7 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Backlash 2023 (Review)

1. Better Served As A TV Main Event

Solo Sikoa Jey Uso
WWE.com

The old expression, “a meeting that could have been an email,” applied to the penultimate match on the Backlash card Saturday night.

The Bloodline defeated Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn and Matt Riddle in a six-man tag that was full of “drama” at the hands of Jey Uso and Solo Sikoa as the two brothers openly sparred and jockeyed for superiority during the match. They almost came to blows a couple times, and Solo even started to give Jey the Samoan Spike before restraining himself.

But this internal strife still didn’t prevent the Bloodline from prevailing, as Sikoa spiked Riddle to win the bout. The drama was fine for what it was, but the match itself ground to a halt when they went full melodrama with the Bloodline. This would have been better off as a TV main event on SmackDown, where everything is more sports entertainment than a straight wrestling show.

It also was the quietest match on the night, which is saying a lot when you consider the fans were electric the entire night. They either were worn out from the Bad Bunny/Damian Priest match, or they were just not into this stuff. Either way, the match and the gaga would have worked fine on free TV to advance the storyline.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.