By Richard Gray on April 28th, 2008
WWE held their Backlash pay-per-view last night from the First Mariner Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. While it was expected to be a throwaway event, we ended up getting two title changes, one being the WWE Championship. The thing that surprised me the most about the event was that it featured all clean finishes. Whether or not this is indicative of the changes that Vince McMahon told WWE talent about last Monday on Raw – I don’t know, however, every match had a clean winner.
The pay-per-view featured the debut of Mick Foley as a color commentator for SmackDown, replacing Jonathan Coachman. While I feel like Foley has more potential than Coachman, his debut was shaky and probably would have been better on an episode of SmackDown. Foley has great knowledge and personality but there were times where he would talk over Michael Cole during key points of the match. Foley would also make a good point and instead of letting it rest he would get diarrhea mouth and just keep going on and on and on until you just wanted to tell him to shut up. Mick should get his timing down in practice but I feel that they should have just let Coachman finish up at Backlash.
Below are my match by match thoughts in the order in which they occurred not in order of match rating.
Matt Hardy winning the United States Championship against MVP was a fine opener but I feel with the title change that this had to be a blow-off match. Whether or not WWE plans to end the feud between Hardy and MVP remains to be seen, however, I do not think that there is anything left and a rematch would be pointless. WWE made Matt Hardy look like a big jobber in his post-match interview where he told Eve this was the best night of his life and the high point of his career. Excuse me; winning a title that no one cares about is the high point of your career? Matt has had tons of breathtaking matches in WWE that got him and Jeff over more than nearly any tag team in wrestling history and he is going to say that a basic singles match for the US Title was the high point of his career? While I understand why WWE wanted to make the moment special given Hardy’s extended program with MVP, the choice of words was bad.
Chavo Guerrero and Kane had a mediocre match for the ECW Championship that ended with a predictable clean pinfall win for Kane to retain. WWE tried to make it look like Chavo had a chance but realistically Chavo should never be booked in a program against Kane. Chavo is too small to look competitive and as a result this match did not appear to be of pay-per-view quality. Bam Neeley’s involvement was limited and there were no outstanding spots. Both worked hard but in the end it was a title defense that Kane could have easily had as the main event on WWE TV. As for Mike Adamle, he is still terrible but it was funny how they ribbed him throughout the show, almost making it his gimmick that all of the announcers were acknowledging his faults. One of the most annoying things that Adamle did was roll his Rs a couple of times when saying the Guerrero name which he should have never done. He also did not know what a chop was and called some moves late. He didn’t do as bad as he could have although he didn’t get a whole lot of time to mess up.
Big Show vs. The Great Khali. Need I say more? I could have written my thoughts on this match before it even happened. Show did his best to try to make this work but it was a snooze fest and they lost the crowd within a minute. Big Show slammed Khali and hit him a chokeslam as it looked like Khali did not offer much help in either one. The bottom line is The Great Khali has phenomenal size but just because he has phenomenal size does not mean that he is worthy of being a WWE superstar. There are too many guys underutilized in WWE for someone like Khali to get pay-per-view time. I am sorry for the two or three Khali fans out there but the guy is not a good worker and never well be.
The silliest thing of the night was Chris Jericho being the special guest referee of Shawn Michaels vs. Batista. I asked one of my sources in WWE on Friday what the plans were for Jericho in the match and they told me they did not have a clue. Apparently nobody did as Jericho came out dressed just like any other referee with the ear piece and all and did a very good job. He had absolutely no impact on the match and looked just like Mike Chioda. After reading Jericho’s book, he probably was determined to be the best referee on the show since he had no involvement in the direction of the match. As for the match itself between Batista and Shawn Michaels, it was pretty much what you would expect. Don’t get me wrong, it was a lot of fun at certain parts, but there was nothing that made it a five star match. Michaels did a great job of selling his knee because it really did look like it buckled at the end. The finish was abrupt and out-of-the blue but it worked. This would have been a lot more entertaining if Jericho had of turned on Michaels and started a program. Nonetheless the match was of pay-per-view quality and is worth watching.
The 12-Diva Tag Team match was your normal WWE Women’s contest which featured a bunch of women in bright color costumes, getting some spots in so the company can promote that they have a women’s division. Beth Phoenix looked good as always and Mickie got her spots in to still look like a above average worker. Other than that, there was not much to it. Natalya did not get much time to shine as did either of the other divas other than some brief exchanges involving Michelle McCool. I just wanted to also note that Ashley Massaro needs to put on some weight. She looks too thin to compete with anyone at where she is right now.
