 Paul Heyman Confronted World Heavyweight Champion Jey UsoUso cut a fairly basic promo addressing Logan Paul to start the show and I figured Paul would confront him in predictable fashion to make their match official for Backlash, so Heyman coming out instead was a pleasant surprise. Heyman ended up cutting one of his best promos in recent memory. That intensity was awesome and I appreciated that he took the time to address his betrayal of Roman Reigns (now Seth Rollins has to explain why he aligned with Heyman and recruited Bron Breakker). They also created a hell of a hook for the main event with Heyman challenging Uso for the World Heavyweight Championship on Rollins' behalf. Penta def. JD McDonaghThese two have cost each other wins over the last couple of weeks, so this was a logical match to do despite the outcome never being in doubt. McDonagh was an easy name for Penta to beat and they had a quality contest. Even more impressive was that Finn Balor, Carlito and even Chad Gable all attempted to interfere and Penta still won. Penta vs. Dominik Mysterio for the Intercontinental Championship was announced for Backlash, which is weird because I assume Penta is losing to Mysterio again. Sheamus def. Austin TheoryThis marked Sheamus' first appearance on WWE TV since the Royal Rumble three months ago. It's wild that he was gone for that long if he wasn't injured, but I guess they left him off since he wasn't factored into the WrestleMania 41 plans. It's great to have him back and in a fun match with Theory, who he has history with from when they feuded over the United States Championship two years ago. Women's Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria Attacked Becky LynchThis was the second straight week that we got a strong segment with Valkyria and Lynch. Both of them cut really good promos and I was especially impressed with Valkyria, who is clearly becoming more confident on the mic. With Valkyria again getting the better of Lynch, all signs point to Lynch taking the title from Valkyria at Backlash and I have no issue with that provided that (as I've said before) Valkyria gets the belt back down the road. Women's World Champion IYO SKY def. Roxanne Perez (Non-Title)Much like Perez vs. Rhea Ripley last week, this was another very enjoyable outing as well as a standout showing from Perez. She's already adapting extremely well to the main roster. They received an ample amount of time and the clean finish was a nice touch. The commentators that Ripley was still in Australia doing media, so Giulia and Perez laid out SKY afterward to set up next week's tag team match. Rusev def. OtisWWE has created so many new fans in the last few years with the product getting hot again that a majority of them probably aren't familiar with Rusev, who was released five years ago. That was evident by the quiet crowd reaction he received during his entrance. Despite that, the match was exactly what it needed to be with Otis scoring some hope spots and Rusev going over in dominant fashion. The post-match angle with Rusev attacking Akira Tozawa was also well done. Pat McAfee and Gunther Faced OffEverything these two have done in the last few weeks has been terrific and this was no exception. McAfee cut a passionate promo about how he feels Gunther is overlooking him the same way he overlooked Uso and Sami Zayn, and Gunther's response about how he's fully focused on destroying him was also top-notch stuff. I'm really looking forward to their Backlash match as it has the potential to be a blast. Seth Rollins def. World Heavyweight Champion Jey Uso by DisqualificationI honestly wasn't sure if we'd actually get the match until the bell rang, so I was surprised they did deliver on it considering this easily could've headlined one of the nights of SummerSlam. That said, what we got was excellent, especially once the crowd came alive in the second half for all of the nearfalls and interference. The chaotic closing stretch was very Attitude Era-esque in the best way possible. WWE.com ruled the finish a disqualification win for Rollins despite the bell never ringing, so keep that in mind in case WWE decides to revisit this eventually (and they should). Overall ShowThis was one of the better go-homes WWE has had in some time. In addition to the effective hype for Backlash, there was other storyline advancement and entertaining action, most notably the newsworthy main event and its immediate aftermath. Raw is doing an admirable job of resetting the deck post-WrestleMania and keeping things interesting across the card.
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