Backlash '99

Legacy Review

Backlash '99

April 25, 1999 from the Providence Civic Center in Providence, RI

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

The In Your House name is no more. This is the first PPV outside the Big 5 (or Big 4 + King of the Ring if you prefer) not to have it. This is also the very first Backlash, which will remain as the traditional post-Wrestlemania PPV for the next decade. A spot it never should have lost in my opinion, though it has thankfully come back the last few years. JR is back full time after returning from his latest Bell's Palsy attack for the WM main event.

The Ministry of Darkness def The Brood in 11:38- The Brood is now out of the Ministry to fill Russo's monthly turn quota. And because Ken Shamrock used the ankle lock to torture Stephanie McMahon's location out of Christian after the Ministry kidnapped her. For the first time. It's Mideon and the Acolytes representing the Ministry in this one. Christian and Mideon start by crawling around staring at each other before locking up. Kind of a nice change of pace after all the jump starts at WM honestly. Christian uses his obvious agility advantage to speed around a (probably legit) fumbling Mideon, hitting a spinning heel kick and armdrag. Bradshow no sells some Gangrel shots and nails him with a big boot. Gangrel hits a diving elbow off the second rope. Bradshaw catches Gangrel trying a crossbody and gives him a fallaway slam. The Brood double team Bradshaw to get him down. Edge tries a crucifix on Faarooq, with Gangrel dropkicking him over for 2. Faarooq plants Edge with a spinebuster. Mideon hits a delayed suplex for 2. Edge gets a sunset flip but ref Teddy Long is distracted and Faarooq comes in to nail edge, officially sending him in vampire wannabe in peril. Bradshaw hits a tackle and covers. Christian makes the save and slugs it out with Bradshaw. Faarooq takes the opening to sneak in and pound Edge some more. There's a HUGE "Mideon sucks" chant from the crowd when all he's doing is sitting on the apron. That's hilarious. Bit of a smarky crowd here tonight and I like it. During the continued Edge beatdown Mideon tags back in to huge boos. I think that's only making him go even slower. Edge manages to get a boot up in the corner. Spear off the second rope! Tag to Christian! Reverse DDT on Mideon for 2. DONNYBROOK! Christian hits a tornado DDT on Bradshaw for 2 while everyone else is fighting on the floor. Bradshaw powerbombs Christian out of mounted punches. Gangrel breaks the pin up. Edge missile dropkicks Bradshaw into a Christian cradle for 2. Christian tries to plancha Faarooq, but Faarooq catches him! Edge hits a baseball slide to knock them all down. Viscera comes out to ringside. He supposedly squashes Christian against the ring. That was the intention, but from the camera angle it looked like Viscera hardly touched him. Christian gets slid back in, eats a Bradshaw Clothesline from Hell, and it's over. Solid. **1/2

 