Undertaker vs. Edge was another dandy. If there were two people that really knew how to work against one another it would be Edge and Undertaker. They knew that they had big shoes to fill with their WrestleMania XXIV main event and they provided a contest that was different from last month but at the same time still had the edge needed to make it seem very realistic. It started slow but progressed nicely. Undertaker did not hit a lot of vintage spots but used a more realistic approach with an MMA type fighting stance and of course the Gogoplata choke. WWE kept Edge a good heel by involving Hawkins and Ryder but at the same time not ripping off the match by letting it end in disqualification. The finish was brilliant as it looked like Edge had beaten the odds with a backslide into a rollup only for him to get caught in the Gogoplata and being forced to tap. The ending with Edge being taken out on a backboard with Vickie Guerrero coming out was great and not only made Edge still look credible but made Undertaker look like the monster that he needs to be.
The Fatal Four Way Elimination match was good but I did not enjoy it as much as Undertaker vs. Edge. I am more of a traditionalist and I feel that if you are going to do a title change, it needs to be in a pure, no BS wrestling match. Hardcore stipulations are fine for matches that advance angles or blow them off but they just don’t work for me in title situations. John Cena had some very good spots as did JBL before they were eliminated around the twelve minute mark. Hunter and Randy Orton worked very well together and proved even further why the match should have been a singles bout. The finish was fun but slightly overbooked with Triple H ending it with a Pedigree and the three count. It’ll be interesting to see what WWE does with Triple H as I know they’re going to want to do programs with him and JBL as well as him and Cena. I guess I have been spoiled with the singles greatness of Edge/Undertaker as well as the tremendous build TNA did with Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle. I just feel that the WWE Championship should be considered ‘larger than life’ and a bout involving four people with hardcore stipulations makes it look too gimmicky for my taste. The match itself was very good.
All and all this was not a bad pay-per-view and featured enough good things that you will probably want to watch it. MVP vs. Matt Hardy, Batista vs. Michaels, Undertaker vs. Edge, and the Fatal Four Way matches are all worth seeing. The rest of the undercard was solid in that it featured clean finishes and not a lot of BS. Order the replay at your own discretion as you may just want to save and wait for the DVD to come out. Remember to leave me your thoughts as I look forward to hearing from you.
Tags: Jericho Is A Great Ref, Triple Is Champion, Undertaker vs. Edge Owns, WWE PPVs, WWE Title Change
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April 28th, 2008 at 11:01 am
When will CM Punk cash in hism MITB briefacase and will he be a heel or a face? Is he scheduled to move to Raw, because with three babyface champions, it looks like his shot is well done the line. Your thoughts?
April 28th, 2008 at 11:09 am
I’m quite excited of the fact that Mick Foley is going to be commentator of smackdown! I am a fan of his, and I hope that he may even be sneaked into a stroyline or two since i never get tired of seeing him on tv.
I didn’t watch Backlash but from what I read from various reports, it was a really good show, and Richard from the other reviews i read, u definetly favoured backlash the least, people were giving it like A- ratings.
I will definelty look into watching it since I am most excited about Matt Hardy vs MVP, Batista vs Shawn Micheals, Undertaker vs Edge, and the fatal 4 way(not as much as undertaker vs edge thouhg). The other matches… not so much but im sure i will find atleast one thing good with the rest like i always do. That was apparently Khali’s last appearance for quite a while.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I thought backlash was one of the best b level ppv iv seen in quite a while. There was no bad matches. i enjoyed every match even th khali show match. i hope khalis gone for a while. the two main events were top class and im glad they got rid of cena & jbl and have almost a singles match between orton & the game
April 28th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Thanks for reading but what could you have possibly enjoyed out of Khali vs. Big Show? The boring chants?!? Maybe the ‘you can’t wrestle’ chants?!?
April 28th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
i feel like orton should of not lost the match but they still worked well together
April 28th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
As with everything in WWE there was more to it (Orton losing) and I’ll have those details on the site before long.
April 28th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
For premium members exclusively of course.
All in all, I can’t say I was disappointed by the show, since I had no high expectations to it at all. Backlash is usually a great show with tons of interesting match-ups, but I gotta say the majority of them had nothing for me.
MVP vs. Matt Hardy and Big Show vs. Khali were the only “bad” matches. Not even Big Show could carry Khali. Backlash was a very bad time to give Matt Hardy the US title, and his post-match interview made him seem like a crazy jobber.
However, I disagree with the fact that you call the US title a “title nobody cares about”. As things are now, and not judging from past history, the US Championship is the most prestigious of all the upper midcard championships. It’ll be interesting to see how Matt’ll do.
