Posted in: Movies, Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: Backlash, chicago, NXT, NXT Takeover, wwe

Who Did It Better? WWE's Backlash vs. NXT Takeover: Chicago

Hey there, kids! We're going to get into spoilers for two PPV events that happened over the weekend: NXT's Takeover: Chicago and WWE's Backlash. If you somehow haven't seen it or didn't read result yet, you should turn away and come back after you've properly watched them both. Here's a photo of Tyler Breeze dressed as a grandma to keep you safe before scrolling down.

THE STATS

NXT Takeover: Chicago: Three and a half hours (with pre-show), five matches, four title defenses, one title change.
WWE: Backlash: Four hours (with pre-show), eight matches, three title defenses, one title change.

Weighing up both events, Backlash had a bigger card, but quantity doesn't always mean quality. We're going to break down both events by comparing what got's put into each classified spot, as well as discussing what's leftover. And there's no better spot to star than…

THE KICKOFF

NXT: Eric Young vs. Roderick Strong
WWE: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Dolph Ziggler

Both of these matches were a good choice to kick off the night. NXT has got a future champion in Roddy, while the fan support behind Nakamura is still on a roll. Young and Strong had an amazing showing, but the match was hampered by the fact that it was 3-on-1 with Dain and Wolf playing outside interference, and Young still lost even with a numbers game behind him. While on paper it looks awesome as Strong overcoming the odds, it makes Sanity look like chumps after their gang mentality has been built up for months as being a dominant force in their matches. It wasn't bad, it just leaves the casual fan wondering how they couldn't cheat a victory. The remaining members should have been sent back to the locker room and then come back out as Roddy ran away with the win.

Meanwhile, we got the shortest entrance of Nakamura's time on the roster since his NXT debut going up against the bump king himself, Ziggler. Say what you will about Ziggler's character running on fumes, he knows how to make his opponents look even more amazing than they already are. WWE did well by putting the most over guy on the brand on first to quell whatever rowdy chants the Chicago crowd may have had. These two worked their asses off to make the other look great, especially Dolph selling the strong style tactics like he was being whipped by a belt. You knew what the outcome was going to be because there was no way in hell in Chicago of all places that Nakamura was going to lose in his debut match. But they made it feel like there was a chance of Ziggler walking away with a cheap win.

We give the first win to Backlash.

MATCH OF THE NIGHT

NXT: Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate
WWE: Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles

So let's start this off by saying that AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens is Fantasy Booking 101. Sure, it's happened at house shows and in ROH a few times while Styles was IWGP champion, but as we all know, that stuff doesn't exist to WWE unless it helps them. These two guys had the match of the night that got people out of their seats after some lackluster stuff before it (which we'll talk about shortly). The psychology of making AJ's leg a factor and taking away half of his game while still being a contender was just solid, even when he pulled off moves like the suplex on the ring apron. The finish isn't anything to write home about, but it sets up Ownes as a cheap shot heel on the run with AJ looking for revenge, and I can live with that.

However, it pales in comparison to what Dunne and Bate did for the UK Championship. If there was ever a doubt in the fans eyes over the UK wrestling picture, it's probably been killed off after this match. Nevermind the spectacular commentary with McGuinness and J.R., this was a knock-down-drag-out kind of brawler that you'd expect to see Owens and Zayn do on a moment's notice. Bate is as over of a babyface as you can get from the UK performers, and Dunne is basically a younger William Regal with a vicious side, all the way down to the hair and the color of tights. If WWE doesn't take advantage of that and do an "I learned from watching you" kind of theme with Dunne and Regal, they're missing out on a great story. Half the spots in this match got a crowd reaction you'd expect if Styles and Nakamura were battling—everyone was popping, chanting, counting with some respect instead of just shouting "10" all the time. They popped for a helicopter spin! Everyone is already screaming "match of the year," or at least MOTY for WWE since people seem to have already forgotten about Omega and Okada. Compared to everything else this weekend, this one was the best.

NXT wins this one, hands down.

THE WOMEN'S MATCH

NXT: Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross vs. Asuka
WWE: Charlotte, Naomi, and Becky Lynch vs. Natalya, Tamina, and Carmella

So this one is a little harder to judge because I feel as if both had great possibilities going in and we ended up getting finishes I didn't care for. First off, NXT's triple threat was great up to a point. I adore Nikki Cross being batshit crazy and smiling at every turn because she gets to inflict pain on people (especially when she went off on Asuka after tying her up in the ring apron). Ruby Riot makes for a great punk rock girl who can give a beatdown, the crowd is behind her all the way and her move set is one of the best in the division. Those two play well with each other. However, losing Ember Moon to injury made Asuka feel like the odd woman out, because as great as the other two are, you knew Asuka wasn't losing that belt. And sadly, after all the great work they did to make that match exciting, NXT couldn't have sent that message home harder than having Asuka pin them both at once after Riot hit her kick on Nikki and Asuka took out Riot. Now, both women feel like blips on the radar as Asuka beat two women at the same time, and we're just waiting for Asuka and Ember in Brooklyn. It was an unnecessary finish to a fine match and hurt two great women at the same time.

