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Just nine days on from the Greatest Royal Rumble, WWE fans have another PPV to look forward to this Sunday when the dual-brand Backlash event takes place in Newark, New Jersey.
Eight matches have been announced for the show, including AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (WWE Championship), Seth Rollins vs. The Miz (Intercontinental Championship) and Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton (United States Championship).
Both women’s titles will also be on the line, with Nia Jax defending the Raw Women’s Championship against Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair challenging Carmella for the SmackDown Women’s Championship.
Elsewhere on the card, Raw Superstar Roman Reigns takes on SmackDown Live Superstar Samoa Joe, Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley team up against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, and Big Cass faces Daniel Bryan.
In this article, let’s try to predict the outcome of each match.
#1 Seth Rollins (c) vs. The Miz (Intercontinental Championship)
The Miz will equal Chris Jericho’s record of nine Intercontinental Championships one day, but can anyone really see it happening at Backlash?
“The A-Lister” has a ready-made non-title rivalry with Daniel Bryan waiting for him on SmackDown Live after Sunday’s match, so the chances of him regaining his beloved title are slim-to-none.
Besides, a victory for Miz (a SmackDown Superstar) over Seth Rollins (a Raw Superstar) would cause all kinds of chaos with the title situations on both brands, so expect Rollins to win this in a Match of the Night contender.
Prediction: Seth Rollins
#2 Nia Jax (c) vs. Alexa Bliss (Raw Women's Championship)
Alexa Bliss held the Raw Women’s Championship for 47 out of 48 weeks between April 2017 and April 2018, while Nia Jax has been champion for just four weeks and she’s yet to defend the title on television.
Nia’s title reign is only just getting started and, barring a miracle, she’ll defeat her former best friend in convincing fashion at Backlash before moving on to feud with someone new.
After this week’s Raw, there’s also a chance that Ronda Rousey and Natalya could appear to counter potential interference from Mickie James.
Prediction: Nia Jax
#3 Jeff Hardy (c) vs. Randy Orton (United States Championship)
Jeff Hardy only won the United States Championship from Jinder Mahal three weeks ago but, given the astonishing amount of times the title has changed hands over the last year (12 times in 12 months), it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see Randy Orton reclaim it at Backlash.
This is a tough one to call, not just because of the multiple title changes but also because it’s difficult to see either guy losing.
Assuming the match gets a clean winner and Shelton Benjamin doesn’t get involved and ruin the outcome, let’s go for Jeff.
Prediction: Jeff Hardy
#4 Carmella (c) vs. Charlotte Flair (SmackDown Women’s Championship)
As we outlined in an earlier article looking at five possible finishes to Carmella vs. Charlotte Flair, we’re bound to see The IIconics, Becky Lynch and Asuka get involved at some point in this SmackDown Women’s Championship match.
The title storyline largely centres around Billie Kay and Peyton Royce, who helped Carmella defeat Charlotte for the gold last month, while Becky and Asuka have both sided with “The Queen” in the rivalry.
For the simple reason that Carmella has only just become the champion, let’s predict that the heels will come out on top with Billie and Peyton helping the 2017 Money In The Bank winner defeat Charlotte once again.
Prediction: Carmella
#5 Braun Strowman & Bobby Lashley vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
With no Raw or SmackDown Tag Team Championships on the line at Backlash, one imagines this largely meaningless tag match between Braun Strowman & Bobby Lashley and Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn has only been added to the card so it can kick-start a more important storyline for further down the line.
Will Owens and Zayn fall out yet again? Will Lashley turn heel and attack Strowman? Will somebody interfere and cause a disqualification?
This match feels utterly pointless, in all honesty, but because it’s difficult to see either Strowman or Lashley losing any time soon, let’s go for them.
Prediction: Braun Strowman & Bobby Lashley
#6 Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass
This match could go either way. It really depends on whether WWE feels Big Cass has been elevated enough simply by being in a storyline with Daniel Bryan, or whether they want to solidify him as one of SmackDown Live’s top heels by having him pick up a huge statement win at Backlash.
It’s pretty clear that D-Bry will feud with The Miz in the coming months. So, with Miz also on the card this Sunday, there’s every chance that he could appear during Bryan vs. Cass to cost his rival from getting the win.
After all, a loss in this match wouldn’t hurt Bryan but it would definitely hurt Cass, so let’s go with the 7-footer.
Prediction: Big Cass
#7 Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe
Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe was thrown together for Backlash before the Superstar Shake-Up and now feels totally meaningless after Reigns stayed on Raw and Joe was drafted to SmackDown Live.
The whole point of the separate brands and rosters is to keep Raw and SmackDown Superstars apart, so having two top stars from each brand face each other in a PPV match for no reason defeats the purpose of having a Shake-Up.
As for the match outcome, “The Destroyer” needs to be seen as a legitimate threat to the WWE Championship if, as promised, he’s going to target AJ Styles and/or Shinsuke Nakamura after Backlash, so let’s boldly predict that he’ll pick up a rare clean victory over Reigns.
Prediction: Samoa Joe
#8 AJ Styles (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (WWE Championship)
Shinsuke Nakamura has failed to win the WWE Championship at four PPV events in the last eight months – losing twice to Jinder Mahal and twice to AJ Styles – so you get the feeling that this will be his last opportunity at the title if he fails to win on Sunday.
The match has extra intrigue surrounding it following Paige’s announcement that it will carry a No Disqualification stipulation, which opens up the possibility of interference from other roster members.
We previously alluded to The Club possibly interfering in the match to help Nakamura, not Styles, walk away with the title – and we still think it might happen. Let’s go for Nakamura, courtesy of the Good (Bad) Brothers.
Prediction: Shinsuke Nakamura
