Review for WWE Backlash 2018

The Backlash to this PPV has been amazing. Pun intended.

Some people (myself included) have called it one of the worst PPVs WWE have produced in a long time. The sad thing is that it really had the potential to be great. Look at the matches. Look at the performers. Look at all the belts represented here. Everything looks like it should work. Most (if not all) of these matches could easily have main evented (I will come to that issue in a second), but upon watching them... very few of them actually belong here.

The show started with an amazing Intercontinental Championship match between Seth Rollins and The Miz. I originally thought that Rollins moving to the IC level was a step down, but he has made his run one of the best things in WWE for a long time. This is match of the night and it was all downhill from here.

Nia Jax against Alexa Bliss for WWE Raw Women's Championship and Carmella against Charlotte for the WWE Smackdown Women's Championship are both bad for  completely different reasons. Jax/Bliss seemed like a by the numbers match, not necessarily bad, but utterly forgettable. Carmella against Charlotte made my head hurt. Surely someone must have taken Carmella to the side during the past year she's held the Money in the Bank and taught her how to wrestle. The match felt like Charlotte had to dumb down to make her look good and because Carmella is so bad it didn't work and made it worse. Yes, Carmella is a great Heel, but that doesn't necessarily mean she is great in the ring.

Why was Jeff Hardy facing Randy Orton for WWE United States Championship? Just why? Next.

Daniel Bryan was in his first singles match in years against Big Cass and... it was boring. I never expected to say this about a Daniel Bryan match. Who did it benefit? Who? Why were they fighting? It was just a waste of a great opportunity to highlight Daniel Bryan's return.

After their disappointing Wrestlemania match and pointless Double Countout from the last PPV I expected more from the NO DQ WWE Championship match between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura. I at least expected a winner. BUT NOOOOOOOO!!! Why give us a satisfying ending? WWE can't put the WWE Championship in the Main event, so I don't know why I expected them to give me a match worth watching. What is worse is that for the majority this match was good, great even at some points and then they just threw it all away with the cheap ending.

Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn was a fluff match. Nothing more. Nothing less. Entertaining to a point, but utterly pointless. Bring back Nicholas!

Finally they end with one of the most disappointing main events since... the last time Roman Reigns main evented. Against Samoa Joe I expected a brutal match, which I did get and the crowd ate up every move that he did to Joe. However, the more Reigns kicked out, the more he powered through we stopped caring. Sudden realisation that this is not the passing of the torch to someone else to take on the main event and spotlight. Someone who we would actually want to cheer. Nooooo WWE why would they want to do that? This match ended and according to most reports people had already started leaving the arena. By the end of this match I can understand why, as it once again didn't do anything for anyone and made me feel like I had wasted my time.

Backlash 2018 was not the worst PPV I have ever seen, but it certainly wasn't a good one. Apart from the amazing Intercontinental match and half the WWE Championship match the rest was forgetable and nothing from this show made any impact on any story, character or memory. WWE can do better, I just hope they will.