Last updated 6 July 2004
WWE 2004 Backlash from TBD
18 April 2004
Short version
- Shelton Benjamin over Ric Flair
- Jonathan Coachman over Tajiri
- Jericho over Christian & Trish Stratus
- Victoria over Lita
- Randy Orton over Cactus Jack
- Hurricane & Rosey over La Resistance
- Edge over Kane
- Benoit over HHH and HBK
Hack-Man Report of the PPV
Here's my review of the latest outing from WWE, based on "how much
money was this match worth?" At the end, I add it all up and see if
the PPV as a whole was worth the sum of its matches.
I wasn't sure if Torch HQ would be open due to family circumstances
and I didn't feel like driving that far anyway what with the
tornadoes and severe weather, so I went to the local sports bar to
catch Backlash. I was sold on the event due to the main event, but
was also looking forward to seeing how insane Foley would get and
see if Benjamin would step up for his match with Flair. I figured
the Coach match and the Kane match would be good bathroom breaks.
The sports bar never shows Sunday Night Heat, so I don't know what
matches were shown there (or if they set up for any matches beyond
the seven advertised for the PPV).
There seemed to be a lot of Hardy Boys fans in the Edmonton Crowd,
as well as a bunch of signs that made no sense to me.
The PPV is in Canada, so I expected a bunch of morons yelling
"twoooooo" (well, more morons than normal) as well as "you screwed
Bret" chants for Hebner.
Nancy Benoit still looks bangable. She's gotta be in her 40s by now
and has pumped out a few kids since Kevin Sullivan used to pimp her
out for $500 a pop, so she's held up surprisingly well.
Jerry Lawler was back to wearing his kingly attire (with no shirt
underneath) so it looks like the suit and tie he wore at
WrestleMania was a one-time thing.
1. Shelton Benjamin over Ric Flair in 9:30
Holy crap. When was the last time Flair was the curtain jerker at a
PPV? Has he *ever* been a curtain jerker at a PPV? I guess I
should just be glad he was wearing something under his robe, eh?
Flair did his "go to the top turnbuckle" spot twice, but since he's
a heel, it didn't pan out. No Flair Flip (what with the bad neck
and all) but we were robbed by getting no Flair Flop as well. We
did get the "beg on knees followed by poke to the eyes". Sigh. I'm
probably the last person to jump off the bandwagon, but I have to
admit that Flair matches are getting too formulistic. The end of
the match seemed to come out of nowhere (which made it
anti-climactic. Damn. I had made a mental note a week ago to send
JR an email so he'd mention during this match that both Ric Flair
and Benjamin had attended the University of Minnesota. Oh well. I
think JR mentioned it for Benji at least.
MATCH RATING: $0.50
Todd Grisham interviewed Randy Orton backstage. The bar had the
volume lower than usual, so I only caught maybe half of it. I'm
assuming Foley will bleed like crazy and Orton will bump like a
madman but won't blade.
RATING: $0.05
2. Jonathan Coachman over Tajiri in 6:24
Ugh. Comedy matches should never go this long. Coach isn't a
wrestler, so Tajiri should have been able to effectively put him
away in under a minute. If they're going to have it go longer than
that, they need to do spots where Tajiri has Coach beat, but pulls
him up repeatedly after a two count to inflict more damage. I was
trying to decide what color mist Tajiri would spray in Jon's eyes.
I figured black was right out since that would cause blindness (and
would be hard to see. Glenn was guessing green (I think) so I
predicted red. There was no mist and the match ended when Garrison
Cade did a run-in (which I somehow missed). As they showed the
replay I see that I also missed the Tarantula. WTF? Coach doesn't
need to get over. Why bury Tajiri? For that matter, why was Tajiri
moved to Raw (and why is Hurricane on Raw) when the cruiserweight
division is on Smackdown?
MATCH RATING: $0.20
A video recap aired of the Trish-Chris Jericho-Christian storyline.
RATING: $0.05
3. Jericho over Christian & Trish Stratus in 11:12
I would have marked if the crowd would have started a USA chant.
Trish was actually holding on to the tag rope during the match.
Jericho won after an enzuigiri for three anti-climactic finishes in
a row. In fact, that makes three rub-par-for-Raw matches in a row.
MATCH RATING: $0.50
Backstage, Eugene was reading the Divas magazine and just happened
to wander into the women's dressing room. For some reason Gail Kim
and Molly were there (despite the fact that neither of them was
booked for the PPV). Gail could have a decent run as a scream queen
if she ever decides to give up accidentally injuring people in
sloppy wrestling matches. The payoff came with Regal came in and
was distracted by Gail Kim's new breasts.