WWF Hardcore Championship: Al Snow (w/Head) def Hardcore Holly (c) in 15:27- I've always liked how the Hardcore Championship logo looks like a Mortal Kombat fatality. 100% intentional I'm sure. We're a bit past the peak of the fighting game craze at this point but they were still a big thing in gaming. Holly gives Snow a belt shot before the bell! Back to the jump starts, but for this type of match it works. Quick cover by Holly for 2. Snow tosses Holly over the top to the floor. Holly gets a water jug from under the ring and whacks Snow with it. They go into the crowd and Snow is already bleeding. Likely from the belt shot, not the water. Rhode Island water's not that sharp. Snow slams Holly on the floor and hits a moonsault off the barricade for 2. He gets a hockey stick out and pummels Holly with it. After that he gets a table out. Holly gives Snow a shot with the hockey stick and finishes setting the table up in the corner for him. Snow nails Holly with a cookie sheet. Lawler asks a very logical question: why are there always so many cooking utensils under the ring? Holly suplexes Snow in the aisle for 2. They go through the entrance stage to the back. Holly gets THE KITCHEN SINK! Fantastic. Snow cuts him off with a stream of water from a nearby hose. Both guys get run into an SUV, setting off the alarm. Snow breaks a broom over Holly's back. They go up some stairs. Snow gets tossed down into a full dumpster! Holly does a big splash onto him! Cover for 2 in the dumpster. They roll over the hood of an 18 wheeler. Ref Mike Chioda shows some serious agility hopping out of the dumpster, off the truck hood and back down to the ground. No hesitation. They brawl up into one of the TV trucks! Lawler namedropps Kevin Dunn. Holly gets hiptossed onto a car roof! Snow drops an elbow on him! Cover for 2. They go back inside the back of the arena. How about a coat stand shot? They go through Gorilla and back into the arena proper and all the way back to the ring. Snow has a couple of frying pans and whacks Holly with one. Snow covers, then gets back up. He wants a table shot. He sets Holly up and goes up top. Holly gives Snow a pan shot! Superplex through the table! Holly slowly drapes an arm over Snow. Snow kicks out! Head shot! Snow gets the pin and the title. Another fun all over the arena plunder brawl. I like how they keep trying to add in new props and locations. They've got something good going with this new Hardcore division and the crowd is really into it. **3/4

In the back the Undertaker is giving the Ministry a pep talk. Some audio issues cause him to stumble over himself, then he drops the Botchamania famous "hower power". Taker closes the speech by saying "The tragedy begins". Well that's ominous.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: The Godfather (c) def Goldust (w/The Blue Meanie) in 5:22- From the Attitude Era's "I can't believe that actually happened" files, right behind the folder for Road Dogg as Intercontinental champion, I bring you the Godfather as Intercontinental champion. The title has changed hands twice since WM as we're now really in the IC title hotshotting era: Goldust defeated Road Dogg for the title on the Raw after WM (ending Dogg's title reign at a whole two weeks), then Godfather took it from Goldust on Raw a couple of weeks later. This is the rematch. Godfather plays with the crowd by teasing no ho train to big boos, then brings the ladies out to big cheers. Tonight's ho ratio is 2 out of 5 are reasonably attractive, which is a pretty good percentage compared to usual. This is clearly Lawler's favorite part of the night. In an unusual move the ladies stay ringside for the whole match. Goldust jumps Godfather from behind as he's getting the hos set just right. Godfather hits a backdrop and clothesline. He faceplants Goldust and backdrops him to the floor. Goldust starts to walk, then Meanie reminds him it's for the title so he goes back. Back in it's still all Godfather. He hits a slam and legdrop for 2. Meanie trips Godfather and Goldust 360 clotheslines him to the floor from behind. Meanie goes to town on Godfather. Back in Goldust hits the flying clothesline for 2, then the fall down uppercut and another clothesline. Meanie gives Goldust a bag full of powder. Godfather pushes it into Goldust's face! Meanie comes in to try to help, but blinded Goldust thinks he's Godfather and punches him! Godfather encourages this, with Goldust pounding Meanie down in the corner. Shattered Dreams to Meanie! Godfather maneuvers them around some more, squashes them both with the Ho Train (the move, not the ladies), hits Goldust with the DVD and gets the pin. The blinded Goldust stuff was fun but the match was nothing special and very one sided. 3/4*

Michael Cole is by the bathroom urinals with new Hardcore champ Snow. Snow calls Cole "Todd", but quickly gets interrupted in his head by Head. Head asks which hand Snow pinned Holly with. The hand Snow was holding Head with. Clearly Head is implying......she?.....should be the real champion. Snow asks Cole to leave their very private conversation.

