WWE Backlash 2003 Review

WWE Tag Team Championship
Team Angle Vs Los Guerreros

Excellent choice for the opener tonight as Los Guerreros finally get their one-on-one rematch for the SmackDown tag team gold. Given some good time to work with, these four guys put on exactly the kind of match you expect them to and it's fantastic from start to finish. Team Angle are amazingly athletic and technically sound, but also suitably aggressive when the situation calls for it. The Guerreros are naturals at inspiring frustration as they work in plenty of old fashioned cheating whenever they get the chance. Team Angle meets them at every turn however, leading into a dramatic extended finish where after a series of convincing near-falls Benjamin helps hold down Chavo to steal a victory. This doesn't sit well with Eddie and Chavo however so they steal the belts and escape in their new lowrider, a welcome assurance that this feud will continue.

Rating: 4 Stars


Sean O'Haire Vs Rikishi

I feel sorry for Sean O'Haire. After re-debuting under a cool Devil's Advocate gimmick earlier in the year, he's now been paired with Roddy Piper and seen most of his potential thrown aside as he works instead as a lowly protégée. It's not that it's a bad role, it's just not as good or as likely to get O'Haire over in the main-event. Matches like this don't help that cause either. This one plods along and despite some decent moments, such as a nice Stink Face counter, it's more about Piper's antics from twenty years ago than it is about anyone in the ring. It's clear they're just treading water with O'Haire at this point, unwilling to give him the big clean win he needs to get established and relying on Piper to get him over however he can. Naturally he'll soon loose that as well, leaving him completely lost and stripped of anything that made him interesting. If they're going to waste everyone's time like this, they could at least not do it on PPV.

Rating: 1.5 Stars


World Tag Team Championship
Rob Van Dam and Kane Vs The Dudley Boyz
Special Guest Referee: Chief Morley

Things are surprisingly clumsy to start off between Bubba and Van Dam, which you'd expect a bit from the former but not the latter. RVD doesn't seem to have the usual spring in his step tonight, just barely managing to hit his athletic signature spots. The match doesn't really have a story to tell despite the decent running time, with the action just going on and on until Chief Morley accidentally hits Bubba when he was trying to hit Van Dam. The Dudleys turn on him and take him out, but then Kane clears house and a new ref comes in. One Frog Splash later and the latest odd couple to be tag champs on Raw continues their reign. This was really disappointing considering who was involved and as forgettable as if it had happened on free TV.

Rating: 2 Stars


Big Show Vs Rey Mysterio

The transition of Rey Mysterio away from the upper mid-card continues here as he's destroyed by Big Show in a matter of minutes. Show was aimless coming off a feud with The Undertaker and in theory this was an interesting rivalry to move on to. There's great marquee value in the most talented big man on your roster taking on the smallest, but not only is this less competitive than it needs to be, it's also the end of the feud! Had Rey returned to face Show once he recovered this would have been okay, but instead it's a Kevin Nash-esq squash for Mysterio who simply moves down into the Cruiserweight division for the rest of the season. They do their best to make things entertaining, and Rey does get in some great spots including a series of 619's that chop Show down and a desperate chair shot, but this needed to be leading somewhere. On it's own it doesn't make Big Show look any better and it only makes Rey look worse, so I just don't see the point of it. The post-match attack where Show swings a stretchered Mysterio into the ring post like a baseball bat was memorable, but obscenely dangerous as Rey's head smacks off the floor with force. Thankfully he wasn't badly hurt, but it was a poorly planned spot and built to nothing.

