[Official] Backlash Discussion

[pitada_tiago]

Comment Global!


The PPV began with an excellent initial promo to promote the fighting and more "important" in the evening and explain the purpose of this PPV, and the end of Wrestlemania. After that start the fighting itself.

Christian Wins Jack Swagger (New ECW Champion) - "An excellent fight for the opening of PPV, Swagger again show that it is a great Wrestler and has enough future in wwe. Christian after his return had not been seen much here and had a good chance to start well in WWE.
Star of battle: Jack Swagger
Rating: 8 / 10

Chris Jericho Wins Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat (Single Match) - "One more fight quite" ok "for this PPV. Again show that those who know and never forget that age is no excuse. The 56-year-Steamboat clear that even weighed, but this was the height of combat. For Chris Jericho ... As always very good, strong man of the "storyline", great performance.
Star of battle: Chris Jericho (Steamboat could say, but Jericho was higher)
Rating: 7.5/10

Kane CM Punk Wins (Single Match) - "Okay, did not expect the victory of Kane, but I thought that bad ... The Punk is the MITB and to strengthen this position and usually increases it at other levels need big wins but ok ... This also showed that Kane wins battle ... In the fight I thought was quite worse until a fight was reasonable.
Star of battle: CM Punk
Rating: 6.5/10

Kiss Cam segment - 'I did not, just know that Khali undress the "Santina"

Jeff Hardy Matt Hardy Wins (I Quit Match) - "First, the supposedly" I Quit "Matches should be completely" Extremes "and with enough violence to make the other quit ... Ok some maneuvers of submission is normal since the objective is to make the other say those words, but completely failed in this fight large spots ... Nothing special and that final acheio it so slushy ... Okay, it was not bad but ... It could have been a great fight.
Star of the Fight: Matt Hardy
Rating: 6.5/10

Legacy (Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBease) wins Triple H, Shane McMahon & Batista (Randy Orton new WWE Champion) - "I found funny the idea of starting the fight 3 on 2. A great work of Ted and Cody are ready for Main Events ... Combat can say a little annoying but well done to get where Orton obviously everything changed ... Very measure, particularly when Shane was in the ring with the public to vibrate so that it reaches up to his corner to tag ... A very good end, despite an error when RKO was the bell rings ... I thought I had finished, kick and finally ended. Finally ended the reign of pathetic Triple H and now putting it tempitos us out, because many people are sick of it. The Age of Orton is back!
Star of battle: Randy Orton
Rating: 8 / 10

Edge Wins John Cena (New World Champion) - "Fight of the night as I already expected. Full of great spots, great emotion. That we needed to Wrestlemania and fucky *, why did not this happen at Wrestlemania? A Last Man Standing to enter into the story ... Almost victory after victory ... almost Great fight! FU Cena against one of the audience was excellent ... Con-Chair-to ... Grand Final ... penalty has not been applied to the Edge Spear that the scene has interfered the Big Show, but still a great fight! Edge is now 9x World Champ and I hope that this time has a very quality reign!
Star of the Combat: Edge
Rating: 10/10


Making a comment then the overall PPV ... Better than the Wrestlemania ... Yes because that was 3 / 4 (at 9) that took in fighting global, here is well taken 3 / 4 (but in 6), so backlash very successful.
Star of the PPV: Edge
Final Rating: 8 / 10

 

[jr7936]

They way I feel about backlash is this, I am pissed that they made christian champion, because for whatever reason I just find him bland and boring, can't really explain it. I also think its time for edge to step away from the title scene for a bit, because after 9 reigns, no matter how short they are, me and people I know who order the ppvs are getting sick of him. Edge having the title again might cause me to stop watching smackdown for good even though I don't watch it that much to begin with. The only good title switch I though all night, was Orton beating Triple H. Actually I feel that this was the best moment at backlash.
Once again this is just my two cents about the ppv.

 

[TheSportsGuy1014]

Hey I was wondering if anyone could review backlash and your thoughts/opinions on the event. Here are the results:

ECW Championship
Christian defeated Jack Swagger (c)

Chris Jericho defeated Ricky Steamboat

Kane defeated CM Punk

"I Quit" match
Jeff Hardy defeated Matt Hardy

Singles match for "Miss WrestleMania"
Santina Marella defeated Beth Phoenix

Six-man tag team match for the WWE Championship The Legacy (Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase) defeated Triple H (c), Batista and Shane McMahon

Last Man Standing match for the World Heavyweight Championship Edge defeated John Cena (c)

The event saw three new champions. My biggest question is why put the title on Cena at Mania, if you are going to have him drop the title at Backlash? Just gave Edge another Championship reign, I think that makes 10. Seeing the results it feels like they are trying to redeem for what Mania should have been.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

E.C.W Championship: Jack Swagger (c) v. Christian:

While I'm getting tired of seeing the E.C.W Championship ****ed out in opening matches, the fact is sometimes the opening matches are the best ones. This isn't the case, as far as best of the night, but it was definitely the best match these two have had thus far. And I wouldn't be surprised to see a rematch at Judgment Day.

