Back to business as usual with WWE these days since Vince more or less forced himself back into power. Yeah I know Triple H is officially running Creative still, but the 78-year-old boss is still tearing up scripts he doesn't like and rewriting shows on the fly, mostly with nonsensical results. Oh, this Saturday is Backlash...
Imagine how monumental the big match on this show would be if WrestleMania had had the correct finish. Instead it's just a match with nothing really at stake. Good news though, Cody Rhodes now gets to go after WWE's THIRD World Title! Yay! As Jim Cornette (who I almost never agree with) said, "What sense does it make to say 'Our champion is so good no one can beat him, so let's just introduce a new title?'" This reintroduction of the World Title is so unfathomably stupid I can't even wrap my brain around it. Not only are they saying no one else in this company is in Roman's league, but they're also saying "Even though Roman isn't around enough and you all deserve a fighting champion, we aren't going to vacate the title due to inactivity or split the two existing belts up again, we'll just make ANOTHER belt for everyone else to fight over while Roman stays home." Pure, unadulterated idiocy. Added to which, the new belt is ugly. I mean real ugly. Rather than just resurrect one of the most beloved belt designs of all time, they bastardized it and slapped a giant, honkin' WWE logo in the middle of it. Does every belt in this company need the logo to be the biggest object on it? I know other companies do that too, but they do it with some tastefulness. WWE is incapable of subtlety in design.
Alright enough bitching about the meaningless title, let's look at this card....
Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn/Matt Riddle vs. The Usos & Solo Sikoa
Pretty darn good six-man to kick things off here (I have no idea if this'll be first but it should be) and continue the Tag Title feud. The crowd should be very hot for this and Riddle will benefit from being involved with two of the company's most popular babyfaces. This being WWE I suspect 50-50 booking will apply.
Pick: Bloodline
Smackdown Women's Championship: Rhea Ripley vs. Zelina Vega
First off, why does WWE keep having the two women's champs switch places AND BELTS in the Draft? So stupid. Rhea is now going to be on RAW but she's listed as the SD Champion for now. Second, Zelina?? Really? That's who you came up with for a challenger? Christ... Rhea wins, obviously.
Pick: Rhea retains
Seth Rollins vs. Omos
This one is completely out of nowhere and a waste of a good Seth match. Dude's gonna have to bounce around like a ping pong ball to make this watchable. Since Seth is potentially being penciled in as the new World Champ, I guess he probably wins here?
Pick: Seth
US Championship: Austin Theory vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Bronson Reed
This should be alright. Lashley is good, Reed is good, Theory is getting there. Seems too soon to do a title change and Reed will almost certainly eat the pin.
Pick: Theory retains
RAW Women's Championship: Bianca Belair vs. Iyo Sky
This should be pretty great, with two of the best women's workers head to head. There's no suspense over who's winning but they'll make it entertaining. I wonder who will eventually dethrone Bianca...
Pick: Bianca retains
Street Fight: Bad Bunny vs. Damian Priest
Sigh, two things I don't much care for in WWE, combined into one match. Celebrity wrestlers and WWE bells & whistles matches. I'm sure this will be perfectly entertaining but WWE's "hardcore" matches kinda bore the shit out of me these days. It's always the same crap. Some chair shots, some table spots, some kendo sticks, no blood except by accident, and a real lack of teeth to the match. I'm not bemoaning the commitment to safety mind you, just the fact that this company isn't imaginative about maintaining that AND making the match feel dangerous. Bad Bunny is obviously winning on his home turf and this match may end up headlining the show.
Pick: Bad Bunny
Brock Lesnar vs. Cody Rhodes
So let me get this straight, Cody failed to beat Roman at 'Mania. Cody and Roman got drafted to opposite shows, ensuring there won't be a rematch anytime soon. The show Cody is on now features a consolation prize belt. So either Cody doesn't go after this title at all, which essentially gives him no reason to be on RAW, or Cody does go after the belt and a) comes up short AGAIN, or b) wins the consolation prize and comes off as a secondary champion. This is no-win booking. Cody should've just beaten Roman at 'Mania and defended the title here against Brock, who would've had an actual, logical reason to attack him the night after 'Mania. Ya know, coming off a big win, finally contractually able to challenge the champion since said champion was no longer Roman? Instead Brock attacked Cody for no reason, never announced a reason (big fuckin' shock there), and this match is just a match. But tell me more about how WWE "tells stories." Piss off with this.
The match itself could be really good if Brock wants to actually work, or it could be a Stock Lesnar Match (TM pending) where he just does the same two moves over and over. That should be an actual gimmick match, where the wrestlers are only allowed to finisher-spam the entire time. At least that would give them a reason for the Goldberg-esque, psychology-free crap they keep doing. Regardless, Cody has to win.
Pick: Cody
This show is thoroughly steeped in B-PPV territory. No Roman, no primary men's title at stake, and not much heat for the title matches that are on the card. Should supply a couple good bouts but little else.
No comments:
Post a Comment