#backlash 2002

Can the Charismatic Enigma survive the beating of a lifetime from the Beast Incarnate? Not likely.

21/04/2002 - 50 Superstars in their first WWE match: Brock Lesnar (Backlash)

Kansas City, MO Approx 12,000 in attendance Announce Team: Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler Champions: WWF Undisputed Champion: Triple H WWF Intercontinental Champion: Rob Van Dam WWF European Champion: William Regal WWF Women's Champion: Jazz WWF Cruiserweight Champion: Billy Kidman WWF Tag Team Champions: Billy & Chuck WWF Hardcore Champion: Bubba Ray Dudley Historically, this is kind of a noteworthy pay-per-view. For one thing it's the last American pay-per-view to go under the WWF name, prior to their legal change to WWE in early May. I believe Insurrextion (the UK PPV) was still under the WWF banner though. Also, this was the first event to take place after the brand extension. There was a lot of excitement and uncertainty in the year. The nWo was quickly becoming not-a-thing after Hogan turned babyface at Wrestlemania, and Nash ended up injuring himself again, more or less just leaving Scott Hall and X-Pac for the time being. Hogan was doing the rounds for his one last "hurrah", this time challenging for the Undisputed Championship. The Rock had left the WWE for a few months again, I assume to shoot more movies. This was in that weird transitional phase where The Rock was coming and going, with one foot in a wrestling ring and the other foot in Hollywood. I think it was kind of a shit or get off the pot sort of thing. Meanwhile, Stone Cold was floating around the card, stewing and contemplating his inevitable walk out. The Undertaker was in his failed American Badass heel run, full swing. Kane was out with an injury and Jericho was quickly nosediving back to the midcard following his big loss to Triple H at Wrestlemania. Also, a young rookie by the name of Brock Lesnar had just debuted on Raw by destroying everyone in the ring and was enjoying his first feud with The Hardy Boyz.  WWF Cruiserweight Championship Billy Kidman (c) vs. Tajiri with Torrie Wilson This was when Tajiri was a heel and playing the role of evil foreign overbearing boyfriend and forcing Torrie to cover up in geisha outfits.  Fast paced switches to open up the match, and Kidman seems to have the upperhand. Kidman hits a missile dropkick from the second rope for two. The fight goes ringside and Tajiri slams Kidman over the barricade in the wheelbarrow position. Tajiri puts Kidman in a chin lock. He fights out of it and nails a hurracanrana but then runs into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. He gets hung up in the tree of woe, "shaddup!" shouts Tajiri as he dropkicks Kidman in the face. He locks Kidman into a bow and arrow across the turnbuckle post. Backbreaker submission in the ring but Kidman knees out.  Kidman runs into the Tarantula. He looks for the Buzzsaw Kick but he misses and they slug it out. Tajiri goes for the handspring elbow but Kidman counters it with a dropkick and it looks super stiff. Tajiri counters a back suplex with a spinning heel kick to the back of the head. Tajiri hits a German suplex bridge for a near fall. Tajiri ducks a clothesline and hits a super kick for two. Kidman counters a powerbomb into a sit out facebuster. He goes up top for the Shooting Star Press but he only hits canvas. Tajiri nails the Buzzsaw Kick for a near fall. "Kidman" chants from the crowd. The fight goes up onto the corner. Kidman hits a BK Bomb from the second rope for a near fall. Kidman goes for a powerbomb but Tajiri spits the RED mist in his face and lands on him for the three at 9:08. After the match, Michael Cole tries to interview Tajiri. He talks in Japanese, but he seems genuinely pleased with himself. Really good opener. It was pretty much the Tajiri Show for most of it, but Tajiri's awesome, so it's very watchable. Rating: 7/10 Bradshaw and Faarooq reunite like long lost lovers that haven't seen each other in years. Scott Hall with X-Pac vs. Bradshaw with Faarooq X-Pac is wearing Kane's mask, I guess for extra heat or something. Just as its clear that Pac and Hall are about to make it a handicap match, Faarooq comes out to even the odds. Why we needed the little backstage segment to lead into this doesn't really make much sense to me though.  "APA" chants. Hall throws a toothpick in Bradshaw's eye, so he punches him down. They brawl around a bit. Bradshaw hits a DDT for two. Hall tries to bail from the ring but backs into Faarooq, who decks him like a true babyface. He clotheslines X-Pac down as well then throws Hall back into the ring.  Bradshaw hits a shoulder block and an elbow drop for two. Bradshaw beats Hall down a bit. Hall comes back with rights. X-Pac gets a cheap shot on Bradshaw over the ropes.  Hall clotheslines Bradshaw in the corner and stomps him for what feels like several hours. Bradshaw comes out with a shoulder block. Bradshaw throws more rights and nails him with a big boot.  Bradshaw nails the Clothesline from Hell but X-Pac puts Hall's foot on the ropes. Faarooq chases X-Pac around the ring. He jumps up onto the apron and Bradshaw knocks him off. Hall hits a low blow and a roll up for three at 5:43. It was two guys punching each other for six minutes with a shitty finish. Rating: 1/10 Vince blabbers onto Ric Flair about something or other.  WWF Women's Championship Jazz (c) vs. Trish Stratus Before the match, Molly Holly comes out and has a sook and accuses Trish of being a cheater. She cheap shots her with a microphone then whips her into the ring stairs. Jazz takes advantage and throws Trish in the ring. Sidewalk slam on Trish gets a near fall. Jazz hits a kamikaze roll. Trish blocks a right hand and strikes back with a Chick Kick for the near fall. Trish beats on Jazz in the corner and hits the Stratusphere followed by a neckbreaker for two. Jazz comes back with a sit down powerbomb for a near fall.  Trish tries for the Stratusfaction but Jazz counters with a back suplex for two. Jazz nails a dragonwhip into the half Boston Crab. Trish nearly gets to the ropes but Jazz switches it into the STF for the submission win at 4:29.  You know what, it was short but good. Compare this match to one of Trish's earlier matches say in 2001, or even just a couple of months before this and you can definitely see the difference. Trish seems a lot more confident and consistent in the ring and Jazz proved to be a good opponent for her to work with.  Rating: 6/10 Brock Lesnar with Paul Heyman vs. Jeff Hardy with Lita Jeff immediately attacks Lesnar as he enters the ring, but Lesnar overpowers him and throws him to ringside. Jeff returns to the ring and dropkicks Lesnar off the apron. Lesnar catches the plancha and scoops Jeff up, but he slips out and shoves Lesnar into the ring post. He nails a top rope cross body in the ring for two. Lesnar forces Jeff into the corner and begins destroying him with shoulder thrusts and belly-to-belly suplexes. Lesnar nails three delayed backbreakers in a row. Lesnar destroys Jeff csome more in the corners. Jeff eventually hits the Whisper in the Wind. He follows up with a jawbreaker and the Swanton Bomb but he only gets two. The fans pop big for Jeff though. Jeff retrieves a chair but he runs into an F5, which JR says was over the chair. The chair was a million miles away from the F5, don't lie to me Ross.  Lesnar hits three big powerbombs and the ref calls for the bell at 5:32. I know Jeff isn't Matt, but Lita could at least emote or something at ringside. She literally just stood around. You can at least pretend to care about Jeff being powerbombed into oblivion.  It was a squash match but it achieved what it needed to, and the crowd popped for Jeff's moments.  Rating: 5/10 Edge vs. Kurt Angle Angle gets a headlock and a shoulder block. Edge comes back with a pair of clotheslines. Edge hits a dropkick and a flapjack before clotheslining Angle to ringside. Edge connects with a spinning heel kick, but Angle comes back with a German suplex. Angle pummels Edge in the corner with haymakers and chops. Edge tries to fight back but runs into a belly-to-belly suplex for two. Angle gets a vertical suplex for two. Chin lock! Edge fights back but takes a German suplex. Edge blocks a second one and hits a belly-to-belly suplex of his own. Edge rallies with a flying forearm and a high back body drop. He nails a sit-out facebuster for a near fall. Edge counters a back suplex into a half nelson bulldog for another near fall. Edge goes up top but Angle explodes with the running belly-to-belly superplex for two. Angle hits the triple German suplexes. Angle looks for the Angle Slam, but Edge counters and hits a brutal German suplex.  Edge back drops Angle to ringside. Edge goes up top and hits a cross body to ringside.  