WrestleMania 20 may have been a deeply flawed night of action, but it ended with a glorious main event, as Chris Benoit captured the World Heavyweight Championship, taking it away from the grasp of Triple H and Shawn Michaels in a pulsating, intense, and emotional triple threat match, one of the greatest closers to any WrestleMania ever. The way Benoit won the title has been immortalized, at least in the eyes of the fans, but rarely does anyone talk about what came next for the "Rabid Wolverine". Today, I begin to look at what happened after the confetti fell for Benoit, and grapple with how this organically built megastar ending up falling by the wayside. The starting point for Benoit as World Heavyweight Champion comes here at Backlash, in his hometown, as he defends in a rematch of that 'Mania classic.
- Backlash 2004 comes to you from Rexall Place (now the Northlands Coliseum) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the home of the Oilers for over 40 years before they finally departed in 2016. Since this is a Raw-exclusive event, Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler are on the call.
- Outside of the two new world champions, perhaps the most talked about man in WWE currently is Shelton Benjamin, who shocked the world when he defeated Triple H clean on his first night after being drafted to Raw. It was a great way to elevate the importance of the newly introduced WWE Draft, as a tag team specialist from SmackDown had suddenly found a whole new life on Monday nights. With Triple H busy in the main event, Ric Flair sets his sights on humbling the youngster, and these two very different competitors get the show off to a strong start with a highly entertaining opener. I loved the mesh of Benjamin's energy and athleticism counter-balanced by Flair's charisma and pinpoint attack, as he aims to take apart Shelton's leg. Flair does a lot of damage to the interior of Shelton's right knee, though the youngster has enough power in him to avoid tapping to the Figure Four. After a thunderous chop connects, Flair looks to his trademark shenanigans to put this one away, bringing out a pair of brass knuckles, but Benjamin sees it coming, and nails Flair with the same corner splash he used to beat Triple H. A flying clothesline follows, as Shelton keeps rolling with another big win over Evolution.
- For some reason, Jonathan Coachman is still heavily featured on Raw despite how little most crowds seem to care about him, and for the second time on pay-per-view, he's been booked to wrestle, taking on Tajiri, another recent draft pick from SmackDown. Coachman gets in a lot of offense too, as he looks to take apart Tajiri's leg after a Buzzsaw Kick connected with the ring post. Even though the folks in Edmonton don't really care about Coachman, they do pop for Tajiri's comeback, and his baseball slide dropkick to the back of Coachman's head was absolutely nasty. The crowd goes wild for the Tarantula, but Tajiri doesn't get too far after that, as Garrison Cade hops up on the apron, nailing the former Cruiserweight Champion with a right hand that allows Coachman to score a roll up win.
- Chris Jericho is now back to fully embracing his Attitude Era past after the heel turn of love interest Trish Stratus, laying into her with his trademark demeaning insults, and also hilariously calling himself a "sexy beast" in the lead up to a handicap match against Stratus and her new man, Christian. Jericho and Christian put on a solid enough match at WrestleMania, although they didn't quite have the crowd with them in that one, which isn't a problem this time, as this crowd is fully invested in hating Trish. The "slut" chants are deafening at the start of the match, and Jericho gets a huge pop whenever he goes after her, when he spanks her and nearly beheads her with a clothesline, a tremendous sell by Trish really putting that moment over. Jericho and Christian cycle through a lot of attempted big moves in their various exchanges, and the drama builds towards the finish, where Jericho escapes a Texas Cloverleaf from Christian and puts Stratus in the Walls of Jericho. It really seems like WWE is going to go the most predictable route and have Jericho fall short due to his focus on Stratus, as he nearly gets rolled up and ends up in position to take an Unprettier, but in a surprise to me, Y2J goes over clean. Jericho counters the Unprettier, and catapults Christian into Stratus, then nails his former best friend with a step-up enziguri for a clean win. As said, I'm shocked the company did go for the obvious and played-out choice here, so I'm interested to see where they plan on going with this feud, considering Jericho has essentially already gotten his revenge.
