WWE Backlash France (5.4.24) 

 

May 4, 2024 

 

We’re in Lyon, France! For a PPV and everything! Michael Cole has to explain where it is because it’s not Paris. Honestly though, a great call. Go to areas that don’t get big shows very often and get that fired up crowd.  

 

Kevin Owens & Randy Orton vs. The Bloodline 

Nice to see the Bloodline, sans Roman, relegated to the opening match. Their new music is SHIT. Paul Heyman looks embarrassed to be out there, repping jobbers. Neither guy would be anywhere near PPV if they weren’t related to Roman Reigns. Solo’s best spot is standing in the background looking tough. No one wants to see him wrestle, surely? WWE do one of these weird ‘pull apart’ brawls. It’s a match, just let them fight. Nick Aldis arrives to make it a street fight and the crowd is MOLTEN. 

 

French football supporters are all completely insane, so it doesn’t surprise me that they have an incredible passion for wrestling too. The match feels like an extended squash as neither of the Bloodline feel like they’re on the same level. They just hit each other with plunder but every single shot is greeted by an enormous pop. Hearing Michael Cole list off stuff like “NEVER Openweight champion” is weird, although not as weird as his pronunciation of “Shinto”. That’s Shingo, mate. Don’t pretend you watched New Japan. 

Tama is so bad. I don’t know why they felt the need to sign him. Just let the Bloodline angle end instead. Get something else going. Why do all people of the same race need to be lumped together Paul? I thought Corey was calling Tama “the NFT”. Turns out it’s MFT but NFT would be appropriate because they’re shit too. Speaking of shit; Tanga Loa got signed too!! Haha. Maybe the worst worker in the world. An absolute fraud, stealing a living. Spike finishes Owens. This was very, very, very long. To be positive; the crowd was unreal here. I can’t imagine getting this excited about a match like this. 

 

Post Match: Paul Heyman looks all scared that the Bloodline is out of control. I’d be scared if I had to cut promos talking about how good Tanga Loa is too. Whatever they’re paying Paul Heyman, it’s not enough.  

 

WWE Women’s Championship 

Bayley (c) vs. Naomi vs. Tiffany Stratton 

We are close to Tiffy Time. One of the few talents to come out of the PC in recent years. The crowd continues to be immense here. I refuse to believe there’s an audience anywhere else in the world this happy to see Naomi.  

After a tentative three-way starting sequence the crowd goes NUTS. What the fuck? Bayley is one of those people who can’t hide how happy she is about crowd reactions and that’s true here. Three-ways are hard. They can be great but putting them together is tough. The crowds near fall reactions are so good, I’d love to see a fast paced near falls sequence just to see how it pops off.  

 

This might be the loudest crowd response to a middling half-paced match I’ve ever seen. They don’t have any chemistry and any time they attempt anything that involves timing, it doesn’t work. The one exception is Stratton pointing out it’s “Tiffy time” and Bayley hitting her with a half-paced tope. The rest of the time someone is waiting around, or someone isn’t where they’re supposed to be.  

 

The execution is so off on almost every big spot. Either because of poor positioning or bad bumps. The match dramatically improves when they leave it to Bayley vs. Naomi but it’s only for mere moments at the finish where Bayley gets the pin. I like Tiffany Stratton, a lot, but she needs house show reps against good workers to build up her skills and get the others used to her. She seemed so off the pace of everything here. It’s a shame because the crowd was so hot, and Bayley and Naomi probably could have blown them away here.  

 

WWE World (Fake) Championship 

Damien Priest (c) vs. Jey Uso  

Midcard Jey Uso out here to do another boring midcard job. He should be begging to get put back in the Bloodline. Uso gets a cool entrance here, leading the crowd in some #scenes. True story; Jey Uso’s main event push is what turned me off WWE last year and why I bailed on Summerslam.  

Damien Priest is fine. I don’t see him as a world champion and him fulfilling his potential at age 42 is indicative of how WWE is afraid to push people until they’ve been in ‘the system’ for years. He signed for WWE in 2018.  

 

This is another half speed nothing match, which the crowd go wild for. This screams “HOUSE SHOW MATCH”. There’s no effort. There’s no intensity. It doesn’t feel important in the slightest. The only serviceable thing about it is the issue between Priest and JD McDonut and his massive head. Finn Balor gets treated like a complete joke during his run-in.  

