Okay I’m so hyped. And all day I have been thinking about doing this column. It’s not often that I can brag about back to back shows, but Backlash and last night’s Raw came off so well, wait that’s an understatement. Backlash came off very well, Raw was just totally AMAZING. I planned to write a lot about Backlash but I will try to keep that short because as good as Backlash was Raw really deserves to be the focus of this column. My God what a show last night. All right let me get to Backlash and then it’s on to one of the strongest and most entertaining Raws in a long time.
I had very low expectations about Backlash. I looked at it as a Raw that you had to pay for. But I don’t regret ordering it for a minute. I was very pleased with Sunday’s show. The Manchester, New Hampshire crowd definitely had its moments, so everything just about gelled on Sunday Night. Before Backlash started, Heat gave us Val Venis vs. Tyson Tomko. I really want to get this out. I was happy the way Tomko handled this match. I mean let’s face it Val has always looked good in the ring, so maybe Venis should get the credit for making Tyson finally look decent and comfortable in the ring. It was a nice match and I hope that this wasn’t a fluke and that we will see Tomko prove that he deserves to stay on TV. Now back to Backlash. The opening match with Chris Jericho vs. Shelton Benjamin was outstanding. Jericho and Benjamin put on a hell of a match and having this as the first match of the show was a very wise move.
The Tag Team Turmoil match with William Regal/Tajiri vs. Hurricane Helms/Rosey vs. La Resistance vs. The Heart Throbs was what I expected. It was an okay match, and it was a very nice surprise to see Helms and Rosey become the new tag team champions. While I picked Regal and Tajiri, it was really nice seeing Hurricane and Rosey finally have the honors of being the new champions. I absolutely loved the Last Man Standing Match. It really was everything I thought it would be and again, Benoit looked magnificent out there. The only thing that fell flat was the ending with Edge hitting Benoit in the head with a brick. Things up until then were really moving and there were some awesome bumps and moves and then all of a sudden Edge brings out a brick and clobbers Benoit with it and Edge wins. Things really slowed down quickly, but since that was just a small part of the match I will give this one the match of the night.
I will say the only downfall of Backlash was having Chris Masters come out. It’s bad enough I have to see him on Raw for free but when I spend $35.00 on a pay per view I will guarantee you it’s not to see this man. And it’s not the man it’s the gimmick I despise, but more about that during my Raw thoughts. Also Kane vs. Viscera was definitely everything I figured it would be and that’s not a compliment. When we saw Lita backstage with Kane getting all weird and talking about what Kane had planned for Vis, I’m thinking wow this could be interesting. But the match was nothing, and Kane beating Viscera wasn’t exactly mind-blowing. It was Viscera destroying Trish, whom by the way was excellent during all of this, but it was Vis that took Trish out much to the delight of the fans, that made it kind of enjoyable.
But then things picked up and picked up fast. I was totally in love with the Hulk Hogan/Shawn Michaels vs. Hassan/Daivari match. It was done perfectly, Hogan was used the right way, Shawn looked great out there, Daivari did a nice job, and even though Hassan wasn’t in it much he added to the match very well. Watching this and hearing those fans made this another top match of the night. I really loved it. How many of you were smiling from ear to ear watching the commercial for the ECW pay per view? Wow hearing Paul Heyman’s voice and hearing the ECW theme gave me goose bumps. I am 99.9% sure I will be ordering that baby on June 12th. I mentioned that it was odd that Christian didn’t have a match on Sunday. But he showed up with Tomko and did a little rap, and that was enough to get all his peeps cheering loudly. Again, he teased going to Smackdown and taking on John Cena and again the Christian Coalition seemed to eat it up. Yeah I would say Captain Charisma is really on a high right now, and I for one am very happy for him. We all know my expectations for Backlash were low; well that’s how I felt about Triple H vs. Batista. I didn’t expect much at all, but I was so wrong. Batista and Hunter’s match was excellent. This was the first time that I saw Batista really sell for his opponent and it looks like both men are starting to gel very well with each other. This was an awesome main event, and I mean awesome, and seeing Batista win again was no surprise, but it was still exciting. As you can see I give Backlash thumbs up all the way, even though I was 3/6 with my predictions.
