[2018-05-06-WWE-Backlash] Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss

[Superstar Sleeze]

RAW Women's Champion Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss - Backlash 2018

 

Nia Jax took some wicked bumps. They found some creative and really compelling ways for Alexa Bliss to get heat on the much bigger Nia. Loved Alexa going for chokes and the knees. Nia was great at steamrolling early. But her anger was her downfall as Alexa catches her with a kick to the head. The head shot was a great way for Alexa to get on offense. Nia had great power hope spots. There was a really weird miscommunication in the corner revolving around a Samoan Drop. Nia Jax took an insane tumble from the top rope to the floor! They did a great job milking this! Jax took another bump off the middle rope! Catching Twisted Bliss into Samoan Drop was good finish. I preferred the asskicking from Mania but this was solid. ***

[KawadaSmile]

This was good, but I think it was hurt by the build. Alexa's not really being so heelish here as she was on WM, and as such the only thing that really is apparent in this match is the obvious size difference, and that makes Bliss the underdog by default.

 

Would benefit more from clearer face/heel dynamics, but it was fun. Nasty bumps by Nia, my God.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Alexa is being a disingenuous heel who is slandering Nia and trying to paint herself as a victim after she was clearly outted for using Nia and thinking little of her. Instead of accepting personal responsibility, she is claiming to be a victim. When people do this in real life or in the media, people usually get pretty pissed at them. I feel that made Alexa a strong heel that you really wanted to see her get her shit kicked in. It would have been better if she was there in person, but I don't think this suffered from ambiguous face/heel dynamics.

[KawadaSmile]

I get that the build was effective to paint her as this sort of asshole "victim", but maybe the skits were too well done? I don't know, like someone else said on the live thread, those Moments of Bliss were so well done that you could forget that she was a bully and she had a point. They actually had people cheering for Alexa, which is so weird.

 

The build itself was great and it did have the heel/face dynamics, but it didn't carry over to the actual match, methinks.

[NotJayTabb]

I thought this was pretty fun, it is admittedly strange to see someone as small as Alexa dominating someone the size of Nia, but they worked it well - Alexa taking out Nia's knee early, escaping moves with rakes to the eyes and causing Nia to take some big bumps along the way. Nia's offence looks really good, and her size advantage means she knows she just needs that one killshot to put Alexa away, but that causes some misses like the flipping senton or the attempted second rope Samoan drops. Alexa makes this great smug face before DDTing Nia onto the ring steps in a great spot, and I liked the story that she suddenly realised she couldn't get Nia into the ring. The clean win hopefully means Alexa is out of the title picture for a while, would like to see Nia feuding with the Riott Squad next.

[Gulus]

Worst match on worst card of year - complete train wreck. Slow, basic & illogical which five foot bliss, who is neither a technical whiz nor explosive, easily dominating an opponent more than twice her size. When Bliss did get the chance to bump for Jax, she did so by twice performing a forward roll across the ring & landing safely on her feet. Jax's "bumps" involved awkwardly getting in position & simply letting herself fall. Both these two are too green to work together or a match this length.