WWF Tag Team Championship #1 Contender's Match: The New Age Outlaws def Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett (w/Debra) in 10:33- Owen and Jarrett lost the titles to the new team of Kane & X-Pac after WM. After going through separate singles runs the Outlaws are temporarily back together before Gunn's huge singles push really gets going. Lawler loses it at Debra's skimpy bikini again. Still does nothing for me. Dogg tells Debra to whip out the "puppies" and that sets Lawler off more. Jarrett won't allow it though Debra clearly wants to. Dogg threatens to unleash the Ass of Gunn but Owen cuts it off and the bell rings with all four guys fighting. Gunn gets double teamed while Dogg gets on the apron. Owen's got a cool new OH logo on his tights. Gunn speeds around Owen and hits a dropkick with JR doing the full buttering up job from commentary about his incredible athleticism because, again, big singles push coming. Press slam and crotch chop. Of course they have to keep putting Debra on camera. She's. Not. That. Hot. Owen and Dogg trade arm wringers into an Owen neckbreaker. Jarrett swinging neckbreaker on Dogg. He gets some strutting in. Dog hits his jabs while the crowd chants at Debra to "show those puppies". I don't like them as much now. Dogg maneuvers the heels around to run into each other. After a Jarrett distraction Owen hits the enzuguri and a legdrop for 2. Dogg goes Outlaw in peril. Jarrett dropkicks Dogg to the floor. Gunn keeps getting held back by ref Tim White but the heels don't take advantage of it much. Lawler says stay away from the Spanish announce table, it's a dangerous place. That gag is already going. Dogg gets a backslide on Owen but now Jarrett is distracting White. Owen hits the spinning heel kick. Gunn saves the pin. Jarrett hits a powerslam for 2. Dogg and Jarrett both leap at the same time and collide. Owen tags in and cuts a Dogg tag off. Sleeper. Arm drops, escape, and Dogg puts on a sleeper. Double clothesline. Tags on both sides. Gunn runs wild. Powerslam on Jarrett for 2. Everyone in the pool! The Outlaws both do mounted punches. Gunn Cactus Clothesline on Jarrett. Debra gets on the apron to distract Dogg. Owen tries to jump, but Dogg hits the pumphandle slam. Jarrett just breaks the pin up. Owen Sharpshooter on Dogg. Dogg fights of a Jarrett figure four. Fameasser on Owen while he's holding the Sharpshooter! That gets the pin. Solid formula tag stuff with a good end run. I'm trying to not let all the focus on Debra hurt the match in my eyes. Sadly this would turn out to be Owen's final PPV match. **1/2

Cole grills main event guest ref and new WWF Chairman Shane McMahon on his promise to give the title back to the Rock if Austin lays a hand on him and how he could be an impartial referee. Shane swears on the grave of his grandfather Vincent JAMES McMahon that if Austin has Rock down he will count the 3, then proceeds to disown Vince as his dad. "He's just Vince to me". After that we cut to Kevin Kelley with Vince and Stephanie McMahon in her first PPV appearance (plus armed guard because of the recent kidnapping). Vince isn't thrilled with what Shane is doing but he's more concerned with protecting his family right now.

Boiler Room Brawl: Mankind def The Big Show in 7:40- This is a rematch from Wrestlemania. The only way to win is to escape the boiler room. We start with Show walking into the boiler room in Dusty Rhodes street fight gear, as evidenced by the big "Boiler Room: DANGER!" sign on the door. I'm pretty sure this is pretaped but can't say for 100% certain. Mankind jumps him from behind with some toys. He smashes Show in a door. Show goozles and fights back out. Mankind takes some shots off the equipment around the room. Show straight drops a table on him. Cameraman sighting! A fridge takes a pounding. Mankind breaks some ceiling tiles over Shows head. A trash can gets kicked into Mankind's face and Show pounds him with it. Show puts Mankind in a shopping cart (what the hell is a shopping cart doing in a boiler room) and rolls him into some panels. Slam on the panels. The panels fall on top of him! Shot of ref Teddy Long outside the exit waiting for someone to escape. Mankind breaks a pane of glass over Show's head! He cut his own hand open doing that. Mankind sets a ladder up. Show chokeslams him off the ladder into two tables covered with glass panes! Damn. Show is bleeding from the earlier shot. Show breaks a mop over Mankind's back and he falls into MORE glass panes! This is turning into a CZW match. The box of air conditioner filters is busted open! Filters are everywhere! Mankind's hand looks really hurt for real after getting sliced open by that glass. Another slam onto some portable steps. Show rolls Mankind off the steps into another stack of metal. Mankind breaks open a pipe and Show gets steam and hot water in the face! Low blow with a pipe on Show. Show gets buried under a huge stack of pipes! The same pipes that will be falling backstage during fights for decades. Mankind gets out the door and wins! As soon as he gets out Boss Man and Test jump him. Show gets free, takes Test out and chases off Boss Man. Mankind has Socko out! Claw on Test! That was a tremendously fun hardcore brawl. They learned a lot since the first Boiler Room Brawl, this one had a lot more space and better lighting. ***1/2

