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WWE Backlash Preview

September 9, 2016 | Posted by RSarnecky
Image Credit: WWE

Sunday, September 11th is a big day on the sports calendar. It’s the first Sunday featuring a full slate of NFL regular season games. It’s also the first SmackDown only branded pay per view since the original brand split many years ago. While this pay per view features an exciting WWE championship showdown between AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose, Backlash shows the serious depth issue facing the WWE thanks to splitting the roster into two brands. Regardless of the depth problems, the WWE is creating separate pay per views for each brand, and a review of the upcoming show must be done.

THE USOS vs. THE HYPE BROTHERS: SECOND CHANCE MATCH OF A SPOT IN THE TAG TOURNAMENT


Originally, the American alpha defeated the Usos in about one minute to advance into the final round of the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship tournament. However, after their victory on SmackDown this past Tuesday night, the Usos turned heel on Jordan and Gable where they injured Gable’s knee forcing the American Alpha out of the tournament. This second chance can go one of two ways. Either the American Alpha interfere in the match to cause the Usos to lose, which would give each team a one ups manship in their feud against one another, or the newly heel Usos can win in convincing fashion to advance in the tournament. Since I believe that the American Alphas were supposed to win the first SmackDown tag team championships, I don’t think that they will come back to feud with the Usos without having the belts to fight for. WINNERS: THE USOS

THE USOS vs. RHYNO and HEATH SLATER: FINALS OF THE SMACKDOWN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT


The story surrounding Heath Slater since the WWE Brand Split Draft has been him trying to get signed to either RAW or SmackDown as professional wrestling’s hottest free agent. Each week, he has been given a task to successfully complete in order to join the brand. Each week, he fails. Slater’s latest challenge has been to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships in order to earn a contract to become a SmackDown brand wrestler. With the help of Rhyno, Heath Slater finds himself one more victory away from that elusive WWE contract to become an exclusive SmackDown wrestler. Like the second chance match, this contest could end one of two ways. Either the American Alpha interfere to cost the Usos the belts, or the Usos win the titles and go on to feud with the American Alpha in a classic championship feud. I believe the latter will happen. WINNERS: THE USOS

NATALYA vs. ALEXA BLISS vs. NIKKI BELLA vs. CARMELLA vs. NAOMI vs. BECKY LYNCH: 6 PACK CHALLENGE FOR THE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP


The brand split has shown us that the “Divas Revolution,” which is now the “Women’s Revolution,” is severely lacking in quality soldiers. RAW has Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Bayley. SmackDown has Becky Lynch, Natalya, and a bunch of subpar workers that would fit in better in the Divas Era than this new era of women’s wrestling. The WWE should have made the women’s division exclusive to one brand, just like they should have with the tag team division. There just isn’t enough depth for either of those divisions to be successful as split divisions at this time. I think the WWE will want the title going onto someone who can work an exciting match in order to compete with the comparisons that they will obviously get with the RAW Women’s champion. The best worker in this group is probably Becky Lynch. However, I think the WWE will give the title to Natalya as sort of a lifetime achievement award type of honor. This way, Becky Lynch can chase her for the belt before finally capturing the gold. WINNER: NATALYA

THE MIZ vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER: INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP


This match is extremely tough to call. The Miz has been having a great heel run as a snobby Hollywood star with his wife Maryse by his side. This is probably The Miz’s best singles run since he held the WWE Heavyweight Championship. The act is so good, that The Miz should be brought up to the main event level on SmackDown to help carry the brand as the number two heel behind AJ Styles. At the same time, the WWE needs to also build up their babyface side on SmackDown. Right now, you have Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton, and no one else. After being in the WWE title match at SummerSlam against Ambrose, Ziggler needs a big win in order to not get buried into the midcards yet again. By having Dolph Ziggler win, he can feud with The Miz over the Intercontinental championship for the next few months, keeping both men relevant as upper midcard performers before one of them moves on to the main events. I think the WWE feels that The Miz is great in his upper midcard role, and wants to keep him at that level. Whereas. I think they realize that they need to push Ziggler harder, so he doesn’t go back to being “just another guy.” With that being said, I think we will have a new Intercontinental Champion at Backlash. WINNER: DOLPH ZIGGLER

RANDY ORTON vs. BRAY WYATT


One thing that the first brand split provided to the fans after a while was fresh match-ups when the WWE would present the occasional RAW vs. SmackDown inter-promotional match. With Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt, the WWE is preventing a fresh match-up within the SmackDown brand. After facing Brock Lesnar in the highest profile match of his career, from a casual fan perspective, Orton now moves on to face Bray Wyatt. Wyatt is a weird case. When he first arrived onto the main roster, many thought he would become the WWE’s next big star. He was being compared to being this generation’s Undertaker due to his unique and spooky character. However, Bray Wyatt hasn’t been protected like the Undertaker was early in his WWF career. Thus, Bray Wyatt has become just another guy on the roster. A win over Randy Orton would go a long way in helping to rebuild the aura of Bray Wyatt. I think the key to who wins this match will center around who wins the WWE championship match in the main event. If the WWE has Dean Ambrose come out of his feud with the championship around his waist, then you need to build up Bray Wyatt with a series of wins over a top star. However, if AJ Styles will end his rivalry with Dean Ambrose holding the WWE title, then you need Randy Orton to come out of his feud with Bray Wyatt strong. I think Randy Orton gets the next crack at the title, so I like Randy to win. WINNER: RANDY ORTON

DEAN AMBROSE vs. AJ STYLES: WWE CHAMPIONSHIP


Despite RAW being the “A” brand, and the WWE trying to push the Universal title as the “A” Championship, as long as the company is World Wrestling Entertainment, the top championship in my eyes will always be the belt that has its direct lineage to Buddy Rogers, Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan, and Steve Austin. The Universal title is on equal playing field to the big gold belt when it was termed the World Heavyweight championship. Sure, it was the top title of one of the brands, but it wasn’t THE title that built the foundation of the company. That’s why I’m really excited about the upcoming AJ Styles vs, Dean Ambrose match. Over the last two years, AJ Styles has proven to be arguably the best worker in the world. I never thought that I would see him in the WWE, never mind seeing him hold the most historic title in the company’s history. AJ Styles has a chance to be the first TNA wrestler to come to the WWE and become their top champion. Since coming to the WWE in January, rumors have floated that he was initially brought in to be a mid-card performer. However, AJ has proven that he is so much more than that. So much so that it was reported that Vince McMahon wished that he signed Styles when AJ was 28 instead of 38. I believe that AJ will win the belt at Backlash. This has nothing to do with Dean Ambrose not being a good champion. As a matter of fact, he’s been a better performer as champion than he was as the “lunatic fringe” without the belt. He seems more serious and less comical, which is always good. However, at this point in time, I think there are more challengers for a heel AJ Styles to face as champion than for a baby face Dean Ambrose without the matches feeling stale. Unfortunately, that’s what a lack of depth due to the brand split has done. WINNER: AJ STYLES

article topics :

WWE, WWE Backlash, RSarnecky