Backlash
Review

As for the actual show, well, I went in with low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised - I thought it came across as a very enjoyable show. Might have been a bit better had the crowd not been more interested in a beach ball duel, or stopped cheering the heels just for the sake of it, but you can’t have anything, right?

I’m going to break from my usual format, and I won’t do this match by match - there’s enough people to do that for you. Instead, I thought I’d just go through what, in my mind, were the positives and negatives of the show. We’ll start with the negatives, just because I don’t like to end on a downer, and there’s not that many of them.

• Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena, as a whole, was a pretty dull match. It did succeed in putting Cena over as legit player, but didn’t get people sitting on the edge of their seats doing it. Lesnar smiling during his pre match bouncy session just seemed to set the wrong tone for this, I don’t know why. Cena showed his smarts by applying pressure holds and submission holds to work over the cut on Lesnar’s head, but the fact that nobody actually believed Cena would win damaged the contest.
• The 6 man tag match was pretty much a waste of space. Longest match of the night at nearly 18 minutes, but it felt like a 60 minute marathon match. Kevin Nash looked to be out of gas after just 2 minutes in the ring, although his hair was immaculate as ever... Add to that Jerry Lawler starting up his anti-Booker comments again, and this one was just a snoozefest. Not even Jericho and HBK could save this one, I’m afraid.
• Goldberg’s new music. Why change it? The old theme suited him perfectly. At least they kept the sparkler-riffic entrance!
• Goldberg’s limited moveset. Maybe the WWE had told him to hold back a little, but his repertoire consisted of a Spear, a Jackhammer, a Rock Bottom, punches, kicks and clotheslines. Not exactly awe-inspiring as a debut. He didn’t look to happy about the reaction he received, which I can’t really blame him for, but knowing Goldberg’s reputation for taking huffy fits, it doesn’t bode well.
• The Raw tag match was a whole mess of storylines colliding, and the ending was just way over the top. Bubba seemed to flip between face, heel and back to face again in one match, D-Von acted heelish, even though he was supposed to be wavering over his activities on “The Dark Side”. The idea of the Dudleys being forced heels, and Bubba enjoying it a little too much is a pretty meat idea, just a shame it’s been implemented so badly.
• The Sable, Stacy, Torrie, Test saga. Really - who cares? They devoted 3 or 4 spots on the PPV to this, yet couldn’t find a space for Chris Benoit, Rhyno, Matt Hardy or The Hurricane? Something badly wrong there.

• The commentators attempting to put over what’s going on in the ring. Tazz & Michael Cole have been doing this for weeks, but The Coach finally got with the program last night, and despite the crowd’s mixed reaction for Goldberg, The Coach really tried to put him over as the new star the WWE hope he’ll become. Best comment of the night, goes to Tazz for his comment about Rey after he hit Big Show with the third 619 : “He hit an 1857!”
• Big Show against Rey was better than it had any right to be. It’s still a shame that the match was booked in the first place, but it went ahead, and it was booked beautifully, I thought. Rey got just the right amount of offence in to look like a genuine contender, but couldn’t overcome the size difference in the end. It does stop Rey’s momentum, but gives him some nice sympathy points when he returns.
• Big Show’s use of Rey as a fly swat. How freakin’ cool was that spot? All credit to Rey for being willing to take it, it looked just brutal. With one act, The Big Show is installed as a monster heel again. Bring on Brock for Judgment Day...
• The opening match was a corker. Los Guerreros and Team Angle really do work well together, as the singles matches this week have shown also. Chavo’s little show-off sequence at the start was a nice touch, but both Guerreros backed up their antics in the ring. Team Angle never looked so self assured, and as in control as they did during this one. Benjamin and Haas can now be looked at as genuine players.
• Eddie & Chavo’s lowrider. Stereotypical, undoubtedly, but if you didn’t laugh when Eddie’s horn played La Cucuracha, then there’s something wrong with you!
• RVD’s promo. Dude, he just cracks me up. Dude.
• Jericho speaking to Lillian and calling her Vivian... classy.
• The Rock. I don’t like the guy, but last night he was ON. He was doing everything he could to try and get Goldberg over as a face, but the problem was, he was trying THAT hard, the crowd just couldn’t boo him. He was priceless last night, and much as I‘m no fan of his, he will be missed on Raw. I look forward to Triple H’s heel stylings like people look forward to a coughing businessman sitting next to them on a flight out of Hong Kong... See, I can do topical jokes too!
• Sean O’Haire. This man right here is the next big thing, if there’s any justice at all in this wacky world of wrestling. He has a presence in the ring that makes you pay attention to him. After his match with Rikishi, I just got the feeling that I’d seen the beginning of something special. I hope so, O’Haire has the talent to make it big in the WWE.
• John Cena made a name for himself last night. As I said, the match may have been dull, and pedestrian, but I thought that Cena’s performance stood out. It’s a bit too soon for him, but this guy is going to be big.
• Theodore Long threw a SHOE at Trish to break up a pin, and then blamed a fan at ringside... you have to love that. His act might be tasteless, and the repetition of “ya feel me?” gets on my nerves, but that act of shoe-throwing alone makes him cool in my book. The woman’s match wasn’t bad either, but Jazz & Trish can do, and have done, much better than that.

If you weigh it up, the positives outweigh the negatives, and that has to be a good thing. The show seemed to be more of a showcase for things to come than have a lot of meaning for the present time, and that’s by no means a bad thing. Nice to see some forward planning for a change from the WWE. At the end of the day, it was a fun show, and I enjoyed it - that’s all you can ask for...

Until next time, have fun, go mad.

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