Hello, and welcome to SLTD Wrestling’s Wrestlemania Backlash predictions, today we have @callumowen98 and @MikeJC821, aka The Wrestling Brain and Mouthing Off With Mike JC, who will be running down Sunday Night’s card, and they kick-off with the Lumberjack Match between Damian Priest and The Miz.
Damian Priest Vs The Miz
Lumberjack Match
TWB: I would like to think that this is the last match we will see out of this Priest Vs Miz and Morrison feud, which has gone on since Royal Rumble when the ‘Archer of Infamy’ made his debut. In my opinion, the momentum in this storyline cooled off massively when Bad Bunny left following the Tag Team match at Wrestlemania, and personally, the feud should’ve ended from that point rather than continued.
There have been some signs of dissension between Miz and Morrison in the last few weeks, and I wonder whether there’s a possibility of the duo splitting up, and I think that could happen on Sunday, with it being a Lumberjack Match, I can picture Miz exiting the ring, only for it to be Morrison who throws him back in straight into Priest’s finisher who picks up the win.
Post-match we see Miz hit Morrison with a Skull Crushing Finale which sets up a feud between the two throughout the next few months. As for Priest, I think he’s a favourite for the Money In The Bank, there’s not a lot of names that come to mind who stand out as potential victors, especially from the Raw roster and the briefcase should be used to elevate a new star and I believe Priest could be that guy.
Winner – Damian Priest
MO: I can’t believe this match is happening again, and this time in a Lumberjack match just because it’s Miz and that’s the match he gets put in all the time to prevent him from being a coward who runs away. I’m so tired of Miz as a whole, he’s holding down John Morrison, he’s holding down everyone he works with. His character sucks, he’s annoying in a way that is not good for a heel. I don’t want him on screen at all.
I certainly don’t want him holding down someone like Damian Priest who should have been done with Miz after WrestleMania, instead, we get him losing to Miz in his underwear with his pants down, and him facing a combination of Miz or Morrison every week since WrestleMania. That is inexcusable, Damian Priest needs to win, I’m picking him to win because he needs to be done with Miz and move on from this especially if management is high on him, and losing certainly won’t help that at all.
Winner: Damian Priest
The Dirty Dawgs (Bobby Roode and Dolph Ziggler) Vs Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio
Smackdown Tag Team Championship
TWB: Even though I’m a fan of both Roode and Ziggler, I actually forgot they were Tag Team Champions, and whilst I enjoy Smackdown over Raw, I do feel the tag division doesn’t get enough airtime, which is why I think the titles change hands on Sunday night.
Rey and Dominik Mysterio becoming the first father and son Tag Champions in WWE is clearly something that has been in the works for a while now, and I feel the only reason why it’s taken longer than perhaps expected, is because of Jimmy Uso, and as we saw on Smackdown last week, Jimmy is back and I think it’ll be foolish not to do a Mysterio’s Vs Uso’s rivalry in the very near future.
Winners – Rey and Dominik Mysterio
MO: WWE hasn’t done anything to make this match seem important at all, Rey and Dominik didn’t even do anything to earn a championship match, in fact, they didn’t even interact on TV until two weeks before this show, and instead of building an actual story, they just randomly gave the Mysterio’s a tag title shot and had both of them beat Dolph Ziggler in both Smackdowns before this pay-per-view. WWE (Vince McMahon) doesn’t care about tag titles and it shows by the “build” to this one. I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if the Mysterios won, because why not? There’s really no other explanation than that.
Winner: Rey & Dominik Mysterio
Rhea Ripley (C) Vs Asuka Vs Charlotte Flair
Raw Women’s Championship
TWB: It may be more based on my current apathy towards Raw, but I don’t think Rhea Ripley has set the world alight yet, obviously there’s plenty of time for that to happen, so a dominating performance over two of Raw’s top female stars would do a lot for her progression.
The booking of Asuka in the past 12 months has been infuriating, there was a time where she hadn’t defended the Raw Women’s Title for so long, that the last person to receive a shot was Zelina Vega someone who’d been away from the company for months. I feel it’s time for her to step away from the title scene and possibly even Raw.
As for Charlotte Flair, she always gets heat because of how frequently she is positioned at the top of the women’s division, however, I must say it, Charlotte being added to this match is the best thing possible, Rhea and Asuka haven’t really clicked in any of their singles bouts, so by bringing in Flair I believe will improve the quality of what will go down on Sunday.
