WWE BACKLASH 2016 REVIEW: AJ Styles is Your New WWE World Heavyweight Champion

You’d be forgiven for not even knowing that WWE Backlash was on this past weekend, due to its sudden springing on us just a few weeks removed from SummerSlam. Oddly enough, this lack of hype aided the show in that expectations weren’t exactly sky high. Rather than the relative disappointment of SummerSlam due to the hugely stacked card, Backlash was a nice little surprise in WWE’s canon of pay-per-view after pay-per-view. Burnout will inevitably set in when Vince and co realise that putting out 19 PPVs a year (not including NXT specials) is utterly insane, but let’s just enjoy the ride for now.

 

SIX PACK CHALLENGE – WWE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHsix-pack

The opening bout being the six pack challenge for the inaugural SmackDown Women’s Championship established a theme of a smoothly flowing show. It was great to see a meaningful pace with every match in its rightful place and the women demonstrated that their division has plenty to offer. Everyone got in their offence and each elimination felt like it was in a natural place in the match, with Alexa Bliss taking the first pinfall, all the way up to the surprise of Carmella pinning Nikki Bella to leave just herself and Becky Lynch. Carmella has settled into her new heel persona and wasn’t damaged in putting Becky over. The Irish Lass Kicker finally winning a belt in WWE has been long overdue and was a genuine feel good moment to start the night, it got the fans invested and began a pattern of (mostly) all the right people going over.

 

THE USOS VS. THE HYPE BROS– WINNER ADVANCES TO THE WWE SMACKDOWN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHusos

Following on from the women’s division, we were treated to the tag team clash between The Usos and The Hype Bros. The choice to turn The Usos heel as a means of getting the SmackDown Tag Team Championships on Heath Slater and Rhyno without hurting American Alpha was a brilliant piece of booking, and The Usos followed it up well. Donning hoodies and black PVC leather and doing away with the face paint and the Haka, Jimmy and Jey worked a more mechanical match in lieu of their signature high flying style. Working the leg of Zack Ryder and using that to win via submission was some strong heel work from the twin brothers, it feels good to enjoy The Usos again now that their characters have been rejuvenated.

 

THE MIZ (C) (WITH MARYSE) VS. DOLPH ZIGGLER – INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHmizdolph

After that was the first singles match of the night, and was arguably the best match on the card, although personally I reserve that label for the main event later in the evening. The Miz trolled the crowd hard with a highly deliberate exhibition of his “soft WWE style” of wrestling in his contest with Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship. There was some impressive psychology involved here, we got to see Miz mock Daniel Bryan in using some of his signature moves, as well as Dolph really bringing that intensity that was missing from his WWE World Championship match with Dean Ambrose at SummerSlam. The Awesome One would ultimately prevail thanks to his wife Maryse blinding Ziggler with some form of spray, I’m not sure if this was supposed to be a tribute to the recently deceased Mr. Fuji or if I’m just reading too deeply into it, but it was a fun little finish. Miz is continuing his run as the one true heel in the company and I am personally loving it, where Dolph goes from here is certainly a point of interest however.

 

BRAY WYATT VS. RANDY ORTON/BRAY WYATT VS. KANE – NO HOLDS BARRED MATCHbrandy

Then we came to what was most definitely the low point of the night, the whole Bray Wyatt vs Randy Orton fiasco. Bray injured Orton’s leg earlier in the night and was awarded a victory via forfeit, only for Kane to come out and face The Eater of Worlds in an impromptu no holds barred match. I seriously think it’s fundamentally wrong for WWE to advertise a money match like this when they were aware that Orton was legitimately unfit to compete. The leg injury angle was a painfully transparent way of clouding the fact that Orton still isn’t 100% after the powers that be signed off on Brock Lesnar caving the man’s skull in. People paid good money to see Randy wrestle and this was a screwy way of conducting business. Wyatt and Kane had an entertaining brawl with a wicked senton that sent Kane through the announce desk, but Orton would limp to the ring and nail Wyatt with an RKO to give the assist to The Big Red Machine. This didn’t sit well with me, Bray will be a big part of the company’s future and I fail to understand how losing to a 50 year-old veteran is doing him any favours.

 

THE USOS VS. HEATH SLATER AND RHYNO – WWE SMACKDOWN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHusos-vs-heath-slater-and-rhyno1-300x169-lanczos3-1

The penultimate match of the night was, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, the highly anticipated Tag Team Championship match between The Usos and the odd couple pairing of Heath Slater and Rhyno. To see how over Slater has gotten has been nothing short of spellbinding, but he’s worked so damn hard to make it work that he deserves it. He’s managed to being the only person not drafted to Raw or SmackDown and has converted it into pure fan support. The match was solid, but the thrilling ending of Heath Slater taking advantage of a Gore from Rhyno to win them the straps had me marking out like I were a child. I very much look forward to seeing where the feud between these two teams goes, although I fully expect The Usos to win the belts so that American Alpha can be crowned as the champions without having to go over a babyface team.

 

DEAN AMBROSE (C) VS. AJ STYLES – WWE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHajrose-bspline

Heading into the main event, it became evident that the show wasn’t going to go the full three hours. Granted, this made it feel distinctly like a B-show pay-per-view, but given the short match card, it would have been counterproductive to stretch out the matches any longer. AJ Styles was going into this with all the momentum in the world after cleanly taking out John Cena at SummerSlam and taking Dean Ambrose to Dick Kick City on the last SmackDown. This was a great match to see, although Ambrose demonstrated his somewhat limited move-set, with AJ selling the hell out of everything to keep the tension high. AJ pulled out all the stops, hitting his typical high spots before taking advantage of a downed ref to score a low blow on Ambrose. One Styles Clash later and we had a brand new WWE World Champion. It’s utterly surreal to see Mr. TNA himself holding the WWE’s top belt, and yet here we are. A very good pay-per-view was capped off with a very good main event and the canonising of The Phenomenal One. What a debut year this has been for Styles.

Overall, Backlash defied expectations and SmackDown delivered a highly entertaining show. There was consistent pacing and flow to the card, the right people went over save for Kane, and at no point did the event devolve into tedium. Now we just need to hope that the excessive number of PPVs we’re set to get don’t get tiresome, otherwise we might be wrestled into a coma by the end of 2017.

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