I am back with the next instalment of looking back at Backlashes of yesteryear, so let’s see how many “Who booked that” moments we can get.
Backlash 2002
Well it did take long to find the first who booked that moment of the article as at Backlash 2002, a 49 year old Hulk Hogan was dragged to a 20 minute match by Triple H as Hogan won the WWE Title, I mean really, who booked that?? In another match that went 20 minutes plus, the Undertaker beat Stone Cold to become #1 contender for the WWE Title.
In the other title matches on the card Tajiri became the Crusierweight Champion beating Billy Kidman, Jazz retained the Womens Title over Trish Stratus, Eddie Guerrero beat RVD to become the Intercontinental Champion and Billy & Chuck retained the Tag Titles against Maven & Al Snow. Elsewhere Scott Hall beat Bradshaw, Brock Lesnar beat Jeff Hardy and Kurt Angle beat Edge.
Backlash 2003
The only thing that came close to a “who booked that” moment at this event was them trying to re-hash Piper smashing Snuka with a coconut with Piper and RIkishi, but that failed as Piper was the one nailed with the coconut as Sean O’Haire beat Rikishi. This PPV was also Goldbergs PPV debut for WWE as he beat Rocky.
In the title matches on the card Team Angle (Benajmin & Haas) retained the WWE Tag Titles against Los Guerreros (Chavo & Eddie), RVD & Kane retained the World Tag Titles against The Dudleyz, Jazz beat Trish for the Womens Title, and Brock Lesnar beat John Cena to retain the WWE Title. Elsewhere Big Show beat Rey Mysterio and in a 6 man tag the team of Triple H, Ric Flair & Chris Jericho beat HBK, Kevin Nash & Booker-T.
Backlash 2004
Backlash 2004 was aiming to be the consolidation of two new players for WWE. Chris Benoit retained his World Heavyweight Championship in a rematch from Wrestlemania against Triple H & HBK, and Randy Orton beat Cactus Jack in an excellent Hardcore Match for the IC title. We did also have a wonderful “who booked that” moment with an intergender handicap match where Chris Jericho beat Christian & Trish Stratus, who came up with this brilliant idea for a match?
Elsewhere Shelton Benjamin beat Ric Flair, Jonathan Coachman beat Tajiri, again who the hell booked that idea? Victoria retained the Womens Title against Lita, The Hurricane & Rosey beat La Resistance (Conway & Grenier) and Edge beat Kane.
Backlash 2005
Ahh Backlash 2005, the one where they booked a Kane win against Viscera and it stank the joint out haha, yes someone really booked that, alongside Lita being with Kane and Trish being with Viscera, not that the eye candy helped matters haha.
There were only 6 matches on this card, so the rest went down like this; Shelton Benjamin retained the IC Title against Chris Jericho, The Hurricane & Rosey won the World Tag Titles in a Tag Team Turmoil match featuring Regal & Tajiri, The Heart Throbs (Remember them? Antonio & Romero), Simon Dean & Maven and La Resistance (Conway & Grenier). Edge beat Chris Benoit in a Last Man Standing match, Hogan & HBK killed all momentum Muhammad Hassan & Daivari had in a tag team match and Batista retained the World Title against Triple H.
Backlash 2006
2006 gave us the biggest “who booked that” moment in wrestling history, ever. We had Vince & Shane beat HBK & God, yes God, in a tag team match. HBK had to wrestle with God as his tag team partner, please, please tell me this was all Vince’s idea?
Thankfully this card has a couple of very good matches as RVD won the IC title against Shelton Benjamin, where RVD also kept his MITB briefcase and John Cena retained the WWE Title in a triple threat with Triple H and HBK. Elsewhere Carlito beat Chris Masters, Umaga beat Ric Flair, Trish beat Mickie via DQ, and Big Show vs Kane ended in a no contest due to the whole May 19th thing they had going on with Kane.
Short and sweet but there really wasn’t much more to say about these Backlash events. They were very up and down in terms of quality, but had some almighty “who booked that” moments. The final instalment will be up next week, let’s see what moments that brings up.
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