Rhea ought to retain, build her up as a solid champion before Becky Lynch returns around Summerslam time to reclaim the title she never lost.
Winner – Rhea Ripley
MO: I have hated the build to this match, absolutely hated it. Rhea gets the belt which I thought was great, however, they immediately made her into a horrible character whose clearly reading her promos, and trying to come off as a heel yet they play cheers for her with their stupid recorded crowd noise. Then she faces Asuka one on one four times since Mania, for no reason, and then gave her a rematch for no reason at all.
Then you have Charlotte, who comes back after missing Mania, and cuts a promo basically saying she’s bigger than the title, I hate that a lot. Then she attacks a referee and she gets “suspended”, gets reinstated a week later just to waste time, then claims she deserves a title shot just because of who she is and bullies the “assistant to the guy running the show” to put her in the title match.
So we have this triple threat, and honestly, this should be an amazing match, the build is just so bad that I have a lot of concerns about it. Rhea should win and probably will. Asuka isn’t winning because she needs to turn things around and feel fresh again because WWE really went out of their way to literally ruin her throughout her title reign. Charlotte doesn’t need the belt, and shouldn’t win it. Rhea should keep it and they should absolutely stop whatever this character is that she’s doing now and let her be the Rhea of NXT that we literally cared about.
Winner: Rhea Ripley
Bianca Belair (C) Vs Bayley
Smackdown Women’s Championship
TWB: As seen in previous matches between these two, they have great chemistry with one another, Belair is coming off a huge win at Wrestlemania where she defeated Sasha Banks in the main event of Night One and became Smackdown Women’s Champion, whilst Bayley is looking to reclaim a title she held for over a year.
It seems to me that it might be coming to the point where Bayley should switch brands, when you think in that period where she was the champion she pretty much defended that title against anyone and everyone, and really there’s no one left on Smackdown that she can face.
I am assuming Belair wins, in a similar vein to Rhea on Raw it’s way too soon to even consider a title change, I’m not so sure of who Bianca can defend against next, however, if let’s say Asuka moves over to Smackdown some point soon, The Empress Vs EST sounds like a very enticing match for Summerslam.
Winner – Bianca Belair
MO: Another title match and another challenger not earning it. They just decided after WrestleMania that Bayley gets a shot for no reason, does she deserve it for what they did to her at WrestleMania, absolutely that was inexcusable, but could have easily had a number one contenders match and had the same exact build, what is so hard about that?
Regardless, I haven’t hated the build to this match because at least they didn’t make them face each other four times before, they faced once in a six-person tag where they weren’t involved in the decision. One thing I’ve loved about this build has been Bayley’s promos, she has been playing mind games with Bianca and taking advantage when the time is right which is what she’s supposed to do and she’s a master at that. Bianca seemed to get under Bayley’s skin when mentioning the stupid Bellas thing at WrestleMania, and Bayley had the best comeback about how she sees the old Bayley in the current Bianca and she plans to end this fairytale reign. I loved that line.
With that said despite me loving Bayley for how good she is at being a heel, she isn’t winning. This is Bianca’s first defense and she couldn’t have a better opponent in my opinion but it’s way too soon to take the belt off of Bianca and she will win here.
Winner: Bianca Belair
Bobby Lashley (C) Vs Drew McIntyre Vs Braun Strowman
WWE Championship
TWB: This is going to be an absolute car crash and only in a good way, I somewhat anticipate that it will be similar to that Summerslam Fatal 4 Way main event from 2017.
I feel Bobby Lashley is being rewarded with a title reign for all the hard work he has put in over the course of his whole career, and I still find it remarkable that this is the same man who a mere 17 months ago was getting married to Lana in that pretty dire angle, he has gone from that to becoming the WWE Champion and the biggest star on Raw, it’s a true testament to how good he’s been since being paired with MVP.
I have mixed feelings about Braun Strowman, Braun from around the summer of 2016 through to summer 2017, was incredible and felt like he was going to be the next big star, from there though it’s just felt that the momentum he’s had, has progressively gone downhill, to the point where I just sometimes groan seeing him on TV.
In my opinion, when you look at the past 12 months, Drew McIntyre has been the most consistent wrestler in WWE, he has held the title for the majority of the pandemic era and even when he hasn’t been champion he’s been in the top storylines on the Raw show, always delivering in his role. I doubt he wins on Sunday, as it feels it’s time for him to take a backseat away from the WWE Championship for a while, but I want him to still be treated as a big deal on whatever brand he is on, as no doubt in the future he will once again be on the top of the tree in WWE.