Edge goes back up top and hits a missile dropkick for two. Edge tries for an Edgecution, Angle counters out of it, Edge tries for the Edge-O-Matic but Angle reverses it into the Angle Slam for a near fall. The straps are down!!! Ankle Lock is locked in. Edge rolls through into a pin for two. Angle hits a falling clothesline. Angle retrieves a chair. He misses Edge and hits the ropes, bouncing it into his face. Edge nails the Edge-O-Matic for two.  He lines up for the spear, but Angle kicks him in the face and nails a second Angle Slam for three at 13:25. Very solid match that actually felt really important based entirely on how hard they worked. Edge and Angle had solid chemistry. Awesome stuff. Rating: 9/10 Chris Jericho comes out and complains about not having a match. Fair point. WWF Intercontinental Championship Rob Van Dam (c) vs. Eddie Guerrero RVD does the whole thumbs thing but Eddie slugs him in the face. Eddie flips back over RVD but eats a spinning heel kick. "RVD" chants. Monkey flip out of the corner and another heel kick for two. Eddie catches a kick and hits a dragon whip. He beats on him in the corner. RVD does the shoulder thrusts and back flip. Eddie stays on RVD though with punches and kicks in the corner. RVD hits a spin kick and a standing moonsault for two. Round house kick knocks Eddie down for two. The crowd is fairly burnt out after the last match. RVD hits a vertical suplex with a float over into a pin for two. RVD goes up top but Eddie crotches him. Eddie goes for a superplex, but RVD snaps him over the top rope. He comes off top with a flying kick and a cartwheel moonsault for two. RVD goes for a suplex but Eddie counters with a small package for two. Eddie gets another roll up for two. Dropkick by RVD knocks Eddie off the apron. Slingshot to the apron and a moonsault but it looks like he might have missed. Eddie gets planted over the barricade and RVD hits a revolving leg drop from the apron. The referee has yet to start a count out. RVD tries for Rolling Thunder in the ring but Eddie gets his knees up. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker by Eddie. Back suplex gets two. Eddie gets a surfboard stretch into a dragon sleeper, dear god it looks brutal. Seriously, it's a submission that legit looks painful.  RVD punches his way out of it. Eddie locks in the Gory Special. RVD rolls out of it into a pin for two. Eddie hits a leg lariat and the heelo from the apron for two. Eddie hits a handtrap hurracanrana from the top rope for a near fall. Eddie hits a brainbuster followed by a back suplex for two. Eddie goes up top but RVD meets him with some kicks. Eddie comes back with a sunset flip powerbomb for two. RVD avoids a powerbomb and nails the step over heel kick.  Eddie bails to ringside and retrieves the title belt. RVD tries to snatch it back and accidentally hits the ref with the belt. Eddie drops RVD over the belt with a neckbreaker then hits the frog splash for the win at 11:43. That was certainly a decisive win. This was The Eddie Guerrero Show, and it was a hell of a show. Eddie came out of this looking awesomely while RVD came out looking second rate. Nevertheless, it was a good match and I'm still cringing at that Mexican Surfboard Dragon Sleeper. Rating: 8/10 JR and The King talk about how great The Scorpion King is. King tells JR that he looks like Roger Ebert. #1 Contendership Match for the WWF Undisputed Championship Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker Special Guest Referee: Ric Flair Flair's wearing some flashy red shoes that clash with his referee's shirt. Austin gets pop of the night. They do a lot of showey bullshit, parading around the ring and staring each other down like this is a once in a lifetime classic. Lock up and Taker gets the side headlock. Undertaker comes off the ropes with a shoulder block. Austin bails to ringside for a breather. Lock up and a side headlock by Austin. Austin hits a shoulder block but Taker doesn’t go down. Austin decides to do some push ups to show off his raw strength. Taker gets another headlock and a shoulder block. Austin gets up and nails a clothesline. Austin motions for a test of strength, but he decides to just flip Taker off instead. Taker gets yet another headlock and a shoulder block. Austin springs up with a hip toss and an arm drag take down. Rough looking drop toe hold and Austin gets an arm bar. He starts working the arm. Hammer lock by Austin. Taker backs Austin into a corner and elbows him in the face. Austin ducks a right