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Roman Reigns vs. Cesaro - WWE Universal Championship (WWE WrestleMania Backlash)
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The main event of WrestleMania Backlash was Roman Reigns defending the WWE Universal Championship against Cesaro. Reigns, in his Tribal Chief persona, is on the best run of his entire career.
His opponent, Cesaro, has been riding high on an awesome run himself, coming off beating Seth Rollins at WrestleMania and on SmackDown to gain this opportunity. Roman made the decision to tell his cousin, Jey Uso, to stay in the back, so he could take care of his business on his own.
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Cesaro came out looking to push the offense against the champion. He hit a cockscrew European uppercut and a twisting plancha to the outside to allow Reigns to have to regroup at WrestleMania Backlash.
Momentum swung back to the champion's advantage when he started to attack Cesaro's right arm. His brutal attack on the European uppercut arm of the challenger allowed Cesaro to work from underneath and put his impeccable selling on full display. Roman even talked trash to the recently departed Daniel Bryan, while working over his friend.
The bruises on Cesaro's arm and body provided visual storytelling that instantly gripped viewers into the action at WrestleMania Backlash.
The way Reigns slows things down and works so methodically is extremely compelling and makes you rally behind his challengers. Cesaro's comeback was fascinating in the way that he had to change his arsenal due to the damage done to his injured arm.
Cesaro's signature submissions with the Sharpshooter and crossface were heavily affected by the work done by "The Head of The Table". The challenger could not even finish executing the Neutralizer as well, which would soon lead to his demise at the hands of The Tribal Chief.
At the conclusion of this main event, the pain was too much to overcome for the Swiss Superman at WrestleMania Backlash. Reigns broke out of the crossface and rained down forearms.
He followed up by locking in a guillotine choke. Despite Cesaro fighting to get free, Roman locked it in deeper and got the win via referee stoppage.
Post-match, Jey Uso briefly attacked before Seth Rollins came down to the ring. After staring down with the Universal Champion, Rollins attacked Cesaro and wrapped his injured arm in a steel chair. He then slammed the arm and chair into the ring post before delivering a curb stomp to end WrestleMania Backlash.
This was a superb main event with excellent storytelling and selling especially by Cesaro. This was one of the best singles matches of his entire career.
Roman Reigns added another emotionally driven, fantastic performance to his catalog of the past few months. He is truly in top form and has been the best overall performer in all of WWE. This ended WrestleMania Backlash in a great high.
Star rating: ****1/2
