{"id":158487,"date":"2023-05-08T21:19:19","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T02:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=158487"},"modified":"2023-05-08T21:19:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T02:19:19","slug":"wwe-backlash-2023-hits-misses-bianca-vs-iyo-bunny-vs-priest-cody-vs-brock-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/05\/08\/wwe-backlash-2023-hits-misses-bianca-vs-iyo-bunny-vs-priest-cody-vs-brock-more\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE BACKLASH 2023 HITS &amp; MISSES: Bianca vs. Iyo, Bunny vs. Priest, Cody vs. Brock, more"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-592919734\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>WWE BACKLASH 2023 HITS &amp; MISSES<br \/>\nMAY 6, 2023<br \/>\nSAN JUAN PUERTO RICO AT THE COLISEO DE PUERTO RICO JOSE MIGUEL AGRELOT<br \/>\nAIRED ON PEACOCK, 8:00 p.m. EDT, 7:00 a.m. CDT<br \/>\nBY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR<\/h3>\n<p><em>Announcers: Michael Cole and Corey Graves<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Raw Women\u2019s Championship: Bianca Belair defeats Iyo Skye to retain the championship.<\/h4>\n<h4>HIT<\/h4>\n<p>I\u2019m a proponent of starting shows with title matches and in selecting this match to open, WWE made a wise choice. Going in I was curious as to what the reactions would be for both competitors. Seeing the crowd shift from Bianca to Iyo was interesting to watch, but not surprising. She is someone that would, in my estimation, be popular with a crowd outside of the contiguous U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Now, if I\u2019m being honest, I enjoyed the match, but I could have done without the one-handed press slam by Bianca. I understand she\u2019s strong and was trying something and was looking for a moment, but both women could have gotten severely injured. Thankfully it all worked out, and we move on. Furthermore, the interference took me out of the match to a point. Now I understand they have been teasing dissension within Damage CTRL. I get the point of Bayley and Dakota Kai likely costing Iyo the chance to win the championship. The announcers emphasized it. That\u2019s all well and good, but I think things would have been served better if Iyo just worked a competitive match but came up \u201cjust\u201d short.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, I\u2019m not upset about it. I understand the place from where they\u2019re coming. I\u2019m just stating my piece. It still was still a great match that is obviously worthy of a hit.<\/p>\n<h4>Seth \u201cFreakin\u2019\u201d Rollins defeats Omos (w\/MVP)<\/h4>\n<h4>HIT<\/h4>\n<p>(Sigh) I gave this a hit, but it\u2019s an infield single. It\u2019s a bouncer that squeaked by the infield. It\u2019d be unfair for me to call this a miss.<\/p>\n<p>This is the best match, at least in my opinion, that Omos has wrestled. It helped that he had Seth Rollins working with him. Look let\u2019s not kid each other; we all know Omos is not the best in the ring. If you\u2019re going to use him on a PLE, you have to put him with somebody that\u2019s going to create movement and make things look good. Rollins did just that. I enjoyed this match more than I expected I would.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know that the win means much for Rollins, but he had to win the match. The only victories Omos holds in 2023, on television anyway, are over Elias, Dolph Ziggler, Mustafa Ali, and some stiff on Raw last week. Everyone beats those guys. He lost to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, but I suppose there\u2019s no shame in losing to Lesnar. He\u2019s been used on the last two PLEs in singles matches so, obviously there is interest on the company\u2019s part in using him. We\u2019ll see how that works out moving forward.<\/p>\n<h4>Triple Threat U.S. Championship: Austin Theory defeats Bobby Lashley and Bronson Reed to retain the championship.<\/h4>\n<h4>MISS<\/h4>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t a terrible match, and I probably would have graded it a hit if we didn\u2019t see the same finish we\u2019ve seen in this situation with Austin Theory before. He stole the pin in a triple threat back at Survivor Series and did the same thing here. I understand he\u2019s a heel and that\u2019s how they get wins most of the time at least in big matches such as these. Yes, technically he didn\u2019t cheat and won the match \u201cclean,\u201d but it\u2019s not the point. It feels like an escape hatch on the part of the WWE. In their eyes Bobby Lashley is protected by not taking the pin and Theory likely wasn\u2019t going to get A-Town Down on Bronson Reed. That all makes sense and I get it. I would still like to see Theory win a match on his own merit and not steal a pin after someone else does their finisher.