RATING: $0.15
4. Victoria over Lita in 7:22 to retain the title
Fit deserves some more praise. This match was better than any of
the three that came before it (including a match between Ric Flair
and an All-American amateur wrestler). A couple years ago I would
have cringed if a women's match went over five minutes (other than a
T&A match). This match never dragged, and Victoria even pulled out
a nice surfboard halfway through.
At this point we've had four of the seven matches and were only a
third of the way through the PPV. Since I assumed the Edge/Kane
match would be kept short, I expected a nice long hardcore match and
some decent time given to the main event.
5. Randy Orton over Cactus Jack in 23:04
I guess I can't really blame either guy for using the plastic barbed
wire on the baseball bat. Mick doesn't need any more punishment at
this stage of his career and Randy probably wants to keep his good
looks to keep scoring with ring rats. It was nice to see Mick back
in his old Cactus trunks and boots after so many years in those
horrid sweat pants (and the last couple weeks in jeans). I think JR
said at one point that Mick was at his lightest weight in 15 years
(or was it his lightest weight since 1991, I forget). We tried to
decide if that was the least he's weighed since he worked for Joe
Pedicino in GWF or not. There were a lot of nice hardcore spots,
but they spaced them out enough to not make it overkill. The high
points were Foley pulling out Socko (but the crowd wanted barbie
more than socko), Foley legdropping barbie on Orton's crotch, Orton
spreading thumbtacks on the mat (and then getting dropped on them
himself (one of the few hardcore bumps I'd take myself)), Foley
pouring "gasoline" on barbie and preparing to light it (only to be
told by Bisch that if he lit the bat he would be DQed and the fire
marshall would shut down the PPV). Somewhere in here Orton bladed.
Foley went looking under the ring where there just happened to be a
piece of plywood with coils of barbed wire attached to it. Of
course just as with the thumbtacks, the person who introduces the
item is the one who takes the punishment, as Foley went back-first
onto the board. This is probably the point where his arms got cut a
up a bit. Orton walked up the ramp. At this point I expected
Evolution to help out, since they were only barred from
ringside--Orton wasn't barred from having the help out away from
ringside. Luckily, they kept this match free of interference. At
the top of the ramp Foley threw Orton off the stage on to a
crudely-made wood platform with coils of wire and rubber hoses on
it. They must drag these from PPV to PPV just in case Shane McMahon
needs a place to land. After EMTs checked on Orton, Foley shoved to
refs to the ground and jumped onto Orton before blading himself on
the forehead. Back in the ring, one of the funnier moments was the
ref counting a near-pinfall and getting thumbtacks stuck on his hand
for his trouble. Randy eventually won after an RKO on barbie. The
match went about the right length, and never seemed to drag. Good
work by both men. Evolution came to the ring to help Orton to the
back. Fire would have been nice, as would a nice triple-table spot.
;-)
MATCH RATING: $6.10
Backstage Hunter walked up to Orton and told him that is what
Evolution is all about. Hunter said tonight he went from being a
Legend Killer to a Legend himself. Orton forced a smile as Flair and
Batista continued to hold him up. Grisham approached Hunter and
asked him about the title match.
RATING: $0.15
6. Hurricane & Rosey over La Resistance in 5:03
Good thing I wasn't at Torch HQ or I would have missed this exciting
match due to the power outage. *Cough*. Well this match wasn't
advertised and I can see why. I'm guessing HHH wanted two snoozer
matches to let the crowd cool down from the hardcore match before
his main event. Too bad that will make the main event shorter than
it probably should be. Well, anyway, the match ended when Eugene
made his second PPV appearance of the night and used La Resistance's
Quebec flags as a cape for the second time in six days. Yawn. I
just hope that doesn'r mean he will soon think he's a superhero.
MATCH RATING: $0.10
7. Edge over Kane in 6:23
This went about three times as long as it should have. We all knew
Edge couldn't job on his first PPV match since 2002, so they
shouldn't have dragged out the ending so long. At least they teased
Kane's possibility of winning by having his ringpost pyro "not work"
at the beginning of the match (which usually means they are saving
the pyro for his post-match celebration).
MATCH RATING: $0.05
8. Benoit over HHH and HBK in 30:07
Good intensity throughout the match, although we had to suffer
through the contrived means by why one wrestler was always "knocked
out" for several minutes while the other two guys went at it in the
ring. And since HHH had already tapped out to Benoit (and also
since HBK won the eight-man match on Raw) it was pretty obvious that
Benoit would be pinning HBK tonight. The excitement was the journey
on how they would get to that finish.