The 12-diva match was actually the most entertaining match of the night for me, because it was actually unpredictable. And don’t say WWE’s women’s division can’t wrestle, you’re just focusing on the 70% of them that can’t.
Everything else was pretty good. Undertaker vs. Edge didn’t quite get where it should have been though, but the WWE Championship match was money all the way. Speaking of money, I had this creepy vision that CM Punk would cash MITB in after Triple H or Orton had won. Didn’t I hear CM Punk chants too? Maybe it’s the old bag of crisps.
I wouldn’t have paid money for this. Then again I didn’t. Good, but not good enough to be anything but the worst PPV of 2008 so far.
April 28th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
If WWE looked at the US Championship as an important title they would not have had Jericho make MVP tap last week on Raw only for CM Punk to beat Jericho who would later tap to Regal (who beat Hornswoggle and an “injured” Finlay). Jericho, a referee at Backlash, made the US Champion tap in a short basic TV match.
April 28th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
is it me or did foley sound like jbl at times, his voice is similar.
he doing a good job better than the coach, he will improve in the nect weeks
backlash was gd, worth watching for the mvp vs matt hardy, hbk vs batista, undertaker vs edge and fatal four way elimination match.
April 28th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
And? “Burying” champs happens all the time - it doesn’t devalue the title, just the bookers who’re involved.
April 28th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
I really enjoyed Backlash. Did pretty rubbish with my predictions but as always that made the show exciting and less predictable.
I was on the edge of my seat when Edge rolled up Undertaker and was thinking maybe… just maybe… but then it was all over. No Rated R Era for awhile.
Was very suprised to see Matt Hardy win the US title. I was really hopng for a ladder match for the victory but Im guessing MVP will get a rematch at Judgement day and hopefully this will be a speciality match.
Khali vs Big Show was not as bad as it could have been. At least we get a break from Khali for awhile now but I think the match was ok. No where near as bad as the many Khali vs Kane encounters we have seen.
Main event was stellar, Gutted Orton lost but yeah seems like he has been misbehaving again, What an idiot! And kind of ironic if you read the interview article he did the other day. Not looking forward to seeing HHH dominate everyone on the brand for the next few months though, I liked it when he lost a bit. Now would be a great time to inject a fresh face or two into the main event scene on RAW. Step up Kennedy and MVP. No one wants to see a HHH vs JBL or HHH vs Cena program.
Ill be back with my full thoughts with Chris Reviews Smackdown on Friday
Oh and with the relase of Balls Mahoney another nail in the coffin of original ECW, nice one Vince!
April 28th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I didn’t end up ordering Backlash, but over the 3 or so hours I read the text updates, and it didn’t sound like a bad PPV. Not outstanding, but not too awful either.
I am very interested to see where they go with Triple H now that he’s on his 12th title run- I don’t really want to see JBL chase the title… Here’s hoping that there is a Draft in the coming weeks/month shakes things up a bit.
Also, I was just thinking- at the moment, is there any of the champions that you could see CM Punk realistically beating? He needs time, and maybe a heel turn…
April 28th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Backlash was pretty good, especially given it followed an excellent Wrestlemania. Most matches were soild and ppv worthy, and i thought the fatal four way was much better as an elimination match. Both title changes were stupid as Trips should’ve got the belt in a singles bout and Hardy & MVP’s feud should have been given more time and the title change should have waited till judgement day. But at least WWE’s kept us guessing.
Two potential feuds I’d look forward to with Trip’s championship are Y2J and Michaels. Although I dont think either of these will happen for a while, I’ll definitely be excited for when they hopefully happen.
Where does this leave CM Punk with both major championships with two guys who aren’t going to let them go for the remainder of the year? He’s either going to have to turn heel, or go after the ECW championship which I hope to god doesnt happen. I personally think Punk’s going to hold the case for a while and have it as a back up if one of the champs gets injured. I think he’ll be cashing it in early next year, because if he does it this year, they’re not going to put him over Trips or Taker.
Great job as always Richard!
April 29th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Thanks for the compliment WWE is Jericho, well-written response as well!
April 29th, 2008 at 9:25 am
I noticed the comments about Matt Hardy and the US Championship. While I can agree with what was said to a degree, I believe that it is more than just that. Matt Hardy came back from both knee surgery and apprendix surgery as well. If I remember correctly, there were complications with the latter. When he won the championship, I admit that his speech was a little out there but it meant a lot to see Matt get considered for a singles title such as the US title. He has been with the WWE for almost 10 years and to finally get considered to carry a singles title is a big accomplishment. I just hope that Matt defends it more than MVP did.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I agree David as I actually feel like that we agree completely. He should be proud of being able to come back from both issues, however, he completely oversold in the interview. Some of the statements that he made should be saved for a World Title win.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Richard is right. You don’t have a champion tap to another champion just days before a PPV match. Right now, the US title looks weak and MVP looks even weaker. He tapped to Jericho, then got beat by Hardy.