- Hey, good news, it looks like the "Women's Revolution" is starting early, because unlike at WrestleMania, Backlash gets to have a Women's Championship match without one of the competitors needing to wager her hair, will miracles never cease? Fan favorites Victoria and Lita square off for the gold, and while I like both of these women, and they've put on entertaining contests in the past, this unfortunately wasn't one of them. They just don't have much chemistry in the ring together, there's a few awkward moments where the pace needs to slow down so they can work out what's next. Victoria gets most of the shine from this one, showing off her athleticism (among other things) on a body-wiggling moonsault, before missing a moonsault off the top rope, which Lita was meant to fully roll away from, but didn't quite manage it and took the impact on her lower back and legs instead. Victoria attempts the Widow's Pique, Lita counters with a roll up, but Victoria wins anyway with an inside cradle, an odd finish. Miss Jackie and Gail Kim then attack both champion and challenger, and I loved Lawler and Ross' banter on commentary afterward, where Jerry says the two women are sending a message, and Ross declares they should've just used email.
- After 9 months of physical and emotional torment, Mick Foley is finally bringing the best he has to offer against Randy Orton, resurrecting his Cactus Jack alter-ego to challenge Orton for the Intercontinental Championship in a Street Fight. The vignette before this match is a classic, as a deranged Foley digs into his past and vows to destroy Orton, with footage of some of his most violent moments in WWE and WCW spliced in for emphasis. Nobody sells a blood feud better than Foley, but the intensity he brought to that promo is nothing compared to the carnage of this match. Orton becomes a true star on this night, taking some incredible punishment, completely ditching his "entitled pretty boy" persona as he reaches into his most carnal instincts. Cactus wrecks Orton's forehead with a barbed wire baseball bat, and the crowd goes berserk for a leg drop onto the bat, which is situated on Orton's groin, ouch. Cactus wants to set the bat on freaking fire, but Eric Bischoff is having none of that, telling Jack that he will be disqualified, and perhaps more importantly, the fans will be robbed of their entertainment, as the fire marshal will shut the show down. Cactus abandons that plan, but luckily, no fire marshal cares about barbed wire going into flesh, as it does for Jack when he gets slammed onto a board covered in it by Orton, who got back into the match by tossing powder. Cactus seems to have fared an ugly fate, with the barbed wire sticking to his arms and chest, but Orton gets it much worse, attempting an RKO onto an array of thumbtacks that goes horribly wrong, as the champion takes an iconic full back bump onto the tacks. The sight of Orton, trying to stumble up the ramp while tacks cover his back, arms, and even fingers is grisly, but Cactus is far from finished. Orton is tossed off the damn stage through several tables, which wouldn't be as bad if Randy wasn't covered in all those effing tacks, that was not a comfortable landing by any means. Cactus then goes full maniac, goes running off the stage to land a Cactus Elbow on Orton in the midst of all that carnage, absolutely stunning spot that the crowd rightfully lost their minds for. But even after all that, Randy Orton survives, and a double arm DDT back in the ring somehow isn't enough to put him away. This was picture perfect booking, it's hard to think of a better way to elevate a new star than this, Orton looks absolutely unbeatable now. Randy makes a comeback with multiple barbed wire bat shots, and escapes the Mandible Claw to land an RKO, and this time, Cactus kicks out. But Orton doesn't waste time coming up with the final blow, a second RKO, this time on the bat, and Jack has no answer for that. This is an all-time classic, easily the best Orton match I've ever seen, and holds up extremely well against the Jack/Triple H Street Fight from the 2000 Royal Rumble, which is high praise from me, as that's my favorite WWE match. Huge props to both guys, who each more than held up their end of the bargain, and worked together to ensure that Orton was exactly the star the WWE was hoping he could become.
- Time to bring it way back down, as The Hurricane and Rosey battle La Resistance (now consisting of Rob Conway and Sylvain Grenier, with Rene Dupree drafted to SmackDown). The match is a complete nothing, outside of a fun Rosey hot tag, and mostly only exists for a pay-per-view appearance by Eugene, one of the more infamous characters WWE ever created. Eugene (portrayed by OVW standout performer Nick Dinsmore) has been introduced as the "special needs" nephew of Eric Bischoff, to be watched over by William Regal. Eugene was involved in an uncomfortable segment earlier in the night where he barged in on a half-dressed Gail Kim, though his appearance is far more innocent here, as his mimics Hurricane by running the ropes, allowing the superhero to pick up the win with the Eye of the Hurricane. I'll have a lot more thoughts on Eugene in reviews to come, as he inexplicably became a featured player on Raw for the next year or so, because I guess the opportunity to constantly mock disabled people was just too good for Vince McMahon to ever turn down.