Meanwhile, you have a six-woman tag team match at Backlash featuring a weird combination of talent. Honestly, this should have been two matches: a tag-team match on the pre-show, and a Women's Championship match on the main card. Put whatever combo of talent you wish together for those, it would have worked better than this. I'm not saying the match was bad, but it just felt like nothing was at stake here besides one set of women having issues with another set of women. Plus, we didn't see Charlotte confirm her face status or turn heel on her team, or have any kind of reaction at all beyond just being a wrestler, so we're still in the dark as to where she stands. You'd think she would have kicked Becky in the face for tapping out, and maybe that's coming on Tuesday. But the match did nothing to advance anyone in any direction.

It's hard to pick considering both outcomes, but I have to give the nod to NXT for the better effort.

WHAT REMAINS

NXT: Hideo Itami vs. Bobby Roode
WWE:  Jimmy and Jey Uso vs. Tyler Breeze and Fandango, Baron Corbin vs. Sami Zayn, Erick Rowan vs. Luke Harper

So this is a weird thing to talk about on two levels. First, we're comparing one match against three, so not exactly fair play, but those three have some issues. Second, NXT relegated their Championship match to second to last on the card, obviously for the big setup that's to come, but they ended up stamping Roode's ticket to win before the match even started. If you're crowning a new champ in Itami, you're not doing it before a tag match. So as cool as it is to see this match, the company took the steam out of it simply because of placement. Which is a shame because it isn't a bad match, it just got the raw end of the deal.

As for Backlash, the minute you saw Tyler Breeze dressed at the janitor from Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video, you knew they weren't winning the belts. And there was absolutely nothing WWE could have done to make me care about Rowan and Harper fighting, as it looked like a steampunk fan was battling a taller and quieter Dean Ambrose. The one saving grace from the remaining matches was Corbin and Zayn, who played up the "dominant heel kicks your ass until the end when you come back" routine to perfection. It was actually better than I expected, and it makes me wish they were both fighting for gold instead of pride, or respect, or whatever the hell this one was started over. Honestly, I forgot, that's how much work WWE put into that one. Give one of these two that U.S. title or MITB, and soon.

We'll give the nudge to Backlash since Zayn and Corbin made it more interesting and less predictable than Itami and Roode.

THE MAIN EVENT

NXT: #DIY vs. The Authors of Pain
WWE: Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal

Ooooofff. So hard to choose on this one. We don't get one, but two main events with a twist ending! We won't get all in-depth about it so we'll just cut to the good stuff. First, the tag match was excellent as #DIY basically carried two bulls through the match to make them look dominant. Then, Tommaso Ciampa turned on Johnny Gargano in spades after losing. It's the first time we've seen this kind of breakup since The Shield, and the most powerful one I can remember since The Rockers, and that's saying a lot. Ciampa looked both relieved and distraught over his decision, and that's going to be a hell of a story to tell in Brooklyn if they pull the trigger by then. Honestly, you could milk this one until Wrestlemania and send both men up at the same time to different brands. Maybe throw in a new secondary title for them to fight over as well? Please, Hunter?

Then you get the ultimate surprise at Backlash: they actually put the belt on Mahal! The minute that three-count hit, you could see the fans be confused as hell on how to react. Reports were coming out that Orton was going to get a Reigns-like match where he gets beat down and comes back looking stronger than ever. So even the hardcore fans had to be surprised when the change happened. Watching the Singh Brothers take those bumps on the table even made Orton cringe, and he's a guy who's had his rotator cuff broken on live TV. But it ultimately proves that WWE does do "what's best for business," and right now, what's best is to break into that India market and hope you get even a fraction of a fraction of that 1.3 billion population to buy their network.

I'm giving this one to NXT, because the breakup had been teased before but never came, so to see it happen now is shocking and exciting. Especially when people cared so much about that team, to the point where for the first time in years, the crowd chanted "asshole" at someone, along with "fuck you Ciampa." The company just made a license to print money with both men for years to come, if they don't rip it up first.

OVERALL: NXT Wins

You can give WWE all the credit in the world for making Mahal a champion and taking the risk, but there's no way you can compare Backlash to Takeover. Takeover's talent was superb and motivated a lot of storylines going forward, even with some bad finishes. Whereas Backlash felt like a comment on the status quo of Smackdown with a slight change in direction at the end. What's more, I actually cared about what happened on Takeover in every match, but you could have cut three matches from Backlash as well as the pre-show and I wouldn't have noticed since they won't change anything come Tuesday. Smackdown may be the better brand on TV at the moment, but NXT is better at delivering quality PPVs and stories, and they're still just relegated to the network.

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