WWE Backlash 2018 Match Ratings, Podcast Notes From Sean Ross Sapp

Pre-show

• A Miztourage reunion, as they're going through who they should team up with next. Miz wants them to help him out against Rollins tonight, but they decline. 
• The IIconics come out and troll Rosenberg.
• Bayley wants Sasha Banks in her corner, but Sasha isn't having it. 

Ruby Riott (w/ Riott Squad) defeated Bayley in 10:10
5.5/10

• Ruby Riott is getting more natural for the WWE main roster each week, and she's getting great at selling.
• There's nothing outstanding about the early work in this match. It's almost weird to see Bayley wrestling in a one-on-one match on TV.
• Riott does an awesome headscissors throw on Bayley into the second turnbuckle. Her body language is great.
• Bayley evens the odds by hitting a suicide huracanrana onto Sarah Logan.
• Flying elbow drop on Riott gets two. A distraction from Liv Morgan leads to a Riott Kick for the win.
• No reason Ruby Riott in storyline shouldn't be the next title challenger.

WWE Intercontinental Championship
Seth Rollins (c) defeated The Miz in 20:30
8.5/10

• I feel like WWE took a lot of the doubt out of this match based on the U.S. title booking of the last few weeks. I doubt WWE will send both midcard titles to Smackdown without a Universal Championship to anchor the show. 
• Miz clips a flying Rollins, and the two go back and forth.
• X-Factor facebuster from Rollins!! He follows up with a slingblade and sends Miz out of the ring. 
• Rollins rolls through a Skull Crushing Finale but can't get the pin. 
• Miz drops Rollins across the apron again, but Rollins catches him with a Gunnslinger and a Frog Splash for two!
• Rollins goes for a Revolution Knee on the apron, but hits the ring post, and gets put in a Figure Four! He reverses the pressure and the crowd is cookin'. 
• A HUGE enziguri for Rollins, but a series ends in Miz getting a Skull Crushing Finale for two! A superplex lands, but Miz reverses the Falcon Arrow when Rollins' knee gives out. SKF for two again! This is a perfect PPV opener.
• A super Skull Crushing Finale misses, but Rollins lands the Stomp for the win! What an incredible match.

WWE Raw Women's Championship
Nia Jax (c) defeated Alexa Bliss in 10:20
6.25/10

• Alexa Bliss jumps on the back of Nia. This is a good play off of the submission aspect of Nia.
• Nia heaves Alexa around a bit, and does well doing so.
• Nia, twice the size of Alexa, pulls Alexa's hair and gets kicked in the face. Alexa subsequently uses the ropes to choke. Am I supposed to feel bad for Nia? She cheated first.
• Jax goes for a super Samoan drop, but gets RNC'ed. Bliss switches to a guillotine, but gets squishered into the buckles.
• Nia slings Bliss around recklessly but gets dumped over the top rope on a Vader Bomb attempt. Outside the ring, Bliss drops Jax's face across the stairs with a DDT. She can't get Jax up to throw her in the ring. 
• Back in the ring, Alexa reverses another Super Samoan and kicks Nia's leg out. Eventually, Nia gets the Samoan drop for the win. 
• I liked that match. Foregone conclusion, but I enjoyed it. Nia should have squashed Alexa at Mania, and came back with this kind of match to rebuild Alexa a little.
• Nia cuts an anti-body shaming promo. Ahhhhh they made her shoehorn in "be a star." Alexa Bliss is crying at ringside. Nia says "in the end, a bully always gets their ass kicked." This was a goddamn Be A Star commercial.

WWE United States Championship
Jeff Hardy (c) defeated Randy Orton in 12:00
4/10

• Not a damn person cares about this match.
• Randy Orton hits a nice dropkick, and we get a one man Poetry in Motion off the stairs outside. 
• Orton Singh Bombs Jeff Hardy on the barricade 
• Jeff Hardy is flat backed in the middle of the ring and Orton doesn't go for a pin. Instead, he front suplexes Hardy onto the ropes. 
• Besides a nice pop live and some cool RKOs, what does Randy Orton give WWE in 2018?
• Jeff misses Hardyac Arrest, but gets Twist of Fate and a Swanton Bomb.
• This wasn't good. A sloppy snoozer. Orton at 38 is what he's always been. Hardy at 40 is inconsistent at best.
• Was hoping Orton would win so he could cut an anti-bullying promo about his contemporaries not voting him high enough in the top 10 so we could re-hash that.

