WWE Re-Enacted CM Punk's MMA Fight Last Night At Backlash (Plus Some Other Takeaways)
Yahoo - On Sunday, WWE held Backlash, their first Smackdown-branded PPV since the recent brand split. The card featured The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship, and the opening moments of that match looked just a wee bit familiar, as you can see in the GIF at the top of this post. WWE never really does anything by accident, so it’s pretty clear that this was an homage — or at least a loving jab — at former WWE Champion Punk.
Love the move out of Miz and Ziggler to start their match like this. It’s more than likely an ode to CM Punk, not a shot across the bow, but either way it’s great.
Overall, the PPV was decent enough for what it was. While I haven’t exactly been keeping up with Smackdown, with the move and being back on a one TV setup for now, and the fact watching 2 hours of Smackdown the day after 3 hours of Raw is hard to do. But I catch up during the week and thought for a quickly thrown together PPV, it was fine.
Here are my few other big takeaways:
1) The opening match, the 6 pack women’s elimnation match, was really, really good. Blew me away. Naomi is so much better than I ever thought, Carmella has potential, and Alexa Bliss is doing this new Harley Quinn thing which is awesome.
I have never really been blown away by Becky Lynch, but she’s a respectable champion.
2) Kane going over Bray is uhhhh…I don’t know. They have been doing the squash matches with Kane the same way Raw has been doing them with Braun Strowman. I don’t really like it because it’s old ass, saggy boob Kane. Does he really need to be built up, and does anyone really care about him at this point anyway? But whatever, Bray loses another PPV, so it goes, so it goes.
3) Heath Slater da GOAT. His run over the last month or 2 has been inspirational. Just took this gimmick and run with it. Very Mizdow-esque. The fans are behind him, and the top WWE decision makers apparently are too. Him and Rhyno being Smackdown Tag Team champs is so unlikely, but so great at the same time.
4) AJ Styles is your new WWE Champion.
Many thought this day would never happen. Took him 15 years to get into WWE, and in his short time there he has proven why he’s considered by most to be the best wrestler in the year. He’s Kurt Angle-esque- great in the ring, great on the mic, a unique personality. The WWE has gotten behind him, has let him blossom, and now he’s the World Champion. Before this, he had done everything in wrestling besides be WWE Champ, and last night he did it. A worthy champ.
Pretty cool that the Raw champ is Kevin Owens and the Smackdown champ is AJ Styles. This is quite literally the first time Vince hasn’t buried people for not being “his guys”. He’s letting the best climb their way to the top, the way it should be.
PS: I wish the writing and booking was as good as it is right now before the brand split. A 3 hour show, top to bottom, packed with star power and great matches is what we needed. Better yet, 2 hours of Raw, 2 hours of Smackdown, but one continuous roster. Would have been perfect, like the old days. However, with the brand split, we are seeing new faces shine and lower card guys moving up, so it’s working out great. Plus ratings aren’t in the dumpster, so good for WWE for figuring it out and putting out a consistently good product.