Going in, this was the one Championship I was confident that would change hands. Christian had lost cleanly to Swagger on an episode of E.C.W prior to Wrestlemania. I figured since they didn't give Christian the title then, and then again didn't give him the Money in the Bank at Mania.. that he'd either surely get the Championship here, or his return to the W.W.E would be utter shit and pointless. (jobbing to Kurt Angle in T.N.A would've been better than jobbing on E.C.W)

At any rate, this match was very good. Not too long, not too short, plenty of action and barely any rest breaks through holds that went to long for no reason. The ending plays up to a rematch in Swagger complaining of Christian cheating, when the irony is Christian just out-smarted him. I loved the ending, and Swagger played it off to a Tee.

Grades:
Match: B+
Ending: A-

Legend v. Future Legend: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat v. Chris Jericho:

I wasn't holding my breath on a repeat from Wrestlemania, simply because no one assumed Steamboat would electrify at Mania. Then he did. So everyone was likely pushing him to the moon with this "You still got it" crap. (yes, yes he still has something, but "it" is a bit much)

This match went a bit longer than I honestly wanted. But it was very good, and the ending situations went nicely, it made me honestly think Steamboat was gonna pull out an upset. In the end, however, my original prediction was correct - in thinking there was no possible way they'd job out a current and future Superstar, to a now, Hall of Famer that likely won't be competing on a regular basis. All in all, hopefully this pushes Jericho out of the funk stage (no pun intended) and into a more rightful fitting stage as a possible Heavyweight choice to go against Edge, or maybe even the Undertaker.

Grades:
Match: C-
Ending: B- (while the ending set of moves was nice, the final moment was Steamboat tapping and J.R claiming he's never tapped before. I doubt that.)

Grudge Match: C.M. Punk v. Kane:

Why? I really shouldn't even reduce myself to saying much on this match. I fucking went in, going against all I knew of Punk being a horrible choice for Main Event push.. and I WANTED him to succeed. I wanted him to defeat Kane, and show that unlike last year's stupid slump.. he'd overcome it. Wow.. you know how some people say "A lot can change over a year?" Apparently Punk never received a memo.

I get that it's not Punk's fault, it's creatives.. but what is the purpose of this? Punk controlled and OWNED Kane throughout this entire match. It was brilliant, it was beautiul. Punk was competing greatly against a guy twice his size, a guy who is a technical Main Eventer. And Punk was hanging in there, and showing the world he could go..

Then one move roughly, a Chokeslam, by Kane.. and the match is over. Why? Stupid.

Grades:
Match: A- (Punk's best match against Heavyweight's, to date)
Ending: F- (Kane winning does NOTHING, and Punk losing does everything - wrong)

I Quit Match: Jeff Hardy v. Matt Hardy:

Okay, while I craved a decent amount of Hardy/Hardy matches.. I think I've had my fill. Their Mania match left something to be desired, but I gave in considering they were told they had 8 minutes to put everything together and put on a good match. 8 mins.. really.. on a 4 hour show. Stupid.

SO, I wanted to assume on a 3 hour show, with a card of roughly 5-6 matches, they could be amazing. This match was meant to be an I Quit match. A brutal, dangerous, deadly conflict between two siblings. Which means it should've been bloody, and very violent. It was Matt Hardy putting Jeff Hardy in a series of submission holds. Really? Why wasn't this a simple submission match, then.

The ending was okay.. I laughed. Mainly because the moral of the ending was Jeff learned a lesson. Never climb too high, because the fall might take too long. SO Jeff wins, and I assume this means he's sticking around. Otherwise, they've once again fed a newly turned heel Matt Hardy to the wolves. (and broke his hand, in the process)

Grades:
Match: D+
Ending: C+ (I still liked that Jeff, even though he won off Matt being a chicken shit, still hit the big move of the night.. well, at that point of the night, anyways)

Miss WrestleMania v. Glamazon: Santina v. Beth Phoenix:

This was a filler, glorified and all. I don't know what to say, except for they should've censored Santina's tits. Out of all the individuals involved, I honestly feel sorry for Khali. He's a Giant monster of a man.. and he's being used as a comical dope.

