WRestling’s 3R’s Special Edition 5.05.06: Backlash 2006
Posted by Larry Csonka on 05.05.2006
Yes, there will be some backlash in this column.
Welcome one and all to a special edition of the 3R's of wrestling. I have decided to give WWE Backlash its own special edition of the R's because I think that it deserves it, the other part of the 3R's is already big and I got some feedback that I wanted to share with everyone. This may just be a regular thing with these editions, as they seem to work really well. With that said, let's get to work on Backlash 2006.
Also, remember to check out my first PODCAST! I discussed Backlash, it's about 15-minutes. It's the first one, so be kind.
Match Results:
Carlito defeated Chris Masters via pin @ 10:00 *¼
Umaga defeated Ric Flair via pin @ 3:00 *
WWE Women's Title Match: Trish Stratus defeated Mickie James via DQ @ 4:25 (N-R)
Notes:First of all I will not punish the Women's match at all. Trish was hurt in a freak accident. Some people are bitching that it was a horrible match, but I do not see how you can punish them for what happened. They were working hard and the accident happened. Trish did her best and they went to the DQ finish, which was totally fine I thought. Trish even tried to no sell the arm after the match as she acted pissed about the DQ, but her arm was just dangling there. I commend her for doing her best with that injury, because if you have ever dislocated a shoulder the pain is very intense and you either want to cry like a baby or pass out. I thought I'd put that here for those of you that might question why I didn't include it below.
The Right:
Triple Threat Greatness - To me this was without doubt the best match of the show. They all busted their asses and delivered BIG TIME so to speak and helped save the show from being a shit storm. I dug the beginning of the match as Edge played the outside and made HHH and Cena fight. The crowd was all into this to the point where they were doing the "booo" and Yaaaay" stuff for HHH and Cena's punch back and forth fest. Eventually Cena and HHH brought him in and the three-way melee began. They played a lot of the triple threat formula, and eventually Edge and HHH went to the outside where HHH hit a FN ARTERY and bled a pool of blood. Edge then got an Implant DDT on the Spanish Announce Table, which did not break. Eventually Cena got the STFU on Edge, but HHH stopped that. Edge would also take a NASTY chair shot, and it was down to HHH and Cena. After another STFU Edge was back and we saw some more great action, including a tower of doom spot. A ref bump occurred, and HHH got his trusty sledge hammer but ate a spear from Edge. Cena would toss him and HHH went for the pedigree, but Cena jackknife rolled him up for the pin. A great match to close the show, and I cannot stress how this delivered for this show.
In the end all three guys were firmly established in their roles. Edge is the chicken shit heel with no doubt. Cena is in the odd tweener role, where people will pay to see him wrestle and see him win while others will pay to see him finally lose; which is a win, win situation there kids. HHH looks to be the new babyface, possibly ala Steve Austin, which could be a very good thing
Mr. Monday Night, Mr. Money in the Bank, The Whole FN Show and the NEW IC Champion! Oh yeah, that Shelton guy was there too - Oh yes, this match had equal chances of being great or being shitty. Thankfully both men were on their game and we got a really good match, almost a great one. The start of the match was very low, a good slow though and right away I knew that they had committed to giving these guys a lot of time, which I was thankful for because it was for the IC title ad the MITB. I always worry about time on matches like these as a lot of the time you don't seem to get enough, but they did here. They did a ton of great things, counters, spots ad about everything good that you could expect from these guys. RVD was able to stop Shelton from using the MITB briefcase by giving him the Van Damninator and then the frog splash for the win. A really good match, it lacked something to make it great, but a rally damn good match that helped pull this PPV from total shit to almost passable.
Shawn Michaels = One Man Show - I cannot express how much Shawn Michaels was once again a one man show this evening. HBK has been getting flack from a lot of people as of late, but when push comes to shove and it's time for the big match the dude brings it like no other. After all of the God stuff, HBK was on fire from the get go. They started by brawling up the ramp in the beginning. HBK fought back, rammed Shane HELLA hard into the steel set, and then got a cross body to Vince, which took them from the stage to the floor below where tables and such awaited. This was a relatively safe deal that looked really good and got Vince out of the match for a while. This left Shane to just about KILL HBK with a chair shot. HBK gigged like a freak while Shane checked on daddy. They went back to the ring where Shane did his thing, which was fine. He missed a top rope elbow but fought back to keep HBK down. Vince eventually tagged in, some stupid shit happens, which we will talk about later and HBK would make the big comeback. He did everything to make the match enjoyable, including some glimpses of old HBK again. He set up Vince and Shane on tables and pulled out the "Jeff Hardy Approved Ladder™" and looked to splash onto them, but flew to the floor. The Spirit Squad was awaiting him and he took them all out. They would eventually lay him out, save Vince and Shane and then delivered the "upsy-daisy" to HBK through the table allowing Vince to make the cover for the win. HBK worked for about 9-men here, which was perfect since he had to face 7. The man can still make magic when he has to and deserves the props for it.
