Looking Back at Backlash

So the Backlash PPV arrived super fast after Wrestlemania, and it seemed like many fans who watched it were disappointed in the matches. Some of the WWE Universe is probably happy to see the titles change up, but it's very surprising that all 3 would change at this Pay-Per-View, versus at Wrestlemania 25. In particular, it seems strange for Cena to win the World Heavyweight Title at WM25, only to drop it weeks later to Edge. Apparently, WWE wants a few things: 1)to keep building up Edge as a supreme champion & 2)Cena going for the WWE title eventually, and he may even be defending it come Summerslam against Batista. For now it looks like we'll have a Big Show and John Cena feud on Raw, once Cena returns from any injuries suffered. How soon that is will be unknown until Raw tonight. It appears like Vickie Guerrero had a hand in sending Big Show out to finish off Cena for Edge, meaning Vickie and Show are still in some sort of collusion.

Also while I'm glad to see Christian rewarded with the ECW title, I'm surprised that Swagger dropped it at this point. It looked to me like Swagger would continue building up his dominance as champion, so that he could either defeat Tommy Dreamer to retire him, or lose to Dreamer for the storyline. Now it looks like what may happen is that Christian will successfully defend against Dreamer to retire him in a "good friends" type match, where they both shake hands and hug at the end. Dreamer will basically be passing the torch on to Christian as the new face of Extreme.

Last night's Backlash also had the inexplicable Kane-CM Punk match part 3, where Kane won via chokeslam. I'm still not sure whether this is just to give these two guys something to do on their new home of Smackdown or what. Maybe they'll be part of a Championship Chase along with a few other guys like Jericho, Jeff Hardy and Undertaker to determine #1 Contender now that Edge is champion. Jeff won the "I Quit" match against Matt in dramatic fashion as he duct taped and rope tied his brother to a table, then prepared to jump on him from a ladder. His brother pleaded for Jeff to think about their parents, and finally said "I Quit", giving Jeff a much needed win. Jericho also defeated Steamboat so he can continue to brag about how he's better than the legends over on Smackdown. Steamboat's still pretty impressive for a man of his age wrestling in the ring, as he displayed better skills than many of the younger wrestlers.

Probably the most predictable win of the night was Orton taking the WWE title in that Six Man Tag match from HHH. This was bound to happen, and it now sets up a potential Batista vs. HHH feud. I'm not sure that Shane McMahon really needs to be part of the equation any longer, but it seems WWE is pushing that angle too. With Orton as champ, it'll be interesting to see who steps up first to challenge him now. MVP really doesn't have much going on since he moved to Raw, and with his impending US Title defense against Dolph Ziggler, I'm expecting he may lose the title, making him a potential first opponent for Orton on Raw.

And then there's Santina, Santino, Khali Kiss Cam, and Beth Phoenix. Last night the antics continued as Beth got leveled by Khali so that Santin-a could take an easy pin and keep her Miss Wrestlemania crown. Jim Ross was even part of the joking as Santina confessed her love for him and Khali challenged her to kiss JR. It's unknown whether JR was even in on the joke, but his colleagues sure had fun ribbing him. This whole Santina-Beth thing will only amuse the fans for so long, until WWE finally decides to have Beth Phoenix pulverize Santino/Santina and take her rightful crown.

Feel free to leave your thoughts about any of the new champions or Backlash matches below...