Powell’s WWE Backlash Hit List: Cody Rhodes vs. AJ Styles for the WWE Championship, Damian Priest vs. Jey Uso for the World Heavyweight Title, Bayley vs. Naomi vs. Tiffany Stratton for the WWE Women’s Championship

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

WWE Backlash Hits

Cody Rhodes vs. AJ Styles for the WWE Championship: A very good main event. The outcome of every match on the show felt predictable and yet that didn’t seem to matter. In this case, I never thought for a second that Styles was going to win the match, but he and Cody was a fun first-time match that lived up to my expectations. It will be very interesting to see who is next in line for a title match with Cody.

Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga vs. Randy Orton and Kevin Owens: A great WWE hardcore style brawl that got the show off to an excellent start. The addition of Tanga Loa to the new Bloodline gives the group numbers and makes them feel more dangerous. The original Bloodline really limped to the finish line because Jimmy Uso’s heel persona never took off, and Sikoa was inexplicably booked to lose every match he had after beating John Cena at Crown Jewel last year. The new Bloodline feels fresh and Paul Heyman is doing a great job of conveying that he has no control over them. If Jacob Fatu eventually joins the group, then everything would seem to point toward Roman Reigns putting the band back together for an eventual showdown match by reuniting with The Usos and even Sami Zayn.

Bayley vs. Naomi vs. Tiffany Stratton in a Triple Threat for the WWE Women’s Championship: Bayley retains and yet it was Stratton who took another big step forward by standing out for all the right reasons at various points during the match. Naomi was a logical person to take the loss given her place on the card and because they gave us a taste of Bayley vs. Stratton to build toward an eventual singles showdown match between the two.

Damian Priest vs. Jey Uso for the World Heavyweight Championship: A soft Hit for a solid match. The story of Priest telling the Judgment Day members not to get involved only to have JD McDonagh and Finn Balor interfere was compelling. The faction always feels like it’s on shaky ground, but the idea seems to be that things are really falling apart now that Rhea Ripley is sidelined by injury. Jey was a logical choice to be the first challenger to lose to Priest. Jey is popular enough that he can absorb the loss. And much like Styles challenging Cody in the main event, the produced a quality title match without giving away a true money match at a time when few would believe the title may actually change hands.

Asuka and Kairi Sane vs. Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles: A soft Hit. There were some rough moments and I don’t know what happened when the referee couldn’t keep track of which wrestlers were legal, but there was more good than bad and the live crowd loved the title change. Is there any chance that they claim the wrong person was pinned and make the new champions forfeit their titles? It’s not like any of the other tag teams are over, nor would they feel like credible threats to Belair and Cargill. In other words, putting Belair and Cargill back in chase mode would not be such a bad idea. The big problem with having the referee admit fault and reverse the decision is that it would beg the question of why they don’t use replay to overturn the results of other matches.

WWE Backlash Misses

None: Well, unless you count Paul Levesque questioning the credibility of two prominent pro wrestling websites during his post show press conference. There are some bad pro wrestling websites out there, but PWInsider.com nor Fightful.com are clearly not in that category and did not deserve this insult. Putting that aside, this was a very good B-level premium live event. The French crowd was red hot and really helped make the show, which also benefitted from not overstaying its welcome.