WWE Backlash 2020 Results: Edge Vs. Randy Orton Delivers And 5 Key Takeaways

WWE Backlash 2020 will go down as one of most unique pay-per-views in recent memory.

Over the past few months, WWE’s TV viewership for both Raw and SmackDown has taken a nosedive, and the underwhelming Backlash pay-per-view didn’t exactly do much to fix that, but it did fit the bill as a strange event that used everything but the kitchen sink to get people talking. Overall, the PPV was—as is the case with most WWE events—a mixed bag highlighted by a surprisingly good Women’s Tag Team Triple Threat match and fantastic bout between Edge and Randy Orton but marred by head-scratching decisions like Asuka vs. Nia Jax ending in a double countout and whatever you want to call what happened between The Street Profits and The Viking Raiders.

WWE is clearly making an overt effort to improve its TV product by bringing back names like Edge and Randy Orton, thinking outside-the-box with the styles of its matches, having NXT superstars function as “fans” for its TV tapings and pushing new stars, but there are bound to be some hiccups along the way. Were there more shining moments or forgettable ones at Backlash?

Let’s take a look at the five biggest takeaways from Backlash 2020.

Sheamus vs. Jeff Hardy Will Continue

There appears to be more to come from Sheamus and Jeff Hardy after “The Celtic Warrior” narrowly won a hard-fought battle over Hardy at Backlash.

The feud between the two future Hall of Famers has drawn widespread criticism for revolving around Hardy’s real-life history of substance abuse, resulting in plenty of speculation that WWE could choose to end this rivalry with a Hardy victory at Backlash. Instead, Sheamus barely escaped this match with a win after Hardy nearly won the bout following a Swanton Bomb, suggesting that there is much more to come from these top SmackDown stars.

There is still yet to be any definitive answer as to whether or not Sheamus really attacked Hardy and framed him a few weeks ago on SmackDown, and though that may come into play later on, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if WWE simply forgot about it in order to move forward with the feud between Hardy and Sheamus without bringing anyone else into it.

Expect a rubber match between the two at Extreme Rules, likely in some sort of No DQ-type of gimmick match.

Drew McIntyre Is Here To Stay

If you’re not a Drew McIntyre fan, you might want to buckle up because this is going to be a long ride.

McIntyre defeated Bobby Lashley at Backlash to continue his impressive run of dominance on Raw, where he’s now run through the likes of Lashley, Big Show, Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins. For anyone who thought that McIntyre might be a short-lived or transitional champion due to the dismissal of a big McIntyre fan in Paul Heyman, it’s instead become clear that both Vince McMahon and Triple H remain big fans of McIntyre, who has been booked quite well in 2020 and is clearly the most believable main eventer WWE has at the moment.

As a star who has had his fair share of ups and downs during his career, McIntyre is someone who many fans expected to fizzle out the main roster when he got lost in the shuffle at different points in 2018 and 2019, but the McIntyre train is rolling full steam ahead, with little to suggest that will change anytime soon. If anything, McIntyre will be a long-term WWE Champion, and whoever does beat him will benefit greatly from dethroning such a strongly booked champion.

Bray Wyatt Is Likely The Next Universal Champion

As expected, Braun Strowman had no problem getting through The Miz and John Morrison at Backlash, and his victory sets up what will likely be a reincarnated feud with Bray Wyatt.

Wyatt didn’t appear at Backlash following Strowman’s victory like many expected him to, but after the Firefly Fun House version of Wyatt lost to “The Monster Among Men” at Money in the Bank last month, it appears WWE is moving on from Strowman vs. Miz/Morrison, which likely means it is moving forward with “The Fiend” version of Wyatt chasing Strowman and the Universal title this time around. If that happens, is there any chance Wyatt doesn’t win it? Well, there is always a chance, but in this case, probably not a very good one.

Strowman, of course, was a last-minute replacement for Roman Reigns against Godlberg at WrestleMania 36, which is the only real reason why he’s even Universal Champion in the first place. That means that Strowman, barring something unforeseen happening, is in this spot purely to serve as a transitional champion, which should prove true now that WWE has laid the framework for Wyatt to return and step up as Strowman’s next challenger in a paper-thin SmackDown title picture.

Look for Wyatt to win the Universal Championship within the next month or two, and let’s all cross our fingers that his second run with the belt—if it happens—is better than his first.

WWE Is Already Going Overboard With Cinematic Matches

Following the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the Boneyard and Firefly Fun House matches at WrestleMania 36, Vince McMahon revealed that WWE would be doing more cinematic-style matches moving forward.

That excited some fans, but worried others. Why? Because WWE often tends to overdo a good thing until it becomes a bad one. The same has already become true of WWE’s cinematic-style matches, with The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles and Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena opening the floodgates for more of these Hollywood-esque matches that are meant to provide fans with a break from the mundane, standard bouts that have defined the audience-less Performance Center-based shows.

At Money in the Bank, we got a cinematic 2-in-1 MITB ladder match, and at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, Adam Cole battled Velveteen Dream in a Backlot Brawl that was taped in advance over the course of several hours. WWE doubled down on that strategy with a pre-taped, movie-like “match” between The Street Profits and The Viking Raiders at Backlash, which was quickly followed up by Edge vs. Randy Orton in a more standard wrestling match but one that utilized some noticeable bells and whistles in an attempt to make it stand out.

While Edge vs. Orton did its best to live up to the bizarre hype of being “The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever,” WWE’s continued over-reliance on cinematic-style matches is already beginning to water down the concept.

Edge Vs. Randy Orton Delivered

At Backlash, Randy Orton defeated Edge in Edge’s first traditional wrestling match in nine years, one that had been hyped as “The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever.”

Of course, the average wrestling fan who watched their encounter at Backlash won’t actually be labeling it as even one of the best wrestling matches of all-time, but “The Viper” and “The Rated R Superstar” still deliver with a bout that was about as close as you can get to an instant classic given the circumstances created by Covid-19. While the bout had its fair share of issues, like going overboard with the piped in-crowd noise and perhaps lasting too long just as their WrestleMania match did, it was—in comparison to a standard wrestling match—a fantastic bell-to-bell bout.

After Vince McMahon recently blamed Raw’s low viewership on the absences of top stars, you have to think that Edge and Orton were feeling the pressure of not only being Raw’s top stars but being expected to deliver one of the best wrestling matches in history despite Edge not wrestling a traditional match in a decade. The bout featured some great throwbacks to stars like Triple H and The Rock, told a stellar story of two stars who wouldn’t give up and marked the climax of the best rivalry WWE has put on in years.

It doesn’t get much better than that, and even if it wasn’t “the greatest match ever” that WWE hyped it up to be, it over-deliver for those who had realistic expectations of what the match would be.