What we learned from Backlash 2017

Backlash was SmackDown’s first post-WrestleMania 33 pay-per-view, and while it didn’t fully deliver in every match or angle, the ones it did hit managed to hit real, real hard. We have a new WWE World Champion, Shinsuke Nakamura’s debut is now behind us, the women’s division maybe hinted at its next steps, and we might have just witnessed the rebirth of the SmackDown tag-team scene.

Let’s break down what we learned from this Sunday in May.

Dolph Ziggler introduced Shinsuke Nakamura to WWE’s main roster with every major move he knows, but it wasn’t enough. Frustration built up until Ziggler spit in Nakamura’s face, but all that did was infuriate Shinsuke. Maybe Ziggler should have spent a little more time watching Nakamura footage instead of making jokes about how there wasn’t any!

What we learned: If you aren’t familiar with what Nakamura is about, you are now, at least to a degree. He’s kind of a weird dude, but in a charming way, and he is super into kicking and kneeing you as hard as possible, whether it’s in the face or the chest or the kidneys. Ziggler knows this, or, at least, he will once he wakes up and wonders why he’s so sore and where his headache came from.

It’s a little disappointing Ziggler got in as much offense as he did, as it kept Nakamura from seeming as next-level as he is, but it’s early enough in this run that we can wait and see where it’s going before going in too hard on that point.

This match was incredible. It was hilarious, it had real wrestling in it, it made Tyler Breeze and Fandango look like legitimate competitors who could win the SmackDown Tag Team titles from the Usos if they figure out a way to keep them from bending the rules ... it had everything. Just a perfect tag match and a great way to hit reset on a division that desperately needed it.

Plus, Tyler Breeze had not one, but two disguises, coming back during the match dressed undercover as an old woman for some reason.

Wrestling is the best.

What we learned: See above. The fear heading into this match was that Breezango would not be treated as seriously as they should be, but they let the pair — Breeze, especially — show off their comedy chops while also looking like a serious threat to the Usos’ reign. We should expect more from both teams in the future, as SmackDown had one of the best tag matches they’ve put together since the brand split made the show live.

Sami Zayn ... won? That was unexpected. Mostly because it’s always unexpected. That’s not anything against Zayn, by the way, but there’s a reason that his nickname includes the word “underdog” in it. And Baron Corbin has been nigh unstoppable whenever he’s not facing off against the likes of John Cena or A.J. Styles, so, you know, 2+2 wasn’t supposed to equal 5, and yet here we are.

What we learned: Well, Baron Corbin losing a pay-per-view match before Money in the Bank might be SmackDown’s way of trying to make us think that he won’t be the one who wins the titular match of that event. WE’RE ON TO YOU WWE WE KNOW THE TRICKS.

Also, like, Sami Zayn won a big match! And now presumably has some momentum heading into Money in the Bank! This definitely won’t end in any kind of heartbreak for us or Zayn!

This was a surprise for a number of reasons. Becky Lynch tapped out clean in the middle of the ring — surprise No. 1. The second surprise? None of the faces turned heel causing Becky and Co. to lose here. This was the Welcoming Committee of Natalya, Carmella, and Tamina securing a victory just like they said they would, and Becky ended up taking the L.

What we learned: Just because no one turned yet doesn’t mean we’re without a turn. Becky being the one to get submitted and lose for her team means that blame is likely to shift to her via Charlotte, so maybe we get Becky vs. Charlotte out of this, with one of the Welcoming Committee — Carmella or Natalya, most likely — facing off against SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi because of this win. We’ll have to wait until Tuesday to see what the next step is.

Countout losses are usually horrible, but one managed to fit in just right. Owens had targeted Styles’ leg throughout the match, and then the U.S. Champ helped get Styles’ injured limb stuck in the announce table where he couldn’t escape in time to return to the ring and beat the ref’s count. Owens then attacked the trapped and hurting Styles while he was defenseless just because, ensuring that this feud is going to keep going.

What we learned: A countout victory for Owens paired with the subsequent attack means this feud isn’t over, which also gives us some insight into the potential look of the Money in the Bank ladder match at next month’s MITB event. If Owens and Styles are tied up in a U.S. title match already, that most likely means neither will be trying to climb a ladder for the WWE World Champion contract found within the briefcase at the top. That opens the field up quite a bit for potential MITB entrants and winners.

Former Wyatt Family brothers collided over the fact that Luke Harper was able to leave said Family, and with no desire to return to it. Rowan, still trapped within the cult but now alone on SmackDown in that regard, was unable to exact the revenge he hoped to against the now-independent Harper.

While this was a clear cooldown match between championship bouts, it did continue the recent trend of Rowan looking like a capable wrestler, and his character work earlier in the evening frightening the Kickoff Show commentator panel was a highlight.

What we learned: Harper is still the man, and this feud should help secure him a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match. Rowan, too, by virtue of lasting as long as he did against Harper and putting up as much of a fight as he has, could be an entrant, as a way of bringing preexisting feuds into the multi-man affair.

We’ll see if that last bit is the case, though, since this could also be an opportunity to further separate the Wyatts, letting Rowan begin to question his decision to stick by the absentee Bray, and becoming more of his own thing in the process like Harper has.

Man, it happened. Jinder Mahal defeated Randy Orton, and now Jinder is the WWE World Champion. Like him or not, this is a huge moment — WWE’s history of people of color winning their primary championship is a list short enough that you don’t need all your fingers to count it, despite the fact the belt dates back to 1963.

Jinder won under some BS circumstances, with the Singh Brothers helping him distract Orton long enough for Mahal to sneak up from behind and deliver his finisher and get that 1-2-3, but he’s the bad guy here: BS circumstances are a totally reasonable way to go about this. Especially since the story SmackDown has been telling for weeks now is that Jinder wasn’t a winner pretty recently, sure, but he found a new attitude and some new friends and the two of those made him a threat against anyone, even if he couldn’t do things by himself.

What we learned: SmackDown is really hammering home this land of opportunity thing, and Jinder Mahal as WWE World Champion shows they aren’t just saying it. WWE World Champions should remain something of an exclusive list, but for too long it’s been white dude after white dude after white dude, with wrestlers of color generally held a level beneath that title regardless of how popular they were or could be. (And even when someone as hugely popular as Rey Mysterio was allowed to win the championship, those reigns were brief.)

SmackDown has Kofi Kingston, a longtime WWE star who has won basically everything in the company except for the WWE World Championship. They have Big E, who in a just world would become WWE World Champion someday, but since he (like Kofi) is black, that just world didn’t seem to exist within the confines of WWE. They have Shinsuke Nakamura, they have Jason Jordan, they have Rusev.

In the past, it was just assumed that black wrestlers, foreign wrestlers with heavy non-United Kingdom accents, or anyone from anywhere in Asia would never win the top prize in the company. If WWE is having Jinder, a man of Indian descent who speaks Punjabi on camera, win that belt, though, then the game has potentially changed. And that’s as good a thing as it is overdue.