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3559089876\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h4>Smackdown Women\u2019s Championship: Rhea Ripley defeats Zelina Vega to retain the championship.<\/h4>\n<h4>HIT<\/h4>\n<p>I don\u2019t if anyone caught it, and maybe I\u2019m making it up, but I think Rhea Ripley was getting emotional for Zelina Vega. All my impressions of Rhea, unless I\u2019m totally misreading her, is that she\u2019s a great person backstage and she gets along with everyone. That being said, how could you not be happy for Zelina. After all the times it \u201cdidn\u2019t work out\u201d for her to work in N.Y. or Puerto Rico (which was a bunch of BS in my opinion but, we won\u2019t get into that), she got that chance here. Now, I normally don\u2019t like \u201cgeographical\u201d title matches. I feel like it takes down the value of the title as only the top people should be competing for it, but I have a heart. I understood what they were doing here, and I support it. They are very proud of their people down in Puerto Rico, and it\u2019s amazing to watch.<\/p>\n<p>The match was what it needed to be. I only wish Zelina worked some matches on TV and got wins to build her up. The only televised win she got was over Sonya Deville, who loses to everybody. I hope Zelina will be used in a more meaningful role in the ring moving forward but, I don\u2019t have a ton of optimism. The post-match was amazing and emotional. I was even getting teary eyed.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes it\u2019s not just about the match. It\u2019s about the overall story, and this fits that example.<\/p>\n<h4>San Juan Street Fight: Bad Bunny defeats Damian Priest<\/h4>\n<h4>HIT<\/h4>\n<p>What else can you say, other than this was one of the best celebrity matches I have seen in my lifetime. I\u2019d have to go back and review others but, sometimes you have to just trust your gut and mine tells me this was everything and more. I don\u2019t rewatch much wrestling these days save for the PPVs I review for Pro Wrestling Then and Now, but if I were to rewatch sometime for the hell of it this match would be one of them.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s another thing that was amazing for me. Watching this match, I didn\u2019t even think about Bad Bunny being a musician! He looked the part of being a professional wrestler. Sometimes you watch these matches and you\u2019re like come on, how is he or she doing that to (insert wrestler)? That didn\u2019t cross my mind at any point. He even won it straight up with a Destroyer! You can tell Bunny has put in the work and he genuinely loves performing in the WWE. If I\u2019m spending my money to watch this product, these are the guys I want to see. Even Logan Paul gives me that feeling as well, even if he can be unlikable.<\/p>\n<p>Before I get to the appearances, I have to say I gained so much respect for Damian Priest in this match. It\u2019s not that I wasn\u2019t a fan of his to begin with but, what he did here was amazing. Aside from really rounding into form as of late on TV he sold incredibly well for Bunny and I\u2019m sure he genuinely wanted to put on a great match with his friend. I hope WWE has good plans for him moving forward as I think he has a lot to offer.<\/p>\n<p>I have one small quibble. Perhaps when Savio Vega appeared earlier in the show, he could have just said he\u2019ll be in Bunny\u2019s corner. Or as Todd Martin said on the post-PLE round table, he could have come out first and Carlito second. His appearance in the match was great but the surprise was lessened by his appearance earlier in the show. It\u2019s a small quibble in the grand scheme of things. That being said, the pop for Carlito was amazing. The crowd reaction was one I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen. It got me wondering what happened back in the day with him. I\u2019d have to go back and skim through some of Wade\u2019s newsletters to see what the scuttlebutt was on him. His run was a time I was watching WWE but wasn\u2019t terribly invested as I am now. Based on what I remember I just don\u2019t think he and the WWE were a good fit. Sometimes the schedule, the style they want, or various other things just aren\u2019t a match for someone. That\u2019s perfectly fine as sometimes it just doesn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n<p>I had discussion online with respected colleagues about the idea that this match should have been the main event. Initially I was glad they went with Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar. I think your top match with your top stars should go on last. With all due respect to Bad Bunny, he\u2019s a celebrity and Damian Priest is a midcard act at best. That said, in talking to said colleagues and getting their points of view with the main point being serving the local crowd in Puerto Rico, I think this should have gone on last. You\u2019re in Puerto Rico how often? Have the show close out with the contingent of Bunny, Vega, Carlito, and the LWO. Thank that crowd for spending their money and coming out. It\u2019s not a big deal and I know they were overall happy, but this could have been an even more special moment.