World Wrestling Entertainment – Backlash 2005 – 1st May 2005
This event marks the Raw brand’s follow-up to a decent, if enormously uneven, WrestleMania 21 event. Anyone expecting Triple H to retreat into the shadows and step away from the World Title picture following his loss to Batista in the main event is very much mistaken – with those two headlining again tonight. Hulk Hogan returns to a WWE ring at this event, forming something of a ‘dream team’ with Shawn Michaels in an attempt to silence the controversial voices of Muhammad Hassan and Khosrow Daivari. The card is rounded out by Benjamin/Jericho for the IC Title, a Tag Title gauntlet and Edge meeting Chris Benoit in a Last Man Standing Match (in the aftermath of the story of his affair with Lita breaking). JR and Jerry Lawler will provide commentary from Manchester, NH.
Shelton Benjamin vs Chris Jericho – WWE Intercontinental Title Match
Y2J’s first WWE run was really starting to run down by this point. His contract was up and despite a storied history and enduring popularity with the fans he remains way down the card helping to elevate younger talent. Shelton is the recipient tonight, coming off a spectacular performance within the inaugural Money In The Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania. He provided some of the most memorable moments of the entire show in LA last month, so wants to back that up by retaining against his veteran challenger this evening. Jericho is the man he defeated to become IC Champion, so this is something of a rematch from Taboo Tuesday last year too.
The opening is predominantly mat-based, with Jericho having to work extremely hard to hold his own with a celebrated amateur like Shelton. He has an additional problem to deal with in that Benjamin is also supremely quick and athletic – finding ways to drag him back to the canvas even when Y2J does open up some distance. He attempts a sunset flip bomb…but Jericho counters to a hurricanrana on the floor! He takes the opportunity on the outside to deliver a devastating blow; driving the champ sternum-first into the guardrails. The challenger is all aggression and veteran tactics – persistently honing in on the back and neck – but never manages to keep Shelton on the back foot for too long. SINGLE LEAP JUMPING SUPERPLEX BY BENJAMIN! Y2J dodges the Stinger Splash…but spends too long playing to the crowd and eats a Samoan drop instead. Running enziguri from Jericho in response…but Shelton shakes it off to nail a SPRINGBOARD ACE CRUSHER! He slipped on the ropes marginally and actually modified the move in mid-air to look even more devastating. Walls Of Jericho countered…Benjamin hops off the ropes...to hit the T-Bone Suplex for 2! Dragon Whip COUNTERED TO THE WALLS OF JERICHO! An increasingly agitated Jericho barely gives a clean break when Benjamin makes the ropes, but as he looks to put the boots to his fallen opponent the champ pops up from nowhere with the Dragon Whip for 2. Lionsault gets knees…Walls Of Jericho countered to a jack-knife pin…Benjamin wins! 14:30 is your time
Rating - *** - Potentially Shelton’s strongest PPV singles mach so far and a wonderfully explosive and athletic contest to get Backlash ’05 rolling. It was slow going at the start; not because what they were doing didn’t make sense, but more because it just felt very laboured and uninspired. Once Jericho started getting cocky and aggressive, or playing to the live crowd, things certainly got a lot more interesting. Some of Benjamin’s feats of raw athleticism in this match were remarkable, and he showed here that he is capable of more than just being a ‘high spot guy’ with a little bit of help.
A bitterly disappointed Chris Jericho storms off without any further comment after his loss.
Edge gloats with Coach that he is ‘Mr Money In The Bank’, and laughs at the fall of Chris Benoit since last year’s Backlash.
World Tag Title Turmoil Match
Turmoil is, of course, just another term for Gauntlet. Five teams participate here with champions Tajiri and William Regal defending against La Resistance, Hurricane and Rosey, the Heart Throbs (PPV debut for those dudes I believe) and a Simon Dean/Maven duo which I had no idea existed. We don’t get much background so I’ll presume the core issue here remains La Res feuding with the Regal/Tajiri team who took the belts from them a few months previously.
