This past weekend the wife and I went down to St. Louis, Missouri for the weekend to not only see what the city was about but also go to the WWE Backlash event at the Enterprise Center (St. Louis Blues stadium). Let me start by saying I am by no means a huge or invested fan in the WWE, I will watch it occasionally when it is on tv when nothing else is on or a big event such as WrestleMania or other paper view events (now known as PLEs). However, my wife on the other hand is fully invested in the WWE and actually has her own TikTok and YouTube channel dedicated to the WWE and sports (mandynicolesports). Yes, I did a selfless plug for my wife’s socials and I have no problem with that at all. That being said, she keeps me updated of what all is going on in the WWE and actually was the one wanting to go to St.Louis for Backlash, I am always on board for going to a new place and seeing a live event no matter if it is baseball, basketball, football, or WWE. Now let’s talk a little bit about being at the show live in St. Louis. 

Starting out let me give you a little background about the Backlash event, to my understanding this is the results of what happened at WrestleMania which happened in Vegas this year. Backlash this year offered 5 total matches (four title matches and ones singles match) which are as follows:

Fatal 4-Way United States Championship Match

LA Knight vs Damien Priest vs Drew McIntyre vs Jacob Fatu (Current Champion)

Women’s Intercontinental Championship Match

Becky Lynch vs Lyra Valkyria (Current Champion)

Intercontinental Championship Match

Penta vs Dominik Mysterio (Current Champion)

Singles Match (Fight to Defend Michael Cole)

Pat McAfee vs Gunther 

Undisputed WWE Championship Match

Randy Orton vs John Cena (Current Champion)

Overall, it was a good match card to watch live. Personally I was excited to see Randy Orton (one of the wrestlers I am more familiar with) in his hometown and Pat McAfee (absolute legend as announcer/tv personality)actually step in the ring to fight. Every match and WWE superstars offered something different that kept your focus and left you entertained once the match ended. I am going to go into my thoughts on each match listed above and if I agreed with the outcome. 

Leading off the show we saw the Fatal 4-Way match with the United States Championship on the line. Let me start by saying I am not a huge fan of more than two superstars going against each other to win a championship belt, however this event was very entertaining and definitely had a lot going on at all times. As for the wrestlers in this match I am not a huge fan or keep up with LA Knight, Damien Priest, Drew McIntyre, or Jacob Fatu to be completely honest. That being said these four wrestlers killed this match, it never lacked for entertainment, always something going on whether it was inside the ring or outside, and actually had a stunt that went a little bit wrong and one of the wrestlers got a little banged up. Overall, even though I am not a fan of a Fatal 4-Way match to win the belt, this match may have been one of (if not the best) matches of the night with Jacob Fatu retaining his United States Championship belt. 

The second match of the night was the Women’s Intercontinental Championship Match with Becky Lynch challenging Lyra Valkyria for the belt. I am going to start out by saying the women’s division in the WWE is so much better than what it used to be when I watched as a kid. That being said I won’t lie I would not mind seeing comebacks from Stacy Keibler and Trish Status (again). This match was the only female match on the card for Backlash which was honestly a bummer for both my wife and I. My wife is invested in the women’s division of the WWE so I hear a lot from her and I do believe there should have been one if not two more women’s matches there is just too much talent for big events to just have one women’s match. All that being said lets get back to the match we saw between Becky Lynch and Lyra Valkyria, overall I thought it was a good match which offered some of the top woman in the WWE. Honestly, I missed the beginning of this match your boy had to go get a cold beverage and the wife wanted a pretzel so I can not speak to the beginning but the end was crazy. Lyra Valkyria ended up retaining the Women’s Intercontinental Championship belt by pinning Becky Lynch, however once the three count ended Becky Lynch absolutely went crazy on Lyra because she beat her. Becky kind of crashed out and the boo birds were out all over in St.Louis when Becky decided to put Lyra in an arm lock and would not disengage until multiple WWE staff came running out from backstage. 