Let me get right to Raw, I guess I didn’t keep Backlash as short as I thought I would. Raw Rocked, Raw was off the charts, you name it that’s what Raw was. Let me just kind of do what I do so well talk about the show out of order. The idea of the 8 Man Gold Rush Tournament was a fantastic idea. And even more fantastic was that while we knew some of the guys in this match for the number one contender for the World Title, we didn’t know who would be facing who. Eric Bischoff was pretty damn good last night. He went from the cowardly GM, when Batista hinted that he wanted a match with him, to a very in your face GM with Triple H when Hunter went ballistic on him for making this tournament. Eric wasn’t going to try to please Hunter; he put Hunter in his place immediately. And Hunter interacting with Eric was entertaining as well. He started out low keyed and then immediately blew off steam with Eric. Hunter blamed Eric’s inept refs for his loss at Backlash, after all he pedigreed Batista it was the refs that didn’t do their job. I like Hunter when he’s all pissed off, and I like it even more when Eric doesn’t give in to him.
The first match of the night was a tournament match with Kane vs. Christian. Now this match was okay, nothing out of the ordinary. I just couldn’t understand with Christian being so HOT lately, and he seems to be on a roll why have him lose to Kane? Especially since Kane won the night before. But Kane won and will go on to the next step and Captain Charisma I’m sure will bounce back next week and have us all laughing. After Christian’s loss he met up with Ric WOO Flair and Flair was at this best during this segment. The night before during Christians rap he made fun of Flair and Hunter so now with the loss to Kane it was a smiling Ric Flair’s turn. He came up with a two second rap that went something like, take it from Naitch, this tournament will be won by Triple H. Listen not the most original but damn funny because Flair was loving every minute of giving it to Christian. I will admit that this thing with Hassan blaming Daivari for the tag team loss the night before puzzled me. I am not ready to see this pair break up. I think it’s way too soon, yet I will say that I want to see how this plays off.
Is anyone getting a kick out of Viscera? He’s really becoming quite the out of ring performer, and his little love interaction with Lillian was very humorous. Right now I will say that Vis is a lot of fun to watch. Yeah and that’s coming from me. Now his match with Simon Dean really didn’t take off, and I do wish they would let Simon wrestle a real match with a real opponent and let the fans see just how cool he is in the ring. Did you all notice that Maria can’t interview? Oh wait that’s a given. Well her facial expressions were even worse last night. There’s two things I would do, let Candace do the interviewing and keep Maria far from the mic. It’s hard to take any interview seriously when she’s got the mic. Shelton was the guy that had to keep a straight face with this woman. He was asked if he was nervous not knowing who he would face in the tournament. Shelton being the cool guy that he is said that you always have to be on your toes and then Chris Jericho came out and thankfully Maria departed. And while things looked tense it was basically a make up session between both guys. But something tells me this love fest won’t last much longer. Shelton was next and his opponent was Shawn Michaels. This my friends was THE MATCH OF THE NIGHT. I don’t think I could even come up with the words to describe this match. It was something I wish I would have taped to watch over and over again. You want to talk about chemistry? These two guys were awesome together, Shelton looked like a million bucks out there and Shawn was fabulous. My God this was a match that I will never forget. Shawn did win, but so did Benjamin because he held his own against one of the best in the business. Two nights in a row, Sunday night with Jericho and last night with Shawn, Benjamin showed that he is not only an amazing athlete but a hell of a wrestler.