Chyna says X-Pac has forgotten "who got him over". Oooooooh, insider talk! After that we cut to what I'm pretty sure is a Coliseum Video exclusive of Show getting worked on by the doctor and Mankind giving a guided tour of the wreckage in the boiler room. "I should stay away from those damn ladders!"

 

Triple H (w/Chyna) def X-Pac in 19:19- Trips shocked the world by turning on DX and joining Chyna in the Corporation at Wrestlemania. His slow transition from DX Trips to The Game is on. He comes out to some generic heel music tonight so clearly that's a work in progress. HHH slaps Pac over ref Chioda and the fight is on. Pac fights back with some of his martial arts stuff. HHH rolls out for a breather. Pac chases and HHH takes a stair shot. 75% of the crowd chants "X-Pac" and the other 25% fills the gap with "SUCKS". That percentage will change over the coming months and not in Pac's favor. After some back and forth slugging HHH tosses Pac over the top to the floor. Chyna stalks but Pac cuts her off, then he catches HHH coming off the apron. Pac takes a shot on the Spanish announce table. Back in Pac hits a heel kick for 2. Corner kick combo from Pac. HHH dodges the bronco buster. He goes into angry beatdown mode, ignoring the ref trying to stop him. Chyna gets a shot in and HHH covers for 2. HHH attacks Pac's neck, where he knows Pac's had a couple of major injuries. Swinging neckbreaker for 2. HHH hooks in a front facelock, almost a guillotine. While in that HHH clearly asks Chioda "What's the time?". JR covers saying it's trash talk. Pac fights out but HHH hair pulls him back down. Kneedrops to the back of the neck and a cover for 2. Now HHH puts on a dragon sleeper with a knee in Pac's upper back. After arm drops Pac knees HHH in the face to get out. HHH hits the facebuster for 2. Pac gets tossed to the floor again. Chyna drops Pac on the barricade. More HHH shots to the neck on the apron. Back in Pac gets a flash small package for 2. HHH clothesline for 2. Back to the facelock. HHH switches gears and puts on a regular sleeper. Pac fights out and jumps on HHH's back with a sleeper. HHH backs him into the corner. Pac keeps getting the sleeper back on. Back suplex and both guys are down. Another heel kick from Pac. A third. HHH reverses a corner whip but Pac pops out with a rolling clothesline. Tornado DDT! He gets an arm over HHH for 2. Chyna gets on the apron. Pac counters the Pedigree and headbutts HHH in the nads for 2. Back to the floor and HHH goes into the steps. HHH pulls Chioda in and Chioda gets wiped out by a Pac baseball slide. The X-Factor hits! No ref. Chyna comes in and low blows Pac. She plants Pac with a reverse DDT. The lights go out and Kane's music hits. Here comes Pac's new best bud. He tries to chokeslam Chyna but HHH cuts it off and takes it instead. What a good boyfriend. But then Chyna takes a chokeslam anyway! Kane sets them both up in the corners and leaves. Pac sees the setup we're bronco bustering all around. Kick wham Pedigree! HHH gets the pin. Damn that finish made me laugh. The match wasn't all it could have been but it wasn't a disaster, especially the good psychology in the middle part. It'd take HHH a bit to get comfortable in his new role. **1/4