The Heart Throbs – Antonio Thomas and Romeo Roselli – are the unlucky first entrants, with an equally unfortunate draw for the champs as they are the second team to get us underway. Watching Regal school the Throbs is rather enjoyable, particularly as he makes Antonio look like a total novice. The newcomers have better luck with Tajiri, for a few moments at least. The Buzzsaw is never in any real danger though and finally sunset flips Thomas and pins him at 03:08. Next in are Simon Dean and Maven, sprinting down the aisle and making sure they cut off Tajiri before he is able to tag out. Lawler totally buries poor Nova by pointing out that he’s actually carrying too much weight to pull off the personal trainer gimmick properly. He doesn’t last too long either; finally sent packing after a knee to the head from Regal at 05:49. They have done a real number on Tajiri though – enabling La Resistance, our third entrants, to swarm the champions upon their arrival. JR buries the Manchester fans as hard as Lawler just buried Simon as he mocks them for chanting ‘USA’ to support athletes from England and Japan. Regal Stretch on Conway, but it’s broken by Grenier who then swats Tajiri off the apron. Rob grabs a handful of Regal’s trunks for a successful, albeit illegal, pinning attempt. The champions are eliminated at 09:12, so La Res are left to battle The Hurricane and Rosey to crown new Raw Tag Team Champions. Helms throws his body around wildly but is shut down after a Cactus elbow from Conway, leaving him isolated in the ring and kept away from his large tag partner. There’s a sizeable pop for big Rosey when he gets a hot tag; totally flattening Conway with a diving front slam. He survives the Bonsoir before ordering Hurricane onto his shoulders for the Superhero Splash. Hurricane and Rosey win the belts at 13:39
Rating - * - Outside of a couple of flashes of William Regal brilliance I didn’t find too much to like about this one. Given that Rosey sadly passed away a couple of weeks before I wrote this review, it was nice to see the high point of his popular double-act with Hurricane (and arguably his entire WWE career) with their sole Tag Title win here though. The Heart Throbs (who were appalling) and Simon Dean/Maven contributed nothing and looked like total scrubs, so I’d question whether it might have been more effective to just book a straight triple threat tag match rather than a silly gauntlet gimmick.
Edge vs Chris Benoit – Last Man Standing Match
I don’t recall this feud in any great detail at all, but as ever the obligatory pre-fight video package does a hell of a job promoting it. Benoit was the man who seemed destined to win Money In The Bank at WrestleMania, looking to take his first steps back to the summit and back to regaining the World Title he lost to Randy Orton last summer. But Edge thwarted him right at the last and swooped to steal his win and his contractually guaranteed title shot. Several heated clashes between the two would follow on Raw and the rapidly escalating issue between the two needed resolving. Eric Bischoff booked this one to produce a decisive winner…
The ‘you screwed Matt’ chants are flying Edge’s way before the match is ten seconds old. They are probably preferable to some of the chops Benoit throws in the early going though – he really roughs Edge up. He dodges an early Spear attempt, then knees Edge in the face repeatedly when he tries to crawl out of the ring. The Sharpshooter has Edge tapping out, which is redundant under Last Man Standing rules, and as he hobbles away from that hold he is left completely vulnerable to the rolling German suplex flurry. ‘Mr Money In The Bank’ collapses on the floor after that and only narrowly beats the ten count. He finally returns to his feet…and swings a trash can lid into Benoit’s face as he lines up a tope suicida. They really need to get the match away from this area at ringside, because one guy is just relentlessly screaming ‘why did you cheat on your wife!?’ in Edge’s face – to the point that it’s totally distracting. Thankfully Edge does bring the match back into the ring – with a SUPERPLEX THROUGH A TRASH CAN! When the Wolverine beats the count off that Edge simply smacks the sh*t out of him with the trash can lid again! He pulls out a ladder with evil intentions to finish the former World Champion off…but before he can climb all the way up Benoit is up after him. GERMAN SUPLEX OFF THE LADDER! Chris scales the ladder again…DIVING HEADBUTT OFF THE TOP MISSES! Edge grabs the Money In The Bank briefcase to use as a weapon, only for Benoit to dodge and counter him to the Crippler Crossface. Edge submits for a second time! Benoit goes back to reeling off German suplexes – but this time is clearly weakened meaning Edge is able to break his grip. EDGE-CUTION ON THE BRIEFCASE! The Wolverine breaks the ten count…so gets dropped again with the Spear. Again he breaks the count! SPEAR AGAIN! And still Benoit don’t stay down! Edge has had enough and pulls a brick out of his briefcase! He belts Benoit in the back of the head with it! This time Benoit is done, and Edge has his hand raised in victory at 18:47