The wRong:
Flair Squashed - I think that this was a bit questionable. In all honesty I have no problem with Umaga defeating Flair. They are obviously pushing him, Flair let's face it is old and should be used to put over younger talent. But did they have to totally job Flair in 3-minutes? I mean let's face facts, Umaga is no Vader kids. To me Umaga isn't over enough to deserve a squash of this magnitude, in my opinion. Overall I don't have a lot of issues with it, but it is just the premise of it. I will say that it was good in the aspect that people are conditioned to matches getting "X" number of minutes, so a match like this can help break them of that. But what do the do with Flair now? Honestly? I had joked with my wife about it and we scarily enough had a very similar idea to Bryan Alvarez from F4Wonline. What they need to do is have Flair cut a promo about how he lost his way and needs to go on a journey to discover the inner warrior inside him so he can get his revenge on Umaga. Wacky skits can ensue with Flair in a Samoan Village where the natives are dressing him up and painting him up like one of them so that he can know how Umaga thinks. He can be dancing around the fire with them and "wooooooooooooo-ing" and the natives can woo along with him as he Flair flops onto hot coals or some shit. It would be glorious!
The Ridiculous:
Eugene and Striker - Wow was this a steaming pile of shit or what? I understand the need to kill some time on PPV, especially after an injury happened earlier. But this was planned to take place, why else would they have the teacher's set so handy and ready to be put up in the ring? Seriously, who thought that this shit ass segment with a retard picking his nose and making poop jokes would make for a good PPV segment? I don't want to see this shit on Raw let alone a PPV I paid $35 FN DOLLARS for! JR afterwards looked as if he was crying this was so bad. I hated this segment about as much as someone possibly can hate something. I feel stupider for having watched it.
No Explanation - This involves the whole Joey Styles and Jim Ross and the announcing situation. When the pre-show came on and they went to the arena for the pre-show match, King and Joey Styles were at the announce table. They called the Heat match between Rob "Wellness" Conway and Goldust. Fun pre-show match, Goldy looked motivated and it was fine. So we are all good correct? Well the PPV started and Joey MAGICALLY disappeared and Jim Ross was there to call the PPV. Now I understand this is all part of a greater plan and it makes total sense. But the fact of the mater is that they did not bother to explain this at all. That's a problem for me. It just shows a great lack of continuity here, which is often a problem with wrestling programming. They easily could have explained this with something like Vince demanded it because he wanted the "great Jim Ross" to call his match with "God." But we got nothing, hence why it is here. I will say that JR rocked all kinds of ass on commentary, but the above point stands.
Vince Ego and his God Stuff - Ok here we go. Once again, Vince's ego was on full display here tonight during this PPV. First we had the backstage stuff. Vince did some more mocking of the lord by "walking on water, making more fish and bread and even turning water into wine." Holy mackerel was this bad. But it got worse. Before the match he was backstage and she said she needed healed; because she had a "chest cold." Vince eventually felt her up and she fell to the floor and had an orgasmic experience and was apparently healed. So he and Shane go to the ring and Vince announces "God." We got a cloudy titan tron, Godly music and a "spotlight" that was supposed to be God coming to the ring. This was just ridiculous , some think it was funny and to each their own, but I have thought that this whole thing was bad from day one. Later in the match Vince got on the mic and challenged God to come into the ring, but God "forsaken" HBK and left. Yeah. I am so over this shit. Finally there was the match, and while HBK was a one man show, Vince's ego was so on display here. This was another 20-minute match from Vince who has no right out there for 20-minutes. I just wish that they could have done this in a better way, and Jim Ross summed this up perfectly after the pin as he exclaimed, "This is Bullshit." Fuckin A JR!
The Ri-GOD-DAMN-Diculous:
Kane vs. Big Show - This match was ass on so many levels after about the first 15-seconds. In that first 15-seconds Show press slammed Kane, which was cool and then…it was the definition of all down hill from there. There was a blown spot here, where Kane I suspect tried to counter a chokeslam into a DDT, which looked like the drizzling shits. It was so slow and boring, and well, I just can't fully explain how bad this was. I thought that it "could" be decent, but man oh man was I wrong. Eventually we got to see red lights and hear KANE'S VOICES~! The crowd was silent, the announcers were silent ad Kane kicked his own ass. Show then got a chair and killed Kane with it. Then he looked like he was going to cry because he beat down his buddy. Then after all of this shit we got NO FINISH…so this feud…MUST continue! This match is the definition of ASS. Do not watch this match, do not watch this at all please for your own safety, please for your own good! WORST…MATCH…OF…THE…YEAR!
Closing thoughts: Well, the bad was very bad but the good was really good. The God stuff still was a huge turn off, so after a re-watch and doing the column, I go 4.5146985 out of 10 and a thumbs slightly in the middle, but leaning very down. The Triple Threat, RVD/Shelton and HBK's working for 9-men saved this from being a monumental disaster.