Elias

• Elias is in the ring and he says he's friends with Bruce Springsteen, who only regrets being from New Jersey.
• New Day interrupt and say they want to jam out with Elias. 
• This interaction is great.
• Rusev Day are out next to an amazing pop. Rusev calls them Bootleg Bob Dylan and the Booty Boys. 
• Elias goes through his intro again, but No Way Jose, Breezango, and Titus Worldwide are out next. 
• Roode interrupts next and hits a Glorious DDT.
• The crowd went crazy for this segment. Rusev has to stop English from joining the conga line.

Daniel Bryan defeated Big Cass in 7:45
5/10

• Ahh, a "we want Enzo" chant. Jersey.
• Daniel Bryan immediately targets the leg and knee of Big Cass.
• Canadian backbreaker by Cass, but Daniel manages a drop toe hold into the turnbuckle, which sets up Yes kicks and dropkicks. Cass counters it with a big freefall flapjack.
• In pretty quick order, Bryan kicks Cass in the head and taps him out with the Yes Lock. Ref pretty audibly told them to go home
• Big Cass attacks Daniel Bryan after the match.

Smackdown Women's Championship
Carmella (c) defeated Charlotte Flair in 10:10
4.5/10

• Charlotte boots Carmella for mocking Ric Flair, but misses by a mile. Carmella's new gear rules. She looks a star.
• Carmella powders out, and gets dragged back in the ring while holding the apron.
• Charlotte misses a plancha and eats a superkick. She works over Flair and does some surfboard stomps.
• I love Carmella's Code of Silence. Charlotte gets out of it but tweaks her knee. Carmella kicks her in the knee and gets the pin.
• Okay man. 

WWE Championship
AJ Styles (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura in 21:05
6.5/10

• For all the people who said WWE "wouldn't use Nakamura right on the main roster," this is his fifth WWE Championship PPV match since August, and he won a Royal Rumble.
• Cat and mouse to start, and Styles hits his great dropkick. Nakamura turns the tides and runs Styles into the stairs.
• Nakamura hits a series of knees on the apron. A big kick and more knees land. 
• Styles tries to springboard off the barricade, but gets his leg kicked out. 
• A Dragon Sleeper goes into a sleeperplex attempt from Nakamura, but AJ flips through. Styles still gets hung up on the ropes and eats knees. 
• A second rope Kinshasa hits for two, as does a Landslide. 
• Nakamura goes for the chair, but Styles battles back. Nakamura ends up getting a reverse exploder onto the chair.
• Styles cracks Nakamura in the knee with a chair, but the chair flies off Styles face and cracks him open.
• Calf Crusher, countered into a triangle, but Nakamura is put on the apron and knocked off. A Styles forearm to the back of the head and an Ushigoroshi. 
• A  Pele kick lands, but both men punch RIGHT IN THE PENISES. Then they kick each other RIGHT IN THE PENISES. 
• They're counted out. HA. Getting punched in the dick still hurts when you're wearing a cup, youins. 
• Human Tornado would have won this WWE Championship match. 
• I want WWE to hang a pair of those truck nuts above the ring at Money in the Bank. AJ Styles and Nakamura climb the ladder, and the first to punch the balls off wins.

Braun Strowman & Bobby Lashley defeated Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn in 8:40
4.25/10

• The crowd is dead. Building a brand instead of individual superstars that subsequently build your brand leads to heatless crowds who don't have that much to care about.
• Bobby Lashley is just a promo-less guy again, and now he's a babyface in peril. 
• Strowman comes in and mows everyone down. Could go for a Lashley turn. 
• Zayn tries to leave, but Owens wants to fight. Zayn throws him back in the ring. Then KO returns the favor. Zayn and Owens as Patterson/Brisco 99.
• Hanging suplex on Owens from Lashley for the win.
• A lot of buffoonery about who was the legal man. 
• Braun and Bobby are just being dicks now. They beat up and powerslam Owens. Then they beat up Zayn. 
• House show horseshit.

Roman Reigns defeated Samoa Joe
4.5/10

• The crowd loves Joe, and he attacks Reigns before the bell and uranages him through a table!
• Announcers mention 42 times that the match hasn't started yet. Then it does. 
• After an ass kicking, Joe throws on a rest hold. Can't wait for some people to defend the pace of this match as "HEEEEEEEEEEE'S A HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL." 
• A suicide forearm hits but, goddamn rest hold comes back. Reigns boots Joe and hits the Drive By. 
• Coquina Clutch, but Reigns gets out. Reigns goes for a Drive By but gets caught. Superman Punch, two count. 
• Rusev Day chants.
• Spear, but Joe gets hit foot on the ropes.
• John Cone isn't giving Joe and Reigns any break on these pins. It takes a lot out of it. 
• Coquina Clutch, pin attempt, Coquina Clutch. 
• Spear. Win. What a bed-shitter.