Reviewing the Past: Backlash 2006

Location: Lexington , Kentucky
Date: April 30th, 2006

So this was the PPV where Shawn Michaels was still in a feud with Shane and Vince McMahon. They were just making Shawn's life a living hell. Most of you will remember this for the controversial match with Shawn MIchaels and God vs. The McMahons... Yeah anyone who hasn't heard of it, Vince actually booked himself against god. What a wicked sense of humor that man has sometimes. This kind of stuff is why no one wanted to sponsor the WWE! Onto the PPV!

Carlito defeated Chris Masters
- So this match is probably better than most would have expected. The story is I guess that Carlito and Masters split as a tag team. Simple stuff. They surprisingly put on a fun and entertaining match. I really miss Carlito sometimes, the dude was pretty talented but was known for being kind of lazy in the ring. Masters teases the Masterlock most of the match, because at this time no one has ever broken it. It ends when Masters goes for the Masterlock, Carlito sends him face first into the turnbuckle, then hits a lungblower for the win. Solid opener.

Umaga (with Armando Alejandro Estrada) defeated Ric Flair
- Man its amazing how bad they screwed up with Umaga the next few years after 2006. But this is back when he was still pretty new. Armando Alejandro Estrada was pretty fun too listen to also right? So Umaga's thing was that he hasn't lost yet at all. So did Ric Flair ever have a chance? NOPE! But what better way to get heat on a guy than to have him destroy a legend like Flair. This is a squash match that probably could have happened on Raw. Flair did a good job making Umaga look like a dominant beast. Umaga wins with a Samoan Spike and sometimes I just really miss Umaga... RIP.

Trish Stratus defeated Mickie James (c) by disqualification
- Two of the most talented divas on the roster at this time. This was during Mickie's psycho gimmick and infamous storyline with Trish. So this match was pretty good but I guess Trish got injured during the match and they had to end it quickly. Mickie James chokes Trish out with one of her arm bands that she is wearing and the ref calls for the bell. This probably was supposed to get more time, but Trish got injured. Disappointing to say the least. Can't really knock a match though where one of the people get injured.

Rob Van Dam defeated Shelton Benjamin (c)
- So RVD was Mr. Money in the Bank at this time. I wasn't really watching wrestling at this point back then, so when I put this on to watch it, I found myself pretty excited to see this match. RVD and Shelton just sounds awesome. This didn't disappoint. They were given a ton of time to build the match up and they were excellent in doing so. Lots of good spots, nearfalls, the works. People talk alot of crap about Shelton Benjamin but the dude could go in the ring and when he was paired with people that were athletic like him, great things happened. It doesn't shock me that RVD won, given that he was getting pushed pretty hard at that point, and that he would go on to win the championship later that year. If anyone can answer this for me, when did RVD drop the IC title before One Night Stand? Anyways, with the ref down, RVD throws the MITB breifcase in Sheltons arms and then kicks him in the face with it and finishes it off with a Five Star Frog Splash for the win. Good work from both of these two.  Oh I forgot to add this was a winner take all, so if Shelton would have won, he would have gotten the breifcase.

Big Show vs. Kane ended in a no contest
- So I'm not too familiar with this angle either. Its the May 19th angle with Kane. I guess Kane and Show were a tag team and Kane turned on Big Show when he said the date May 19th. Anyways this match really isn't good. I've never been a fan of Big guy vs. Big guy matches because usually they are slow and boring. I expected more from these two given that they are both good workers, but the ending of the match is dumb. I'm assuming that whole angle was just hot garbage, just like everything they seemed to do with Kane around that time period. The arena lighting turns red and then a inner monolque from Kane is played and we all can hear it. Talking about May 19th and its happening again. Big Show takes a chair and beats Kane down with it, basically putting him out of his misery. I'm glad I didn't have to see the rest of this angle unfold. Kane always has the weirdest storylines.

The McMahons (Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon) defeated Shawn Michaels and God
- Vince announces that this match is going to be No Holds Barred now. I don't know if Vince is a religious man or not, but the dude must not care if he goes to heaven or hell! Anyone involved with this match probably felt really awkward, I'm shocked Shawn decided to do this. So its basically a Two on one match. This will probably be an unpopular opinion but in this time frame when Vince was feuding with Shawn and Triple H through out the year, I actually thought the stuff they did was pretty entertaining. This match isn't an exception, I thought it was just fun to watch. I don't know why, its not a great match by no means, but its interesting. Shawn hits a pretty cool crossbody on Vince off the stage. Michaels gets busted open and dons his famous crimson mask that he and Triple H just loved to sport back in those days. So Shawn pulls out a huge ladder and sets both McMahons on two tables that are in the ring. He's looking to replicate his ladder spot from Mania 22, but the Spirit Squad come out and put the end to that by beating the craps out of Shawn and giving the McMahons the win. Take a good look at a young Dolph Ziggler fellas, he started off as a cheer leader! Who would have thought he would have been the most successful man in the group? Anyways this match was fun for what it was, still kind of uncomfortable. I would have loved to have them done a spot where they have the spotlight and have God get in some offense, that would have been so funny.

So if the WWE didn't already offended their most of their audience, its time to finish the job. Matt Striker comes out, calls the whole town uneducated and stupid, and has his nice chalk board set up in the ring. He calls out Eugene, makes fun of him, says he probably cant write his name even, and then Eugene writes ont he chalkboard "you love poop". Classy. Then Eugene picks his nose and much to Striker's dismay, Eugene shoves it in Striker's mouth and gives him the stunner. Ehh, I guess this was kind of funny. But still, I could have lived without it. I hated the Eugene character, just hated it.

John Cena (c) defeated Triple H and Edge (with Lita)
- So Triple H faced John Cena at Wrestlemania 22 lost. This I'm assuming this is his rematch, somehow Edge managed to wiggle his way into the match too. So I got to hand it too these three, they put on one heck of a triple threat here. I'm over the fact that Cena was becoming super man at this point and can now just watch it for what it is. So just like his best friend before him, Triple H gets the crimson mask, I guess it was just the fad back then. This match had a bunch of great spots, like Triple H hitting Lita with a spinebuster, it seems like Lita was always the only girl with enough balls to take bumps from the men. Oh and it seemed around this time they were really trying to get Cena's STFU over hard and make it a feared submissions. Good in theory, but you all know how it looks when Cena executes it. Edge just seemed to be the whipping boy for Triple H and Cena, but it worked out pretty well. The match ends when Cena dodges a sledgehammer shot from Edge and hits him with an FU, then Triple H comes in and hits a low blow on Cena and goes for the Pedigree, but Cena reverses and rolls Triple H up for the win. I'm not used to seeing Cena win via rollup, but I guess at this time the only man who could out superman Cena was Triple H, so he had to look strong in a losing effort. What a violent match this was, hard hitting, and very fun.

So this was a pretty good Pay Per View from the WWE. Backlash usually was right after Wrestlemania so it always had a big event feel to it. My match of the night is really really hard to choose because RVD vs. Shelton Benjamin was so good but so was the main event. But I'm going to have to give the nod to the Triple Threat match, that stuff was intense. There were three matches I really enjoyed on this show and then one that I thought was pretty decent.

Rating: 7/10