Rating - **** - When researching this event ahead of my review I didn’t see many people go as high as this on their rating, so I suspect I’ve enjoyed this a lot more than most. What I particularly enjoyed is that it really felt like two dudes just trying to beat the sh*t out of each other. Although it provided some of the most spectacular spots, in many ways the ladder stuff was actually the low point of the match because it meant they deviated from straight up beating the hell out of each other to more contrived, silly set-ups. For instance, why on earth was Edge climbing the ladder to begin with when Benoit gave him that German off it? The pacing also made a lot of sense as Benoit - the more experienced and technically proficient worker - tore into Edge for the first ten minutes…but in his aggression made an error trying a dive to the floor and gave the devious, scheming younger man a chance to come back. The Matt Hardy thing meant the crowd were a major distraction though – which I guess may have been difficult to look past when watching the show live or reviewing it at the time.
WWE do at least have a sense of humour though, as they cut from that match to a shot of Lita watching (presumably Edge’s match) on the monitor in her locker room. Her storyline still has her with Kane at this point though, and she psyches him up to take out Viscera and Trish Stratus.
Jerry Lawler (who else) is in the ring shilling the WWE Divas Swimsuit magazine…and of course he brings some of them out in the flesh. Candice Michelle, Stacy Keibler, Maria Kanellis, Victoria and Christy Hemme trot down the aisle…and even Lillian Garcia is ordered into the ring to make something of a spectacle of herself. It makes me uncomfortable that I lived through an era where this was deemed acceptable television. I never thought I’d be glad to see Chris Masters, but he arrives to put a stop to Lawler’s never-ending dirty, perverted, creepy uncle jokes. His Master Lock Challenge is up to $3000 – and he invites a female ‘fan’ (actually a talent from OVW) in from the crowd to be the next participant. He, of course, f*cks her up with the Master Lock…thus bringing to an end an incredibly misogynistic ten minutes of wasted pay-per-view time.
Trish Stratus encounters Viscera outside her locker room. Cue more uncomfortable sexual references – as he gets to nail her if he beats Kane.
Kane vs Viscera
This exists only to further the ongoing Lita/Trish feud, since Lita is still out with a knee injury. We know the history between her and the Women’s Champion – and she has enlisted her ‘husband’ to dish out beatings to both Big Vis and Trish herself this evening. Viscera’s motivation is that he gets to sleep with Trish if he wins…for some reason? Expect the crowd to absolutely savage Lita, who is supposed to be the babyface.
‘Viscera is a man on a mission tonight’ – JR bringing the comedy right off the bat. One actually feels rather sorry for these two big lads, because they are almost irrelevant to the live audience here as the fans are only interested in giving Lita a hard time. Vis lands the Samoan drop, drawing a small ‘lets go Mabel’ chant…which at least is relevant to the wrestling rather than Edge nailing Lita. He easily blocks a Kane chokeslam attempt by clotheslining him over the top rope…but is so gassed by this point he can barely get out of the ring! Trish tries to attack Kane with a chair, only for Lita to use her crutch to whack the chair into her face! HUGE heat for that! Inside the ring Viscera gets 2 with the chokebomb. He gets distracted trying to lick Lita (yes lick, you did read that correctly)…which means Kane is able to recover. The Big Red Machine wins with a chokeslam at 06:09
Rating - DUD - Nobody was expecting anything other than a total mess from this segment, which makes you wonder why it was booked on pay-per-view in the first place. Trish is one of the most famous and influential women’s wrestlers the WWE has ever produced, so to have her reduced to playing second fiddle to this trash is really disappointing. Poor Kane and Viscera were having to toss their big bodies around for absolutely no reason since the live audience didn’t give a sh*t about them – and the only moment that got any reaction at all was when Lita got involved with her crutch. Thankfully it would only take a couple of weeks for WWE to steer into the skid on the Edge/Lita thing and pair them up onscreen. The situation was already untenable by this point…
I’m a little surprised that the WWE Network retains Trish’s post-match promo, where she notoriously called Vis a ‘fat, chicken-eating loser’…which was, I’m sure, meant innocently but has obvious unpleasant racial connotations. Big V gets swift payback for that comment by giving her a big fat bearhug followed by a bigger, fatter splash.
