Segunda Caida

Phil Schneider, Eric Ritz, Matt D, Sebastian, and other friends write about pro wrestling. Follow us @segundacaida

Sunday, June 14, 2020

WWE Backlash Blog 6/14/20

ER: Getting a late start on this show because I visited my sister this weekend, the first time I have driven more than 5 miles in the last 3 months. When I returned I had a cat who had missed me terribly and dishes that hadn't washed themselves since I saw them on Friday. Asuka/Nia is probably the only match I'm really interested in, but there are several matches that could be good.


Andrade vs. Apollo Crews

ER: Fine pre-show opener, though it felt a little more hollow than I was hoping. Both of these guys do cool moves, and both hit those cool moves here, but it never felt like anything bigger than that. But seeing cool guys hit nice exchanges for 7 minutes is nice on the lead in show, and I liked how they jumped things up with Andrade taking a big backdrop bump on the entrance ramp. Crews and Andrade are both good at quick rope running sequences, and I dug how the ran through those at the same fast pace as Andrade slamming his knees into Crews in the corner. Crews' standing flying offense looked really good, landing flush on Andrade, and the finish was a slick sitout powerbomb reversal of Andrade's trap arm DDT. I know these two have a better match in them, but this was good eye candy to start a show.


Alexa Bliss/Nikki Cross vs. The Iiconics vs. Sasha Banks/Bayley

ER: This was kind of a mess, and these 3 way tag matches just seem too tough to work without some hitches or weird bits of laying about. I think Sasha was the big standout, with everyone else blending in a bit too much. Sasha was the one making all of her individual spots look good, like flying into the corner hard or throwing a knee into the side of Kay's head (while Bayley held her), or how perfectly Sasha handled the finish and how awesome her winning pin on Bliss looked. The match structure made everyone else feel pretty faceless, with the Iiconics far more muted than normal, while Bliss and Cross showed good enthusiasm throughout but felt out of the gate that they were losing. I don't think this was bad, but having three people in the ring at all times just leads to awkwardness.


Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus

ER: I thought this was really good, a match worked straight with some nasty spills and great collisions, no shenanigans, no stupid finish. Sheamus is in the discussion of best 10 minute TV match worker of the decade, and he brings that to a nice clean PPV match like this one. He provides a big solid base for Hardy to slam into, he's never gonna be the guy who bails early on a rough collision, and I dig Hardy vaulting off stairs into him, flying into him in the corner, using his body as a projectile no matter how Sheamus was positioned, and then flying even harder into awful landings. Sheamus has real brick wall offense, the kind that makes the stuff of Sheamus vs. Scott Norton the stuff dreams are made from. He kept finding cruel ways to cut Hardy off, with the worst being him hitting a front suplex and catching a knee on the ringpost, or Sheamus reaching up to knock Hardy off the turnbuckles and Hardy just pitching forward into the ropes. I love seeing Hardy fold on Sheamus clotheslines, or the way his body crumples when he flies to the floor directly into a Brogue kick. This hit hard, landed hard, built nicely, a super professional match that still felt like it was worked aggressively. I never get excited for Hardy matches anymore, but he has seemed really focused since coming back, and Sheamus looks a good as ever. Strong match.


Nia Jax vs. Asuka

ER: Outside of the unnecessary 80s TV match non-finish, this was really good. I've always liked how these two match up, how Asuka knows how to ramp up the stiffness to counter some of Nia's bull in a China shop movement. Nia always looks really strong against Asuka, so I love moments like Nia simply shoving Asuka off into the ropes, because it looks like Asuka is really being flung whether she wants to or not. Nia really crushed Asuka with lariats and avalanches, and I love the way Nia tumbles when Asuka is able to side step and throw in strikes. Asuka swinging into a crucifix, leaping around Nia's body to get a great octopus, or flinging herself at Nia for a guillotine attempt all look really great, because they always look like Nia is actively struggling to prevent them from happening. Jax is really great at being broken down by submissions, really plays a great giant being brought to their knees. She shows off these cool moments every time Asuka snares her with something, and I think it's the perfect kind of spot to show of the dynamics of both. Asuka really hurls herself hips and butt first into Nia, kicks away at her legs, and Nia pays her back whenever she catches her in a big slam, reverses a sub attempt with a Boss Man slam or slapping her into the mat with a sitout powerbomb. Really, I loved all of this outside of the double count out finish. Even the post match hip attack off the apron looked great, and the facials from both ruled. There was no reason to do a double count out finish. Nia wouldn't lose any "mystique" from winning to Asuka, because Asuka rules. They give Asuka the belt without her beating the champ, then you have Charlotte beat her the night after Charlotte lost her belt, then you can't let Asuka win her first PPV title defense. She has done nothing but lose or not win ever since getting the belt, and it's totally unnecessary. As a match, though, this was really good.


