The SmarK Rant for WWE Backlash 2025 – 05.10.25

The SmarK Rant for WWE Backlash 2025 – 05.10.25

Live from St. Louis, MO

Your hosts are Michael Cole & Wade Barrett

WWE US title: Jacob Fatu v. LA Knight v. Drew McIntyre v. Damian Priest

Fatu is suddenly very over as a babyface for some reason. Knight slugs it out with Fatu while the other two brawl to the floor, and Fatu misses a charge and allows Knight to put him down. Sunset flip kind of goes badly but Knight still clears the ring and drops an elbow on Drew. DDT on Fatu gets one. Knight and Priest team up with a high-low on Fatu and run him into the post, but then they turn on each other and Drew hits them both with neckbreakers. Fatu tries going to the top and Priest brings him down with a rana and then does the ropewalk into a crossbody on Drew. Priest continues to run wild and charges at Fatu on the floor, and that results in Jacob hitting him with a samoan drop onto the railing. That looked painful. Back in the ring, we get a showdown with Drew and Fatu as they slug it out, but Fatu puts him down with a samoan drop. He goes up again and Drew cuts him off, but then Knight joins in while Drew gets hung in the Tree of Woe. So Fatu takes everyone out again and dives on Priest outside, and then hits Drew with a swanton, but everyone hits the finishers and Priest gets two on Knight as it’s a quadruple-down. Drew recovers and hits Priest with the Future Shock and then takes out Knight as well and follows with the Claymore for two. Priest makes the save and they fight to the floor, leaving Fatu alone with Knight, but he misses the moonsault. Knight drops the big elbow for two off that. Meanwhile, Priest and Drew are over in the crowd, as Priest chokeslams him off a stage and through a table to take both guys out. Meanwhile, Knight puts Fatu on the announce table and tries to finish him off, but Solo Sikoa saves…and then Jeff Cobb comes out of the crowd and destroys Knight on the floor. And then a confused Fatu hits the moonsault in the ring and gets the pin to retain at 17:55. Good fast-paced opener that kind of ran out of steam at the end. ***1/2

Women’s Intercontinental title: Lyra Valkyria v. Becky Lynch

Becky takes her down and rolls into a cradle for two, and then Lyra gets a swinging cradle submission hold and turns it into a surfboard where he rolls Becky around the ring. Northern Lights suplex gets two. Becky bails and Lyra dropkicks her and goes up to the top, but Becky brings her down and slugs away to take over. Bexploder gets two. They brawl on the floor and Becky runs her into the post for two. Lyra fights back and gets a fisherman’s buster for a double down before making the comeback. Powerbomb gets two. They fight to the top and Lyra brings her down with a superplex for two. They trade rollups and Becky grabs the ropes for two, but gets caught and does an inverted DDT for two instead. Lyra escapes the Manhandle slam and sends her to the floor for a dive. Back in, a guillotine legdrop gets two. Moonsault misses and they’re both down. They slug it out and Becky takes her down with the armbar, but Lyra reverses to her own. Manhandle slam is reversed for two, but a second one gets two for Becky. So Becky grabs a chair and the ref stops her, but that allows her to expose the turnbuckle. Lyra comes back again with a moonsault for two. Becky runs her into an un-exposed turnbuckle and hits another Manhandle Slam for two, but Lyra hits her Nightwing slam for two while the ref is distracted by the turnbuckle. Lyra reverses another Manhandle into a rollup for two, and then reverses a rollup from Becky into a cradle for the pin to retain at 18:56. Took a bit to get going but it turned into an excellent match with some good twists and turns at the end. ****

