10 WWE Backlash 2020 Impulse Reactions

1. The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever?

Rob Gronkowski Mojo Rawley King Corbin
WWE.com

No, of course it wasn't. But it was far from a failure, and that itself needs to be registered as a pretty substantial success.

What else did we learn from this latest bizarre experiment?

The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever actually managed to pull a pay-per-view back from the brink of being an all-time worst, which is perhaps the closest praise could get to such a loftily-raised label. The piped-in crowd noise and other AV effects worked sparingly, but one senses they'll have been deemed productive enough to filter into Raw and SmackDown any day now. Edge's tricep injury might be a nasty one, but time away might allow him to get a proper return run if and when he recovers.

These are not faint praise positives - far from it considering what the two men had to try and live up to here. WWE achieved...something with the Backlash headliner, and not just because it erased a growing stigma about their rank inability to think outside the box. For all the bells and whistles, it was the back-to-basics veneer that helped get this extremely difficult load over the line.

Wrestlers, agents and company should be commended for this. They'd have been eviscerated had it failed.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett