Backlash was horrible for the women ( and everyone else mind you)

Bayley seemed really off in her match with Ruby which dragged it down.

While Nia vs Alexa was just passable and suffered from Alexa always having to be dominant in her matches. Charlotte vs Carmella was just subjectively horrible, and I'm not surprised  Johnny Ace was the agent for match.  

I really hope they learn not to have Charlotte wrestle the greener/less good girls as she wrestles to the level of her opponent and cannot elevate anyone by herself.  Caremlla was really not impressive and seems to have shrunk down her moveset to superkciks and rest holds. 

The triple threat on raw was a great tv match , with some great spots in there. Having embe rin the money in the bank match basically guarantees that it will be better than both of at years just because they'll have an athletic person in there. I hope Naomi gets in as well. 

Thanks for making the thread Dex - everyone should definitely check out tonight's match which was fantastic. The move to Raw seems to have really benefited Ruby. It wasn't like she wasn't getting used on Smackdown (and her title match with Charlotte was a nice performance) but she's picking up some real steam over the past couple of weeks - Cole really pumping her up on commentary is clearly a good sign. She did a couple of fairly risky things though which she should probably calm down on - taking a back bump on the floor doing a missile dropkick off the apron is probably something that isn't worth wasting on a TV match!

Ember is fantastic too and it's good to see her get the minor accolade of being the first to qualify. Her suicide dive is absolutely sensational (puts Seth Rollins to absolute shame) and she sold the shit out of Ruby's flatliner.

The less said about Backlash the better.

Thinking about it inring wise they almost have the two worst wrestlers as champion. Carmella doesn't do many moves and the moves she does never look that good to me. And it was too soon to have Charlotte lose twice to Carmella after being Asuka. I bet who ever finally beats Lesnar for the Universal title won't be losing twice to the same person in the next month. I know they wanted the first MitB winner to be a successful cash in but they left Carmella development to the side for way too long.

The problem I had with Nia Jax match was some move logic why did she keep trying to go for an avalanche version of her finisher before just trying her finisher. And eventually she just did the normal version. Plus the same problem as Carmella if you only do a few moves at least make them look good.

Tonight triple was really good and a lot more ppv worthy. That should be the Raw title scene with one of them champion.

This video I saw a few days ago also made me like Ruby Riott a lot more.

Carmella is a really great character so I can forgive her not being all that in the ring, but I was hoping to see a little bit more out of her at Backlash (especially after she fired off some tweets about her wrestling improving) whether or not that was just a bad match layout as they weren't the only ones who delivered a slow, rest hold stinker last night I guess we'll see in her future title defences.

I do agree about the surprising move to have her beat Charlotte clean and how that really clouds the significance of Charlotte beating Asuka. They might have thought the "injury" was enough cover but I think there definitely should have been a clearer element of Carmella cheating to win to benefit both of their characters.

I was disappointed in the Charlotte/Carmella match at Backlash. As I said in the main party thread it was like Charlotte had to 'dumb down' her skill to match Carmella's lack of in ring skills and it was apparently and made the match feel clunky. Carmella was doing really well in NXT before her call up but I really haven't seen a lot from her since because she's been mostly active in group or tag matches which compensates for her being 'green' still. As, Hr said though, she's a great character. Still is that enough to be the Champion in this day when they have so much talent on the roster? I was hoping the Iconics would cost Charlotte the title not a knee tweak.

Nia vs Alexa was infintely better than their Mania match. I still think this babyface 'Like me because I'm different and stand up to bullies' Nia is hurting her character in the long run but it seems to be working. Sucks Alexa is injured but I don't disagree that maybe it's at a good time for Alexa as she needs a change.

The three way match tonight on RAW was great. PPV worthy IMO. Glad to see Ember get the win.

May 8, 2018 5:03:41 GMT iron maiden said:

Sucks Alexa is injured but I don't disagree that maybe it's at a good time for Alexa as she needs a change.

I wouldn't say a change so much as her gimmick is still great (Moments of Bliss were real highlights on Raw lately) but she just needs to be out of the spotlight for a while. She's literally been in every single PPV Raw title match since she debuted back in 2006 which is just an absurd level of overbooking. 

The only problem is that there is no one obvious to put Nia in a feud with now. If they hadn't taken so fucking long to turn Bayley or Sasha they would have been perfect and also the best chance to get a remotely watchable match out of Nia.

They need to do the Sasha heel turn on Bayley and get the title on Ember, so we can get Ember vs Sasha for the title already.


As far as everyone else, have Nia beat the Riott Squad and Ronda kill Alexa. Whatever works.


Just give me a PPV Ember vs Sasha title match!

May 8, 2018 5:27:17 GMT @admin said:

May 8, 2018 5:03:41 GMT iron maiden said:

She's literally been in every single PPV Raw title match since she debuted back in 2006 which is just an absurd level of overbooking.

Alexa Bliss has been around longer than I thought...

The layouts of Alexa/Nia and Charlotte/Carmella were really bad. Nia struggling to get any offense on Alexa made her look incompetent, and Carmella/Charlotte was a rest hold fest.

Somewhat interesting tidbits from a leaked card image during the show - Sarah Stock produced Alexa/Nia and John Laurinaitis produced Charlotte/Carmella...

Highlight of this week has been Ruby - really enjoying her matches. Agreed that the triple threat on Raw with Ember and Sasha was a treat. Like dex , I really hope Naomi gets in MITB this year after missing it last year because she had the championship.

I hope Ruby gets to be in the M.I.T.B match. I wonder when the Sasha or Bayley turn will happen. They've been at odds for a while.