WWE Intercontinental title: Dominick Mysterio v. Penta

Dom hits a rana out of the corner to start, but Penta tosses him and tries a dive, which Dom manages to turn into a DDT on the floor in a nice counter. Back in, Dom gets a senton for two. Dom stomps him down for two and we hit the chinlock. Penta fights out of that and sends him to the floor, and then comes off the post with a dive for a double down outside. Back in, Penta with a crucifix for two, but Dom hits Oblivion for two. They fight on the apron and Penta hits a destroyer out there for another double down, but that brings Carlito out to assist, while JD & Balor try to beat up Penta and take forever. So the ref tosses them and Penta hits them with a dive on the way out, but then EL GRANDE AMERICANO hits the ring and knocks Penta out with the loaded mask, and Mysterio gets the pin to retain at 9:12. Couple of good moments but it was mostly just TV match ga-ga. **

Gunther v. Pat McAfee

Oh goodie. Bad enough I have to watch Logan Paul matches on these, now this dipshit. Gunther tosses him around off a headlock and takes him down with an armbar. Pat tries to springboard and slips, so Gunther slugs him down again and puts the boots to him. Pat fights up with chops and Gunther just puts him down with a chop and beats on him in the corner. Pat tries a punt and Gunther just gets annoyed and takes him down for one of his own, as McAfee is sucking wind here. He had that good match with Adam Cole years ago in NXT but that was a long time ago. Gunther chops him down again and invites Michael Cole into the ring if he wishes, but Cole doesn’t take him up on it. Gunther with a german suplex and the sleeper, and then he changes his mind and hits a german suplex again instead. McAfee escapes another german suplex and punts Gunther, but it only gets one. Pat makes another comeback with a pair of kicks, but Gunther cuts him off with a powerbomb and puts him in the Boston Crab. So Cole leaves the desk to go cheer Pat, but Gunther hauls him into the ring and tries to powerbomb him, only for McAfee to get a rollup for two. So Gunther suplexes Pat and Cole grabs the foot and hangs on for two. But then Gunther hits McAfee with a lariat and puts the lights out with a sleeper at 13:45. The match was OK in that they had great heat from the live crowd, and Pat knows when to make babyface comebacks and sell, but he didn’t look convincing in the ring as a wrestler at all at this point in his life and the match didn’t translate to TV. Gunther should have destroyed him by all rights. **. Also, and I can’t stress this enough, fuck Pat McAfee and the horse he rode in on.

WWE title: John Cena v. Randy Orton

Orton works a headlock for a while and Cena bails to the floor to think it over. Orton chases but Cena catches him with a cheapshot on the way in and slugs away in the corner. But then Orton fires back with his own and gets two. Orton with the Garvin Stomp and he drops a knee for two. Cena with a sleeper and Orton reverses to his own and then puts him down with a back suplex. Cena is up first with the five knuckle shuffle, but Orton powerslams him. Draping DDT is reversed into a rollup by Cena for two, but Orton gets the DDT on the second try. Cena powers him up into an AA and it’s another double down as Orton hits him with an RKO on the way down. They slug it out and Cena gets another AA for two. RKO OUTTA NOWHERE and Cena bails to the apron to escape a pinfall. So Orton tries the punt instead, and Cena catches him with another AA for two. Cena tries his own punt, but the ref is bumped and Cena hits another AA and grabs the belt, only to walk into another RKO for two. They fight to the floor and Cena preps the announce table as the ref gets bumped a SECOND time, and Orton drops Cena with an AA and the poor table doesn’t break. So Orton sets up another table and puts Cena through that table with another AA. Back in the ring, Orton with an RKO for two but the ref gets bumped for a third time as Orton hits Cena with the belt and gets a visual pinfall. So the whole gang of idiots runs in and Orton hits them all with RKOs and sets up for the punt. But now R-Truth runs in and defends his childhood hero, but Orton lays him out with an RKO as well, allowing Cena to hit Orton with a low blow and then knock him out with the title belt and pin him at 27:51. This was every Orton-Cena match we’ve ever seen, plus a million ref bumps and a bunch of interference and smoke and mirrors. ***

A very mid PPV for me, as I really liked the women’s match but there wasn’t much else to recommend here. Also, it didn’t really follow up on anything I was interested in seeing coming out of Wrestlemania, and just kind of felt like a show. Thumbs in the middle.