3 controversial booking decisions at Backlash and why they were justified

#2 Roman Reigns vs Samoa Joe ends the show

To be honest, I was as surprised as the next person when the AJ Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura vignette started playing with two more matches left on the card.

It is a WWE Championship match, after all, that too with an added No DQ stipulation so why shouldn't it have gone on last?

But as soon as the match ended, the answer was clear. The WWE had taken the decision to end the match in a no contest, and it is never a wise decision to end a PPV with an inconclusive result-- which explains why Reigns vs Joe closed the show.

Another reason could be to keep the spotlight firmly on Roman Reigns regardless of whether or not the fans are interested in him and going on to establish that The Big Dog is indeed more important than any World Championship.

I, personally, would like to believe the first of the two options as the second one, if true, will go to show the unwillingness of WWE creative to pay heed to what the "WWE Universe" actually wants.

About the author

Shiven Sachdeva is a WWE writer who has been with Sportskeeda for over eight years. He is an alumnus of IIT-R and holds a Master's Degree in Commerce. His love for writing and pro wrestling led him to become a writer. Shiven has interviewed multiple top WWE stars, including former champions Kofi Kingston, Becky Lynch, and Seth Rollins, to name a few.

Shiven thoroughly researches the news and stories and enjoys reporting roundups and news to help give his audience an accurate view of all the important happenings in the world of pro wrestling. He has one of the highest average reads on the website and holds the distinction of garnering a 100M reads in under 2000 articles.

Two of his favorite WWE Superstars are Shawn Michaels and Drew McIntyre. If he could go back to the Attitude Era, Shiven asserts that he would reinstate Michaels as the leader of DX instead of Triple H.

Shiven also enjoys watching and taking part in Theatre in his free time.

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Edited by Shiven Sachdeva