- Edge had his career significantly derailed in early 2003, when neck surgery left him out indefinitely, and he ended up missing over a year of action. But unlike in other cases, this long absence wasn't enough to stop management from pushing him, and Edge was given the star treatment upon his return, with a vignette airing at WrestleMania and a high-profile spot in the WWE Draft where he was taken by the Raw brand. Edge was put into a feud with the floundering Kane, as the monster broke his hand, giving Edge a target to work on, and also a competitive advantage, thanks to the old wrestling trope of a loaded cast. The cast and injured hand is this match's complete focus, as Kane batters the hand with punches and a hammerlock, before an accidental Spear to the ref gives Edge a chance to cheat. A low blow, cast shot to the dome, and big Spear get Edge off to a solid start on Monday nights. Nothing special, but good to see him back, there was a lot more to come for Edge on Raw.
- Main event time, as Chris Benoit enters to a monumental ovation in his hometown of Edmonton to defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Triple H and Shawn Michaels. I'm immediately disturbed by the camera cutting during Benoit's entrance to show his family at ringside, it's just really disconcerting to see Nancy and Daniel Benoit, happily cheering Chris on, especially since I never knew anything about them prior to their deaths. I really don't feel good about this now, but I'm going to finish off this review, and hopefully nobody takes too much offense to it. The actual match is not on the level of their WrestleMania main event, which makes sense, that was a grander stage, and it's no surprise that these three guys were going to take it a little easier on a lesser show. That doesn't mean it was bad or anything, just lacking a little bit of the pure electricity that the first match brought to the table. There was certainly a lot of great wrestling to be found here, especially when Benoit is just tossing the other two around, but more of the focus goes towards the ghost of the Montreal Screwjob, and that can be a controversial topic to rehash with wrestling fans. In this case, I thought it was executed well, trusting the crowd to pick up on the cues, like Michaels putting Benoit in the Sharpshooter after referee Mike Chioda goes down, just in time for Earl Hebner to run in. They didn't really shove it down your throat, which I appreciated, and there also was no screwjob taking place here, it's just a clean match with a few vague hints. After that Sharpshooter, Shawn ups the stakes like only he can, leaping for a crossbody that ends up with him going through the Spanish announce table, only just making the save following a Pedigree by Triple H, dramatically diving in at the last second to prolong the match. I loved the moment where Michaels tunes up the band, ready to kick Triple H, only to instead knock Benoit off the apron with Sweet Chin Music, and Triple H then harkening back to SummerSlam 2002 by driving his trusty sledgehammer into Shawn's back was a great moment. Benoit, just like at WrestleMania, seems to have the best understanding of how to win this match, getting an opening after catapulting Triple H into the ringpost. He then counters Sweet Chin Music, and locks in a Sharpshooter of his own. In another deliberate flashback, Triple H tries to crawl back into the ring and grab Michaels' hand to stop a tap, but he's just a little too slow this time, and Shawn gives up. I loved Benoit's post-match celebration, holding the gold while talking trash to both Michael and Triple H, before waving a Canadian flag in the air to end the night.
8/10
2004 Average: 8 (No Change)
Even though the main event wasn't quite as good as WrestleMania's version, this show ended up being definitively stronger than that one. The opener and handicap match were both very entertaining, Orton versus Cactus was an incredible battle, and closing the night with another emphatic victory for Benoit was much appreciated. Backlash managed to top what I've seen from 2004 thus far by keeping up a far better pace, and stands as the last truly great event of the year.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Judgment Day 2004, where Eddie Guerrero seeks to defend his WWE Championship against a fresh new challenger in what remains one of the goriest matches in company history. See you soon.
- Henry
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