Edge did his beserko character with Todd Grisham. Hey maybe Maria should have interviewed Edge and it could have been the Airhead interviews the Whacko. Okay I’m sorry; anyway Grisham asked Edge why he was in this tournament since he already as a contract to be in the main event anytime he wants. I wanted to know that too. Edge immediately in his nasty way told Todd that no one could withstand two title matches with Batista. It seems like Edge is now the toughest guy in the company. I’ll tell you what appealed to me during this. Grisham got the best of Edge when he asked Edge what if he was drafted to Smackdown. Edge gave a look like what the hell is that supposed to mean? Todd then said that his contract was for the World Title, it wouldn’t work on Smackdown. Edge didn’t like that one bit and angrily said that he would be champion so it doesn’t matter. Then Edge walked by Victoria, you remember her right? You know she used to wrestle and play a great heel. Well Victoria and Lita were talking and Edge got in their faces and asked what they were looking at, Victoria very meanly said, absolutely nothing at all. Now this I believe was done to put Edge and Lita in the same room, and make us all say oh look they are together on TV. Listen I have a theory.
Okay I’ll tell you now. I see Kane and Edge as the finalists and Lita turning on Kane and going with Edge and I think last night was a quick glimpse of what’s to come. By the way did you notice that top Lita was wearing? Oh I’m sure you did, hey my chest was cold just watching her in that outfit. There were two things that I didn’t care for on the show. One was the tag team title match with the new title holders Rosey and Hurricane vs. La Resistance. I am so sick and tired of La Resistance and by them coming out for a match it continues to show just how bad this division is. I didn’t think Grenier and Conway would win back the belts but just having them out there really pissed me off. But nothing pissed me off more than having two nights of this damn Masterlock segment. It wasn’t bad enough that Chris Masters showed up on a pay per view with this miserable segment, but last night this crap continued. Let’s see John Heindenrich week after week on Smackdown comes out and reads poetry. Week after week on Raw Chris Masters comes out challenges “a fan” to break the Masterlock. What this says is that neither guy is capable in the ring, but damn it we aren’t sending them down, so live with it. I’ll tell you I’m really getting fed up with all of this. You have such great talent on both shows and they lose TV time because Vince has a need to make a lot of fans suffer while watching Heindenreich and Masters waste precious on air time. It’s wrong and I’m really tired of it.
Edge vs. Chris Jericho was another terrific Gold Rush Tournament match. I wish this would have gone on a lot longer. I was totally pleased by both men’s performances. The only thing that bothers me is that Jericho lost again. He lost Sunday to Shelton and now he loses this tournamnent match. With Edge already a shoe in to name his title match, I wish Chris would have gotten the win. Other than that it was a really good match. I was very happy that WWE took the time to pay tribute to Chris Candido.
Okay I never dreamed in a million years that Hunter would lose to Chris Benoit. But he lost that tournament match last night and lost by tapping out while in the sharpshooter. This match was off the charts. Benoit sold the head injury due to the brick that Edge shared with him at Backlash. Hunter knowing that he had this “head injury” used it to his advantage. Hunter and Benoit looked like real Wrestling Gods in that ring. They put on a near perfect performance. I was so impressed with both men. And then when Batista came out to help out Benoit who was getting it from both Hunter and Flair the crowd and I went nuts. Batista looked like a champion last night and watching him turn things around and keep that rope from Hunter to break off the sharpshooter was clever and so funny. As I said I never thought Hunter would tap out and Benoit would go to the next round but that’s what happened. And watching Hunter at the end on the mat in agony cursing at Batista was a terrific way to end the show.
I am so proud of the WWE for giving the fans two super shows in two nights. You couldn’t ask more from the wrestlers or the creative staff. They gave their all both nights and now I hope that Smackdown keeps it going. It’s time for Smackdown to start building up their Judgment Day pay per view which is on May 22nd. So I will go out on a limb and say that Smackdown will be a must see this week. I’m sorry I took up so much of your time but when you have back to back shows that shined it’s hard to keep things to a minimum.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
