Courtesy of WWE Home Video, Matthew Roberts takes a look at their latest DVD release of the premium live event WrestleMania Backlash.
The name gets some hate, but it’s an understandable move if only for the fact that, presumably, on Peacock in the US those people searching for WrestleMania itself may also come across this show. And in terms of the number of Mania rematches here it at least makes sense in that way too.
We kicked off with one such rematch between Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins. Of course this time around we knew what was coming (as opposed to Mania’s “surprise”) but this perhaps meant that the pressure was well and truly on given that they’d had a very good match there and now people were expecting more of the same and there wasn’t the “big reveal” driving things along To their credit, both men delivered. And in my eyes at least, surpassed what they had given us a month earlier. It played into what had gone before and gave us something new too. A top notch opener.
If there was a genuine clamour for Rhodes and Rollins to meet again here the same cannot have been said about Bobby Lashley and Omos. And none of that was the fault of Lashley. This time around the interference from MVP got Omos the win. It seems incongruous at a time when the general populace bemoans that the WWE doesn’t push new stars to be too harsh over the Omos push but he’s done little to warrant it so far.
Next up was Edge and AJ Styles who had a decent match at Mania, but perhaps not one that lived up to the pre-match hype. The rematch here failed to REALLY ignite either. It was perhaps a notch or two better than Mania but still nothing special. The post-match reveal of Rhea Ripley joining Judgement Day was a nice touch but at the time of writing this review has been rendered largely pointless (before we even get to the unfortunate timing of her injury).
ANOTHER Mania rematch was next as Charlotte defended her Smackdown Women’s Championship against Ronda Rousey, who she had defeated at Mania. Although the feud itself had been a little uninspiring this was another good (albeit not fantastic) match. It was followed by the evening’s first non-Mania rematch though hardly a new match in the form of Happy Corbin against Madcap Moss. I’m in the minority I suspect in not minding either man but at the same time this was nothing more than filler.
And so it was the Main Event, and a six man tag pitting Drew McIntyre & RK-Bro against The Bloodline trio of Roman Reigns and The Uso’s. This was, fittingly, the match of the night even if on paper it seemed like more of a TV match than a premium live event one. It did end things on a real high note, even if the result seemed somewhat counterproductive.
Overall, despite the lazy build up, WrestleMania Backlash largely delivered an entertaining show that was bookended by two great matches. Only a couple of matches bombed of sorts and most were well worth a watch.
7 out of 10.
Photographs courtesy of Fetch and WWE. Thank you to WWE Home Video for our review copy of WrestleMania Backlash which is out Monday 11 July on DVD. You can buy your copy from WWEDVD.co.uk by clicking here.