 

The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) def Ken Shamrock in 18:50- Shamrock has become the point man for the Corporation on the Ministry of Darkness front of their two front war. Among the Ministry's most recent "sacrifices" was Shamrock's sister Ryan. Shamrock jumps before the bell because that's in the rules now. Back and forth corner slugging. Taker hits a clothesline for 2. Old school hits. Flying clothesline for 2. Shamrock dodges a Taker big boot in the corner and starts kicking away on his knee. He wraps Taker's knee around the middle rope. Hebner makes little more than a token effort to get him to break. Finally he does, and Taker kicks him and hits a back suplex for 2. Shamrock seems to muff a sunset flip, but twists around to wrap Taker up in a legbar. More kicks to the leg and Shamrock grounds things again with a leg scissors. Taker hits some more haymakers, Shamrock wraps up another leg hold, rinse and repeat. Hebner tries to enforce a rope break and Shamrock shouts "Bullshit!" at him. They go to the floor and Shamrock stomps Taker's ankle on the steps. JR mentions Shamrock is still "personally loyal" to Vince and is "not affiliated" with Shane's Corporation. We're gonna need a chart for all this crap, which Russo being Russo it'll change every week anyway. Taker gouges Shamrock's face and hits some Kevin Nash like corner elbows. Drop toe hold from Taker and he does some ground pounding. Shamrock reverses and, after all the leg work, now grabs a cross armbreaker. There's some "boring" chants floating around the arena. Taker snaps Shamrock over the top rope. Shamrock tries coming off the apron but Taker catches him and posts his back. Back in Taker pounds away on the back. Backbreaker with a stretch. Bow and arrow from Taker! That's a new one. Slam and legdrop. Shamrock grabs the leg into another legbar. Taker counters into a single leg crab. A clothesline from Taker is horribly sold by Shamrock and the crowd lets him know it. A high knee from Shamrock barely rattles Taker. Shamrock runs into a big boot. Cover and Shamrock doesn't kick out! For frak's sake. Hebner stops at 2 anyway. The crowd again registers their disapproval. Chop block from Shamrock, followed by a hurricanrana for 2. Ankle lock! No, Taker slips out before it's fully on. Or Shamrock just let go. Take your pick given how it looked. Another Taker clothesline for 2. Shamrock remembered to kick out this time. Shamrock slips out of a Tombstone scoop and gets the ankle lock on. Bradshaw runs in and gets taken out. Chokeslam, no, Shamrock counters into an armbreaker! Bearer distracts Shamrock. After another rough exchange Shamrock hits a belly to belly suplex. Shamrock scoops for his own Tombstone. Big mistake. Taker flips it over, plants Shamrock, and it's over. After the bell Taker lets Bradshaw have some fun with Shamrock's corpse. I appreciate them trying to do a submission based match, which was way outside the WWF's style in this era, but it never came together even before Shamrock started botching all over the place. I think it's becoming pretty clear Shamrock's hit his ceiling and is never going to be a tippy top guy. *3/4

Among the developments in the Austin/Rock feud since WM: Since he was champion again Austin demanded his personal smoking skull belt back. Vince and Shane said hell no, and Rock claimed possession of that belt. Austin tried to get it back, which culminated with a brawl on a bridge and Austin getting dropped into a river, followed by the belt. The next week on Raw Rock held a mock funeral for Austin, while revealing he still had the smoking skull belt after all. Austin crashed his own funeral, ran over Rock's car with a monster truck, tried to take his personal belt back again but this time had it taken away again by Shane, and here we are.

Vince escorts Steph into a limo outside the arena, surrounded by a crack police squad that would never ever allow anything to happen to her while she's in there.