hand and goes to town on Taker with chops. Austin runs into a big boot and a clothesline for two. JR also criticizes Flair as a referee, good stuff. Taker starts working over Austin’s arm. He goes up for Old School and it connects for two. Austin lands a Lou Thesz Press and the elbow for two. Austin clotheslines Taker to ringside. Taker drags him out and they trade punches before returning to the ring. Austin clotheslines Taker out again. Austin slams Taker’s head into the Spanish announce table a bunch of times. Taker boots Austin off the apron and they go back to ringside… again. They brawl some more, and a weak “Austin” chant starts up. Austin eventually punches Taker into the audience. Special Guest Referee Ric Flair hasn’t started a ten count yet. He’s just following them and hanging around. Austin throws Taker back over into the timekeeper’s area before engaging in some more brawling. Flair sends Taker into the ring post. Austin then looks for a piledriver of some sort but Taker dumps him with a back body drop. Taker drops an elbow. Taker rams Austin’s head into the motorbike. Seriously, where the fuck is the ten count? They’ve been outside of the ring longer than they’ve been in it. Scott Hall and X-Pac walk out onto the stage, likely to boast about their monumental victory over Bradshaw from before. Taker and Austin awkwardly exchange a botched Irish whip and Austin eventually gets nudged into the stairs. Taker continues to pound on Austin. He works him over on the apron and goes “vintage” with the leg drop. Hall and X-Pac seem to stand around and chat with each other. So let me just ignore the match for a moment – Flair injected himself as the guest referee of this match so that he could keep control and call it down the middle. So far he’s let them spend the entire match at ringside without initiating a single count out, he’s let them fight in the audience and now he’s not doing a single thing about Hall and X-Pac. Stupid to me. Undertaker has a figure four leg lock on Austin for some reason, despite no leg work being done. I guess it’s some kind of way to mock Flair. Austin gets the rope break. Taker nails a big boot for two. Taker locks in a neck vice. I like that they still refer to Hall and X-Pac as the nWo despite the fact that it’s basically just the two of them. Austin gets a sleeper hold, because that’s what this match desperately needed. Taker reverses with a back suplex for two. Flair counts hella slow and the King calls him out on it. Taker goes back to the neck vice. Austin fights out of it and goes for a Stunner, but Taker shoves him into the ropes and hits a clothesline for two. Austin starts punching back. He misses a clothesline and Taker hits the flying clothesline for two. Taker starts untying one of the turnbuckle pads. Undertaker gets sent into the exposed turnbuckle and both guys clothesline each other down. JR mentions that an experienced referee would have noticed the turnbuckle pad being undone. Because all of the WWE’s senior referees always see that happen... Another slugfest emerges in the corner and Austin beats the snot out of Taker in the corner. He stomps a mudhole. Taker hits a back elbow from the corner and goes for the Tombstone Piledriver, Austin slips out and whips Taker into Flair. He hits a Stunner but Flair is down… Flair is down. Flair, the sixteen-time World Champion is knocked out from Undertaker bumping into him. Jesus fucking Christ. Austin tries to wake Flair up but Taker gets a low blow – right in Flair’s field of vision, but apparently it’s “undetected”. Taker hits the Chokeslam for a near fall. Taker retrieves a steel chair and Flair snatches the chair off him while Austin hits a low blow. Taker basically no sells it and big boots Austin for two. God this match is dragging. Austin gets a spinebuster for two. Austin goes for another Stunner, but Taker pushes him into Flair, and Flair is down again from being bumped. Taker nails Austin with the steel chair and pins him for two. Undertaker gives the old cutthroat sign. He goes for a dragon sleeper, but Austin reverses with a clothesline for two. Austin locks in a dragon sleeper of his own and the audience doesn’t care. Taker grabs the steel chair and swings it but misses. Austin stomps him down again. Austin picks up the chair but Taker boots it into Austin’s face and pins him for three at 27:03. Austin’s foot was on the rope but Flair missed it. Austin gives Taker a