Muhammad Hassan/Khosrow Daivari vs Shawn Michaels/Hulk Hogan
The Muhammad Hassan gimmick really did gain infamy within the WWE fanbase at a very fast pace. He’s barely been on TV for more than a few months and has extremely limited experience working high profile matches…but now finds himself in the co-main event of a major pay-per-view with two of the biggest names in the history of the business. He and Daivari attacked HBK on Raw, complaining that he got cheered despite losing to Kurt Angle at WrestleMania whilst they didn’t even have a match. Michaels wanted revenge, but Bischoff would only sanction it if he could find a partner – prompting HBK to call out Hogan. The Hulkster himself had a run-in with Hassan at WrestleMania, and agreed to the pleas of both Shawn and his Hulkamaniacs when they asked for ‘one more match’.
Lawler openly laughing at obviously racist signs aimed at Hassan is absolutely disgraceful. Hogan, meanwhile, is wildly over. By the time he makes his entrance the arena is a sea of red and yellow. His raw (albeit incredibly slow) power is all too much for Hassan, who gets completely steamrollered in a succession of basic exchanges. Earl Hebner is evidently caught up in the moment as he allows Daivari, Hassan then even HBK to come into the match legally without a hint of a tag. When Michaels and Daivari get into the ring together it feels like watching Rey Mysterio and Psicosis’ ECW battles after the slow motion warfare of Hulk and Hassan. That doesn’t last long though, with Hogan taking over again to brain Khosrow against the ringpost. Hassan whacks Michaels in his bad back with a metal pipe as he lines up Sweet Chin Music, giving the Arab American team the advantage for the first time. They spend several minutes working over HBK’s back with relatively impressive intensity. Hogan and Shawn are so popular they don’t actually have to do much at all to generate real heat which helps of course. It culminates in Hassan’s Camel Clutch being applied, positioned so that he can face Hogan and scream in his face as he stretches his tag partner. Michaels somehow finds the strength to counter out with an electric chair drop to leave them both down. Hot tag to the Hulkster so he can run wild, extremely slowly, on both opponents…until Hassan blasts him with the metal pipe too. That barely gets a 2-count, with poor Daivari paying the price with the inevitable ‘Hulking up’ sequence that follows. Sweet Chin Music on Daivari…with Hogan dropping to cover him for the win at 15:14
Rating - ** - I was sarcastic and rather jocular about how slow Hulk was whenever he was in the ring, but this could genuinely have been far worse. Obviously everyone had to work around Hogan, to the extent that I don’t recall Hulk actually taking a single bump all match, but they all played their part in that competently. Michaels, as usual, was at the top of his game…and really busted his ass to at least save Hassan and Daivari from looking like total no-hopers. In fact, when Shawn was in the ring with him, Hassan actually looked like a very strong prospect.
The show is barely two hours through and we only have the main event left, so Hogan and Michaels get an eternity to milk the celebratory posing.
At long last the show resumes with Todd Grisham interviewing a confident Triple H ahead of the main event. He reiterates the point he’d been making going into this show – that Batista fears the Pedigree.
More stalling to make this PPV seem like value for money as Christian is sent into the arena – apparently since there would be a ‘backlash’ if he didn’t make an appearance. He rips into all the main event talent on both brands ahead of the forthcoming talent draft...in the form of a lengthy rap.
Batista vs Triple H – World Heavyweight Title Match
This is a rematch of the WrestleMania main event, which saw HHH’s former Evolution enforcer emerge from The Game’s shadow and take his World Title. As we’ve seen time after time since 2002 when Eric Bischoff first awarded him the World Title after the brand split, Hunter won’t accept being forced out of the title picture easily and he immediately petitioned for a rematch. This time around he believes he has a psychological edge since he thinks Batista is scared of (and cannot kick out of) the Pedigree. Triple H thinks he is a single finishing move away from being an 11-time World Champion.