There’s no incentive in Braun becoming champion, even though he’s looked strong in the last few months, there are too many inconsistencies that have riddled his career, that’ll damage another title run right now.
Lashley should retain, he’s the top guy on the Raw roster, and there’s a whole lot of names that I need to see him go up against whilst he’s got the strap around his waist.
Winner – Bobby Lashley
MO: Another horrible build to a match that should be pretty good. Drew didn’t earn a rematch he was just given one for no reason after losing at Mania. Then they spent weeks just putting him with Braun for no reason, two weeks in a row facing Mace and T-Bar in handicap matches and then teaming up for no reason. Then those two being accused of being part of the Hurt Business and then just disappearing, why?
Then Braun wants a title shot just because, and has to earn it by beating freaking Drew, why? Why does everyone challenging the champion have to lose at all before facing the champion? Then for no reason at all Braun faced Lashley one on one, DQ finish, following week Drew faces Lashley one on one again, DQ finish. Why would you want any of these guys to face each other before the title match at all? Why wouldn’t you want your champion and challengers to be on the winning side to see who the better man is? I know they do this exact thing all the time I just wish it stops one day.
As far as the match, I think the only reason Braun is in this match is to take the pin, the question is by who? Now I could totally see Drew getting the win by pinning Braun to keep his feud with Lashley going because who else is there for the champion to face? If Bobby wins which he totally could, does he just face Drew again anyway, as again who else is there for the champion to face?
To pick a winner I’m gonna pick Drew and he will pin Braun because he will just face Bobby again at the next pay-per-view.
Winner: Drew McIntyre
Roman Reigns (C) Vs Cesaro
WWE Universal Championship Match
TWB: Finally it’s time for the main event, as ‘The Head of the Table’ and ‘The Tribal Chief’ Roman Reigns defends his Universal Title against Cesaro in what has the potential of being an instant classic.
Reigns is coming out of Wrestlemania retaining his title in a triple threat match pinning both Edge and Daniel Bryan, whilst ‘The Swiss Superman’ defeated Seth Rollins during Night One.
Cesaro is clearly long overdue a main event push, he’s been one of the most popular wrestlers in WWE over the last 5 years, and has been one of the best in-ring competitors for a while now. His opponent on Sunday though is Roman Reigns, who ever since his return at last year’s SummerSlam has been the most talked about superstar in WWE and for me has been the best wrestler in the world.
I’d love to see Cesaro become Universal Champion and that hopefully will happen one day, but just not right now. Reigns is the top dog and personally I think he should hold the title all the way up to Wrestlemania 38.
Winner and still Universal Champion – Roman Reigns
MO: Roman Reigns is amazing, he’s amazing at everything. Character work, ring work, facial expressions, tone of voice, everything he does, I love it all. I also love Cesaro, he’s probably the hardest in ring worker of anyone on the entire roster and this match is the reward for that finally being recognised.
Cesaro has deserved this for way too long, and does he deserve to win, absolutely, but he won’t. I loved the story that got us here, Daniel Bryan recognising that Cesaro should be in this spot and wanting him to get his opportunity, not just because Cesaro is his friend but because he recognises hard work and true potential.
Cesaro should have been here five years ago, there’s no arguing that by anyone and if you have an argument to refute it, you’re wrong. Roman being the final boss, godfather-esque character where he knows the show revolves around him and the show goes on because of him and there’s really no argument for that either.
I’ve loved the build to this match, and they sold me a ticket in believing there’s a chance Cesaro can win, but I know he won’t. Roman is too good right now and it’s not the right time, my only hope is Cesaro doesn’t disappear after losing. Keep him on the card every week get him in a feud with someone else keep him relevant and keep him in the conversation to where he can be a champion in the future, because he absolutely should be. Roman wins here, and I’m super excited for this match and it’s the true main event in my eyes and the one highlight for me of the entire build of this show as a whole.
Winner: Roman Reigns
That’s all for our predictions for WrestleMania Backlash, we hope you enjoy the show and don’t forget to follow @SLTDWrestling on Twitter and Instagram, also makes sure you listen to the latest SLTD Wrestling Roundtable were we talk more about WrestleMania Backlash.
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