The third match of the night was for the Men’s Intercontinental Championship belt which involved Penta and Dominik Mysterio. Again, not a huge fan or super involved with either of these wrestlers. Penta, I believe, is a new star signed by the WWE from AEW (rival company), I can say he is a showman from his entrance, his walk to the ring, and his talent in the ring. The fans also love this guy Penta so the atmosphere when he walked out was electric. As far as Dom Mysterio I am a little more familiar with just because he is the son of the legendary Mr. 619 himself, Rey Mysterio. Dom is part of The Judgement Day, a group in the WWE including Finn Balor, JD McDonagh, Carlito, Raquel Rodriguez, and Liv Morgan (My wife’s favorite current female wrestler). He seems to be one of the “bad guys” of the WWE and the fans definitely play in by booing constantly. This match was ok in my book, it had a different feel with the luchador style (Lucha libre background) and was pretty high flying and entertaining with Penta. All that being said we did see Dominik Mysterio retain the Intercontinental Championship belt with a little help from his “friend” in the Judgement Day. 

The fourth match of the night was not for any championship, or any belt, it was for pride and doing the right thing where Pat McAfee took on Gunther to stand up for himself and Michael Cole (another announcer). I was fully invested in this match even though Pat McAfee is not technically a wrestler he is just an all around entertaining guy. A quick backstory of this match, Michael Cole called out Gunther during his commentary and he heard it and decided to attack him after Michael Cole said “I am not the one who tapped out” (meaning where Gunther tapped out against Jey Usso to lose the belt). Once Gunther got Michael Cole in a choke hold, Pat McAfee ran out from around the announcer desk and “Superman” punched Gunther to let Cole get out of the hold. Gunther then set his eyes on McAfee and proceeded to choke McAfee out until he passed out. Pat McAfee on the next week’s show called out Gunther which ultimately led to this match at Backlash. I will be honest Pat McAfee got his ass kicked in this match, however he showed some fight and actually gained some momentum throughout the match where I thought he would end up pinning or making Gunther tap out. My wife figured this match was a set up for Gunther to face a legend, Goldberg, but that did not happen. Gunther ended up choking out Pat McAfee again but at the end of the match before Gunther left the ring he took a bow toward McAfee and Cole showing some respect so I call that a win for my guy Pat McAfee. 

The fifth and final match we witnessed was probably the most legendary hyped match you could get in the current WWE for the Undisputed WWE Championship belt. We had the hometown guy Randy Orton going up against John Cena who both entered the WWE at the same time and have been doing this for over 25 years. I can say I am familiar with both of these wrestlers due to their time in the WWE and their popularity over the years. John Cena has always been the good guy and always nice but now that he is the Undisputed Champ he has changed to the dark side (if you will). He cheated his way to get the belt by linking up with The Rock and Travis Scott, yes you read that right Travis Scott makes appearances in the WWE. On the other hand Randy Orton has been known as one of the bad guys of wrestling for decades and also named the Legend Killer by taking down the legends of the sport. Unfortunately all that being said after a crazy match with tables, referees getting knocked out, and the Championship belt being used as a weapon. John Cena retained the Undisputed WWE Championship (not a shock) after pinning the hometown favorite Randy Orton. 

In ending, I will say on tv WWE is a little questionable to me, it seems to have dull moments and some would say pointless moments during a show. However, going to a live show is actually pretty cool the fans are absolutely crazy and so invested its like nothing you have ever seen. This is my second live show but first paper view show (PLE I guess is what they call them now) and man when I say the atmosphere was electric that is an understatement. I have been to many sporting events (baseball, basketball, hockey, etc) there is not a lot of those events that got louder with more dedicated fans than I saw this past weekend in St.Louis, the only place I have probably been that is louder and same dedicated fans is Wrigley Field. No, I stand firm that the WWE event does not beat me going to Wrigley Field! (Sorry WWE fans). If you are ever given the opportunity to go to a WWE show whether it be Raw, Smackdown, or paper view event like Backlash I recommend you go it is a very entertaining show from the WWE superstars all the way down to the dedicated fans in the stands cheering, booing, or heckling the wrestlers. Seriously if I were you I would by some tickets and experience this because us sports fans have a lot to learn from the fans of the WWE.