Welcome to the fourth installment of Tybo Talks 2003 – Backlash
I started this over a year ago when I started a ‘Tybo Talks 2002’ series. Twelve months and 500+ hours of wrestling from 2002 later I’m starting all over again with ‘Tybo Talks 2003’.
If you want to read my ‘Tybo Talks 2002’ series CLICK HERE!
The idea was simple, with the ease of access to pretty much all of WWE’s back catalogue on the WWE Network I thought it would be cool to change it up a bit and do some classic review and drop them on the day they were held. The plan is to review every PPV of 2003 while watching all Raw and Smackdown episodes in between.
Now before I go any further, I’m not really going to explain the matches move for move. No one needs that, the PPV is on the WWE Network. This is going to be my thoughts on the booking and general thoughts about the matches and the event.
The Stats
This is the fifth annual Backlash PPV
Venue – Worcester Centrum. Worcester, Massachusetts
Attendance – 10,000
Theme Song – “Remedy” by Cold
Fun Fact: This would be The Rock’s last match for a while as he was leaving to concentrate on acting. The Rock even gave a ‘farewell’ speech after the match, that was only on the WWE Home Video version of the PPV.
Smackdown Tag Team Championship: Team Angle (C) vs Los Guerrero
Team Angle are out with a huge Kurt picture (Angle is currently out with a neck injury). On paper, this match should be ‘mat wrestling 101’ all the guys in the ring are perfect at their craft and technical specialists. As I said, on paper. For some reason this match takes a little too long to get going, the match seems a little too long and lethargic, and even feels like it loses its way at points. This is a huge shame as both Team Angle and Los Guerrero are great teams.
Towards the end, the match does pick up and the finish is top-notch. This is the beginning of Eddie beginning to ‘Lie, Cheat & Steal’. Although its Team Angle that gets the win, the Guerrero’s steal the title belts leaving Team Angle fuming in the ring. Winner – Team Angle (and still) Tag Champions)
Backstage: Torrie is telling Test to stop texting her, and Test is being his usual ‘creepy bastard’ self. Test is working his ‘god’s gift’ gimmick, I really thought Test was going places, but it never really happened.
Sean O’Hare (with Roddy Piper) vs Rikishi
With Piper returning at Wrestlemania to cost Hogan the win in his match, for some reason they thought it would be a good idea to pair him with O’Hare (not sure who’s idea this was, but it’s a strange pairing). You might think this is a feud-less match, but Piper is famous for cracking a coconut over Jimmy Snuka’s head, Snuka is the uncle of Rikishi… makes sense?
Sean O’Hare is a big, strong, good-looking guy, and he wasn’t terrible in the ring so I’m not really sure why he wasn’t a bigger star than he was. He was clearly getting a push with the weeks of vignettes and then being paired with a legend, but something never clicked. The match itself is quick and fresh, O’Hare is impressive and has a great finisher. After the match Piper ‘eats’ a coconut. Winner – Sean O’Hare
Backstage: The Test’s womanizing story continues, with Sable telling Stacy about Test and Torrie texting and that they kissed. Sable just being Sable… What a bitch!
Raw World Tag Team Championship: RVD & Kane (C) vs Dudley Boyz (Special Referee: ‘Chief’ Morley)
Try to keep up with this one…
So, Morley hates RVD and Kane, and The Dudley Boyz hate Morley, but they were fired a few weeks ago, only to be brought back to be part of the ‘Bischoff Administration’. This means the Dudley’s are doing ‘heelwork’, without being heels but this is causing friction between Bubba and D-Von because D-Von wants to take out Morley. Did you keep up?
RVD and Kane are a great tag team, and both grow as characters while in the team, and who doesn’t love a good ‘odd couple’ teaming? The match itself is a standard tag match, you almost forget Morley is the referee. The finish is absolute chaos. Morley low-blows Kane, then accidentally hits Bubba, D-Von drops Morley and Lance Storm comes out. As I said, chaos! RVD hits the Five-Star Frog-splash and the match is done. Winner – RVD & Kane (and Still Tag Champions)
Backstage: Carrying on from earlier in the night, Stacy attacks Torrie. Standard backstage ‘cat-fight’ in the locker room.
Women’s Championship: Trish Stratus (C) vs Jazz (with Teddy Long)
Teddy Long is currently working a ‘Black Power’ gimmick, and aligning himself with numerous black superstars, Jazz being one of them. Trish is the ultimate diva underdog, she was recently hurt on Raw, so she is really playing on that throughout the match. I seem to say this a lot, but Trish and Jazz always have more competitive matches than I ever remember. Both ‘divas’ could step into the women’s division now and hold their own.
Although this is a great match, the ending is messy (really beginning to see a pattern on this PPV) so messy in fact it involves Teddy’s shoe. Jazz cheats to win but still walks away with the Women’s Championship. Winner – Jazz (and new) Women’s Champion
Big Show vs Ray Mysterio
The reason this match is happening is a little weak, as it all came about because Mysterio knocked Show in his ass twice. It’s clear WWE just wanted a ‘David vs Goliath’ style match. The match itself is exactly what you would expect, speed vs power. Show basically spends the bulk of the match throwing Mysterio around like a rag-doll, while Mysterio tries to ‘chop-down’ the giant.
