SmackDown’s first exclusive pay-per-view event—BACKLASH 2016—needed to stand out as a show that fans would be upset they missed, making sure they’d tune into the blue brand on Tuesday nights going forward.
In some ways, they succeeded. In other ways, not so much.
That being said, what do I feel was the biggest positive and the most unfortunate negative of the night?
THE LOW BLOW
Randy Orton’s injury shows just how problematic the brand split can be. Since coming back from injury, all that has happened is that he got utterly destroyed by a member of the Raw roster, cut a few lazy promos with Bray Wyatt, and then was too injured to compete.
This is one of SmackDown’s biggest stars—a guy that is supposed to be representative of the top of the brand and a huge name that could not only be that type of figurehead for star power, but also work with the younger guys to prepare them to take his spot in the years to come. Right now, he’s not any of that.
The whole purpose of this feud was to give him something that he can win to help offset the loss from Lesnar (which, by the way, was entirely their choice, as he didn’t need to lose in a way that made him look so weak, as he didn’t need to lose the match at all if they didn’t want him to). They booked themselves into a rut and figured a win over Wyatt would undo that, yet now Orton looks like’s in such bad shape weeks later that he still can’t go.
Why didn’t WWE test him ahead of time to see if he was cleared? Why was the backup plan just to throw Kane out there for a random match instead of having something more stable in mind? This card had such few matches on it and before the pre-show even started, we heard about Orton’s injury, which basically meant this was a 4-match card if you discount the extra tag team tournament match that wasn’t technically supposed to happen anyway. That’s awful and really shows that SmackDown is the B-show.
John Cena is missing for some reason, Shelton Benjamin is injured, Eva Marie is suspended, Alberto Del Rio left, and now Orton is on the shelf for however long that is. WWE should be panicking right now, as SmackDown won’t be able to stay afloat much longer if this continues. A plan needs to be put in place to add a good number of people to the roster for flexibility’s sake and some backup ideas in the schematics in case random injuries get in the way.
The first branded pay-per-view should not have such a small number of matches and then have to cancel the second biggest one of them just because WWE couldn’t prepare ahead of time.
THE HIGH SPOT
Thankfully, despite some hiccups and problems getting in the way, there was some fun on this card, too. It’s nice to see Becky Lynch finally win a championship, I got a huge thrill out of seeing a buddy of mine pop up on television in the AJ Styles backstage promo, Heath Slater got his contract and Alexa Bliss looked so, so fine…oh my god.
However, the best part of the night in my mind would obviously have to go to the main event. I’m not on board with the folk that think Dean Ambrose is a weak champion, nor do I think it was the right decision overall to skip right to this feud and have Styles take the championship so early at Backlash (as I’m paranoid that WWE will have nothing left from Survivor Series until WrestleMania and we’ll be stuck with horrible events for those months) – but with that pushed aside, Styles winning is a nice change of pace.
First off, the method in which he won was great. He put up a good fight throughout the whole match, but chose to finish things off with a cheap shot to give him the extra bonus he needed to take the title. That’s a proper means to keep Ambrose looking strong while also not devaluing Styles in the process.
Now, a rematch is even more justified than normal, meaning No Mercy won’t just be a scenario where two people are going at it again because WWE can’t think of anything better to do. Ambrose deserves a shot to win it back, as he shouldn’t have lost it to begin with. In the meantime, Styles will be holding the belt which will be a nice change of pace, and since Ambrose’s strengths are when he’s challenging someone rather than fighting at the top of the mountain himself, he should be on his A-game as well.
For more opinions on the show as a whole, check out the latest edition of the Smark Out Moment wrestling podcast SMACK TALK as the panel reviews Backlash with our immediate reactions following the event before the dust has fully settled.
Hosted by Anthony Mango
Panelists: Calen Ferris
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