WWE BACKLASH

St. Louis

JACOB FATU vs. DAMIAN PRIEST vs. DREW McINTYRE vs. LA KNIGHT (18:14): This was a very enjoyable show. It was a hell of a lot better than Wrestlemania. It definitely helped that every match was good and the show was only 2.5 hours long. The Logan Paul vs. Jey Uso title match was taken off this show and moved to Saturday Night's Main Event in two weeks for no apparent reason. A lot of people online seemed to not like this show, but their main criticism was the constant interference and ref bumps in every match. I actually like that stuff, as did this crowd, because otherwise these matches would be total bores. The crowd was loud and into every match which helped. I don't even really like WWE that much these days but I thought this was one of their best PPV's in the last few years. This opener was very exciting. After everyone battled in the ring for awhile, Drew and Damian brawled in the crowd and Damian gave Drew a suplex off a rig through two tables. They were both out which left LA Knight and Fatu in the ring. The crowd loved Fatu even though he's supposed to be a heel, but that might change as they introduced tension in The Bloodline. Solo Sikoa interfered to take Jacob Fatu off of the announce table when LA Knight was on the top rope ready to deliver an elbow drop. Jeff Cobb then made his WWE debut and Solo told him to take LA Knight out. After beating up LA Knight, Jacob Fatu eyed up Jeff Cobb as if he didn't want his help and didn't ask for it. Fatu retained the U.S. title. This was the best match on the show. ***

LYRA VALKYRIA vs. BECKY LYNCH (18:43): This match was pretty dull early but the crowd got into it when there were a bunch of a near falls towards the end. The funniest part of the match came when Becky was taunting some total nerd with glasses and curly hair wearing a track suit in the front row. The announcers mentioned that this was Lyra's fiancée. Uh...what? How'd that total dweeb score Lyra Valkyria? Not that Lyra is some super model or anything, but she's cute, a WWE wrestler, in great shape, and probably making good money. Lyra retained her title with a roll-up. I think she has the Intercontinental title. I honestly didn't even know they had a women's IC title. The last five minutes or so were fairly exciting. Becky beat up Lyra after the match and put her in an armbar submission until Adam Pierce and a bunch of WWE goons ran out to stop her. **1/2

DOMINICK MYSTERIO vs. PENTA (9:17): Think Penta is wondering if signing with WWE was a bad idea? I suppose losing to Dominick on a PPV isn't that bad. Dominick is one of the most over guy's in the company in terms of heel heat. I still have no idea why they're using Penta and Fenix as singles wrestlers. Dominick did an awesome through-the-ropes dive into a DDT. The Judgment Day guys all ran out at one point, though they were thwarted when Finn Balor took too long to grab a steel chair and the ref saw them. This is playing into Finn being angry at Dominick pinning him at Wrestlemania. Chad Gable, dressed up as El Grande Americano, a Luchador, gave Penta a head butt when the ref wasn't looking. Gable has a steel plate in his mask, thus why Penta was so devasted by the head butt he got pinned by Dom afterwards. Penta hasn't been that exciting since joining WWE, though he wasn't all that exciting in AEW when he wrestled solo, either. Match was at least entertaining. **1/2

GUNTHER vs. PAT McAFEE (14:07): McAfee has only wrestled a few times over the years in WWE, but they've always been entertaining. It was not a total beat down, as McAfee had a few comebacks and got a few shots in. At one point, Michael Cole left the announce table to plead for Gunther to just "end it." Cole, of course, got pulled into the ring by Gunther but McAfee kicked Gunther in the face. This was very engrossing, actually. **1/2

JOHN CENA vs. RANDY ORTON (27:49): There were three ref bumps in this match...so if that's not your thing then you probably hated this. Early on this was a total bore. I figure these two probably wrestled each other a million times over the years, so seeing an Orton vs. Cena main event PPV title match is pretty nostalgic. Orton is from St. Louis, so that's the reason this match was made. At one point, after the 2nd ref that ran out got knocked down, the Smackdown CEO and a bunch of his assistants ran out to the ring. The only purpose for this was so Orton could give them all RKO's. Orton put Cena through the announce table but it didn't break (it fell apart a few moments afterwards) so Orton got a table from under the ring and put Cena through it. R-Truth ran out at one point to stop Orton from kicking Cena in the head. The Cena and R-Truth stuff was a storyline from, like, 15 years ago or something absurd. Probably even more absurd that R-Truth is still around. Eventually when the refs were all dead, Cena gave Orton a low blow and hit him with the belt to win when the ref woke up. Cena definitely did a better job playing the heel here than he did at Wrestlemania. The storyline is that he wants to retire as champion. The problem with that storyline is that they should let him keep the title until his final match. Do we really want to see Cena cheating to win for the next 7 months, though? No. All the interference at least made this match watchable. I liked this show. It probably helped that I didn't watch it live so I could fast-forward all the entrances and commercials. A short show with a hot crowd and a lot of shenanigans. I suppose it's my cup of tea. **1/2