We can never “Hinder Jinder” again.
In one of the most unlikely WWE Championship matches in WWE history, we had one of the most unlikely results. Will Mahal’s win work out long-term? I have no idea but you could see and hear the shock in the Chicago crowd on Sunday night. It was a unique but decent night of wrestling and Backlash gave us plenty to talk about.
With all of this in mind, here’s the top five most surprising moments of the WWE Backlash 2017:
#5 Dolph Ziggler Controls the Offence
You have to feel a bit sorry for Dolph. It was quite apparent that he was going to sell for Shinsuke Nakamura’s debut match on main roster pay-per-view and lose yet again. It was the typical pattern for Dolph Ziggler’s career. That was before the match actually happened.
I believe one of the most surprising moments of Backlash was how much offence Ziggler got in. He controlled the match and got most of the near falls in the match. Nakamura got the expected win but the match was really controlled by Ziggler throughout.
It was surprising and a tad disappointing to see Nakamura get in so little of his unique offence at Backlash.
#4 Sami Zayn Wins on PPV
It’s surprising how, but Sami Zayn has quickly become the lovable loser of the WWE. He took beatings from bigger wrestlers like Braun Strowman and Baron Corbin and never gave up, winning clear fan support.
It didn’t really matter that he didn’t usually win, he was the lovable underdog that the fans would always cheer regardless. Then at Backlash, he beat Baron Corbin clean. What just happened?
Baron Corbin seems well on his way to the main event scene and Zayn has been used as a stepping stone repeatedly in the past. So when Zayn actually hit his finisher to get a rare clean pay-per-view win, it was quite surprising, to say the least.
Corbin still seems like a strong contender for Money in the Bank in June but now Zayn looks the more credible threat on the Smackdown brand. That is not a bad thing going forward for the blue brand.
#3 The Welcoming Committee Wins
Many fans will wonder how Tamina Snuka is part of “The Welcoming Committee”. She only recently joined the show in the Superstar Shake-up; shouldn’t the established heels be mad at her, too? Did anyone know Tamina hadn’t been on the show in months? The mystery shall remain, perhaps.
The six women tag match seemed to give us another swerve. The heels had pretty much dominated Naomi, Charlotte and Becky Lynch for the better part of a month. It seemed natural for the faces to actually work together and get the meaningless tag win but “The Welcoming Committee” won.
We wouldn’t have been too surprised if Becky Lynch would have taken the pin but the storyline seemed to be going another way. It is surprising to see Carmella and Natalya actually win a match on a pay-per-view. And to see Charlotte get in so little offence? That is one of the biggest surprises of all.
#2 The finish to the US Title Match
It was not surprising that AJ Styles versus Kevin Owens was the match of the night. They have constantly produced high-quality matches and the match-up is a pretty fresh feud, all things considered. It even made a lot of sense for Owens to defend the title through underhanded means.
But the way it ended is one of the more unique count outs we have ever seen in the WWE.
The match did a good job of having Owens work on Styles’ leg so it made some sense that an unusual incident would end the match. AJ went for a Styles Clash on the announce table and fell into the hole the monitor would have been. As AJ tried to escape, he got caught in some wires in the table.
This allowed the unique count-out ending to occur. Even better, that unique ending allows for a clear rematch at Money in the Bank. That makes it all the better in my mind.
#1 Jinder Mahal wins the WWE Title
As someone who wrote an article about why Jinder shouldn’t have been the number one contender, I really doubted Mahal was actually going to win the WWE Champion. It made more sense for him to get a good rub from fighting the WWE Champion Randy Orton and move into a solid mid-card heel role. Boy, was I ever wrong!
The match was pretty well booked. The crowd enjoyed the story of it and got into Randy Orton beating up the Singh Brothers. This naturally gave a good and logical distraction for Mahal to take advantage of. Mahal would quickly hit his finisher to win the match, and shockingly, the WWE title. Wow.
Is Mahal winning the WWE Championship after years of constant losing a good idea? I have my doubts but it certainly was shocking. It is up to Mahal and the Smackdown writing team to make the very surprising moment worth it in the months to come.