post-match Stunner. Backstage, the Coach shows Flair footage of the match that just passed with Austin’s foot on the rope. “Oh shit,” says Flair. Okay, this was a good show up until this match. You would think Austin and Undertaker – two veterans – would be able to produce something entertaining. They didn’t though. This was boring as hell and completely murdered the crowd. Compare how hot the crowd was for Billy freaking Kidman in the opening match to how dead they are after half an hour of Austin and Taker punching each other around the ring. The Hall and X-Pac appearance led to absolutely nothing and only distracted people from the match, which I guess isn’t a completely bad thing. The shitty referee oversights are painful to sit through, I hated how loose they used to let matches go with the rules. They spent so long at ringside. There was no flow to the match either. The major issue was that this was at least fifteen-minutes longer than it needed to be. Give Austin and Taker like, ten-minutes in the ring and let them have a big back and forth and trade finishers for a couple of minutes, and you send the crowd home happy. For a good Austin vs. Taker match, I would direct you to SummerSlam ’98. Skip this match. Rating: 2/10 WWF Tag Team Championship Billy & Chuck © with Rico vs. Al Snow & Maven Goodluck waking up this crowd after that mess. The heel champs immediately beat on the babyfaces when they get in the ring. Maven and Snow clothesline them both down and send them to ringside. Chuck and Maven start off in the ring with some stomping. Billy gets tagged in and trades punches with Maven. Billy accidentally knocks Al Snow off the apron who was inexplicably standing in the middle of the apron. Billy hits a shoulder block for two. The heels isolate Maven in the corner. Maven hits Chuck with an enziguiri. Lukewarm tag to Al Snow and Billy is tagged too. Snow comes in with clotheslines and knockdowns. Back body drop to Chuck. He hits Billy with the mounted punches in the corner. Chuck clotheslines Snow from the apron. Billy hits a swinging neckbreaker for two. Tag to Chuck. Snapmare by Chuck, surfboard stretch. “Rico’s gay” chants the crowd. It strikes me that this heel homosexual gimmick wouldn’t really work this day in age. It really heavily insinuates that if you’re gay, then you’re a bad guy. Chuck hits a really good belly-to-belly suplex for a near fall. Tag to Billy. He sends Snow into the corner. Billy misses a stinger splash and awkwardly collapses in the middle of the ring. Chuck runs in and gets tripped up into Billy’s groin. Snow makes the cold tag to Maven.  Maven hits a bunch of clotheslines and nails Chuck with his finisher – THE DROPKICK! Billy hits the Fameasser but Al Snow drags Maven out for the save. Chuck hits Snow with a super kick. Billy distracts the referee while Chuck holds Maven in a full nelson and Rico comes in with a roundhouse kick, but accidentally hits Chuck with it. Billy gets whipped into a sit down spinebuster from Al Snow. Maven goes up to the top rope and nails a crossbody for the near fall from the top rope. The fans actually bought it.Al Snow chases Rico around the ring and Chuck comes in with a super kick, Billy pins Maven for three at 5:58. Well, they tried at least. The fans weren’t really interested after being put to sleep by the two main eventers beforehand but they started to wake up in the final minute of the match. Rating: 4/10 WWF Undisputed Championship Triple H © vs. Hulk Hogan Oh my fucking god, what is this piece of shit butchering of Hendrix that I’m listening to? WWE must have lost the rights to Voodoo Child, but don’t they still have Real American? Can’t they use that instead??? Dear god my ears are bleeding. Hogan, I THINK, gets the bigger pop. They have a bit of a face off in the ring to start things off. Mostly “Hogan” chants, but the fans aren’t so vehemently Pro-Hogan as they were at Mania 18. Lock up. Triple H shoves Hogan back and the fans boo. Second lock up and Trips shoves Hogan a second time. “Hogan” chants as Trips gets into Hogan’s face. Lock up again and Hogan shoves Trips all the way back into the corner this time, and he decides to pose off to celebrate this achievement. Test of strength time. It’s refreshing to see a test of strength that isn’t just a snarky heel tactic. Hogan initially overpowers Triple H, but Trips overpowers Hogan back, Hogan powers back but Triple H hits an elbow to the side and