 

Just as I’ve written the match off, they swerve off into doing stupid head shots with accompanied thigh slaps. The best part of the match is a huge sign in the crowd that reads; “BRING BACK HEEL DOINK”. I totally agree. Great take. Ugly chokeslam off the ropes finishes. Awful match. Just a bunch of shitty spammed moves.  

 

Post Match: Priest has some issues with the Irish lads. Priest always struck me as a bodyguard type for one of the smaller guys, like Diesel in the early 90s. He doesn’t have the charisma to lead a faction. Rhea Ripley is the real star of Judgment Day.  

 

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship 

Kabuki Warriors (c) vs. Bianca Bellair & Jade Cargill  

This is the kind of company that will help Jade get better but, in all honesty, I would not have her in anything approaching a long match yet. The sensible approach here would be to have Bianca in there for the bulk of it.  

Asuka and Kairi are a good team, but I can’t help but feel sticking them together with Io was a mistake. Surely you want all your best talent wrestling each other. Not in the same stable. It’s like when WWE chucked Taka Michinoku in with all the other Japanese lads in Kaientai.  

 

The match feels odd with the Kabuki Warriors isolating and working heat on Bianca. I get they need to get to the ‘hot tag’ on Jade and keep her on the apron but there are ways and means. Kairi is the best bumper in the match and you’re losing all that. Jade’s ability to work a match is highly dubious. She’s there just watching for stuff and can’t bump for shit. All she can do is hit big power moves. 

 

Then the match just completely falls apart. Jade gets lost and the two Japanese take it in turns to try and fix it. You can see Bianca desperately trying to get messages to Jade to try and get it back on track. I know Jade isn’t a celebrity but until she gets this herself, they need to give her the Logan Paul/Ronda Rousey treatment. The way she gets Kairi up for Jaded is AWESOME. That raw power is so good. She needs guidance and can’t be happy with the bulk of her performance here.  

 

“It wasn’t pretty at points” – Corey Graves. That’s WWE standard speak for “it was a fucking mess”.  

 

Sidenote: at what point did WWE ruin all their entrance music? It’s all shit suddenly. The ones they’ve left are the ones the crowd react to like Orton and Cody.  

 

WWE Universal Championship 

Cody Rhodes (c) vs. AJ Styles 

AJ is an excellent choice as first contender for Cody. He’s a great wrestler and his baseline is incredible, providing booking doesn’t get in the way. That said, it’s been a long time since he had an absolute banger. The undercard has been so underwhelming that this should stand out, regardless.  

As for Cody himself, it’s been a while since WWE pulled the trigger on the right guy at the right time. It feels so natural. Their main event scene has felt forced for ages. The crowd helps again here. Singing “phenomenal” at AJ and singing a whole verse of Cody’s music after they’ve turned it off. The AJ stuff is especially cool because the whole building is moving. The camera is wobbling!  

They do some perfunctory standing switches and Cody does some ‘storytelling’. My biggest issue with Cody is that he has a certain style of work that’s more sportz entertainment than pro-wrestling. For someone who ‘loves’ pro-wrestling, you’d expect him to do more of it. AJ is a better worker, with better ideas.  

 

Sadly, old man AJ can’t go like he used to. The result is a cumbersome, overlong match with a lot of filler. The execution doesn’t work on a lot of the bigger spots, most of which is on Cody. They do get to the announce table spot organically, which is good, although it’s generic having a table spot in every WWE main event.  

 

They do some parity stuff, which is late in the day to remind people of it but the execution on this is at least good. AJ’s springboard 450 looks cool but the “Burning Hammer” that follows is nothing of the sort. Cody kicking out of one is particularly insulting but the bump itself was already way safe compared to a normal Burning Hammer.  

 

They start getting a bit ambitious and Cody does a double springboard Cody Cutter. Cross Rhodes finishes right afterwards. This was decent and clearly the best match on the show, by a distance. ***¼  

 

The 411: 

Great crowd, weak wrestling. Generally, the WWE goes into hibernation after Mania and, except for the main event, everyone was sleepwalking around a European tour here. Credit to the Lyon crowd for staying with it and it probably helped being the first PPV in France.