HHH goes for the Pedigree inside the first minute and has Big Dave scrambling for the ropes in a panic. Fate quickly turns in his favour though, as he has Helmsley frantically grabbing the rope soon afterwards after an attempt at the Batista Bomb. This is all about their respective finishing moves with Batista back dropping The Game to the floor as he sets up another Pedigree attempt. SPINEBUSTER INTO THE GUARDRAIL by Hunter! Working the back was a relatively successful strategy for HHH at WrestleMania so obviously he goes back to that; shoving the champ’s back into the railings again them giving him a straight suplex on the floor. JR makes a great point about Batista being less able to defend himself from the Pedigree if his back is injured. He also can’t hit his own finisher – which we soon see after he collapses in pain trying to lift Helmsley off the mat. Even Ric Flair gets in on the act by driving the back into the ring apron behind the referee’s back. Dave is working hurt now but still has a huge power advantage…which he utilises by whipping the challenger into the metal ring steps. Flair tries to interfere, creating a distraction which enables HHH to nail Batista in the face with the World Title belt for 2. Pedigree blocked…and referee Mike Chioda is knocked out in the melee! PEDIGREE nailed with no ref to count the fall. A replacement official arrives as Batista counters another Pedigree attempt into a spinebuster…only for HHH to retaliate with the facecrusher. The challenger is pissed off so decks replacement official Jack Doan; clearing the decks for Naitch to enter unimpeded. Big Dave mows through Flair but is distracted for long enough to allow HHH to hit a low blow. No sold! BATISTA BOMB! Metal balls Batista get the win at 16:22
Rating - *** - Probably not as good as WrestleMania, but still far better than I’d expected from these two. The most frustrating thing is that, when they ignore all the BS overbooking, they actually have great chemistry as opponents. The wrestling portion of this match, built upon the story of Batista fearing the Pedigree, was really strong (better than Mania in fact)…but it degenerated in the second half. Firstly Batista didn’t sell the back anywhere near as well as he did last month, and secondly the overbooking at the end here was way worse. Of course WWE knew they were going to set up Batista/HHH III at the next Raw pay-per-view but I felt the last five minutes generally made Batista look far weaker than he should be presented. I came away feeling like he retained because HHH lost his temper…not because he was a better wrestler in any way. I’m not sure that’s what they were going for in truth.
HHH is so pissed off at the loss that he even shoves Ric Flair to the ground. Mike Chioda eats a Pedigree as well – but it’s Batista who ends the show standing tall as World Champion
Tape Rating - ** - So many of these single-brand PPV events are extremely frustrating to watch. WWE had such a big roster that it really is hard to understand why they keep delivering monthly extravaganzas like this where they have to stall for time mid-show making everything feel like an elongated episode of Raw (or Smackdown) rather than a major show. Hogan’s match managed to cream upwards of 30 minutes air-time without him taking a bump, Christian and Jerry Lawler had in-ring segments which devalued the broadcast and clearly were only booked for the sole intention of padding out the show. What’s worse is that the Lawler/divas segment, followed by the stuff with Trish and Vis, followed by the presentation of the Hassan/Daivari characters meant a lot of the middle of the card was extremely distasteful and uncomfortable to actually watch. Jericho/Shelton, Edge/Benoit and Batista/HHH (when they were wrestling not bumping referees) were all decent matches so this wasn’t a total wash-out…but on the whole this event hasn’t aged well at all. Between Hogan’s dinosaur act, Lawler being a sexist pig and Trish’s racial slur I came away with as many complaints as I did points of enjoyment. It’s also worth flagging that not many enjoyed Edge/Benoit as much as me either. As a WWE Network view there are a few bits you could skip to and check out…but as a live PPV in 2005 this wasn’t great value for money.
Top 3 Matches
3) Batista vs Triple H (***)
2) Shelton Benjamin vs Chris Jericho (***)
1) Edge vs Chris Benoit (****)