Wrestling’s 4R’s PPV Edition 4.29.08: WWE BACKLASH 2008
Posted by Larry Csonka on 04.29.2008
Two big title changes highlight a pretty average Backlash PPV.
How the 4R's of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R's. I will take the 4 main shows (5 if I go RetRo) of the week: TNA Impact, WWE Raw, ECW on Sci-Fi and WWE Smackdown. If we have a PPV, that show will get a special PPV edition of the R's all to its own. I then group my feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and need discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles, Diva searches and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come, unless you are TNA. They have a special R all of their own, the 6th R; the Russo-FN-Riffic~! This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a "mark" column, nor a "smark" column, my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. There are also occasions where I will bring out a 5th or even a 6th R to the column, so beware of those~! I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether very positive or negative.
~WWE BACKLASH 2008~
The Matches:
US TITLE MATCH: Matt Hardy defeated MVP to become the NEW US CHAMPION @ 11:30 via pin **¾
ECW TITLE MATCH: Kane defeated Chavo Guerrero @ 8:50 via pin *½
The Big Show defeated The Great Khali @ 8:10 via pin ½* TRASH of the Night!
HBK defeated Batista @ 15:00 via pin ***½
Beth Phoenix, Natalia Neidhart, Victoria, Jillian Hall, Melina and Layla defeated Mickie James, Kelly Kelly, Cherry, Ashley, Maria and Michelle McCool @ 6:30 via pin *½
WORLD TITLE MATCH: The Undertaker defeated Edge @ 18:30 via Submission ***¾ MATCH of the Night!
WWE TITLE ELIMINATION MATCH: HHH defeated Randy Orton to become the NEW WWE CHAMPION @ 28:20 via pin ***½
The Right:
Mick Foley: Since I discussed my love for Frank Trigg's work on the TNA Lockdown PPV, it is only fair that I discuss Foley's performance here at Backlash. I will admit that I was unsure of this, Foley did a poor job when he worked the One Night Stand PPV a few years back. But this was going to be different, and I was willing to give him a chance. In the end he did VERY well with Cole, and really, this was the least Cole has annoyed me in forever. Foley did what I expected/hoped that he would do. He was selling the effects of moves, the psychology behind them and telling the story of the match. He did that and did that well, and I now feel that he will make a good addition to the team. Good work Mick.
US TITLE MATCH: On these PPV editions of the R's I tend to talk about the importance of the opening match. This will be no different. The opening match shouldn't overshadow the rest of the card, but should be good enough to get everyone excited. It should involve people that the fans know and are connected with through hopefully a good angle. Well, it was a title match, MVP and Hardy have a beef and have feuded forever and the fans are most certainly connected with them. They had a fine match, which saw MVP dominate as he worked mid-section of Hardy. They started that off of a moonsault spot, and it flowed well into the work MVP did. It was basic and smart most of the time, and there is nothing wrong with that. They worked towards a good finish as MVP was getting desperate to put Hardy away, and started to go wild with a barrage of kicks to the head. MVP would miss the big corner kick, Hardy would get the Twist of Fate and that was all. They got a good pop for the title change and overall I liked the match. I do think that the end was a bit anti-climatic and was hoping for more of a crescendo when Hardy finally won the title. It worked, I guess after all of this time and some good matches, I wanted more. Kudos for the clean finish though, I like them. They also followed up with an interview after the match, giving Matt good face time while putting this over as his biggest accomplishment to date. This was effective as an overall presentation.
HBK vs. Batista: HBK vs. Batista was a match I was looking forward too. The build was rather good as we went from the ultra emotional Flair retirement angle right into this, which was a great idea. They have built the entire match on history, promos and almost no contact and there was a lot of anticipation. I had high hopes for the match. And in the end I wasn't let down. I thought that they had a really good match, and Shawn Michaels may be beat down, losing his hair, have a back held together with duct tape and needs that need to be bionic, but that son of a bitch keeps getting better as he gets older. Big Dave also stepped up after his lackluster WrestleMania performance, which I had hoped he would. I really enjoyed the work of the arm by HBK, although he better be careful. RASSLIN FANS HATE THE MMA. I also liked that they didn't do the typical HBK comeback, instead they had Batista nail a great spear for a really great near fall. The end saw Batista go for the bomb, HBK slip out and "injure his knee." This was all a trick though as HBK would land a big superkick and get the win and end what was up to that point in the show the best match on the card. It was weird that they didn't run any shenanigans with Jericho. They kept it clean and that was that. I guess we'll see where we go with it from here. I will say that it isn't a bad thing though, most figured he would get involved and decide the winner. That didn't happen, which is a nice surprise.
