Full Backlash France Predictions Including Cody Rhodes, Damian Priest And Bianca Belair

Ask a WWE fan to name their favorite yearly Premium Live Events, and they’ll almost certainly rattle off at least a half dozen before even considering Backlash. It’s a problem of timing more than anything else. At its best, WrestleMania is a culmination of a year’s worth of storylines, and Backlash, the PPV after ‘Mania, is, well, what comes after. And what comes after is never going to be as exciting as WrestleMania or SummerSlam or any of the regular PPVs with built-in hooks like Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, Elimination Chamber and Money In The Bank.

That doesn’t mean Backlash France isn’t going to be worth watching, though. Last year’s edition in Puerto Rico had a terrific atmosphere and featured fantastic matches between Damian Priest and Bad Bunny and Bianca Belair and Iyo Sky. We also got that terrific moment with Zelina Vega getting a huge pop from the crowd, and there’s reason to believe we could get some really good matches this year too, as well as some forward progress on long-term plots.

From where I’m sitting, it seems like a relatively easy card to predict winners for, but getting too cocky in this predictions game never goes well. You can check out my up and down overall results below…

What follows are my full predictions for Backlash France. I’ll give you a sense of what I think is going to happen in the match and if I expect to see any interference, surprises or major character development, but as always, I’ll only judge myself for the purposes of wins and losses on the official prediction.

Randy Orton And Kevin Owens Vs Solo SIkoa And Tama Tonga

If you’re just looking at this match purely from a which-dudes-are-further-up-the-card perspective, Randy Orton and Kevin Owens should win this hands down. They’ve both been World Champions and are extremely over with the crowd. You could slide either into a program with Cody Rhodes or Damian Priest tomorrow and the audience would buy it, but there’s more in play here than just the resumes of everyone involved.

It seems very likely the main plot of WWE at some point in the future is going to be The Rock and Roman Reigns in a battle for Bloodline supremacy. Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga need to establish themselves as real intimidating threats in order to be a meaningful part of that storyline. That means winning matches, especially after Solo kicked Jimmy Uso out of The Bloodline and gave a speech about how winning matters. 

That being said, he never said anything about winning clean. So, expect The Bloodline to pick up the victory but expect them to do it with outside shenanigans, probably via interference from recent signee Jacob Fatu.

Predicted Winner: Solo And Tama

The Kabuki Warriors (Champions) Vs Bianca Belair And Jade Cargill For The Women’s Tag Team Championship

Betting against Bianca Belair is almost always a bad idea, and betting against Jade Cargill somehow seems even dumber. Alongside Naomi, they rolled over Dakota Kai and The Kabuki Warriors at WrestleMania 40, and it’s hard not to think they’ll do the same thing here. After all, Bianca was just the first overall pick in the draft, and Jade Cargill is being protected like a prime Hulk Hogan. WWE wouldn’t throw them together and have them lose, right?

Well, there are really two arguments for why they should lose. The first is to keep Damage CTRL and The Kabuki Warriors as strong as possible. Iyo Sky just lost her belt to Bayley at WrestleMania 40, and the other members got rolled in that aforementioned tag match. With Dakota Kai as a mouthpiece, Asuka, Kairi Sane and Iyo have so much potential, but in order to fulfill that, they need to win some big PPV matches in big moments. 

The second argument is about the future of Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill. No offense to the Women’s Tag Team Championship, but I think the plan is pretty clear that at some point we’re going to get Bianca and Jade in a feud with each other. That’s the type of high upside storyline that could main event a future PPV. Personally, I think it would be smarter to give them some tag success and keep them together for a few months before one of them turns, but there’s always the possibility Triple H and company get antsy and act now.

More than likely though, Bianca and Jade are going to roll here, and they’ll be made to look as unbeatable and dominant as possible.

Predicted Winner: Bianca Belair And Jade Cargill

Bayley (Champion) Vs Naomi Vs Tiffany Stratton For The WWE Women’s Championship

Damage CTRL is officially moving to Monday Night Raw, which means Bayley, for the first time in years, is going to embark on a storyline that doesn’t involve Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai. It’s sad in some ways, but in other ways, it was definitely needed. Bayley needs to find a voice for herself outside the faction she created, and hopefully, it starts here.

I think Tiffany Stratton will be one of the biggest stars in the company a few years from now, but it’s not Tiffy Time yet, nor is it Naomi’s moment to get back to the top of the card. I expect we’re going to get a really good match here filled with some fun spots and promises of the future, but Bayley can’t win the belt at WrestleMania and then immediately drop it to someone that wasn’t connected to that Damage CTRL storyline at all. That would do too much damage to her character, and ultimately, it would make putting her in such a prime spot at WrestleMania 40 really confusing in retrospect.

Predicted Winner: Bayley

Damian Priest (Champion) Vs Jey Uso For The World Heavyweight Championship

At its core, wrestling is about getting over with the crowd, and Jey Uso is so over with the crowd right now. His intro is arguably more popular than Seth Rollins’ at least currently, and his promos always get a steady stream of YEETs. To be honest, though, there’s something about Jey Uso that just doesn’t feel Main Event yet. His energy is that of a super over midcarder, and it didn’t help that his match against Jimmy Uso was widely considered to be the worst on the WrestleMania card. Plus, it seems likely his future is going to be wrapped up in The Bloodline storyline and probably a reunion with longtime frenemy Roman Reigns.

Damian Priest is also a bit in limbo right now. He had the best moment of his entire career at WrestleMania 40 and seemed likely to go on a fantastic run opposite his Terror Twin Rhea Ripley, but she’s now on the shelf for months and had to forfeit her title. Dominik Mysterio is also hurt, and WWE is teasing problems within Judgment Day on a weekly basis. I still think he needs to at least hold onto the belt until Clash At The Castle in June, when Drew McIntyre can presumably win it back, but there is a little doubt in my mind about whether he could lose here. I don’t think so, but the possibility definitely exists.

Predicted Winner: Damian Priest

Cody Rhodes (Champion) Vs Aj Styles For The WWE Championship

AJ Styles needs another run with a World Championship before he takes off his boots for the last time. He’s still one of WWE’s best workers in the ring, and while he’s mostly worked as a heel the last year or so, fans will get behind him again if they’re given a good reason. But c’mon. Cody Rhodes is not losing this belt.

Exactly how long The American Nightmare holds the gold is an open question that likely depends on how supportive fans remain, given they historically tire out at some point on rooting for the same babyface, but we’re definitely not there yet. The crowd still loses its mind every time his theme song hits, and he’s still putting on quality matches. Given AJ Styles’ workrate, this will almost certainly be another one, but the outcome is not in doubt. Cody is going to retain, and it would be an utter shock to see him lose at any point before at least SummerSlam.

Predicted Winner: Cody Rhodes