the shocked faces in the arena as the crowd erupts in disbelief over the win. Wow. Mahal then celebrates around the arena and in the ring with his newly won championship as both Orton and The Singh Brothers lay on the floor. Say what you want about Mahal as the champion but that was awesome and he had some serious heel heat rolling into and out of this match. If you hated everything about his title reign, then I hope you can at least enjoy him coming full circle and winning the biggest prize in the industry.
Winner: Jinder Mahal
Rating: ***1/2

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Aside from Jinder Mahal winning the WWE Championship, this was pretty much just a bland and forgettable PPV. There's a lot of good and a lot of bad with these brand-exclusive PPVs and this event should be a good example. You get some matches that aren't PPV worthy and you get some matches that get the proper time that they deserve. However, you get a lot of forgettable and just downright unflavored shows like this. It's another case of quantity not always being better than quality. 
Rating: 6.75/10