Reader Feedback on Backlash~!
From Rogelio:
SO so show. I almost fell asleep on the Kane/Show match but when the red light came on, I woke up wondering what the hell was going on. I give the show a thumbs in the middle cuz all the dumb ass skits with Vince, Kane/Show and the women's match, which was stopped short because Trish dislocated her shoulder. Other than that everything was really good. The triple threat match was really good stuff. I hope they have
security for Cena in NYC though.
2 thoughts of mine: They should put Trish/Mickie in a cage match cuz these two work
really well together and before the injury, this match was really going well. I think a cage match would solidify the women's division as a serious one and these two can pull it off.
And why was JR there tonight? I know they are moving Styles and all but if I wasn't
on the internet I wouldn't know why he was there. No explanation or nothing. Kind
of stupid.
From RC:
Cena won. Dunno if I should be happy or not. Happy if he goes to feud with RVD, unhappy if he feuds with someone else.
What was up with CCC? This is the first time Carlito's used more than one highflying move and NOBODY mentions it? Did Carlos Colon fly to Lexington and smack Vince in the face saying "I want my little Carlos to get to wrestle however he wants - understood Bitch?" ? Anyway, nice to see CCC get to finally wrestle...too bad he stil hasn't a finisher yet.
Damn all these Vince promos were so boring. And that skit with Candice? Worst segment of the year.
And what's up with Cena no-selling a low blow from Triple H? I mean, you've wrestled for 20 minutes man, at least sell a low blow which should decimate you this far into the match. At least Edge didn't get pinned so hopefully he might still be in the feud.
Finally, the women's match just sucked. The crowd was kinda dead and the wrestling wasn't good. Those two seems to be following some kinda cycle - 1 bad match - 1 good match - one bad - one good...and so on.
From David:
I wish God, would have informed me that this PPV was going to be so bad. The Carlito vs. Masters match was ok but it looked as if Carlito got a stinger half way through, witch could explain some of the missed spots. How can you have a 16 time world champ get squashed by Jamal? I understand Ric will put people over but we need to draw the line somewhere. I know the woman's match was cut short due to Trish's injury but was the Striker angle PPV worthy? It would at best be a spot on the first hour of Raw. The HBK match was just too bad to even mention. The main event was the only thing that pulled this PPV out of the crapper. The match was solid but I would have rather seen HHH win and take the sledgehammer and break that @#$$ spinner belt
From Pierre:
Sorry, only the Shelton/RVD had something good, but everything was BAD! As being sick and hot (literally) wasn't enough, Vince McMahon is a FUCKIN' PUSSY! Good thing I stopped watching this since No Way Out (hey, I check on this site for updates; beats wasting my time watching this live). What the hell is next, Vince will announce Mario and Darth Vader as Shawn's partners for Vengeance? I guess more viewers may start leaving like they did for the Alliance.
Sad to hear that Trish is injured. This feud was good! What bimbo will challenge Mickie next? Oh, you know what I mean!
As for Cena, GOOD JOB WWE (seriously). I may have wanted Edge to win, but Cena getting booed is still fun, and more people get pissed off about it. I really hope RVD will take him on at ECW ONS II. RVD and the ECW fans vs. WWE Champion John Cena with the WWE creative trying to back him up. I want to see what the ECW fans will do, but WWE may chicken shit on that idea for JBL. I wouldn't mind an RVD/Rey Mysterio feud (it could be a good match), but I gave up hope for WWE a long time ago.
And finally from David Martin:
Larry- Long time, no write...man, this was not a good show at all. Quite a lot of crap...
Masters/Carlito was OK, good of them to let Carlito show off some move set. They need to move Carlito on to something else though...
Flair/Umaga signals the end of Flair's run I guess...and to waste it on this? Just bad
Trish/Mickie I think may have went home early because of Trish's shoulder. Hopefully, they can take this and add to the feud somehow...maybe have Mickie wreck Trish to take her out for a few weeks?
Shelton/RVD- good match that picked up at the end. I hated the briefcase finish though (am I supposed to think Shelton got frustrated)...Shelton is a walking spotfest but too many restholds.
Kane/Show- This was crap...pure and simple
VKM and Shane/Michaels- some fun stuff but too much non-wrestling stupidity attached...and that ending? to quote Ross- BULLSHIT
Cena/HHH/Edge- fun but typical...hopefully HHH recognizes his own stupidness going for the sledge. Oh and HHH beats the STFU and gets pinned on a flash roll-up then destroys everyone??? again, questionable finish...I think if you build that way HHH should go
over.
Overall, this is the worst PPV of the year. The ring work was average to good but there was too much stupid crap.
That's for the emails on Backlash and thanks for reading another special edition of Wrestling's 3R's~!