On the flip side, Beth Phoenix was completely made to look like a fool and a weakling in this event. Yes, Khali is strong.. but seriously, strong enough to knock her out for a 3-count, by simply (barely) tapping her on the head? Doubtful.

Grades:
Match: N/A
Ending: N/A

W.W.E Championship; 6-Man Tag Team Match: Triple H, (c) Shane McMahon & Batista v. Legacy (Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase Jr & Cody Rhodes):

The only saving grace of this whole mess, was that Triple H actually took the pin-fall and sold Orton's Punk kick massively! I'm impressed to the max.

Orton began this match somewhere backstage, no clue where. This allowed the face team to work over Rhodes & DiBiase, and to my opinion, it actually was a good thing. Why? Because it allowed everyone to see how good Rhodes & DiBiase were through way of staying in the match and not being beaten easily.

Upon Orton returning, they kept Batista in a decent amount of time, followed by Shane for an even longer amount of time. The match went WAY too long for what it needed to go, and the ending wasn't the greatest. No overall swerve, and no big blow-up, other than Triple H "having the match won" only to lose because he stopped Batista from losing it for him.

The Age of Orton resumes, but for how long? Hopefully at least until Summerslam or longer. Feuds with Batista, Cena, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels can all be had before Orton drops the strap again.

Grades:
Match: C-
Ending: B+

World Heavyweight Championship: Last Man Standing Match: John Cena (c) v. Edge:

Saving the best for last has never been a more acqurate phrase than for this match. Going in, all I'd seen was everyone complaining Edge/Cena has been done to death. Well, once again.. save the best for last. This was by far, their best gimmick match and definitely the greatest finish to any of their matches. (including the F-U to Edge, off the ladder through tables, at Unforgiven in their T.L.C contest)

While the beginning of the match was boring, and not overly exciting, the middle and definitely ending, saved not just their encounter, but this entire Pay per view. Cena being thrown through one of the giant fog lights (??) was amazing, and the pyro going off at the right moment, mixed with everyone's reactions was great.

Grades:
Match: A-
Ending: A++

Overall Thoughts: While the ruining factor of this show (to me) believe it or not, is Punk losing. The disappointing moment would be Punk not cashing in on Orton directly after he won. I do, however, understand why.

For Orton, the ending was more important to showcase how deadly his kick is.. and how much time it took for them to pack Triple H up and carry him off. For Edge, it was more focused on how injured and hurt Cena may of been, after being Chokeslammed by the Big Show through a light, that blew the fuck up upon impact.

Three Heavyweight titles changed hands on a B-Show Pay per view. That shocked me more than anything. I can't wait to watch Raw in a few to see the outcomes of everything else. Great show, all around. Shame Creative still doesn't know what the fuck to do with Punk, without making him look worthless though. 9 outta 10

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

This is a transmission from the world of Zur-En-Arrh....

Backlash sucked!

Some of you may remember that a certain aG3Nt would merely give his 2 cents and perhaps state how glad he was when he didn't pay for piss-poor PPVs, bu the Mark of Zur-En-Arrh doesn't suger coat. Here's the run down:-

ECW Title Match: Jack Swagger v Christian

Lol. Still the curtain jerker title, but what made it worse this time around, is that it was commentated by 3 guys who don't even watch ECW. This was a good match overall i felt, but wasn't as good as say Cena/Swagger. Mainly because Cena/Swagger was a back and forth match where both competitors seemed to be evenly matched. This match was mainly Swagger beating Christian down with a bunch of amatuer wresling holds, and then Christian got the win. With the exception of a Press Slam over the turnbuckle and an Oklahoma Stampede, it was up to Christian to hit all the impressive offence, which he barely did.

Finally, you mean to tell me that a guy who's pretty much owned 80% of his match, and the only real damage he's suffered was a Tornado DDT, is going to run into the turnbuckle, be completely incapacitated so he can't counter an easily escapable finisher, and then loses? Don't get me wrong, i'm super happy that Captain Charisma is now the top dog on ECW, because it usually means that when you get drafted later, you're more likely to be used in a program straight away, but this should have been booked so that Christian had more offence to make us believe that he could beat Swagger without making Swagger look weak.

This however, was still the best non-gimmick match of the night.

6.5/10

Christian/Edge segment

This is how this segment should have gone:

Edge: What so you think you're better than me? Is that it? You think you're better than me now?
Christian: What happened to you man? You used to be cool.
Edge: Hey! Edge still cool. You are better than me!

