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What's the story?
Last night at WWE Backlash, after many weeks of verbal exchanges, Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe went head-to-head in an extremely physical bout, one in which The Big Dog managed to come out on top. After his win, in a backstage interview, Reigns opened up about what the victory over Joe meant to him.
In case you didn’t know…
Roman Reigns was involved in two Universal Championship matches against Brock Lesnar last month, first at WrestleMania 34 and then at the Greatest Royal RUmble event inside a Steel Cage. In a surprising twist, Reigns ended up losing both times.
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On the Raw after WrestleMania, Samoa Joe made his return from injury and immediately challenged Reigns to a match at Backlash, which The Big Dog accepted. However, Joe was traded to the SmackDown brand in the Superstar shake-up the week after. Even from the blue brand, Joe continued taunting Reigns for getting beaten up by Lesnar twice and promised to put him to sleep come Backlash.
The heart of the matter
In the main event last night, Joe and Reigns went at each other even before the referee could start the match, and the Samoan Submission Machine ended up putting Reigns through a table.
Throughout the match, Joe dominated Reigns physically, coming close to making him pass out from the Coquina Clutch a couple of times.
Surprisingly, however, it was The Big Dog who managed to get one over on Joe as he surprised the big man with a spear and ended up getting the 1-2-3. In his interview, Reigns said the win was all about pride for him, as it came after a bad month, ending the interview by asserting that it was still indeed his yard.
What's next?
It looks like the feud between Reigns and Lesnar is not yet over after the controversial finish at Greatest Royal Rumble. It remains to be seen how WWE plan to take the feud forward.
Author's take
It is not clear where WWE are heading with Roman Reigns as they are just not able to get him over with the fans no matter what.
As far as Backlash was concerned, the decision to have Reigns win was questionable at best, as Joe clearly could have used the win to gain momentum as the top heel on the blue brand. However, to his credit, Joe did come out looking very strong as he dominated Reigns throughout the match.