WORLD TITLE MATCH: In a WrestleMania rematch Edge tried to regain his World Title as he faced the Undertaker. After their WrestleMania match I had high hopes as I felt they delivered in the main event spot. I appreciated the efforts of Edge here as there was a trend here on the show. Isolate a body part and work it. MVP did it, Chavo did it, HBK did it, and Edge followed suit. Lots of people are quick to say that Edge looks like a punk losing but I disagree again. Edge had Taker's number before WM, and now he is getting paid back. There was no BERRYING here. It was just a well-worked match, Edge tried all of the tricks; the turnbuckle, the Rmy and it just failed in the end. The finish was sweet as Taker tried the last ride, only for Edge to escape, get a sunset flip and try the roll up. Unfortunately Edge fell pray to the GOGOPLATA/THAT SUBMISSION HOLD and was forced to submit. Taker would hold onto the GOGOPLATA after the bell, Cole and Foley sod the effects of the hold, Edge bit the condom and they did a stretcher job as Vicky went hysterical. Taker promised to hurt Edge and he delivered. A good match (not as good as WM I feel) and solid after match angle make this a keeper.
WWE TITLE ELIMINATION MATCH: Finally we come to the main event of the evening, the WWE title match. The opening portion actually came off very well with all four guys. They kept the action going, they had the crowd and I really enjoyed how it came off. I dug the part where JBL mocked Orton while in the STFU, only to be put in the crossface. It was well laid out. Cena would eventually make JBL tap to the STFU a little over 10-minutes in, and as soon as JBL was out, Cena was GONE after a concussion kick. Again, well laid out and surprising on top of that. Most didn't see it coming, and that is a good thing. This left HHH and Orton, and they got nearly 18-minutes to work. To me it felt like they were forcing to deliver an epic affair, but it just never came to be. I give them credit for following suit and having Orton work the back and mid-section of HHH like many others had during the night. Isolate the body part, make it work and stick to the simple psychology. Unfortunately it drug too much at times, it was never bad, but just never seemed to kick into gear. The end saw some good reversals and HHH getting the pedigree for the clean title win. In the end I felt that the match was good, but not great. They delivered well enough and the title change got a big pop. The debate comes with HHH winning. Outside a cup of coffee, it has been forever since he had the title. He had been screwed out of the title and title chances, and this was his vindication. I also feel that they made the change to a face champion in hopes of helping the ratings, which isn't that bad an idea. Where they go from here is the real important part.
Purgatory:
LADIES TAG: And next we had the 12-diva tag match. While the build made sense, the issue was that there were just too many ladies out there trying to have a match. But I will give them credit. They went out there and tried to work a match. For the most part they kept the "workers" in the match to work the bulk of it, which is why it worked out decently well. It felt different than most WWE ladies matches (outside of most singles) because I actually believed that they were trying to make an effort here instead of just giving us T&A. They tried to do a hot finish, what I like to refer to as "FINISHER-FEST," but it didn't work out that well. First of all it was slow and off at times. Second of all, there were so many people out there, women were appearing and I found myself saying, "Shit, Maria is in this match?" That's never good. Finally, we rarely get to see these women wrestle and have full matches, so some of them I was like, "Oh, a finish…I guess." But the crowd seemed to like it and reacted, and in the end it felt like an effort to do real women's wrestling. They just need to follow up on it. It isn't the level of stuff that the TNA ladies are doing, but if Beth, Mickie, Victoria, Nattie and some of the others that can work would get the time and chance to show what they can do, maybe it could be. I will say that it isn't all the fault of the ladies. Having 12-people in there was a disaster waiting to happen and they should be glad that no one got hurt out there. In the end this was a cluster, a total cluster. I will give them a bit of a break here and not slam them since a lot of stuff felt right here. Kudos for the clean finish.