About halfway through I noted that there hadn't been a ref bump all
night. I then wondered out loud why Hebner wasn't reffing the main
event. My question was answered a minute later when the ref was
knocked out (and stayed out for the next 22 minutes) and Hebner
eventually waddled to the ring to a chorus of boos. Before Hebner
came to the ring (but while the original ref was knocked out) Benoit
had HHH in a sharpshooter and HBK in the crossface. Surprisingly
(but nice for a change) neither guy "tapped out while the ref was
gone". HBK seemed to be confused at whether the "you screwed Bret"
chants were directed at him or at Hebner. Sounds like the start of
a subtle heel turn that might be cemented tomorrow at Raw in
Calgary. As Benoit and HHH were scrambling on the outside, I
noticed the Spanish Announcers prepping the table and removing their
headsets. As HBK started climbing the turnbuckle, I called that
he'd miss both guys and go through the table by himself. Luckily
Edge(?) had removed the monitors in the previous match. The crowd
was popping for all the high spots and near falls, so HHH inserted a
camel clutch rest hold to cause a valley to set up for the next peak
(and so they could show a bunch of replays of HBK diving to the
SAT). Michaels loaded up his boot to superkick HHH, but since
Benoit was climbing back onto the apron, it was obvious that he'd be
the target instead. HHH grabbed his sledgehammer from under the
ring and used it on his opponent. The ref was looking right at him
but didn't DQ him. It would have been nice if HHH had been DQed, so
they could finish the match with just HBK and Benoit. HHH set up
the bottom half of the ringsteps to pedigree Benoit on, but Benoit
catapulted HHH into the ringpost from it instead. Nice spot.
Benoit then returned to the ring and locked Michaels in the
Sharpshooter. The crowd cheered like it could be the end. Michaels
fought frantically to get to the bottom rope, selling the pain and
urgency brilliantly. He finally touched the bottom rope, only to
have Benoit drag him back to the middle. Michaels again struggled,
but couldn't get anywhere. A bleeding Hunter slowly crawled in to
the ring, but Michaels tapped out before Hunter could make the save.
MATCH RATING: $6.95
I see both Keller and I rated the Benoit win a bit higher than the
Foley/Orton match, though Glenn liked the Foley/Orton match a bit
better than the main event. I think everyone can agree that the PPV
would have blown goats without the inclusion of these two matches.
TOTAL MATCH RATINGS: $14.40
TOTAL SKIT RATING: $0.40
TOTAL PPV RATING: $14.70
WWE price of the PPV: $??.95. By that measure, I didn't quite get
my money's worth.
I spent about $4 in gas and $15.00 on food and four tall beers, so
by that token I almost got my money's worth. It would have been
nice if someone other than HHH, HBK, Benoit, Orton, and Foley had
put any kind of real effort into this PPV.
This makes it the worst of the three PPVs I've seen so far this
year, but I can't complain because it had two really good matches.
Thanks to both CRZ and pwTorch for the match results, so I didn't
have to scribble down notes instead of enjoying the PPV.
For comparison, here's what I thought of the PPVs I saw in the last
couple of years:
WWF Wrestlemania 1998 1998/03/ unrated
WCW Spring Stampede 1998 1998/04/19 $24.10
WWF IYH: Unforgiven 1998 1998/04/26 $ 9.95
WCW Slamboree 1998 1998/05/17 $27.95
WCW Great American Bash 1998 1998/06/14 $28.05