It did sound really lame for Edge to say that he changed his persona purely because of Cena, especially since Edge 'stopped being fun' as soon as people knew he was shagging another wrestler's girlfriend, PLUS the fact that Edge stuck his nose in Cena's business in the first place.

I'd have preferred it if they held back from E&C interaction for now, but at least this seemed like nothing more than a ploy to make people think that Edge was definitely going to win (like we weren't all thinking that anyway, right?)

Ricky 'The Dragon Steamboat' v Chris Jericho

Well what can we really say here? Very much like their battle at WM except without the other coffin-dodgers taking away from it. The super belly-to-belly was a nice spot and we can forgive a near 60yr old Steamboat making the odd mistake, but something i can't forgive is his execution of the Figure Four Leg Lock. This is man famous for his fueds with Ric Flair, so you'd think that he'd know how to pull off a figure four considering how many times he's been on the receiving end.... or maybe he could just ask Matt Hardy.
Please let this 'Legends' thing be over now, please? You've wasted Jericho for 2 months now, it's time to use him in a similar fashion to the way they did last year, because at this rate, he sure won't be superstar of the year 2009.

6/10 (Sorry, novelty has definitley worn off now)

Kane v CM Punk

Since when has MITB been a catalyst for fueds? Why wasn't this the opening match, since it had no build at all?
All in all, this was pretty much a Raw match but longer. It was good to see Kane using a few heel submissions, but it sucked to see CM Punk using the Rey Mysterio strategy. If Rey can stay alive or even beat guys like Mike Knox or Kane just by kicking them, why can't CM Punk, an actual martial artist do the same thing? This will go down as Kane's singular PPV win of the year (best to gt it out of the way early i 'spose), but it should NOT be at the expense of the guy you intend to give one of the World Titles to (or maybe not?). This is echoing last year already, where Punk wins all these big name matches every 2 or 3 months, but is shat on for the rest of the year.

6/10 Terrible booking, should have had MVP v Ziggler instead of this week's Smackdown. Dare i say it, Gail Kim v Maryse would have been a better idea than this match. Only gets a 6 because i hate Punk, but still mark out for Kane.

Hardy's I Quit match

Wow. I didn't think they could have a more pointless I Quit match than the Beth/Melina glorified Submission match they had last year, but WWE managed it. Here's WWE's top 2 extremists battling in their third straight gimmick match, and this is the worst of them all. Did they read the dirt sheets that said that their WM match was simply a spot fest and think to themselves 'We better do the exact opposite this time around.' The best 'I Quit' matches i've ever seen in WWE are Foley/Rock and Flair/Foley, because they were brutally bloody affairs that made you eager to see the scars on the contenders faces the following week. This match made you eager to see a foreign object used at all. And then the most bogus finish ever. I understand Matt apologising like a pussy, because that's the heel way isn't it? Try every low down, dirty trick in the book to avoid injury and secure victory. Not to avoid suffering a move you've suffered a trillion times before, especially when every other time, you've simply shrugged it off and carried on. Now since we learned that Matt broke his hand AFTER that spot, maybe they'll play it that his hand was broken before that spot, and that's why Matt quit, but it won't help the overall result of this atrocity. We expect blood, sick spots and suspense in an 'I Quit' match, not a scraped eyebrow, the same crappy spot as always but with what looked like a step ladder, and a bunch of submissions.

This MUST be the end of this fued. Hopefully Matt's psycho heel won't be remembered as a cowardly ****** for the rest of his heel run.

4/10 Total waste of a gimmick match.

Khali/Santina segment

Ok, now it's not funny anymore. Is this really the end of Glamarrella?

6 Man Tag for the WWE Championship: Team HHH v Team Legacy

How can so much talent result in a such a crap Main Event? I'm going to put this one in bullet points:

1. HHH chased Orton to the back and then let him go........ We've had 3 weeks of Shane, Hunter and Dave stepping over one another to get to Orton and when HHH finally gets his chance, he lets him go. WHAT-THE-FUCK? Did he really think that Shane and Batista couldn't take Priceless on their own?
2. I take back the comments i made in the Raw forum about Legacy getting pissed at Orton because he's done nothing for them. Based on the number of stomps, forearm smashes and pedestrian wrestling moves all 3 of them executed, it's obvious Randy has taught Ted and Cody everything he knows in terms of 'sucking the life out of EVERYTHING!' To be fair, Orton does have some of the most innovative moves in the last 5 years i.e. his over the shoulder backbreaker, his elevated DDT and some others that he doesn't do anymore, but dear god, every match consists of 1 of those moves, plus the RKO and the rest is just dropkicks, stomping and punches. Randy, get as many tapes of Edge's matches since his heel turn in '04 and you'll learn what you're doing wrong.
3. For a man whose family have all been sent to the hospital on separate occassions, has had his wife violated in front of him, his children threatened and was at that point, in a match where he had to watch both of his partner's backs to avoid losing his family's most prized possession to his mortal enemy, HHH really looked like he didn't give two shits what happened in that match. He never seemed eager to tag in, he never once tried to break up a pin, and he was in the match a grand total of 5 minutes out of 20. He is the centre of the whole fued and does sweet FA. Way to earn your pay Paul. No wonder the audience where singing 'goodbye' to him.
4. 10 minutes beating on Batista, plus 10 minutes of beating on Shane, followed by a 2 minute HHH flurry, followed by him taking 1 DDT, 1 RKO, the time keeper totally fucking up, and 1 punt and that's it. End of story, end of fans interest in this fued, so again, for the time being, thank fuck it's over. Get ready for 4 months of Legacy v Batista until HHH comes back.

6/10 purely for the result

LMS Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: John Cena v Edge

Another match that is supposed to be bloody and brutal, and the first half is normal wrestling ffs. Now i know they can't be bashing each other's skulls in for a full 40 minutes but that doesn't mean that they can expect us, the audience, to believe that Cena can't get up from a clothesline before a count of 7, where in any other match he'd be up before the ref even started counting.
WAAAAAAAYYYYYYY to much stopping and starting in this match. The number of 7 counts following bog standard wrestling moves was painful to watch. It dragged on and on and on, until finally it begins to pick up. AA off the top rope. Top rope famouser countered into a spear. Counter after counter after counter, and even an AA into the audience which was a great moment. Don't really see how it hurt Edge, but it made me laugh. (I wonder how much those 8 guys at ringside were paid for that)
Finally, as i predicted several hours before the show itself, the Big Show helps Edge pick up the win with a chokeslam through the spotlight. The fire and the explosions was a bit much, but it was still tolerable i suppose. Based on the roll that Big Show has been on lately, it makes perfect sense for him to be the one interfering. You may not be looking forward to Big Show/Cena around Summerslam time, but that's what we're getting folks, and tbh who else was going to come out from the Raw draft? Kennedy? Kendrick? With Show the only big time heel to come over to Raw, it had to be him. It would however, be nice to see Edge win at least one world title match cleanly. Oh, and it doesn't matter who came out to help Cena, wether Christian was there or not. Maybe he just came out to see just how fucked up Cena was? Think of that? Did you?

This match gets an 7.5 It wasn't spectacular, and the constant stopping for a 10 count ruined the feel of the match overall, but still the most enjoyable portion of the show.

So, overall, this Backlash 2009 did kind of manage to avoid the stereotype of being 'the WM rewind' PPV by adding some fresh faces to fueds ie Batista, and by giving new guys PPV time i.e. Swagger and Christian (ok, he's not new, but it's his first one on one outing since coming back), but at the end of the day, at least 5 of the six matches on the card, never need to be done again this year, with Swagger/Christian being the exception.

2 other points. 1 the commentary was even worse than it's ever been. Each of them repeatedly trailed off in the middle of a sentence, not because they'd been interrupted (although that was happening a LOT) but just because they stopped. Maybe Vince said 'stop talking about the names of the moves and talk more about Punk's tattoo's or you're FIIIIIIIRRRRRREEEEEEDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' Cole's always been terrible, and i can't believe a guy like Lawler who's been in this business so long doesn't know the names of basic moves and can't remember matches that he's seen before.

'I don't think i've ever seen a WWE title defended in a 6 Man Tag before'

Then i suggest you go and watch KOTR 2000 Jerry, an event that you yourself were witness to, and remind yourself that you HAVE seen it happen. It's still not as bad as Royal Rumble '07 where he said he wasn't sure if we'd ever seen Undertaker v HBK wrestle each other before. Tell us Jerry, do you remember what the name of the cage with the roof on it is called?

And secondly, if the buyrates are appaulingly low for this PPV i'd say this. What did you expect when you don't have either HBK OR Taker on the card in any way shape or form? I know HBK's legs are hurting, but Taker's aren't. You've got this neck injury thing building, but he's not crippled yet, and since they had the best match at WM, you'd think it might be a good idea to have one of them appear for five seconds at least, wouldn't you?

Judgment Day is less than 3 weeks away and counting. Pray they get it right this time.

Transmission Ends.......