 

No Holds Barred Match for the WWF Championship: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (c) def The Rock in 17:07- Even though it's a No Holds Barred match, if Austin lays a hand on Shane the Rock will automatically win the title back. Rock comes out with the smoking skull belt. Shane tells one of the ring attendants to put the smoking skull belt in his office when the match starts. Austin charges in, tosses the regular belt away, and it's on. The smoking skull belt does indeed get carried away. Austin Thesz Press! Elbow drop for 2. Rock gets a swinging neckbreaker. Austin gets tossed over the top to the floor. Clothesline in the aisle. They fight up into the stage area. Austin takes a fire extinguisher shot, then gets whipped into part of the fence that makes up the stage and the whole thing falls over! Rock gets suplexed on the floor. Damn the crowd is bonkers for this match. Now it's Rock's turn to get whipped into the other side of the stage and that side collapses! Well, no one's getting in or out that way now without some serious reconstruction. Austin continues pounding on top of the remains of the stage. Rock gets choked with a cable. Austin whips him into an equipment area and leaps off a box with a clothesline. He rolls a metal case right into Rock! Austin tries leaping off it but Rock catches him. Now Rock rolls the case into Austin. Austin is whipped into the crane camera and Rock clotheslines him on the rebound. Austin comes back with a clothesline and slams Rock on the floor. They work back and Rock gets whipped into the steps. Mudhole stomp back in the ring. Shane pulls him out of the corner and shoves him, baiting Austin to hit him. Rock charges but Austin sees and LAUNCHES him over the top to the floor! Clothesline off the apron from Austin. And the top comes off the top of the Spanish announce table. Look out. Austin gets on top of it with Rock. Low blow from Rock! Rock Bottom through the Spanish announce table! Rock gets a Spanish headset and adds some improv commentary. Austin gets a chair. Shane takes it away and tosses it to Rock! Austin kicks it away before he can use it. Rock reverses a whip and whips Austin over the barricade into the crowd. Austin gets run into the English announce table and Rock sets him on top of it. Rock gets a camera! No more commentating, Rock's a cameraman now! He gets a shot of Austin and adds his own middle finger, then gets a shot of the crowd. The camera turns and we see Austin is back up from Rock's POV! Double bird! STUNNER INTO THE TABLE! That was fantastic. Austin sets up in the ring to finish it. Rock pushes out of the Stunner and Austin runs over Shane! Rock Bottom! Shane drapes Rock's arm over Austin! Austin kicks out! Shane goes out and gets the belt. Austin ducks and Shane takes Rock out with the belt! Austin covers. 1.....2.....double middle finger to Austin! Austin chases and Shane gives him another double bird as he runs. Vince is out with Hebner. And he's got the smoking skull belt. He walks right by Shane without looking at him. Shane sees the belt and stops Vince. VINCE TAKES SHANE OUT WITH THE BELT! In the ring Rock nails Austin with the regular title belt. Hebner goes in to count. AUSTIN KICKS OUT! STUNNER! BELT SHOT! Austin covers and wins! Vince looks resigned, tosses the smoking skull belt to Austin and starts to leave but then stays near the stage to watch. Even better than their WM match. These two could work the brawling/real fight style as well as anyone ever has. Just don't think about the plot twists too much, which is a standard disclaimer for anything Russo. ****

But we're not done. Steph has the window down and is chatting with the cops. The Acolytes come out and the cops tell the limo to go go go go. We cut to inside the limo. Steph screams at the driver to stop and wait for her dad. The screen slides down. IT'S THE UNDERTAKER! "WHERE TO, STEPHANIE?" Oh man, it's awful but it's a classic. Two legendary Undertaker Botchamania moments in one show. We cut back inside the arena and Vince has no idea what happened while Austin celebrates.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Easily WWF's best PPV of the year so far and a nice recovery from a pretty dreadful WM. It's not going to blow you away, but there's some good quality all across the show with a great main event. The whole Ministry/Corporation thing is already getting absurd but only about a quarter of how crazy it's going to get in the near future.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+