WWE Backlash fan feedback: Jinder Mahal becomes WWE Champion
Thumbs down (slightly)
- Best match: Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles
- Worst match: Luke Harper vs. Erick Rowan
Not all-time awful PPV, but such a flat and boring show compared to what was offered 24-hours before. Mahal winning is the nail in the coffin about wins and losses mattering.
– Eric Bonin
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Thumbs down
- Best: AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens
- Worst: Usos vs. Breezango
A totally forgettable show. It speaks volumes to how boring I find Randy Orton when I’m actually happy that the guy who was a jobber his entire career up to last month is WWE champion. How can this be the same company that put on the amazing NXT show last night?
– Nick Randall
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I would have to give the show a thumbs in the middle, nothing super exciting except for the main event title win. The best match of the night would have to be Owens / Styles, and worst match of the night probably the women’s match due to a whole bunch of nothing going on. The NXT show Saturday night was the way better show with the crowd popping for everything, especially the NXT title matches, the UK title match was off the charts! Backlash had its moments and the Chicago crowd was there but nothing spectacular.
Dillinger / English — Ok for a pre show match, English need’s a new gimmick, the singing gimmick is annoying. Tye is really over with the crowd, hopefully the find something for him soon.
Nakamura / Ziggler — Seemed liked they rushed the entrance for Nakamura for some reason, they should have had a stronger entrance for him since the match seemed to be slow for some reason. Surprised they opened with this, would have worked better near the top of the card and faster paced match since I know both are capable of having a better match. But if they are running a program with these two, which they appear to be doing, then a series of matches will be could with different styles of matches.
Usos / Breeze & Fandango — Strange match with the goofy gimmicks. It was ok but playing for comedy usually is a gimmick killer when trying to get over. I think Jim Cornette phrased it as “Funny don’t draw money” lol. But seems like Breeze & Fandango need a boost too in the gimmick dept.
Zayn / Corbin — Was surprised to see Zayn get the win since Corbin was getting the monster heel push. Good to see Zayn get the win since he seems to be another one getting lost in the SmackDown shuffle. Hopefully the loss doesn’t hurt Corbin’s push
Flair, Naomi, Becky / Nattie, Carmella, Tamina — Was not sure what to think of this match, seemed like a whole bunch of nothing going on here with the whole women’s division on SmackDown. Seem’s like SmackDown is not sure what to do with their women’s division. Pretty bad when the most entertaining thing of the match is James Ellsworth. And not really a fan of Naomi’s ring entrance. She is really talented, but the entrance, to me anyway is rather annoying.
Owens / Styles — By far the best match of the night. Cant go wrong with these two, they never have bad matches. Hopefully the keep the program going, a flat ending though with AJ getting counted out and stuck in the announcers table. The creative team can do better than this.
Harper / Rowan — These two are much more effective as a tag team then on their own as singles. They really need to team them up again and have them go after the tag titles since the tag division is rather weak. Another pair of wrestlers that SmackDown creative seems unsure of what to do with. They have great talent on SmackDown, they just need to execute better with the direction of a lot of their talent.
Orton / Jinder — Absolutely the right call to go with Jinder as champion. I think this is heel gold, great gimmick on their hands with Jinder as champion doing a million dollar man type gimmick and his heritage. They really turned things around with making Jinder as champion and I think it’s a hot program right now. Orton as champion is very stale, been there and seen that enough already with Orton. But Jinder as champion is very different and unique, hopefully they run with it for awhile and he is not just a transitional champion. But the right call to make him champ. Gave a big boost to an otherwise lackluster show.
– Jon Southerland
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I give this Backlash a thumbs in the middle.
First off this show had the unfortunate task of going after a great NXT TakeOver show
1) Nakamura as the opener was questionable considering they hyped him up so much…the match itself wasn’t an NXT type of Nakamura..but it was a good match it introduced casual fans more to Nakamura and strong style he’s headed for more but the question now is what is next for Ziggler??? The match gets a C+
2) The tag match for me gets a C rating only because I get the whole changing of disguise was a little over the top especially since after that whole stick was over the match got interesting…the finish hints to me that the feud will continue, I just hope that Breezango stays relative there is potential there
3) The Sami Zayn v Corbin match was good I felt it was just lacking like one big physical spot that showed off Corbin’s strength if he is going to be a main eventer….Sami winning is fine but I was betting that Corbin would win since he is supposed to get a push or at least if he takes the loss he should’ve destroyed Corbin and maybe even “put him on the shelf”
4) The women’s match gets a D+ because to me they didn’t choreograph the match right and with the Welcoming Committee going over I guess it legitimizes them as a good stable but this pay per view was better off having a singles match or some sort of triple threat to show case the strength of this division. Ending should’ve had Lynch close to the ropes and looking to break the hold only to have Ellsworth pull the ropes back making it impossible to break the hold and force the tap….which could lead to the intergender match she wants
5) The Styles vs Owens match gets a B for me…easily match of the night great story telling took just a real slow pace out of the gate and didn’t work the leg till later in the match besides that it was a great contest I can see that they will have greater feuds in the future…the finish did keep both men looking strong but I felt like it left me and the fans like we missed out on something it deserved some sort of finish even if it was controversial….the US title though is set to be prestige again with bouts like this
6) The Harper and Rowan match gets a C- no hype or interest really made it feel like a filler or SmackDown episode match….Harper is really talented he could at least be an upper mid carder I just think he needs a new finisher and for Rowan he’s decent just needs more experience and he could at most be a mid career
7) the main event gets a C+
JINDER MAHAL IS CHAMPION…never thought I’d say that in 2017…..now the match itself seemed pretty old school main event ish considered Mahal targeted a body part and kept working on it very old school the last 5-10 minutes of the match got intense because me and the audience didn’t know how the ending would be and if Mahal was going to win this was the perfect way to have him win by having the Singh brothers take Randy’s eyes off him and get the W now we’ll see if he’s a credible champion, how long will he hold it for and once he loses will he go back to jobbing
Overall decent show I expected more…maybe that’s because of how much more interested and invested I am in SmackDown live….let’s hope they fix their mistakes and keep the momentum going into the next ppv and coming weeks
(Side note) a little disappointed this weekend because of no signing or sighting of Adam Cole
– Vicente Vitela
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Thumbs Up
- Best Match: Styles vs. Owens
- Worst Match: Six Women Tag
Overall a pretty good show, but nothing compared to NXT as I figured. Hard to follow NXT it seems no matter what.
