10 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE Backlash 2018

SmackDown Live is consistently presented as the B-show of WWE.

When the company presents a largely inconsequential pay-per-view event like Backlash and still sees fit to put the WWE Championship match third from the top of the card, in order to spotlight Raw's Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns, it only confirms suspicions that the blue brand is inferior to the red one in the eyes of management.

Now factor in Samoa Joe's loss to Reigns in the night's main event and never before has it been more apparent that WWE Creative simply does not invest as much in SmackDown as it does in Raw.

The company had the opportunity to present Styles-Nakamura as the main event match fans deserve from the rivalry and instead, it not only shoved it down the card, it booked an incredibly lame finish that ensures fans of the blue brand will have to watch the two trade low blows for another six weeks before they finally culminate their program in some sort of gimmicky match at Money in the Bank.

As for Joe, it is difficult to take him seriously as a potential number one contender to Styles or Nakamura when he dominated Reigns only to fall to his trademark spear.

On a night where the Raw brand did not have much in the way of anything urgent to present, Backlash should have been a showcase for SmackDown.