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2266086580\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h4>The Bloodline (Jimmy &amp; Jey Uso and Solo Sikoa) defeat Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Sami Zayn &amp; Kevin Owens and Matt Riddle<\/h4>\n<h4>MISS<\/h4>\n<p>Part of me think it\u2019s hard to believe I\u2019d be giving this match a miss, but another part isn\u2019t too surprised. Rich Fann talked about it on the PLE round table, and I thought about it going into this match. Last year\u2019s Backlash featured the Usos (as champs) and Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre (remember him?), Randy Orton (same), and Matt Riddle. Riddle was there to take the pin last year as he was this year.<\/p>\n<p>Now don\u2019t get me wrong, the result lines up and I get the story. Me grading this a miss doesn\u2019t mean it was bad or I hated it. It just missed for me, that\u2019s all. They have been building up Solo Sikoa as of late and the dissension within the Bloodline continues. With that finish Solo basically said you guys can\u2019t take care of business so I will. That\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n<p>I think my problem is we\u2019ve just seen so much of the Bloodline vs. some variation of Owens, Sami, and Riddle that it didn\u2019t do anything for me. In addition, and this is not a terrible thing, but the tag champions lost. WWE does this so much so in the grand scheme of things it doesn\u2019t matter, but that also doesn\u2019t make it right.<\/p>\n<p>The work in the match was fine. You\u2019re never going to go wrong with any of these guys. Perhaps the placement of the match killed it for me but, I just can\u2019t give it a hit. If \u201cpush\u201d was a category I\u2019d score it that, is that fair?<\/p>\n<h4>Cody Rhodes defeats Brock Lesnar<\/h4>\n<h4>HIT<\/h4>\n<p>The match was about the length I expected and the result correct. The blood spot, which has since been reported as planned, made sense as they were trying to protect Lesnar in the loss. Granted he doesn\u2019t wrestle all that often but except for beating Omos, Lesnar has only beaten Bobby Lashley which happened back in November. You need to keep him strong.<\/p>\n<p>The question remains did Cody gain from this match? Time will tell. He did hit his finisher twice while Lesnar hit his, so maybe Cody gained by kicking out of the F5? He pulled the leverage pin out his you-know-what and it kind lines up with the story they\u2019ve told in that Cody is afraid of Brock but isn\u2019t afraid to fight him. He was able to \u201csneak out\u201d a win and then he then ran from the ring, which also lines up. That\u2019s the problem for me. Do I want the guy that is still a potential world champion being portrayed as scared? He was beaten down on TV, admitted he was scared, and for all intents and purposes stole a win. While it all may make some sense, I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s a good luck for Cody, but time will tell. I still enjoyed the match overall.<\/p>\n<h4>Hits 5<br \/>\nMisses 2<\/h4>\n<h4>Closing Thoughts<\/h4>\n<p>Overall, what else can I say about this show? It was enjoyable from start to finish and I can\u2019t say I was bored at any point. Except for match placement, I thought they did a great job serving the local audience with Zelina and all the appearances in the Bunny vs. Priest match. We\u2019ll see how things progress with Damage CTRL, the Bloodline, and Cody Rhodes moving forward as those are the key stories for me coming out of this event.<\/p>\n<p>That said, the hits have it and this report is adjourned. Talk to you in a few weeks after Night of Champions!<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3145705235\"><div id=\"pwtor-3938487647\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>WWE BACKLASH 2023 HITS &amp; MISSES MAY 6, 2023 SAN JUAN PUERTO RICO AT THE COLISEO DE PUERTO RICO JOSE MIGUEL AGRELOT AIRED ON PEACOCK, 8:00 p.m. EDT, 7:00 a.m. CDT BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/05\/08\/wwe-backlash-2023-hits-misses-bianca-vs-iyo-bunny-vs-priest-cody-vs-brock-more\/\" title=\"WWE BACKLASH 2023 HITS &amp; MISSES: Bianca vs. Iyo, Bunny vs. Priest, Cody vs. Brock, more\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":158351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,52,28,27,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists","category-news_wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2023\/05\/WWE-Backlash-2023-Bunny-v-Priest.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158489,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158487\/revisions\/158489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}