Scott's Blog of Doom

I caught Backlash in the theater tonight rather than ordering the PPV, and it ended up being a hell of show, actually.  Full rant to come later in the week, but here’s my initial impressions and ratings:

- Christian d. Jack Swagger to win the ECW title with the Killswitch / Unprettier.  Solid stuff with Swagger doing the Lesnar-ish power matwork for the majority of the match, and Christian being smart enough to time his comebacks properly.  Good finish with both guys pulling off the turnbuckle at the same time, and Swagger missing a charge to set up the Killswitch.  ***1/4 

- Edge and Christian finally had their long-awaiting meeting backstage after Christian wins the title, and this has gotta lead to something, right? 

- Chris Jericho d. Ricky Steamboat with the Walls of Jericho in a match that was pretty good for what it was, but still kind of sad.  I wanted more chops and Steamboat was trying to work a modern match, and it didn’t work as well as he probably would have wanted.  They still managed to get in the skin the cat spot and bodyslam reversal from WM3 (which the announcers totally missed after referencing that match for the whole time), but I don’t think it ended up being quite what they wanted.  I was pretty happy with it, all things considered. **1/2

- Kane d. CM Punk with the chokeslam.  Better than expected, with Punk working the arm in between bumping for Kane, and it had a hot finish with Punk throwing all sorts of kicks and a spinning backfist before Kane caught a high kick and finished him clean.  Since Punk went over on RAW this was the usual expected even-steven booking. 

- Jeff Hardy d. Matt Hardy in the “I Quit” match in another one that was good but not up to the level you’d expect from two brothers.  In particular the finish was really overdone, with Jeff duct-taping Matt to a table and then tying him up with rope before having a family discussion with him.  Matt quit rather than suffer the legdrop off the ladder, but then Jeff did it anyway.  Kind of slow most of the way and focused on fighting for the figure-four and stuff.  ***

- Santina d. Beth Phoenix to defend the Miss Wrestlemania crown in a total trainwreck involving Great Khali and a wacky misunderstanding about an alleged affair between Santina and JR.  Whole lot of stupid time-killer here.

- Randy Orton/Ted Dibiase/Cody Rhodes d. HHH/Shane McMahon/Batista to give Orton the WWE title when Orton pinned HHH after the punt.  This started weird with Orton seemingly abandoning his team to leave them 3-on-2, but once he returned to the match it turned into a hell of a deal, with Shane getting the heat and the crowd going nuts for it.  They went long (about 20 minutes) and built and built to the hot tag, with HHH wanting to control his own destiny, and he ended up getting distracted by Batista wielding a chair and get RKO’d and punted to lose the title.  Great stuff here with Shane rocking the old school tag team finishers, Batista mouthing off at the Legacy (“Don’t worry, you’re next!”) and a super hot crowd.  ****

- Edge d. John Cena by KO to win the World title in the Last Man Standing match.  As good as the six-man was, this topped it with hard work and the usual crazy reactions from Cena crowds.  They kept throwing big moves at each other and neither would go down until it was 20 minutes in and the place is going crazy for them, wondering what it’s going to take to keep someone down.  The answer:  Big Show chokeslamming Cena through a giant spotlight by the ramp.  Yeah, that would do it.  Say what you want about Cena, he brings the goods and fires up crowds. ****1/2

So a definite strong thumbs up, absolutely check out the replay here.

(Edit:  Thinking about a bit, I lowered the six-man a bit and raised the Last Man Standing because I definitely liked the Edge-Cena match better)

Related Auctions From Ebay:

WWE WWF Backlash 2002 DVD SEALED Triple H vs Hulk Hogan    US $14.99

BACKLASH 2007 DVD WWE    US $15.44

BACKLASH 2004 DVD WWE Benoit v HBK v Triple H    US $15.44