Opener was fine with Dillinger over English. Shinsuke beats Ziggler which of course had to be the outcome. They maybe gave Dolph too much offense. I’m pretty tired of Dolph even though he can work.
Uso’s retain over Breezango which I also expected. Better than I thought it would be even with the comedy stuff. I assume New Day will be challenging Uso’s shortly.
Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin had a good match. Zayn really sold his back well. Surprising finish and I hope Zayn gets to advance to something more in the future.
Six women tag was average and something that seemed more suited for Tuesday. Nothing special here with the heels going over. Becky’s hairdo should get zero stars. Maybe they thought she was Sheamus.
Owens vs. AJ was very good despite the count out finish. Obviously they will meet again and nothing wrong with seeing them have another good match.
Luke Harper vs. Erick Rowan was okay, but nothing that anybody seemed to care about. Funny how Rowan was mad since Harper left the family, but remember when Rowan had already left the family once before and then he got hurt and just pretended he was still a Wyatt?
Main event was better than I expected. Solid match and surprising outcome with Jinder picking up the title. Those poor Singh Brothers really got drilled on the tables and Orton’s reaction was fitting of that Summer Slam when Taker and Lesnar had those crazy looks on their faces.
Overall a decent show, but if you have to choose go back and watch NXT Takeover because that was a great show.
– Robb Block
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Thumbs Down. Woof/DUD.
Hated the booking of Nak/Ziggler OMG. Nak gets the rockstar reaction only to do a competitive 50/50 match with a guy who nobody believes has a shot in hell of winning, hasn’t been pushed or protected in years and doesn’t work a strong heel style to get heat. Either have Nakamura eat him up and merc him, or book Nak’s debut against somebody of consequence.
- Best Match: AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens
- Worst Match: Six Women Tag. Too clunky. Could find an argument for any of the other matches on the card for this spot outside of Owens/AJ, the men’s tag and Sami/Corbin.
– Jeff
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Thumbs up show
- Best Match: AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens
- Worst Match: Six Womens Tag Match
Well they gave Mahal the WWE Championship. Guess they’ll rematch next month at Money in the Bank but it’s in St. Louis so that means Orton has to lose. But look on the bright side, someone will win the brief case and eventually cash in on him down the line.
At least we get they’ll continue the Owens/Styles angle but with next month at MITB, Will these 2 even be in the ladder match. Ziggler/Corbin/Zayn, who else will even be added?
– Eric Poon
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Compared to Takeover, Backlash sucked. Most matches were average-at-best and the two most anticipated bouts, Nakamura vs. Ziggler and Owens vs. Styles under-delivered. The Styles match was still the best one, though. Worst was Rowan vs. Harper by a mile. Main event was what it was. Might as well go all in so the Mahal build wasn’t a total waste. Overall, thumbs down, especially after NXT Takeover.
– Andrew Burnes
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Thumbs WAY up!
I did not have any expectations for this weekend but might have been the best 1-2 WWE punch of the year.
Two incredible ending finally made me want to tune back in after a couple weeks off to see where everything is going.
Best Takeover match was the UK match.
Best Backlash was surprisingly Zayn vs Corbin. Totally over looked on the card but best story telling. Zayn reminded us all of his talent. The only lackluster match on the card was the opener.
– Ryan
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Thumbs down
- Best: Nakamura-Ziggler (which was only decent)
- Worst: Rowan-Harper
Tonight felt like a slight argument against the brand split (or balance) in that the star power was limited. I felt like the crowd and viewers were less interested in AJ-Owens as a result of what came before it
– Neal Brockett
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Thumbs UP
- Best Match: AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens
- Worst Match: Luke Harper vs Erick Rowan
Hell hasn’t frozen over but it’s pretty damn close. Fans are genuinely stunned that Mahal won.
Zayn got a nice surprise babyface win — possibly since Owens was retaining, Mahal was winning the title, and Natalya was booked to go over in the ladies match. But he will “pay” as far as the rest of this feud goes, unless they want to segue to him vs Nakamura for the next PPV and build Shinsuke for a match against Mahal at SummerSlam.
– Jeff Cohen