championship

Reasons Why Backlash Will Be A Great Show on Sunday

This Sunday, Backlash will grace our screens. Many bemoaned the event’s lackluster build-up. Jinder Mahal is challenging for the WWE Championship. The women’s division is caught in a six-man tag team match that doesn’t look too promising. Many would even say that Smackdown has lost its groove. While it may be true, Backlash still looks exciting. Hopefully the event sets in motion a return to action and excellence for the blue brand. Even if it doesn’t, it looks like it will be hard to be disappointed with Backlash.

Luke Harper Fights Erick Rowan

This doesn’t sound too exciting, I know. Erick Rowan’s wrestling skills are quite pedestrian. It’s hard to imagine him having a match on pay-per-view. Yet here he is. The reason this match has a lot of promise, though, is because of Rowan’s opponent, Luke Harper.

Harper was on a roll on the Road to Wrestlemania. For a while, it seemed like he would be added to the WWE Championship match between Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton. He wasn’t, but fans were behind the big man, and it wasn’t hard to see why. He had an organic face turn in a well-crafted story (that bombed in the end, but it was good for a while), and he is a skilled athlete. He’s tall and heavy, but he can perform frankensteiners and suicide dives as if he was significantly lighter. He was given time to develop his character, and the fans loved it. Combine all of this with Erick Rowan’s unsettling Talking Smack promo, an you have a match with a surprising amount of potential.

Rowan is the potential perfect counterpart for Harper. Harper will shine in this match, which is what many of us want to see. Hopefully their styles can mesh well and they can deliver a good match.

Breezango Is Getting a Championship Match

People often talk about Cesaro or Sami Zayn being underutilized. They may be, but at least they appear on TV regularly. Not Breezango, though. Last month, many people even forgot they existed. Fandango has been on the roster for almost a decade. How many Fandango matches can you name?

Both Tyler Breeze and Fandango are criminally underrated performers. Wrestlers like Dolph Ziggler have praised Breeze’s skill. He was part of a 5-star match, for goodness’ sake. As for Fandango, he’s not even bad in the ring. He’s more than capable of having good matches. Together both men work well, and their charisma and charm works well. They’re also quite funny, and it’s nice to see them getting such a high-profile match.

However, standing in their way is the Usos. Many people didn’t like them, but the Usos are quite skilled at this whole “wrestling” thing. Look back at their matches with American Alpha over the Tag Team Championship. Those were TV matches, but by god they felt like PPV quality matches. It’s insane.

The two teams had an exciting contest last year on the Battleground pre-show, so there’s no reason for them not to have another good match.

Talk is Jericho Recap w/ Jinder Mahal – Becoming Number One Contender, Relationship with Great Khali, Origins of 3MB, More!

Jericho welcomes Jinder Mahal to the show.

Jericho mentions that Mahal appeared to come out of nowhere to become the new number one contender for the WWE Championship. He says he was told the day before winning the 6-pack challenge on Smackdown Live that he was going to become the number one contender. Concerning his run as an enhancement talent prior to this, Vince McMahon told him that WWE’s audience has a short memory and Mahal says, “I guess we’ll all find out about that”.

Mahal says he got pretty down on himself emotionally after being released from WWE a couple of years ago. He was drinking a lot and his weight ballooned to 260 lbs. He realized that he needed to change his lifestyle, so he began dieting and getting into shape, and soon enough WWE came calling. He says that Impact Wrestling actually called him about coming to work for them as well, but he chose to come back to WWE.

He says that during those two years he was very negative and was working the indie scene and just didn’t care. As soon as he started to care about himself and his wrestling again, everything changed and opportunities started to arise again. He says he’s remaining very positive now, and he keeps a daily planner of his goals. One of his goals is to have the best body in WWE, and another is to win the WWE Championship.

Could A Major Swerve Occur At Backlash?

Thanks to the most recent episode of Smackdown Live, my interest in Backlash has reached new highs. Jinder going over AJ (even though he had help) has made me a believer that he really stands a chance against Randy Orton in their WWE Championship match. The Usos dropped one awesome promo on Breezango, and I absolutely loved it despite my ill feelings toward them. Even Erick Rowan showing just what kind of character he can be on Talking Smack has me excited for his match as well.

While all of these matches are intriguing, it’s the women’s tag match that has me intrigued the most. The newest babyface of Smackdown, Charlotte, will team up with Naomi and Becky Lynch to take on The Welcoming Committee of Smackdown Live. It’s weird to see Charlotte as a face, but it’s a nice change on a show where change is welcome. Natalya and company have made it clear that they do not want Charlotte here, and she shouldn’t be allowed a chance at the Smackdown Live Women’s Championship just because of her past accomplishments on Raw. Technically these women have a point, but they shouldn’t be fighting for the belt either so their opinion is invalid.

Something about this doesn’t sit right with me. Charlotte seems like the person who should be a natural heel, for her entire career. This is why I see Charlotte turning on Becky and Naomi at Backlash.