WWE Backlash: St. Louis Review

WWE United States Championship - Jacob Fatu vs LA Knight vs Drew McIntyre vs Damian Priest 

Right off the bat with the match of the night. This match was absolutely incredible. Just like the Fatal Four Way at WrestleMania 41 for the Intercontinental Championship, these four men worked really well together. There wer plenty of creative spots here, like Drew McIntyre claymoring Damian Priest into a pinfall. The surprise debut of Jeff Cobb at the end was just the cherry on top of an incredible outing.

★★★★★

WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship - Lyra Valkyria vs Becky Lynch 

This was such a competitive match between these two, with Becky being an effective heel against the scrappy baby face Lyra Valkyria. This was seriously a star making performance for Lyra. She's had great matches on the main roster before this, but all she needed was a great storyline to sink her teeth into, and this was it. The ending was kind of abrupt though, but the commentary team did a good job of covering for it.

★★★★

WWE Intercontinental Championship - Dominik Mysterio vs Penta

This was an alright match, but with the shmoz ending, it really felt like a match that would take place on Raw. This was unexpectedly a great showing for Dominik, pulling out some stunning spots against Penta, like the Topé DDT. But as said, the interference really took a lot out of this match. I'm sure that it was to protect Penta for a future rematch, but it still came off as cheap.

★★★½

Gunther vs Pat McAfee 

This match was surprisingly better than I was expecting going in. Sure, it's not a five star barn-burner masterpiece, but Pat McAfee put up a better fight than one would assume. This match told a pretty compelling story throughout with Gunther playing with his food, trying to teach the commentators a lesson, but in the process Pat earning Gunther's respect because of how resilient he was. Kudos.

★★★½

Undisputed WWE Championship - John Cena vs Randy Orton

How was this a better match than the one against Cody at WrestleMania? Despite being their 22nd fighting each other in a singles match, none of the action felt stale or boring at all. This was actually quite entertaining, while also playing into John Cena's current gimmick of giving the audience nothing. R-Truth interfering instead of Travis Scott was an infinitely better decision, and might lead to some matches down the line.

★★★★

PPV Grade:

Match Quality: 80/100
Show Structure: 90/100 
Atmosphere: 90/100
Story: 91/100
Production: 80/100

Overall: B (86/100)

Despite one slump, this managed to be a really entertaining night of wrestling. This somehow was better than both nights of WrestleMania this year, while also furthering storylines for matches in the future. I'm really curious how Jeff Cobb is going to be incorporated into the Bloodline, because he isn't Samoan, he's Filipino. Will this cause a further divide between Jacob Fatu and Solo Sikoa? John Cena attacking R-Truth after the show was really interesting, and might lead to something in the future.

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