5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Backlash 2024 (Results & Review)
Molten French crowd, superb AJ/Cody main event carry mostly middling show.
WWE’s first PLE to emanate from France is in the books, and it can best be described as a supercharged house show with a molten crowd.
That isn’t meant to be a derogatory or demeaning term. House shows can be a lot of fun, and sometimes they are better than anything that’s on television because the wrestlers have more freedom to perform. But the action sometimes is paint-by-numbers and “safe,” and the outcomes are all fairly predictable – no titles are changing hands.
Backlash France relied on a red-hot crowd that was clearly amped to get their first PLE to obscure matches that were mostly average, save for the main event. None of the matches were actively bad, though the women’s tag title match suffered during its middle portion, but other than Cody Rhodes/AJ Styles, nothing will be remembered as a great in-ring performance.
The show suffered from being a B-show with limited matches and a lack of top-tier star power. Last year’s Backlash in Puerto Rico had Bad Bunny, Brock Lesnar, Rhea Ripley and all the LWO surprises. This year had none of that, but did add Jade Cargill.
The crowd reactions and Cody/AJ definitely carried the day, and many will look back on Backlash France as a triumph for those reasons, but few will go back and rewatch this show as a huge in-ring success. Overall, this was a good -- but certainly not great -- show.
Let’s get to it…