goes into an top wrist lock. Hogan fights back and reverses it into a side headlock. Trips shoves Hogan and he comes back with a big shoulder block. Lock up again and Trips powers Hogan into the corner. Triple H decides to change things up with a slap. Hogan looks shocked. Triple H starts beating on Hogan with rights and stomps. Hogan comes back with a back body drop and a pair of clotheslines. He chokes Trips in the corner and nails the mounted punches. Hogan sends Trips to ringside. Hogan whips Triple H into the barricade. Trips tries for a vertical suplex, but Hogan counters with one of his own. Again, the referee is playing pretty loose with the count out rule. I guess count outs are only for undercard matches, hey? Triple H fights back with punches in the corner. Duelling “Triple H” and “Hogan” chants. Hogan gets sent hard into the corner. Trips looks for the Pedigree but Hogan counters with a catapult into the corner and a roll up for two. Man, Hogan looks out of breath. Hogan clotheslines Trips in the corner, then hits a Diamond Cutter for two. Weird. Triple H slips out of a scoop slam and hits Hogan with a set of chop blocks. He works over the leg against the turnbuckle post. JR talks about Hogan’s past leg injuries, which I kind of like that they talk about this. Trips hits more chop blocks in the ring. He elbows the leg. Trips goes for the Figure Four but Hogan boots his way out of it. Trips goes straight back on the leg with more elbows. He goes for the Figure Four again, but Hogan boots out of it. Trips goes back with mounted punches this time and goes into full heel mode with a choke hold. Triple H finally locks in the Figure Four. You know what this makes me think of? Playing one of the old SmackDown games on hardcore mode and really wanting to lock in a submission, but the AI keeps countering without fail. Trips hangs onto the ropes to get more heel heat like a true babyface. Hogan turns the move over and the move is released. Trips gets a sleeper hold, because this match has been lightning fast and they both need a breather. Of course, Hogan Hulks Up and fights out of it to wake the crowd back up. He hits a back suplex, but both men stay down this time. Hogan hits an axe handle and a big boot. He lands the leg drop and gets the pin but Chris Jericho runs down to ringside and drags the referee out. He has a steel chair and he cracks Hogan in the head with it. Jericho throws Hebner into the ring but Triple H grabs him and hits a facebuster before clotheslining him to ringside. Hogan starts to Hulk Up for real this time. Hogan misses the leg drop and Triple H hits the Pedigree. He pins Hogan but out comes Undertaker to sock Hebner in the face. Taker grabs Jericho’s chair and cracks Triple H in the head with it. Hogan isn’t having any of this and he Hulks Up for a third time. He clotheslines Taker to ringside and lands the leg drop on Trips for the three-count at 22:04 and fuck, I’m subjected to this awful poor man’s Hendrix cover. Triple H is seething but he shakes Hogan’s hand. Who thought Hulk Hogan should go in the main event for over twenty-minutes? That’s bad booking, even if it was the eighties. It started off okay, but the leg work went too long and overall, the match just dragged. Hogan got his token championship win in his farewell run, and it is what it is. What scares me is Hogan’s talk of wanting to have one last run in the WWE – again. It was a bit of a stretch in 2002. In 2015 I think I’d be turning off the TV. Rating: 3/10 This was shaping up to be a really solid show up until the main eventers came out. It’s quite telling of where the WWE was at when its undercard was severely outperforming the main event. Say what you will about WWE now, but their entire roster is solid at the moment and their main event scene is tight right now too. Back in ’02, not so much. This show was killed by lacklustre performances from Stone Cold, The Undertaker, Hogan and Triple H – the guys you were paying money to see. They didn’t deliver but at least Edge, Angle, RVD, Eddie and co did. The opening match was great, Angle and Edge great, RVD and Eddie was great. The diva match is certainly watchable too. Hall and Bradshaw was weak but at least it wasn’t long. If they took twenty minutes away from the main eventers and spread the time amongst the undercard, this probably would have been a much better show, instead it’s pretty weak in retrospect.. Overall Rating: 5/10