The match ends with a huge choke-slam from Big Show. The most amazing thing about this match happens after when Mysterio is strapped to a stretcher and Show swings him into the ring-post like a baseball bat. It looks brutal! Winner – Big Show
Backstage – The Stacy vs Torrie story continues, they are both still fighting when Scott Stiner helps Stacy. This obviously pisses Test off, all adding to the Stiner and Test feud, turns out there was a point to this after all.
WWE Championship: Brock Lesnar (C) vs John Cena
I wonder if Vince knew all the way back in 2003 the potential and longevity of both Cena and Lesnar? It’s fair to say both guys have transcended being just ‘WWE Superstars’ over the last 15+ years.
Cena earned his WWE Championship match after winning a 16-man tournament, and it wasn’t the easiest path, beating Eddie Guerrero, The Undertaker (with a little help from some Full-Blooded Italians) and Chris Benoit, all legitimate bad-ass’. I have always been a huge fan of Cena as ‘The Doctor of Thuganomics’ some of his raps were great, and he stood out above most others.
It’s a little bit strange to see Cena as the heel and Lesnar as the face, considering Cena’s gimmick now. This match is great, it’s not long before Lesnar is busted-open (Cena originally did this on Smackdown) It was shocking to see Cena being so dominant in a match against Lesnar, and easy to forget how solid a heel Cena was back in the day. It’s great to see such a competitive match with Lesnar wrestling, he is almost the underdog pulling an F5 out of nowhere for the win. Winner – Brock Lesnar (and Still WWE Champion) {Match of the Night}
Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash & Booker T vs Triple H, Ric Flair & Chris Jericho
There are so many feuds going on between these six guys, so try to stay with me…
Triple H and Michaels have had a long-running feud going all the way back to 2002, this boiled over again with the return of Kevin Nash. Nash tried and failed to get the Kliq back together, after Triple H low-blowed Nash and now Nash wants Triple H. Still with me?
Triple H and Booker T fought at Wrestlemania for the World Heavyweight Championship and still have unfinished business. Nash recently ‘accidentally’ knocked out Booker, so Booker returned the favour, but to Michaels, not Nash? If that wasn’t enough Michaels and Jericho have also been feuding since before Royal Rumble. I know right! Basically, everyone hates everyone else.
There is no denying the star power in this ring, all six guys are former World Champions and five of them are now Hall of Famers. The problem with this match is it’s not PPV worthy, this could and should have been a Raw main event not a PPV match with the current World Heavyweight Champion (Triple H) involved. The match is good, breaks down quickly, then falls into a standard six-man tag. It’s all over when Triple H hits Nash with a sledgehammer. Winners – Triple H, Ric Flair & Chris Jericho
The Rock vs Goldberg
It was the night after Wrestlemania that Goldberg made his long-awaited WWE debut, while The Rock was boasting that he had ‘done it all’. Enter Goldberg with a monster spear to The Great One.
Before the match The Rock’s mic skills were on point, calling Goldberg a ‘whisker biscuit, bald-headed bitch’. I’m not sure what it means, but it’s funny.
Once again it feels like Rock is in Steve Austin’s spot. This first happened at Wrestlemania 17 when he fought Hulk Hogan (it should have been Hogan vs Austin) and again I feel this match should be Austin vs Goldberg, WWE vs WCW.
As for the match, there is a lot of mind games and showboating from The Rock, with Rock playing up to his Hollywood (bitch) gimmick. The Rock gets completely dominated throughout with little to no offence. He even looks shocked when he hits Goldberg with a Rock Bottom and the same with a People’s Elbow. After two hard spears and a beautiful Jackhammer its all over. Winner – Goldberg
Overall: This really felt like a none PPV, there seemed to be no huge matches that you couldn’t just have seen on Raw or Smackdown, outside of The Rock vs Goldberg and that wasn’t even close to being the best match on the card. The lack of championship matches was really felt throughout, with only half of the matches for championships over both brands is not great.
The lack of mid-card championships was a big downfall of this PPV (the ‘retired’ Intercontinental and the United States had not been re-introduced yet). Also, the completely pointless six-man tag involving the World Heavyweight Champion was just bad booking. Nothing annoys me more than a PPV match where a champion is stuffed in a Tag Team match that has no real pay off, or at least not a PPV pay off.
The Match of the Night should have been The Rock vs Goldberg as it was the biggest match on the card (on paper). Goldberg should have used this match to show who he was to the none WCW fans watching, and although he dominated the match, there was zero flow throughout.
So, the Match of the Night must go to Brock Lesnar vs John Cena. Maybe it was because I was looking back and this is such a different match than they both wrestle now, but guys got their stuff in and looked good doing it. This was not a five-star match, but on a card like this, you could almost call it a hidden gem.
2003 Ranking
Backlash – 2/5
Make sure your back next month for more WWE in 2003 goodness with Tybo Talks – Judgement Day 2003
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