411’s WWE WrestleMania Backlash Preview

Hello 411 guys, gals, enbies, and everyone else! Welcome to 411’s WrestleMania Backlash preview! I’m Jeremy Thomas as always, and as usual with the Grandest Stage of Them All completed last month we’re in holdover mode as we go into that weird transition between carrying over WrestleMania feuds and building up new ones. We have an odd sort of card thus far for Sunday’s show, but not necessarily in a bad way and I’m actually interested in this PPV more than I have for past Backlashes and WrestleMania Backlashes. At the very least, we are almost certain to have no zombies so that’s a plus, right? Anyway, we have plenty to discuss so let’s just jump in!

Bobby Lashley vs. Omos

Image Credit: WWE

First up is probably the least anticipated match on the card — and I say that on a show where Happy Corbin is set to battle Madcap Moss. But seriously, I’ll give Omos and Lashley some credit for surpassing expectations in their WrestleMania 38 match. Omos is no workrate machine, but he has the presence of a monster and they were able to use that moderately effectively at April’s PPV. I figured that match was just to get Omos on the card and set up a babyface Lashley as a title contender, but apparently we’re not going for the latter yet because here we go again. Giving Omos a mouthpiece was a necessity if they want him to go anywhere and MVP is a good choice for that; I think Omos is currently somewhere around his an upper limit as a star, but MVP can maintain him up there for a lot longer than he would have lasted alone. As to this match, if MVP wasn’t involved I would have expected Lashley to win again and move onto something bigger, but you need Omos to get a win to solidify him here. I don’t imagine it will be a clean victory, but by hook or by crook MVP will get his new client to his first big solo PPV win.

WINNER: Omos

Happy Corbin vs. Madcap Moss

Image Credit: WWE

Alright, so I made a joke about this match up above. And I stand by the idea that very few people are looking forward to this match, but I will also give Corbin and Moss credit for outperforming their current gimmicks. Like many people I haven’t made a secret about my feelings on Corbin in his past gimmicks, but somehow he’s made the Sad and Happy Corbin characters work to degrees his more generic character and King Corbin didn’t. And Moss has been doing his utmost to make a character Madcap fun, even succeeding sometimes. I don’t know that I have particularly high expectations for the in-ring work here; they’re both fine workers but not standouts, and this should be a benignly forgettable match in terms of the wrestling. In an ideal world, this match would see Moss pick up the shocker win to propel him to a new height, but I expect WWE has different plans that include Corbin moving on victorious. My hope is that following this loss, Madcap’s gimmick switches up to something a bit less high school e-fed level and he really gets the chance to shine as a midcard performer in a less comedy-oriented role. We’ll see if that plays out the way I hope, but either way Corbin seems likely to get the win here.

WINNER: Happy Corbin

AJ Styles vs. Edge

Image Credit: WWE

I said this in my WrestleMania 38 Night One preview, but it bears repeating: Edge doesn’t do short feuds since he made his return to WWE. And while his battle with AJ Styles has progressed to two PPVs now, for him that’s still short-ish. The war between these two guys has been pretty enjoyable thus far and has led to Damian Priest getting a more tangible direction to his character, which is much appreciated. And like last month’s big show, I expect a very good match here considering the level of talent involved. All that said, I will double down on the idea that we’re not done with this story yet. The traditional way for this phase of the feud to go would be Styles picking up the win so we can get the rubber match between them, but with Judgment Day still in its early stages and Damian Priest banned from ringside, it makes too much sense to have a new member (perhaps Ciampa) coming down to the ring to get involved and cost AJ. That gives them a reason to continue the feud without the more conventional win from Styles to keep things going.

WINNER: Edge

Cody Rhodes vs. Seth “Freakin” Rollins

Image Credit: WWE

One of the most talked-about stories from WrestleMania 38 was Cody Rhodes’ return to WWE, and rightfully so. Of course we were all expecting him to be there, but this was an example of WWE handling an on-screen moment pretty much perfectly and Rhodes’ got the big moment when he defeated Seth “Freakin” Rollins to stand tall in his return. The question from here is where Cody goes. Rollins is obviously a made man in WWE and while Rhodes has been delivering strong work since he came back, he’s still pretty early in his run and it could easily be derailed if he loses momentum. We know these two can go against each other based on their ‘Mania match, so I have high expectations for their ability to deliver a second time around. And while I could easily see Rollins get the win to move them onto a rubber match, I think this is one where the feud ends here for now and they go their separate ways. That suggests an American Nightmare win to me, with the two wins over Rollins really cementing Cody as one of WWE’s main event guys.

WINNER: Cody Rhodes

Smackdown Women’s Championship I Quit Match
Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey

Image Credit: WWE

It’s really weird that as of this writing (Friday evening), there’s only one title match on this card. That’ll probably change with the addition of at least some Kickoff Show matches, but for now we just have this rematch of Ronda vs. Charlotte from WrestleMania 38 where Charlotte Flaired her way into a title retention. Of course, that couldn’t be the end of this feud and so we move onto WrestleMania Backlash. Rousey vs. Flair is something WWE seems to really believe in, even if the feud has not been the most compelling (to say the least). The match between them at WrestleMania was perfectly fine if not exceptional, and we should be able to expect the same this time around. But there isn’t a way that Rousey can realistically lose again, especially with the I Quit gimmick. Rousey’s whole character is built around her being a badass, and it’s hard for her to keep that going if she says those two fateful words. It very much feels like they had Flair win last month so they could save the title switch for May, and it’s really hard to imagine another result.

WINNER: Ronda Rousey (NEW Smackdown Women’s Champion)

Drew McIntyre & RK-Bro vs. Roman Reigns & The Usos

Image Credit: WWE

What is presumably our main event (unless they go with Flair vs. Rousey) has had an odd road to WrestleMania Backlash, though I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. I know it’s easy to dunk on WWE for their creative choices, but they pulled off a surprisingly slick move by teasing the unification of the Tag Team Championships en route to finally getting this six-man bout set up. By unifying the WWE Championship and Universal Championship under Roman Reigns, it was easy to believe that they might be doing the same with the tag belts and that added something we often miss in WWE feuds: intrigue. At the same time, they’ve inserted Drew McIntyre which presumably sets him up for a battle with Reigns. That puts this match in a really solid spot and the feud has been pretty enjoyable all in all. This being the kind of match it is (a six-man bout with no direct, overt stakes regarding the result), things are set up well for a win by the babyfaces in order to set up the McIntyre/Rhodes match without having Reigns take a pinfall if they don’t want him to. Everyone in this match can deliver in the ring and I legitimately have some pretty high hopes here.

WINNER: Drew McIntyre & RK-Bro

And that’s all we have for WrestleMania Backlash! For a PPV that is basically running back WrestleMania, it’s not a bad card and has the potential to overdeliver the way WWE tends to be good at. Thanks once again for reading and remember that we will have live coverage of the show courtesy our own Scott Slimmer right here on 411mania.com. Now, I have to go, because WWE just had their financial report so I’m worried that budget cuts are on the w–oh, crap, is that Vince?

Image Credit: WWE