 Matt Hardy def. MVP to Win the United States ChampionshipThis was a match almost a year in the making, as they feuded for the latter half of 2007 (and even teamed for a brief bit) before Hardy legitimately got injured. Amazingly, MVP still holds the record to this day for longest reign as United States Champion in WWE, despite the reign itself not being overly memorable in my opinion. Nonetheless, this was a hot opener. Hardy worked from underneath for a majority of it, so the finish felt a bit abrupt, but this was an enjoyable outing otherwise and the perfect payoff to their program. ECW Champion Kane def. Chavo GuerreroKane beat Guerrero in eight seconds (or whatever it was) at WrestleMania 24 to win the ECW Championship, so this was much more of a match. The story coming into the contest was that Guerrero and the rest of La Familia attacked Kane on ECW the Tuesday prior, so that was supposed to make Kane the underdog here. It was a simple story, but Guerrero had enough heat that the crowd was into this, even though the bout not being anything out of the ordinary. The Big Show def. The Great KhaliI don't remember why this happened in the first place. I know Big Show lost to Floyd Mayweather at WrestleMania, so I imagine this only existed to give Big Show a rebound victory. Honestly, this wasn't remotely as terrible as you'd expect it to be. Sure, it was slow and plodding, but they kept it relatively basic and didn't overstay their welcome. Khali was hardly a threat at this point, so it's not like him losing meant much. Shawn Michaels def. Batista (Chris Jericho Served as Special Guest Referee)I was such a sucker for this storyline, and I still am. Batista was pissed at Michaels was retiring Ric Flair at WrestleMania and thought he took pleasure in doing so. Michaels was just trying to defend himself, and Jericho was the one stirring shit between the two. It was an awesome dynamic that obviously led to the iconic Michaels vs. Jericho rivalry soon after. This was a really good match and I loved the finish with Michaels feigning a knee injury to beat Batista. They got weeks of television out of that angle. Beth Phoenix, Melina, Victoria, Jillian Hall, Natalya and Victoria def. Ashley Massaro, WWE Women's Champion Mickie James, Maria, Michelle McCool, Cherry and Kelly KellyDespite being completely forgettable, this was apparently pretty notable for a few reasons. First of all, the commentators made mention of this being the first 12-woman tag team match in WWE history. I'm going to assume that's true. Secondly, this was Massaro's second-to-last televised match with WWE. She'd wrestle one more match on the next night's Raw (a rematch) and was released a few months later. Anyway, this wasn't terrible by any means, but it felt like WWE's way of getting the women on the show and calling it a day. World Heavyweight Champion The Undertaker def. EdgeWhile this wasn't on the same level as their WrestleMania encounter due to the lack of drama surrounding the outcome, it was still an above-average outing thanks to their terrific chemistry. It played out fairly predictably, but 'Taker retaining the title made the most sense. He used his signature submission hold to do it, which would later lead to Vickie Guerrero banning it. Triple H def. Randy Orton, John Cena and JBL in a Fatal 4-Way Elimination Match to Win the WWE ChampionshipIt was a while before we got our first elimination, so there were some fun spots prior to that point, but I wasn't a fan of JBL and Cena getting eliminated so close to each other. It meant that the rest of this was essentially a standard singles match (albeit without disqualifications or count-outs) between HHH and Orton, and as we know, those two don't have the greatest chemistry. That said, the crowd was super into the action down the stretch and popped huge for HHH taking the title. Overall ShowThis was your standard Backlash show in that it tied up some stuff from Backlash and featured a few other middle-of-the-road midcard matches. The two title changes in the opener and in the main event made it slightly eventful, and Michaels vs. Batista was the best bout of the night in my opinion. On the whole, this wasn't a must-see show by any means, but the three hours didn't feel like they dragged even if not every match was a banger.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
July 2026
|
RSS Feed