WWF King of the Ring 1998 1998/06/28 $22.50
WCW Bash at the Beach 1998 1998/07/12 $17.35
ECW Heatwave 1998 1998/08/02 $24.90
WCW Road Wild 1998 1998/08/08 $29.80
WWF IYH: Fully Loaded 1998 1998/07/26 $ 6.95
WWF SummerSlam 1998 1998/08/30 $10.20
WCW Fall Brawl 1998 1998/09/13 $23.60
WWF Judgement Day 1998 1998/10/18 $25.10
WCW Halloween Havoc 1998 1998/10/25 $49.50
ECW November to Remember 1998 1998/11/01 $25.75
WWF Survivor Series 1998 1998/11/15 $21.40
WWF IYH: Rock Bottom 1999 1998/12/13 $ 8.40
ECW Guilty as Charged 1999 1999/01/10 $26.10
WCW Souled Out 1999 1999/01/17 $29.10
WWF Royal Rumble 1999 1999/01/24 $23.00
WWF St Val Day Massacre 1999 1999/02/14 $20.90
WCW SuperBrawl 1999 1999/02/21 $21.35
WCW Uncensored 1999 1999/03/14 $32.00
ECW Living Dangerously 1999 1999/03/21 $25.90
WCW Spring Stampede 1999 1999/04/11 $38.00
WCW Slamboree 1999 1999/05/09 $21.10
ECW Hardcore Heaven 1999 1999/05/09 $15.30
WWF King of the Ring 1999 1999/06/27 $13.40
WCW Bash at the Beach 1999 1999/07/11 $20.70
WWF Fully Loaded 1999 1999/07/25 $10.80
WCW Road Wild 1999 1999/08/14 $13.90
WWF SummerSlam 1999 1999/08/22 $19.05
WCW Fall Brawl 1999 1999/09/12 $12.85
ECW Ararchy Rulz 1999 1999/09/19 $32.25
WWF No Mercy 1999 1999/10/17 $13.00
WCW Halloween Havoc 1999 1999/10/24 $ 3.35
ECW November to Remember 1999 1999/11/07 $28.45
WWF Survivor Series 1999 1999/11/14 $10.95
WCW Meyhem 1999 1999/11/21 $17.75
WWF Armageddon 1999 1999/12/12 $22.05
WCW Starrcade 1999 1999/12/19 $23.65
ECW Guilty as Charged 2000/01/09 $25.70
WCW Souled Out 2000/01/16 $13.20
WWF Royal Rumble 2000/01/23 $20.00
WWF No Way Out 2000/02/27 $16.95
ECW Living Dangerously 2000/03/12 $21.80
WCW Uncensored 2000/03/19 $21.65
WWF WrestleMania 2000/04/02 $22.05
WCW Spring Stampede 2000/04/16 $23.70
WWF Backlash 2000/04/30 $25.65
WCW Slamboree 2000/05/07 $23.55
ECW Hardcore Heaven 2000/05/14 $23.05
WWF Judgment Day 2000/05/21 $11.25
WCW Great American Bash 2000/06/11 $16.55
WWF King of the Ring 2000/06/25 $ 1.40
WCW Bash at the Beach 2000/07/09 missed
ECW Heat Wave 2000/07/16 $15.50
WWF Fully Loaded 2000/07/23 $24.40
WCW New Blood Rising 2000/08/13 $31.00
WWF SummerSlam 2000/08/27 $24.90
WCW 2000/09/17 missed
WWF Unforgiven 2000/09/24 $16.65
ECW Anarchy Rulz 2000/10/01 $21.30
ECW 2000/11/ missed
WWF Survivor Series 2000/11/ missed
ECW Massacre on 34th Street 2000/12/03 $ 9.65
WWF 2000/12/ missed
ECW Guilty As Charged 2001/01/07 $15.70
WWF 2001/01/ missed
WCW Superbrawl Revenge 2001/02/18 $37.60
WCW Greed 2001/03/ missed
WWF WrestleMania 2001/04/01 $29.50
WWF 2001/05/ missed
WWF King of the Ring 2001/06/24 $16.55
WWF Invasion 2001/07/22 $15.25
WWF SummerSlam 2001/08/ missed
WWF 2001/09/ missed
WWF 2001/10/ missed
WWF Survivor Series 2001/11/18 $11.25
WWF Royal Rumble 2002/01/20 $14.15
WWF No Way Out 2002/02/17 $ 3.40
WWF WrestleMania 2002/03/17 $25.30/$36.40
WWF King of the Ring 2002/06/23 $ 6.55/$10.15
NWA TNA 2002/08/14 $11.60/$12.20
WWF SummerSlam 2002/08/25 $21.10/$21.10
WWF Unforgiven 2002/09/22 $17.50/$21.15
WWF No Mercy 2002/10/20 $16.85/$20.00
WWF Survivor Series 2002/11/17 $ 7.50/$ 9.20
WWF Royal Rumble 2003/01/19 $19.55/$19.55
WWF WrestleMania XIX 2003/03/30 $22.55/$23.45
WWE SummerSlam 2003/08/24 $16.25/$16.55
NWA TNA 2003/09/10 $12.50/$14.00
WWE Survivor Series 2003/11/16 $ 8.10/$ 8.60
WWE No Way Out 2004/02/15 $21.85/$22.95
WWE WrestleMania 20 2004/03/14 $36.90/$43.05
WWE Backlash 2004/04/18 $14.40/$14.70
Copyright © 1994-2004 Otto E Heuer. All rights reserved.