WWE WRESTLEMANIA BACKLASH

WWE WRESTLEMANIA BACKLASH 2021

Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley
Most of this was your generic triple-threat action. Mostly a 1-on-1 match with the Rhea parts of it being pretty rough. I didn't care for it much at all, but I did think that Charlotte's double chop-block followed by that double Natural Selection was pretty cool. In general, as usual with matches of this kind, the action got better & better as the match went on, with the last few minutes being legitimately some pretty good stuff. Overall though, this wasn't memorable at all to say the least. Gentleman's **

Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode vs. Dominik & Rey Mysterio
This was some textbook tag team wrestling & a classic Rey Rey performance. He was selling his ass off through the entire thing & was just being the best babyface in peril in general. Absolutely lovely stuff by him, and the Dirty Dawgs were definitely on point as well; I thought that Bobby Roode especially had some awesome moments punishing Rey & cutting off Dom's hot tag run. Epic spinebusters & backbreakers to name a couple of things from the great, fun arsenal he showcased here. Gotta love the feel-good ending to cap this match off too; they told the story extremely well right from the start, and by the end, Dominic coming in & hitting that Frog Splash for the W certainly felt more-than earned. ***3/4

Bobby Lashley vs. Braun Strowman vs. Drew McIntyre
A very solid little big boys 3-way. Kind of a best case scenario for the three men involved you could say, I think. Not all that interesting for all of it, but some hot stretches & cool singular moments. **3/4

Cesaro vs. Roman Reigns
This was great. The first third or so wasn't the most interesting stuff, but once Cesaro's arm becomes THE major focal point of Reigns' onslaught, it gets extremely compelling. Reigns is great at targeting that said arm; loved him talking trash to Daniel Bryan & going to town on that arm total DB style. Good shit. Cesaro's selling was of course tremendous too; really consistent + I loved the way it came into play in a couple of key moments like the Neutralizer try or the pop-up Uppercut attempt. Kinda surprising to see him lose 100% clean like that, but I don't think he came off worse out of it. If anything, he came out even better than he already was, because this was a great match & a great, well deserved showing for the man. ****