Also with Hardy, I agree with Richard that his comments after the title win were somewhat jobber-ish. It would be like somebody saying that after winning the World Tag Team Championships. They’ve been buried so much it would make whoever look silly. Don’t get me started on TNA because they bury a different title every few months.
I also agree with Richard on the Fatal-4-Way match. Kurt Angle said in an interview a few years before he started talking crazy, that a perfect match would be me against this guy. If he beats me, good. No outside BS. I want a 1-on-1 match for a big title change. Not a Fatal 4-Way or a Triple Threat or anything else.
April 29th, 2008 at 11:14 am
The one thing that I truly do not understand is why they even have the US and Interconintal Championships anymore? Also, when did the US Championship have more prestige than the IC title?
As for the comments toward the Fatal FourWay match, I agree and disagree. While I do enjoy having a one on one match between a champion and their challenger, it has been done way to many times over the past couple of months. I am NOT saying have gimmick match after gimmick match and ruin that concept (TNA). However, add variety to it every once in a while. Add a stipulation when it means something. Personally, I feel like WWE just throws matches together nowadays e.g. Smackdown. It would be nice to have something different than just a one on one match.
That is the one thing that bothers me the most about the ECW Championship. Have a ladder match or cage match every now and then rather than subpar one on one matches. (I know that ECW isnt the same but add variety when needed)
By the way, Backlash was enjoyable. I would recommend it. Big Show/Khali was not that bad but not something I would go out of my way to see. The Divas Tag Match was what you expect. ECW Championship was watchable. Hardy/MVP was a good back and forth match. HBK/Batista was interesting and enjoyable. Edge/Undertaker was a rollarcoaster ride of emotion. Fatal FourWay was great. So far, I will say that all the PPVs of 2008 have been throughly enjoyable!
April 29th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Well they played Backlash here at 3am this morning instead of Raw, and I can’t say that I’m unhappy because I thought it was a solid PPV.
In response to HK-47, I thought this overall was better than the royal rumble. I read all the results for the PPV, but not what really happens in the matches so I can enjoy them an be suprized, and I thought most of the matchs delivered. We just have to wait for the rest of the year to play out, and be given a PPV that really isn’t good at all.
I’m a fan of Triple threat/Fatal 4 ways, but I agree that the Major titles should generally be one on one. They had that going at WM for along time until they decided to screw it up with that fatal 4 way between Show, Foley, The Rock,
and HHH.
I thought Kane and Chavo worked well together considering the size difference. Funny about Mike Adamle calling the Ref Mike Cole, and The Tazz telling him no, thats the announcer on SD.
I think HBK has only improved with age, he can pretty much carry anybody in a match. I was suprized with how the match was won suddenly. But was happy with the outcome.
Khali showed a small hint of a wrestling hold and had Big Show in a crossface for a few seconds. Other than that atleast this fued is out of the way.
Divas match short to the point, and I agree that Ashley is really, small but it looks like she doesn’t have an ounce of fat on her. Glad they let the wrestlers wrestle in this match and didn’t get Kelly vs Leyla at all.
I agree with Foley talking alot during the matches, while he won’t have that JBL heel flair he should still be solid at the position.
With Matt winning the belt I guess they thought the fued had gone on long enough without Hardy winning the belt. It had been going on for almost a year, with MVP just killing time until Hardy came back. Matts been around for nine years and done good work for a long time. I feel its better for him to win here in a singles match rather than a gimmicked ladder match or TLC. Jeff got over as a singles wrestler in normal matches so why can’t Matt? Although the reaction is over the top, they are trying to convince us to care about the title, just like Mickie crying about the Womens title.
I wouldn’t have ordered it but getting it on DVD wouldn’t be a bad choice.
May 1st, 2008 at 2:58 pm
i should add that i disagree with Matt hardy’s over the top reaction to winning the belt making him look like a jobber. Matt hardy has never had good success as a singles competitor, unlike Jeff who has even dipped his foot into the main event a couple of times and has had major midcard success.
I think its a great thing that Matt has the US title and with this long rivalry with MVP it made the title mean something.. and even more so then the IC title at some points. The main point is that Matt finally has a singles belt at his waste and that is pretty dam awesome.