Rating: 3 Stars


WWE Championship
Brock Lesnar Vs John Cena

It's amazing to watch this match and hear how quiet the crowd is. If this were to happen today it would be one of the biggest fights in WWE history, yet here no one really cares about the rookie Cena. It's a fascinating match to watch in a modern context with the new face of the company taking on the man who would in fact define the upcoming era. Of course Cena is no Lesnar in terms of his in ring skills and is mostly carried by the fastest rising star in history. Lesnar starts his second season in the company with the weight of the SmackDown brand now firmly on his shoulders, and he has the talent and the build up to hold it high. This match was important to see if the WWE champion could take the lead after a year of working with the greatest veterans on the roster, and the good news is he can. Cena's limitations hold this back as expected, leading to more of a standard brawl than a wrestling match, but there's good drama and intensity throughout. I'm not sure why they built up Cena's new FU finisher if he wasn't going to use it at all, and in the end Lesnar gets the win with the first F5 of the night. I think there was some potential chemistry here but Cena needs to develop as a grappler before it can really be unlocked. If they wanted to have a bloody brawl then this needed more dynamic spots and more urgency, and it's hard to shake the feeling that this is simply a filler feud to give Lesnar something simple to do. For now it's the win we all expected but Cena has taken his first step towards a bright future.

Rating: 3.5 Stars


Triple H, Ric Flair and Chris Jericho Vs Shawn Michaels, Booker T and Kevin Nash

Obviously with the real main-event between Rock and Goldberg, Raw couldn't be bothered putting anything major together for the rest of the upper mid-card, so just went for a TV style six man tag. I'd have much preferred almost any singles option out of this mix, especially HBK Vs Y2J II, but instead they get a few sequences here and there to entertain before Kevin Nash steps in and puts a dampener on things. Poor Booker T has been completely forgotten in all the Klique business and while the world enjoys HHH Vs Nash for the next few months, he can go busy himself with not winning the Intercontinental Championship. Besides Booker, the rest of this match is about setting up the feuds for the next Raw PPV and while Nash may bore me to tears, the interactions between Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair are fantastic. This is the first time they've had a match on PPV outside of the 1992 Royal Rumble, and of course Shawn Michaels has since evolved into one of the greatest of all-time. I loved the Figure Four/Lionsault combo Flair and Jericho pulled on HBK, makes me wish we'd seen those two as a proper tag team at some point. For now however it's all just set-up for the future with HHH using a sledgehammer when the ref is down to get the pin on Nash. These feud switching tag matches should really be left off PPV, even when they are enjoyable in bursts as this one is.

Rating: 3 Stars


Goldberg Vs The Rock

This is undeniably one of the biggest dream matches of the late 90's, and while it obviously is still a huge draw in 2003, it would have been so much better to have seen it two years sooner. This is the kind of feud that should have headlined shows during the InVasion back in 2001, with two of the biggest names ever going one-on-one for the first time. As such the atmosphere and anticipation is off the charts however, as with Rock/Hogan last year, the limitations of Goldberg as a performer hold it down. Goldberg is the kind of character who works best when he's just quickly destroying everyone. He doesn't evoke much sympathy when he's on the defensive and he isn't a very good salesman. This makes matches like this awkward as Goldberg has to win, yet you can't just job The Rock out completely. Therefore we get a lot of stalling and times where Rock is in control which just feels wrong. Also an issue is the crowd who are really split and flip flop over and over as the fight goes on. Unlike Hogan or Austin, Goldberg doesn't have any reserves of WWE fan loyalty to fall back on against a charisma machine such as Rock, so despite both men's best efforts The Brahma Bull ends up with a lot of people on his side. Despite all of these factors the end result is still as entertaining as the best Goldberg matches before it and The Rock gets taken out in a decisive fashion. For now the WCW icon is a fresh addition to the Raw roster, but it's easy to see how he will quickly wear out his welcome.

Rating: 3.5 Stars



WWE Backlash 2003 Final Score: 2.5 Stars

After WrestleMania XIX was one of the best PPVs of all time, this show is a major let down. It's got it's share of memorable moments, but there are too many matches that are booked and performed as if they were on television, especially on the Raw side. They leaned hard on the main-event being enough to sell the show, but they should have known Goldberg wasn't capable of a match good enough to save a mediocre night. This was less a fallout from WrestleMania than it was treading water and putting pieces in place for the next few events. Those upcoming feuds look to be a mixed bag with potential classics like Michaels Vs Flair and the next Team Angle Vs Los Guerreros mixed in with guaranteed duds like HHH Vs Nash.