Power Rankings, WWE Backlash Edition

What happens in the moments after the big moment?

This question has stumped storytellers for years. You’ve heard about movies with “third act problems.” You have seen terrible sequels. You have bemoaned the decline of your favorite television shows.

What happens after the hero overcomes their foe and prevails?

The easy path is when the story ends. The more difficult path is when you need to keep that story going, creating interest and tension after you have just paid off a long journey that included interest and tension before the good guy won.

That’s the question now for WWE and Cody Rhodes. What happens in the moments after the big moment?

We got our first glimpse at the answer on this weekend’s Backlash show.

10. Appropriate street fight attire

The opening match saw Team RKO taking on the Bloodline. A pre-match brawl led to the last-second announcement that the four men would be settling their differences via a no-DQ, anything goes street fight. There just one big problem: none of them were dressed for a street fight.

If there’s one thing we have learned over the years, it’s the importance of being dressed properly for a street fight. Jeans and a t-shirt, usually. Knee pads over the jeans for both protection and the comedic effect. In the case of Christian Cage, it was a cutoff turtle neck.

Side note, Christian Cage is a genius.

Anyway, appropriate street fight attire is crucial for two reasons: for their function in the fight and to put the wrestler in the right mindset. So it was that these four had an extra degree of difficulty hoisted upon them with the last-second stipulation. Granted, it was their fault that the match format changed in the rise place.

I should amend this to say that this change affected three of the four participants. I think it’s well established by now that those are Randy Orton’s clothes. That’s what he wears every day.