The wRong:
ECW TITLE MATCH: The ECW Title match was the second match on the card, I was surprised that they didn't get the opening spot because, well, it's the ECW Title match. They had some miscommunication early, but I feel that the one major thing that hurt the match was even with the angle that they shot Tuesday night, and even with Bam Neeley out there to stack the odds, it appeared that no one thought Chavo had a chance to win the match. There was no heat for the heat segment, no real heat for Kane's comeback either. They just cheered the trademark spots. Also they had some issues, some sloppiness that really held this match back. Kane wins with the chokeslam clean, and that was that. Is the feud over? Kane wins clean, Bam Neeley stands there like a goof and doesn't do anything of note, so where do we go from here? The finish was pretty good, but the work leading up to it was pedestrian and as mentioned, no one thought Chavo was going to win. Kudos for the clean finish.
The Big Show vs. The Great Khali: I will admit that I didn't expect good things here, but I as hoping for something resembling "good." I did not get that here. This was SLOW…and not methodical, just SLOW. Khali is normally a guy that looks immobile, but Show looked nimble next to him. Virtually a cruiserweight speed wise. Anyway this was what I thought it would be. Shove, chop, rights, slam try, JUDO CHOP, Vulcan Neck Pinch and so on and so forth. This was a painful 8-minutes, and I will not go back and watch this every again. Two-times was plenty for me. I thank Big Show for working hard, for being in shape and trying. But this was not good at all. Kudos for the clean finish.
The Ridiculous:
PLEASE: For the LOVE OF GOD will someone in WWE NAME THE FUCKING GOGOPLATA! Nothing is shittier than hearing, "The Undertaker has locked in that submission hold!" The end of the Edge vs. Taker match was an excellent finishing sequence, but was almost ruined ad Cole and Foley were calling the action. "The Undertaker is going for the Last Ride! Wait, Edge counters! Roll up 1…2…NO! The Undertaker got THAT DEVASTATING HOLD ON!" LAME AS HELL. Name the hold, look at the Internet, there are a ton of good suggestions out there. Devil's Cross is fucking solid, make it so.
Closing Thoughts:
Not a whole lot to say here. Matt got his big win in a fine match, HBK and Dave was good, HHH finally got his big title win and it was fine. Taker and Edge worked hard again and had the bets match on the show, but not as good as their Mania match. Overall I will go with a 7.0 out of 10, and a very mild recommendation. It is a solid show, but nothing that you need to go out of your way to see. There were some big wins, but they just didn't feel important. So far, this would be the "worst" WWE PPV of the year, but that isn't a bad thing as this has been a strong year thus far for PPV.
2008 PPV Rankings:
-WWE WRESTLEMANIA {8.7}
-ROH RISING ABOVE {8.6}
-ROH UNDENIABLE {8.5}
-TNA LOCKDOWN {8.2}
-WWE NO WAY OUT {8.1}
-WWE ROYAL RUMBLE {8.0}
-TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS {7.5}
-TNA DESTINATION X {7.25}
-WWE BACKLASH {7.0}
-TNA FINAL RESOLUTION {6.75}
2008 TOP PPV Match Rankings:
-(WWE WRESTLEMANIA 24) CAREER THREATENING MATCH: Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels *****
2008 PPV MVP AWARDS: This is a little added deal I started last year, as I feel that there are some other things that should be mentioned from the PPV's. Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.
Surprised you only put Taker vs Edge on the top ppv match rankings when the Four
Way was the best match on the show
Posted By: Guest#6714 (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 12:05 AM
First, I have to respectfully disagree that Foley was awful at One Night Stand,
but I see a lot of people feel that way. I also have to say that I bought (and
until I hear it verified still do buy) HBK's knee injury. The spot would have
been better had he hit the superkick after reversing the Batista Bomb and it
looked like that's where they were going. As for the gogoplata, I think Foley
had a pretty good line that could be used to name that move the "Death
Sentence."
