SparkleMotion
Member
As someone who watches other wrestling but not a lot of WWE, why was Luke Harper vs Eric Rowan the semi-main event over something like Styles vs Owens?
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WWE Backlash 2017 |OT| This PPV Brought To You By India
- Thread starter serenewarfare
- Start date
theaffection
Member
Touche.
Sidenote: Lets wait and see on Jinder, everyone. He was pretty decent tonight. They did the same thing with JBL back in the day. JBL's reign sucked, but there were a few fun moments. Lets wait and see
ScientificPizza
Banned
Oh yeah he really didn't. What a wonderful payoff to that almost year long Wyatt storyline
Jinder being champ is at least funny. I hope he hold until Summerslam
It was a buffer match between things people "cared" about.
It was basically a filler match for time, not a main event. I dont even know if they advertised that match leading up to the ppv.
Demoskinos
Member
I'd just like to throw out there that Chris Jericho had Jinder on his podcast this week. Its a good show and Jinder goes a lot into his return.
Good lord you're right.
Won it from Bray in a shitty match with maggot pictures, lost it to a jobber. One for the ages.
Juicy J revealed that Vince is personally writing all his promos.
SparkleMotion
Member
Why would a filler match be the second to last match on the show? They wanted to kill the crowd before the main event?
theaffection
Member
Harper/Rowan was intended to be a cool down for the crowd so they're at full energy and intensity for the main event.
The crowd were very loud for Styles/Owens, so in their minds if they did that match before the main event, the main event would suffer because the crowd would be exhausted. With Harper/Rowan, it doesn't matter if people don't care about it because its a match with minimal investment.
serenewarfare
Banned
I bet he wins it back next month.
Demoskinos
Member
Yeah, I had a good notion that he was winning tonight if Vince is writing his promos himself. Vinny Mac doesn't get hands on like that unless he has a very particular interest in someone.
It's normal in WWE to have a minor match between the second biggest match and main event. The women used to always get this death spot.
TheFurizzlyBear
Member
Gives the crowd a chance to breath. Too much can wear a crowd out
theaffection
Member
Hell maybe even this Tuesday on Smackdown just like in 2011 against Christian
Think of it as a buffer between one hot match and another. They just had KO vs AJ (good match between two of the biggest stars) and going right into the Jinder/Orton match couldve led to a tired crowd.
serenewarfare
Banned
That theory is BS and has been proven wrong over and over again. Hell, even Triple H doesn't buy into that given the layout of Takeover shows.
Vince believes that, but it's just not true.
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
Randy's got 12 other title reigns that are also on contention
theaffection
Member
Its honestly such a dumb and outdated concept. WWE is one of the only promotions out there that still does a buffer before the main event. Most promotions put their top 2-3 matches consecutively and the crowd usually stays hot at a consistent level.
It's true on 4+ hour mania shows, where title matches have had to follow emotional heavy-hitting matches like Rock-Hogan or any Taker match between WM24 and WM30.
On 3 hour Backlash cards? Might as well keep the heat going.
excelsiorlef
Member
To give a breather between a hot match and a main event match that was going to be hard to keep the crowd in which worked perfectly)
OriginofHysteria
Banned
Amazing how Jinder was able to get a half the crowd behind him lmao. Either that or they really do not like Orton.
Velcro Fly
Member
WWE title has had it rough in 2017
Cena wins it at RR from AJ for the sake of the number
Bray wins at Elimination Chamber
Randy wins it at Mania in a positively dreadful match
Randy defends it in another ridiculous match
Jinder wins it at Backlash
RAW not much better with KO dropping to Goldberg who dropped it to Brock who hasn't been seen since.
Cena wins it at RR from AJ for the sake of the number
Bray wins at Elimination Chamber
Randy wins it at Mania in a positively dreadful match
Randy defends it in another ridiculous match
Jinder wins it at Backlash
RAW not much better with KO dropping to Goldberg who dropped it to Brock who hasn't been seen since.
Yeah... about that.
Jinder is almost certainly going to job that title back to Randy in a month. They wanted the press clippings in India, and to have someone with a name for international tours and merchandising.
They don't care about making a real star here.
serenewarfare
Banned
It's really not even on long shows if the show and matches are good enough. I watched WK this year and watched Tanahashi/Naito and Okada/Omega go back to back and not lose the crowd for a second after a near 5 hour show.
excelsiorlef
Member
His biggest moment was losing to Christian.
Oh god, you're right. The things I remember were The SHHHining and Jericho coming back to save us from Orton.
Both are those happened and yet, I forgot they're were Orton as Champ related.
Jinder was working show in house matches.
They will most likely give him a program and win with Show.
I will say Jinder is a better champ than Bray.
Bray could disappear from wrestling and nobody would miss him. He's the new Cody Rhodes of the WWE.
serenewarfare
Banned
Big Show is on Raw.
Notice who was in The main event of X8 and 24.
People leave the arena early when HHH main events
excelsiorlef
Member
Big Show is on Raw
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
This reminds me of the time they gave ADR the Title in the middle of the extraordinarily hot CM Punk-John Cena feud because they were going on tour in Mexico except this time there was no hot feud and the guy they gave it to is significantly worse than ADR somehow
Summer of Punk too.
Fucking idiots. Wasn't this around Sin Cara time too?
I enjoy Bray quite a bit. I doubt Jinder Mahal will get the standing ovation and "you deserve it" chants from the live audience like Bray did. I'm not going to argue with your opinion of him, though. I don't really care how you feel about Bray Wyatt.
Jinder could honestly wind up getting the Christian treatment here, and it should surprise nobody.
Your views are not consistent with reality.
I don't even have to watch the rest of the hopefully short reign to tell you that's not true, also I miss Cody Rhodes one of the best mic workers WWE had when he was there.
Wendel Clark
Member
all of those things are related to bray's character, not randy's lol. bray's only good match in his life is vs. danielson
Jinder was gone for two years and no one noticed
Randy has always been a terrible world champion. They padded his record with 100 title reigns to disguise the fact that he's a massive underachiever.
Some people leave WWE to make a name for themselves, Jinder left (or was future endeavored I don't even know) and became even more irrelevant then came back and won the WWE championship while Drew who is more talented in every way possible is working his way up the NXT ladder, gotta love the WWE
ScientificPizza
Banned
To be fair when they hired Jinder it was during the time when they were just signing a bunch of ex-WWE guys to pad the roster after they realised they didn't have enough people for the brand split. I don't think they signed him with this intention, it's just a matter of right place, right time
Drew is going to NXT because he's got serious long term potential
WWE doesn't put matches in any particular order. It's basically random.
excelsiorlef
Member
Nice
Will probably grab this at the house show next month if it's for sale