Fan Backlash works for WWE
The Sun Online - Wrestling: Fan Backlash works for WWE
IT'S OFFICIAL - we can no longer complain about the WWE not listening to their audience.
On January 8 2007 a St Louis crowd, disgusted by an awful match featuring fake versions of Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell, started to chant "we want wrestling".
We've had nothing but since.
The latest of example of the WWE's new philosophy to put on the best wrestling matches possible was the Backlash PPV.
All six bouts on the show were given ample time to shine, there was no interference to take the focus off the in-ring action and five of the contests had clear clean winners.
With the exception of WrestleMania 23 this was the best show of the last 12 months.
From a pure grappling perspective you could even argue that is surpassed The Granddaddy Of Them All.
Not everything at Backlash was perfect.
Vince McMahon winning the ECW championship would have been the "shocking, sacrilegious, offensive" act announcer Joey Styles claimed if the hardcore brand hadn't already died last December.
Our regular column contributor Rob McNichol also wasn't an enthusiastic as us about the show - pointing out that while most of the matches had decisive finishes, none of the storylines did.
But those niggles aside, watching this PPV really did blow us away.
The two opening bouts were a statement of intent.
The Hardy Boyz first PPV tag title defence in six years could easily have been a quick nostalgia pop and we all know how bad women's title fights usually are.
But Matt & Jeff beating Cade & Murdoch was 16 minutes of high-flying action in front of an extremely hot crowd and Melina retaining against Mickie James showed how good the female division can be when the glamour models are kept away from the ring.
Next up was what would have been the surprisingly great match of the night, if only commentator JBL hadn't already raised expectations by saying it would be the "show-stealer" and comparing the MVP v Chris Benoit programme to "Ali v Frasier".
Obviously the third match on a secondary wrestling show was never going to equal boxing's 'fight of the century', but it was a great display from both men.
It again proved that Benoit seldom has bad matches and further raised MVP in fans' eyes from comedy midcarder to real wrestling talent.
As JBL alluded to in commentary, Montel is a student of the game and his constant viewing of tapes from different countries and eras is paying off in his ever-improving work rate.
Vince's ECW title victory followed and was similar to his WrestleMania outing in that what it lacked in match-quality it more than made up for in entertainment.
Sadly, for us long-term fans, seeing the ECW championship prostituted wasn't quite as fun as watching McMahon get his head shaved but, like we said earlier, we're really past caring.
It was the two main events which turned Backlash from a good event into one we'll be pre-ordering on DVD to watch over and over.
Undertaker v Batista was awesome but John Cena v Shawn Michaels v Randy Orton v Edge gets our match of the night honours for its superb ending and storytelling.
We've often stated that we don't like Last Man Standing matches as you lose some of the pace that near-falls bring.
But Taker v Batista was the perfect example of when this stipulation really can work.
The match was intriguing as you wondered throughout which of the giants would go down for the 10 count and what monster move would do it.
None of their regular finishers could and it was left to a Batista spear off the stage to leave both men knocked out.
Fans booed the finish, but a draw made sense in terms of the punishment both men took and to continue the feud.
Sadly Taker tore his bicep towards the start of the match meaning he will miss at least six months of action and both men's best feud in ages has to end early. We'll have more on the WWE's plans for the title next week.
The fatal four-way main event was completely different to the match before and again showed that Vince McMahon is moving away from formula bouts to offer fans something different up and down the card.
The bulk of the bout was your standard four-way affair with big dives and spots involving all the competitors, some double-teaming and double-crossing but mainly the guys wrestling two at a time.
Then came the finish - one of those great finales that the WWE seem to do so much better than anyone else.
Edge Speared Orton, Cena FU'd Edge and then Michaels hit the Sweet Chin Music on John.
But Cena landed on Randy and, before Shawn could crawl over, the referee counted to three and John inadvertently retained his championship.
The finish had everything you could want - intrigue, great wrestling and a nice advancement in a strong storyline.
You could say the same about the whole of Backlash.
We give the PPV 9 out of 10.