7 things WWE subtly told us at Backlash 2020: Huge break-up expected, Randy Orton takes a big shot at NXT against Edge (June 14th, 2020)

Welcome to this edition of things WWE subtly told us at Backlash 2020. It was certainly an interesting PPV. The overall quality was good, albeit a little predictable. There were a lot of fun segments too and it's going to be fun to see how WWE decides to build to the next big PPV - Extreme Rules 2020.

It'll be the final PPV stop before SummerSlam 2020 as well. As you know, Backlash 2020 was headlined by "The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever" between Edge and Randy Orton. Of course, it wasn't the best wrestling match ever. We could argue that it wasn't even the best match of the night. Let's start with the match we considered to be the best of the night:

#7. The end of a run?

Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley at the beginning of the end

Despite "The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever" main eventing the PPV, we felt that the WWE Championship bout between Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley was the best of the night. They didn't have a big catchphrase to hype up their contest, but as expected, the war between two powerhouses was never going to disappoint.

It started with Bobby Lashley attacking Drew McIntyre from behind and viciously assaulting him before the bell could even ring. McIntyre, being a proud man, decided to continue anyway.

It was a story of Bobby Lashley being dominant on a beaten-down McIntyre and he was coming close to capturing the gold. However, Lana decided to make her presence felt after her altercation with MVP and to nobody's surprise - it ended up costing Lashley the match.

Lashley even bumped into Lana, who fell off the ring onto MVP. While there has been a lot of teasing, we fully expect this to be the end of Lashley's storyline marriage to Lana.

#6. How Randy Orton took a shot at NXT

Since this is the match that all of you probably want to talk about the most, this is the match we'll focus on for now. "The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever" between Edge and Randy Orton is officially in the books and of course, it wasn't the greatest. It wasn't even close to the greatest, but we like that the tagline used by WWE managed to reach so many people that it created a buzz for the match in itself.

While their WWE WrestleMania 36 bout went on for more than 36 minutes, this match would go on for a whopping 44 minutes and 45 seconds. One of the longest PPV matches in recent times, it was also far better than their encounter at WrestleMania.

One of the big flaws of the match wasn't the storytelling, but the fact that they ended up kicking out of many finishes, including the Three Amigos, The Pedigree, The Rock Bottom, and the WWE Superstars own respective finishers as well.

That aside, Orton took a shot at WWE NXT and Tommaso Ciampa following his leg slap finish.

#5. Triumphant, but for how long?

The IIconics try to win the Championships

We'll be the first to admit that our prediction for this match was wrong. The Boss N' Hug connection Sasha Banks and Bayley retained the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships against Alexa Bliss & Bayley and The IIconics.

We felt that the win and the titles were just a storytelling prop between the two and this usually leads to a short title reign. We still expect the titles to be a prop in the bigger story between Sasha Banks and Bayley, but that doesn't mean they can't hold it for that long.

It's clear that WWE is going to eventually build to the Sasha Banks-Bayley match, but some rumors have suggested that having no audience could delay it further. Either way, we still don't expect them to hold the titles for too long. If they end up dominating, Bayley's 2019-2020 run will go down as one of the greatest in the history of the WWE's Women's division.

She already is possibly having one of the greatest runs of any woman in WWE history.

#4. The Hardy-Sheamus story continues

One of the interesting things about the WWE Backlash PPV wasn't just the fact that it was relatively short and crisp - but there weren't many matches that served as the payoff of a rivalry. One such example was the biggest grudge match of the night between Sheamus and Jeff Hardy.

Jeff Hardy won their first encounter in Round One of the WWE Intercontinental Championship tournament, after which Sheamus apparently set up the scene to implicate Hardy in yet another DUI. It backfired on him later that night and would backfire on him on the SmackDown before WWE Backlash, as Hardy splashed urine on his face.

They would come to blows in a physical match-up, where Jeff Hardy's "ring rust" was brought into question. Sheamus ended up beating Hardy, leaving many to question what's next for the WWE legend.

Simply put, we could be set for a trilogy. While the first match wasn't long enough, they had a good singles match at Backlash. We fully expect them to have a rematch, possibly at Extreme Rules 2020.

#3. Apollo Crews moves forward

In a solid but quick kickoff show match, Apollo Crews defeated Andrade to retain the WWE United States Championship. He also happened to beat Andrade to win the title, but thanks to the chaos outside, Crews managed to retain.

His alliance with Kevin Owens has paid dividends as it was the former Universal Champion who prevented Angel Garza from interfering and costing Apollo Crews. If anything, he helped the Champion retain.

With that, it seems as though the Apollo Crews-Andrade feud is officially over. While this may not necessarily mean the end of his involvement with Zelina Vega and her faction on WWE RAW, it appears that Andrade won't be getting another crack at the title.

We'll be interested to see how it all ends up playing out. Kevin Owens seems like a logical next opponent for him, but we wouldn't be surprised to see Angel Garza have a crack at the WWE United States Championship as well.

We feel that Apollo Crews could benefit in a big way from his alliance with Kevin Owens.

#2. A pre-SummerSlam feud for Asuka

While we predicted Asuka winning this one, we can understand the reason behind the finish. WWE probably wants Asuka to have a two-PPV feud before facing an even bigger opponent at SummerSlam 2020.

She faced Nia Jax in one of the marquee matches on the card and it ended with a double count-out. This was perhaps the only match on the card where that finish was acceptable. The indication seems to be clear - they're going to continue their feud for another month.

This means that another clash at WWE Extreme Rules 2020 is inevitable. However, we simply don't see a situation where Asuka loses the title to Nia Jax. While it would bring some shock value, WWE would be better off having Asuka as the Champion heading into SummerSlam. With any given opponent, she's far likelier to have a good match.

But we don't see this feud heading into SummerSlam. It simply appears to be a pre-summer feud and we fully expect Asuka to retain in the coming month or so.

#1. Truly a filler

Was there ever going to be any other outcome?

The moment this match was announced, something didn't feel right. Nothing about it felt like a big feud. Whereas if you look at post-WrestleMania, the first opponent that the WWE Universal Champion, Braun Strowman, had to get through was Bray Wyatt.

John Morrison and The Miz never seemed like legitimate opponents for the WWE Universal Championship and the nature of their feud seemingly proved that. They were pranking Braun Strowman to try to get into his head and at Backlash 2020, it backfired in a big way.

Now, the rules stated that the person to pin Braun Strowman would become the WWE Universal Champion and that there was no concept of co-Champions. This infuriated The Miz, who let his insecurity get the better of him.

Just when Morrison looked like he was going to get the pinfall, The Miz broke it up. While we don't think it'll lead to any cracks in the team going forward, we're a bit disappointed with the way this feud and match played out. It was ultimately nothing but a filler.