Miz/John Morrison vs. Braun Strowman

ER: Modern WWE handicap matches just aren't good, because WWE doesn't want them to be good. The best handicap matches are deeply imbued with southern wrestling. WWF used to run handicap matches like this, understood that you need an element of stooging and the rhythm needed to be different than typical singles matches. Modern WWE handicap matches are worked like a singles match, only the two guys just may as well be masked twins. Something like Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett/Roadie works great, because Jarrett and Roadie know exactly how to fill time in between taking beatings and know how to gloat when they get an advantage, knowing how to perfectly act like the guys celebrating their advantage as if they don't already have the built in advantage. Braun makes for some good moments, as his misses can still miss dangerously, and I'm not sure there are many big guys who do a ringpost bump as nicely as he does. Morrison's knee strikes looked real junky here, and I couldn't get into a lot of this. Handicap matches can be more interesting than this. Modern WWE handicap layout does nothing for me.


Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre

ER: This had the feeling of two semi-trained Power Plant guys doing all of the big slams they learned and watched others do, and that is a much better vibe for this match than Main Event Heavyweight WWE Match. McIntyre tosses Lashley into the barricade with a belly to belly, Lashley runs McIntyre horizontally into the ringpost and nearly murders him with a crazy death valley bomb on the floor, the whole thing is just a big Power Plant power move spotfest and that kicks ass. This really felt like the best possible Sean O'Haire vs. Chase Tatum match, with McIntyre going on to hit a wild superplex, plus awesome stuff like grabbing a kimura off a Lashley spear. I like that we didn't get prolonged strike exchanges or tons of dramatic kickouts, but instead the focus was on two big guys slamming each other in cool big guy ways. WWE needs more Power Plant influence, as that sense of danger due to guys not knowing their limits was important.


Viking Raiders vs. Street Profits

ER: I hope that this satisfied the fans who were exited to see it, and the women who find Ivar cute.


THE GREATEST MATCH EVER

ER: The crowd was electric for this. There was this great sense that - even though I had no history with these two - that they had a great history with each other, and knew what to expect from the other. There were no cutesy I reverse U spots, more like physical chess with both of them knowing what to expect two moves ahead. There were elements to the work that I had never really seen before, simple things that I loved, like putting your forearms up to block an elbow strike, or dropping down to a knee to sandbag a powerbomb. Every guy I saw attempt a powerbomb before this had either hit that powerbomb right away, or got backdropped over. An actual struggle over a big move was a bit of a revelation to me. Seeing Orton drop to a knee, widen his base, grab onto Edge's leg - anything to keep himself from being powerbombed - and that was eye opening. The strikes landed harder than anything else I had seen, and well, I had never seen a man bleed from his ear before. I don't think anything good ever came to anyone after bleeding out of their ear.

And all of that stuff still holds up as special. It's a great match. The level of improv based around things you can't plan (where a guy falls after taking a move, the position he winds up in), all of the ring positioning, it's all impressive stuff. You can see gears working when a strike was supposed to land harder and it didn't, and you can watch some sequences get kind of reworked and changed and added to without ever altering the course of the match. Edge's kicks all land sharp, with that early thrust spin kick especially looking like it decapitated Orton. I actually remember seeing people use "restholds" as a complaint about this match, but I'm sorry, to watch each man's respective hold and to be so disbelieving seems a bit cynical to me. Orton's face lock looked like he was clearly trying to block Edge's breathing with his arm, and Edge's stretch plum looked as if he was trying to separate Orton's neck from his shoulders. There was nothing restful about either of those holds. We get some crazy moments like Edge punching Orton out of the air off an apron drive. Orton actually changes trajectory in mid air from being punched! Edge finally hitting that folding powerbomb was a huge moment and a great nearfall (of several), and while I didn't find the head drops excessive, that Tiger Driver 91 is still shocking. It really is quite the door slam to the match. I hadn't watched this match in probably 8+ years, and at this point I'm not seeing a reason it won't keep holding up.


