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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.
The Ross Report Recap w/ Roderick Strong – Strowman’s Injury, Strong’s Road to WWE, Who is Strong’s Dream Opponent, More!
Ross informs that he’s going to be busy this week commentating NJPW events for AXS TV, and he says he enjoys doing commentary for NJPW because it’s very one-dimentional in the sense that it’s a wrestling-heavy product. He’ll also be flying to Stanford on Wednesday to do voice over work for WWE’s UK Special which will air later this week on the WWE Network
From Ross’ understanding, the UK special will be 90 minutes in length. He says he’s quite excited to do voice over work for that WWE special, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate the other commentary work he does for NJPW or any other promotions. He says that whenever he sits down at a commentary booth he gives 100% and does his best to serve the product, regardless of the style of wrestling.
Ross informs that he will be Chicago this weekend for his one-man show, but as of this recording he has no appearance confirmed for WWE’s Backlash PPV or the NXT Takeover show. He says that it’s certainly a possibility that he has a role on one of those shows, and he’d be happy if that were to occur. He adds that he’s just happy to be home in WWE and have a role with the company.
Ross says that his book will be coming out in October, and he has just finished confirming names to do forewords and add dialogue to it. He says he already has some great words submitted from Vince McMahon, Steve Austin, The Rock and Mark Cuban to name a few.
The Taz Show Recap – Smackdown Analysis, Is Rusev Disgruntled? What Was the Best Part of Smackdown? More!
Block 1:
A listener calls in to open today’s show, saying he’s really looking forward to watching Backlash this weekend. The caller also hopes that the United States Title match between Kevin Owens and A.J. Styles main events the show. Taz says that he can understand that opinion, because those two guys can potentially steal the show, however he thinks Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal are going to have a great match as well.
Taz says that he didn’t like WWE’s utilization of Kevin Owens last night. He doesn’t believe that Owens should be stealing Chris Jericho’s gimmicks, and he thinks that Owens should be standing on his own because he’s better than this. Taz assumes that Jericho will be returning sooner than later and these two guys will revisit their feud, but Taz wonders how long WWE can drag out this program. It has already been ongoing for multiple months, and it doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon.
A listener calls into the show and says that reforming The Shield is the only way that Roman Reigns is going to get over as a babyface with the WWE Universe. Taz disagrees and says reforming The Shield right now would be admitting defeat and would be a step back for Reigns and the company as a whole. He believes that turning Reigns full heel for a year or more would eventually result in the audience getting on Reigns’ side, then the company can flip him back to babyface.
Reason Why Nakamura Should Lose At WWE Backlash
The hype behind the upcoming Backlash pay-per-view is thanks to one man, Shinsuke Nakamura. He arrived on the Smackdown Live brand two nights after Wrestlemania. He has been involved in promos and a lot of loud fan chants, but has yet to have a single match. That changes on Sunday when he takes on the Show-Off, Dolph Ziggler.
Now the potential behind this match is beyond belief. Ziggler is one of the best performers in the company regardless of his win-loss record. Putting a talent like him against someone as gifted as Nakamura is going to be magic. Most people are expecting Nakamura to win the bout, as they should. With the way Nakamura has been promoted, it wouldn’t make any sense for him to lose his very first match on the main roster to a mid-card heel who is floundering around.
Or would it?
Why Titus O’Neil Is One of the Best Parts of RAW Right Now
The Titus Brand bandwagon (Brandwagon?) is coming this way, and I am here to say that I will be climbing aboard. The man used to be a reason to reach for the fast-forward button. Now he’s one of the more entertaining members of the roster. It took a while, but Titus O’Neil has found his niche on the roster. But why is the Titus Brand now a big deal? Allow me to explain.
Titus O’Neil Has Always Been Capable on the Mic
After Titus cut that dreadful promo on Raw after Summerslam (you know the one I’m talking about), everyone said he was hot garbage on the microphone. That’s simply not true. When he would work commentary, many praised him for his wit and good speaking ability. He sounded very natural. Barring the return of the Dudleys where he spent a good amount of time yelling incoherently, he was good.
Batista himself has said Titus would make a very good public speaker. I do think Titus is a good speaker. However, he’s better off staying away from those dead-serious promos. The reason the “I want Darren” promo sucked is because you could tell Titus was out of his element. When you watch him trying to earn a spot in the New Day or pushing his Titus Brand, he’s clearly more comfortable and more natural sounding. You have to play to a superstar’s strengths. You wouldn’t make Stone Cold cut a John Cena promo. Roman Reigns should avoid talking like Santino Marella. Bayley should avoid talking at all (I jest).
Now that Titus is having his strengths played to, he’s clearly better off. You can tell that he’s having fun. Dancing with the New Day, stealing Enzo Amore’s intro for himself, and all that jazz.
The Titus Brand Is Hilarious
Of course, humor is subjective, but many people, myself included, enjoy Titus’ segments on Raw. Ever since he moved away from Darren Young and began holding press conferences with Tom Phillips, he’s been a good bit of harmless fun. The “Tussle in Texas” was a particularly entertaining bout. It was hyped up as a legit fight, complete with a tale of the tape. 1 minute later, Titus is pinned after eating a World’s Strongest Slam from Mark Henry.
The addition of Apollo Crews to the Titus Brand will make for an even more interesting dynamic. Clearly Crews isn’t 100 percent on-board with the Brand. Still, he goes along with whatever wacky adventure Titus drags him to. Although O’Neil is very clearly a heel (a heel who just called the state of New Jersey “poor ass”), Crews is not entirely bad just yet. Titus receives all the heat, all while allowing Crews to slowly develop a character.
People have compared the two to LaVar and Lonzo Ball. To those who don’t know, Lonzo Ball is a Drake lookalike who many expect will be drafted in the next NBA Draft. LaVar is his loudmouth father who gets into all sorts of trouble. The comparison is there, and it works. Lonzo just wants to chill and play basketball, but LaVar keeps running his mouth and hyping him up as the Second Coming of Jesus. Same with O’Neil and Crews. Apollo just wants to wrestle and have fun, while Titus spews a whole lot of nonsense.
