Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of Triple Threat from Smark Out Moment, where three of us get together to discuss three questions based on one big topic going down in the week of professional wrestling.

This week, Dallas Allsopp, Ben Guest and Ben Williams will be reviewing Backlash 2020.

Backlash was quite the intriguing event, with the show focusing on the greatest wrestling match ever between Edge and Randy Orton. Did their match live up to the hype? Was it the right decision for Bayley and Sasha Banks to retain the Women's Tag Team Championship? And is Apollo Crews the right man to hold the United States Championship?


ALLSOPP: As much as they are two of the most talented wrestlers in WWE’s women’s division, they should not be holding the belts unless they are going on an extended run with them. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross feel like the rightful owners, but Bayley and Sasha Banks are perhaps capable of putting on better matches. I still hope they will break up and feud over the SmackDown Women’s Championship, although this needs to be further down the line in order to protect the prestige of the Women’s Tag Team Championship.

GUEST: I like all three teams involved in this match and think they could have all created unique storylines going forward. With Sasha Banks and Bayley, I think tension will keep building between them, probably resulting in Banks inadvertently costing Bayley the SmackDown Women’s Championship, or perhaps a triple threat match where Banks wins the title by pinning whoever the third person is, leading to a bust-up. Either way, I like when a team of heels implode, with both fighting for their own good rather than the benefit of the team, and I think this is the direction we’re heading in.

WILLIAMS: Whilst it’s clear WWE need to build more women’s tag teams up as they currently have 3 active teams on the main roster, I’m okay with Sasha Banks and Bayley as Champions. With Banks and Bayley as Champions, we have the best chance of getting great wrestling matches from other teams due to their experience, and they definitely add prestige to the belts. I honestly think WWE wants to have the eventual Banks vs Bayley match in front of a crowd, therefore this has been a smart way to delay the story until that point.


GUEST: We might finally be about to see the Apollo Crews we all wanted when he came to the main roster. I enjoyed this match a lot, but the match in which Crews won the belt was better. I don’t trust WWE with long term, consistent booking anymore, but Apollo Crews is certainly capable of keeping the belt for a while.

WILLIAMS: Apollo Crews does absolutely nothing for me. He has zero personality or charisma and really lacks that star quality that it takes to be a big name in WWE. Look at Andrade, the former champion. He oozes charisma and is a great wrestler, and unless Crews can get himself a mouthpiece soon, I can’t see this title reign lasting particularly long.

ALLSOPP: This was a thoroughly enjoyable contest, however the match in which Apollo Crews captured the United States Championship, for me, is the better match. Their Backlash match felt predictable, which affected the overall quality. I genuinely believe that Crews is on the verge of big things in WWE, but that comes with a caveat. If he was a Paul Heyman guy, this could be an issue considering the reshuffle on the writing team. If he was pushed at the whim of Vince McMahon, he should be in store for a very entertaining and dominant run with the belt.


WILLIAMS: The greatest wrestling match ever was a good match, and it was definitely an improvement on their 7 hour WrestleMania 36 match. Both men are talented performers, so it’s easy to see why they’d have good chemistry together given their history. In terms of Orton’s next feud, all signs seem to be pointing to a Drew McIntyre SummerSlam feud, and if Orton is going to be as switched on as he was at Backlash, I’m all for seeing that match on a big stage.

ALLSOPP: It absolutely surpassed all expectations. It may not have been the greatest wrestling match ever, but it was certainly entertaining. It’s a shame to hear Edge is potentially out for 8 months, but there is no doubt he will come back stronger. As for Randy Orton, I feel he will be the next challenger to Drew McIntyre, as he can give McIntyre’s reign a shed more credibility. Whatever happens, he can at least be safe in the knowledge that he put on one of the best WWE matches in the history of Backlash.

GUEST: A match billed as the best ever is always doomed to fail, and I genuinely thought Randy Orton was going to do something to end it in 5 minutes, or purposefully make it slow and boring. But this was a genuinely great contest which is easily a contender for match of the year, although it’s not the best match of all time. It was entertaining for the entire 45 minutes, and even had a shock finish. As for Orton’s next feud, if this match supposedly made him the best ever, then surely he has to challenge for the WWE Championship.