ER: Strong deliveries from Nia/Asuka, Sheamus/Hardy, and McIntyre/Lashley, plus an arguably perfect main event that will henceforth be known as "6/7/20-6/14/20", means this was perfectly fine show to poke around on a Sunday evening.


Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

3 Comments:

Blogger Yerfuneral said...

Kind of weird that WWE went ahead and called this ppv Backlash when our real world has pretty much been the very definition. Maybe that's why 'greatest match ever' was stressed so much in the build up.
I went into this ppv with even lower expectations with a match billed 'greatest ever' I expect bunch of tv matches to help that main event stand out more.
We'll see:

1) United States Title Match

Andrade had to earn that rematch so guess they are sticking to the no rematch clause. Solid opener but Apollo has been dealing with Zelina's good looking men feels like all year. This was more of a vehicle to reintroduce Owens than anything in the end.

2) Women's Tag Title Triple Threat Match

It's weird that Bliss and Cross are the faces of this match. Using my reasoning behind feeling the crowd forecast Io last weekend was almost fooled but remembered they are faces.
Not sure why liking the role models shtick probably cause don't watch AEW where reading sounds like similar thing being done there. Sasha and Bayley finally doing characters I like.
Good seeing IIconics back. They pretty much disappeared except to drop the belts after winning them. I kind of wanted to see them win to maybe get a better chance to shine but Charlotte is out so expected no title change so the current champs can become the new faces for a little while trekking between all the shows.
Oh yeah the match itself. The moments where all 6 would suddenly be in the ring staring each other down kept killing any momentum. I had as much difficulty as the ref knowing who should be in. It was a mess but looking forward to NXT to see the champs against Blackheart & Nox.

3) Hardy vs Sheamus

Both have had a bit of a rough patch integrating back in even with good amount of promo's when they each returned. Thought it was a good pairing and good set up for further matches. Maybe the set up wasn't the best but the match was well told and understandable for return bouts. Can't say that often.

4) Raw Women's Title Match

Asuka continue's her reign as the WWE all-star for 2020. Was worried they would muddy things with the dance stuff but she was serious through out.
Asuka can do so much stuff so the difference in size is no object and she can do more than attack the legs and still be taken serious.
The double count out made sense for what has been going on. I think both Nia and Asuka have count out losses chasing each other on tv. It leads credence to maybe a cage match at Extreme Rules rather than a 3 way with Charlotte. That's my hope anyway an actual build and reason for a cage match.

1:45 AM  
Blogger Yerfuneral said...

5) WWE Title Handicap Title Match

Would it hurt to have Strowman do some kind of squash? Lesnar did it constantly. It just seems so weird to me with a guy Strowman's size. You keep throwing him in these weird stipulations but very rarely has he been aloud to get that monster squash against anyone of note.

6) Universal Title

McIntyre is the face. Lashley is one of the few guys he can face you can pull the make the face look like he is being destroyed most of the match and has to come back.
Bit formulaic though you finally have a second instance of Lana seemingly causing the loss. One instance can be a fluke they needed it to happen more than once to have Lana stay in the back.

7) Raw Men's Tag Team Title (well was build as such originally)

Wow, the main event was the expected to be a cinematic match but no it was the tag match that wasn't a match but very much a b-movie.
I actually didn't out right hate the contest build up. ECW use to do something similar but it was an hour show and you got one segment. RAW being three hours you got multiple segments. It was a nice venue to try and spotlight some folks but 3 segments in a RAW showing multiple wrestlers would have been better.
I was kind of okay with the cheesiness of it all until the force pull on the turkey leg.

8) Greatest In Ring Match Ever

For me this came nowhere close. I marked out for nothing. Not sure the running time but they laid around or were in rest holds in felt like for 3/4 the match. Sometimes the clashes worked as to why they were laid out. The story telling was fine but not the match I expected or wanted when thinking 'greatest ever'.
The weird crowd noise didn't help and at least they got rid of some the extra camera work they played with at the beginning of the match.
WWE crowd noise editors need to watch some Australian football. It returned this week and they seem to pipe crowd noise into the announcer feed with some added stuff from the crowd sitting in the owner boxes. Though with the issue of actually having onlookers on cam through out a show it is bit harder to do unlike a huge empty arena.

In the end this was a strong episode of RAW where the good outweighed the bad. Think I preferred NXT In Your House and don't mind the week between Takeover's and main roster ppv.

2:19 AM  
Blogger gordi said...

You got a legit laugh out of me with that main event bit. Nicely done.

9:20 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home