What’s the story?
WWE will present Backlash this Sunday, May 21, 2017, at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.
There are eight matches booked for the upcoming pay-per-view and seven of the matches have bets placed on them by fans on paddypower.com.
In case you didn’t know...
Backlash is the first SmackDown exclusive pay-per-view since Elimination Chamber and has three big matches headlining the show. Randy Orton is scheduled to take on Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship in what may be the main event of the evening.
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Another headlining match, which could also main event Backlash, will be AJ Styles taking on Kevin Owens for the United States Championship.
The last big headlining match for the pay-per-view will feature ‘The King of Strong Style’, Shinsuke Nakamura, who will fight his first main roster match, against Dolph Ziggler.
The heart of the matter
The betting odds from paddypower.com indicate that most fans expect a majority of the face wrestlers to win their matches. The following is the official betting odds from the website as of May 17, 2017:
Randy Orton (1/6) favorite over Jinder Mahal (7/2)
AJ Styles (11/8) favorite over Kevin Owens (1/1)
The Usos (4/6) favorite over Breezango (11/10)
Naomi, Charlotte, Becky Lynch (4/9) favorite over Natalya, Carmella, Tamina (13/8)
Luke Harper (4/6) favorite over Erick Rowan (11/10)
Baron Corbin (4/7) favorite over Sami Zayn (5/4)
Shinsuke Nakamura (4/11) favorite over Dolph Ziggler (15/8)
No bets were placed on the pre-show match between Aiden English and the Perfect 10 Tye Dillinger.
What’s next?
Tune into the WWE Network this Sunday to see if the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, the United States Championship, and the WWE Championship changes hands.
The results of this pay-per-view could be a determining factor in SmackDown Live bouncing back from its record low viewership of 2.175 million this week.
Author's Take
Of the bets made by fans on paddypower.com, the bets for AJ Styles and the team of Naomi, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch to win seem the least likely.
Rumours have been circulating that Charlotte’s babyface run will come to an end sooner than expected so a heel turn at Backlash could lead to a victory for The Welcoming Committee. Owens just regained the United States Championship a few weeks ago, hence losing the title so soon doesn’t seem to be a probable outcome.
Aside from those bets, the fans seem to have a general grasp of which wrestlers are likely to win their matches this Sunday. If the results of the pay-per-view are different from most fans are expecting, this could either be of great benefit or detriment to SmackDown’s ratings for the fallout episode on May 23, 2017.
