5 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE WrestleMania Backlash 2022

2. A Secondary Show At Best

As much grief and as many jokes as we can lob at WWE for extending the “WrestleMania” branding to numerous other events, it’s at least understandable. WrestleMania is a bona fide draw, an attraction, so maybe adding it to episodes of Raw and SmackDown and the follow-up PLE isn’t a bad idea.

However, this has to be the lamest Premium Live Event with “WrestleMania” in the title ever. Six matches, four of which are rematches, only one title match. They unified the two world titles into one, then stuck this new super-world champion into a six-man tag match with the tag champs from each brand – and they scrubbed a tag title unification match in the process.

The secondary champs were nowhere to be seen, and the new Raw Women’s Champion, a woman who could anchor your division for years, was absent. Then, you brought back a former champ to rival the woman who’s been the face of the division for years, and their feud appears to be a slow build. Not even a tag match involving them to whet fans’ appetite.

All of this points to WWE not caring about Backlash as a show in terms of significance or enticement. They slapped “WrestleMania” onto it, developed an underwhelming card and decided that was more than enough. Pathetic.