Murphy’s WWE Backlash Predictions: John Cena vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship, Gunther vs. Pat McAfee, Dominik Mysterio vs. Penta for the Intercontinental Title

By Don Murphy, ProWrestling.net Contributor (@DonThePredictor)

WWE presents its annual Backlash event on Saturday evening in St. Louis, Missouri at Enterprise Center. I have enjoyed the builds for most of these matches, and it’s interesting that the majority of the show focuses on the secondary titles. With opportunities to shine, I suspect we’ll be talking about a couple of these matches come Sunday morning. My one concern that I’m seeing across the board is WWE’s difficulty in preventing the heels from getting cheered and the babyfaces from getting mixed reactions outright. Shades of grey are less than ideal in wrestling, and I’d like to see this fixed quickly as we head toward the build to SummerSlam. That being said, let’s run down the card.

John Cena vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship: Cena has been getting his share of cheers and boos, but I don’t think that will be an issue here as Orton will be the clear hometown favorite. I can’t promise this one will come even close to their matches years ago, but these two are veterans and they will try to tell a compelling story. I don’t think there’s any mystery that Cena retains, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see R-Truth play some kind of role in the finish, given his cameos the last couple of weeks.

Don Predicts: John Cena retains the WWE Championship.

Dominik Mysterio vs. Penta for the Intercontinental Championship: If WWE isn’t careful, they’ll have an unintentional babyface on their hands in Dirty Dom. While that should be the plan down the road with a big reunion with father Rey, there’s more to do with Dom on the heel side. I’m sure we’ll see some more discord between Dom and Finn Balor, but in the end, I don’t see Dom losing in his first major title defense.

Don Predicts: Dominik Mysterio retains the Intercontinental Championship.

Lyra Valkyria vs. Becky Lynch for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship: This is another one where, if they’re not careful, Lynch will be cheered like a babyface, which I know isn’t the plan. I also don’t think Lynch benefits much from a secondary title – not yet anyway. I think they’re really trying to make Valkyria a top babyface. She’s good in the ring, but her mic skills and likability are limited. I think we’ll see Lynch losing by slipping on the proverbial banana peel. This will cause Lynch to snap either immediately after the match or on Monday, resulting in a big beatdown on Valkyria. If this gets Lynch booed – mission accomplished. However, if she gets the “one more time treatment,” they’ll clearly have more work to do.

Don Predicts: Lyra Valkyria retains the Women’s Intercontinental Championship.

Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Damian Priest vs. LA Knight in a four-way for the U.S. Championship: This could be the sleeper match of the night. I know the story is that Solo Sikoa is working to put Fatu in situations where he’ll drop the title, but I think we’ll see that build a little more. Look for Knight to be the one to take the fall.

Don Predicts: Jacob Fatu retains the U.S. Championship.

Gunther vs. Pat McAfee: McAfee has done a stellar job building this one, but Gunther needs to murder him aside from a couple of hope spots. It seems like everyone is speculating that we’ll see Goldberg emerge to set up his retirement match against Gunther, and I’m fine with that as long as it happens after the match rather than Goldberg costing Gunther the match. On the plus side, McAfee wrestling means Wade Barrett will likely be on color commentary.

Don Predicts: Gunther defeats Pat McAfee.