Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: Backlash, wrestlemania backlash, wrestling, wwe

WWE WrestleMania Backlash Preview: How to Watch, Predictions, More

WWE WrestleMania Backlash takes place tonight, emanating from the WWE Thunderdome inside the Yuengling Center  on the campus of the University of South Florida in Tampa. No live fans will be in the building for Backlash, a contrast from April's WrestleMania, which featured around 20,000 fans each night. The show starts at 7PM Eastern time and will air on Peacock for Peacock Premium subscribers in the United States and on the WWE Network everywhere else. It looks like the show could end nice and early tonight, as there are only six matches booked so far, and none of them are big gimmick matches that will take a long time. Of course, another match or two could always be added before the show.

Here's the full card (as of this time) for WrestleMania Backlash, along with our predictions of who will win each match and why.

WWE Universal Championship Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Cesaro

Come on now. Does anyone really believe Cesaro is going to beat Roman Reigns and win the Universal Championship? Though fans have supported the Swiss Superman for years, it's been clear that WWE doesn't see him as a main event level talent and no amount of wishful thinking by fans is going to change that, even if WWE is hoping you'll buy into the chance for one night only. Cesaro is here to give Reigns someone to beat while WWE figures out who his next challenger will be. Plus, Cesaro has no backup while Reigns has both Usos and Paul Heyman in his corner.

Prediction: Reigns retains

Smackdown Women's Championship Match: Bianca Belair vs. Bayley

This feud has had a pretty weird build, mostly consisting of promos with very little wrestling from either woman. As great as Bayley is, and as criminally underutilized as she's been lately, a win over Belair seems unlikely at this point, with Belair's big push only just beginning.

Prediction: Belair retains

WWE Championship Match: Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Braun Strowman

Bobby Lashley successully defending the WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania was a pleasant surprise back in April, especially since most believed the only reason Lashley won the championship in the first place was so that he could lose it back to McIntyre at WrestleMania, giving McIntyre a chance to get his moment in front of the fans after carrying the belt through most of the empty-arena pandemic era. Lashley's reign has been a much-needed change of pace, and it's also barely getting started. If they didn't give McIntyre the belt back at mania, there's definitely no reason to put it on him now, with no fans in the building, and most fans have come to terms with the fact that Strowman has already peaked and is unlikely to get a push as "the guy" anytime in the near future.

Prediction: Lashley retains

Raw Women's Championship Match: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair

Anyone else get the feeling the only reason Ripley won the championship in the first place was because it wasn't certain whether Flair would be able to make it to WrestleMania or not? So far we've predicted the champion retains in each of the other three top tier title matches, but this one is the most likely to see a title change happen. You should never bet against Charlotte. History will repeat itself for Rhea Ripley.

Prediction: Charlotte wins

Smackdown Tag Team Championship Match: The Dirty Dawgs (c) vs. The Mysterios

Does anyone care about this?

Prediction: who cares?

Lumberjack Match: Damian Priest vs. The Miz

Damian Preist has massive potential as an up-and-coming star. The Miz has been treading water in WWE for a decade. That's not to say that Miz isn't good in his role, but his role is to be a supporting player. Plus, if anything, we're likely to see Miz and Morrison break up and feud with each other soon because they're way past the expiration date for WWE tag teams and Vince McMahon is probably itching like a junkie to break them up already. Maybe we'll see that angle move along during this match.

Prediction: Damian Priest

Bleeding Cool will have live coverage of the matches beginning at 7PM tonight, so check back later if you care enough to want to know who won but don't care enough to spend your Sunday watching, which would be totally understandable given the card and unlikelihood of anything exciting actually happening.

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