Posted By: Andy Clark (Registered) on April 29, 2008 at 12:06 AM
they cant use the devil's cross. it's not PC.
Posted By: K.O.W. (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 12:30 AM
Foley referred to THAT SUBMISSION HOLD as a "death sentence" a time or
two, I think that has a lot of potential as a name too.
Posted By: His Reptilian Majesty (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 12:30 AM
It's possible that the move is called "That Devastating Hold."
Posted By: Supro (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 12:39 AM
I name the hold the 'Rest In Peace'.
Posted By: pdh (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 12:46 AM
Maybe giving it a name is what Foley was trying to do with The Death Sentence.
Sounds like a winner to me. I did like my roommate's suggestion of Last Rites,
but at least it sounded like Foley tried - and it was his first night
announcing.
Posted By: Mina (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 12:47 AM
So how was this worse than Destination X?
Posted By: Truthslayer (Registered) on April 29, 2008 at 01:38 AM
I'd personally go for the simple "Darkness Choke" or better
yet..."Darkness Falls". Nice, it's PC, and it references Killswitch
Engage...SOLD!
Posted By: Kevin F. (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 02:26 AM
Well, 'Last Rites' IS what Daniels calls his rolling cutter. (Ever notice, the
move showed up in WCW shortly after he got signed, as Reno's Roll of the Dice
... and around the time of Edge and Christian's deal with Los Conquistadors,
with Chris Daniels as -- I think -- Christian's double, it's right about then
that Test starts using the Test Drive.)
Devil's Cross works IMO, or just bloody call it a gogoplata.
Posted By: MadmanJack (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 02:58 AM
I could have sworn I heard Cole call the gogoplata 'The Reaper'. Maybe I'm
hearing things.
Posted By: Guest#0726 (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 05:41 AM
The Death Sentence was AMWs team finisher
Posted By: Dominick (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 06:24 AM
I think "Final Breath" would be a good name for it.
Posted By: Adam (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 07:06 AM
How about the "Go-Go-Gadget-Plata"
Posted By: D_I_S_D (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 08:42 AM
The Death Certificate!
Posted By: Shone Jones (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Hey I bet WWE reads these comments and is going to choose one of your names for
the finisher and then pay you a huge some of money. Then you'll FINALLY be
able to win friends and influence people! I'm pretty sure that's how life
works.
Posted By: MP (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 10:41 AM
I also don't get how this show is worse than Destination X. I don't recall
anything memorable from that show, but already, Taker/Edge II, the Michaels
feint, and the four-way are moments of 2008.
And, by the way, Sunday's Backlash reinforces just how awesome Backlash 2007
was. Backlash 08 was a solid, if not unspectacular, show, but last year's was
simply amazing.
Even still, WWE has had nothing but solid, entertaining PPV this year. The
Triple H/Orton cage match next month should be fun, and it'll be nice to
(hopefully) see Taker move on to someone else.
Posted By: DG (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Death Valley Necktie
Posted By: Les (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 01:16 PM
Death Valley Necktie
Posted By: Les (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 01:17 PM
Erm, the official name of Undertaker's finisher is "That Submission
Hold" aka "That Devastating Hold". What more could you want? At
least he's not like Edge, who would only use "Spear", "That
DDT" and "That Submission Move".
Posted By: Guest#9036 (Guest) on April 29, 2008 at 07:54 PM
edge's running hug
Posted By: Guest#2457 (Guest) on April 30, 2008 at 02:47 AM
Now that HHH has won the title, can we PLEASE get rid of the spinner title? I
assume that he'll be keeping it for a little while and the fact it has been
over 6 months since Cena lost the title I think it is time to got back to the
old belt.
Posted By: David (Guest) on April 30, 2008 at 10:25 PM
It doesn't spin
Posted By: Jones (Guest) on May 01, 2008 at 04:16 AM
"It's possible that the move is called "That Devastating
Hold.""
Considering this is the same company that referred to the XFL Championship Game
as "The Big Game at the End", this wouldn't surprise me!
Posted By: Jason S (Guest) on May 01, 2008 at 01:02 PM
