The Worst Film Ever

Sick Product of a Sick System

Lack of good storyline.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The even that took place after Wrestlemania 20 for the Raw Brand and to say the least it at least got some things right while Wrestlemania 20 didn't. I remember watching this show on Pay Per View live with my brother.However there are some matches on this card that were so so and one or two that were forgettable so now let's get on with the review. 1. Shelton Benjamin vs Ric Flair. The match was the opener since Shelton defeat Triple H in his debut on Raw brand. This match was not much to write home to. Rating 6 out of 102.Jonathan Coachman vs Tajiri. To say this is a joker match would be honoring it the match itself was just bad.Rating 4 out of 103.Chris Jericho Vs Christian and Trish Stratus. Now this is where the show starts to get more interesting as this match was actually enjoyable and interesting to boot.Rating: 7 out of 104.Victoria vs Lita for the WWE Women's Championship. This is when women's wrestling as actually good and when we had women who knew how to wrestle these two would be the right example of it. Lita is my favorite Female wrestler both women work a good match all together. Rating: 7 out of 105.Randy Orton vs Cactus Jack Hardcore Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Now this is the match of the night as the Hardcore Legend show The Legend Killer the true meaning of pain with the biggest Oh My God Moment came when Randy Orton was slam right into thumbtacks and I remember my brother and I were shocked. Both men went to war and gave us the match of the night.Rating: 10 out of 106. Rosey And The Hurricane vs La Resistance. This was nothing special since it was coming out after the match between Randy and Cactus Jack.Rating: 5 out of 107.EDGE vs Kane. What would have been a interesting match turn out to be nothing short of Edge's return to the WWE after a year from Neck injury. But the match was too short and hardly got the spot off the ground.Rating: 6 out of 108.Triple H vs Shawn Michaels vs Chris Benoit Triple Threat Match for the World Heavyweight Championship. The Match was dubbed The Final Encounter and it sure was. In the rematch from Wrestlemania 20 the two men gave us another battle and left us with a good main event match.Rating: 8 out of 10.Overall Backlash 2004 was a good PPV and in my opinion improve over Wrestlemania 20 plus with the Randy Orton and Cactus Jack match it's hard not to appreciate hard work from wrestling.I give WWE Backlash 2004 an 8 out of 10

This is an uneven PPV. About half of the matches are worth seeing, but the other half are barely average.1) Shelton Benjamin vs. Ric Flair. Visibly fake. Benjamin has to pull his punches and receive about 50 backhand slaps. I can accept Ric Flair as a ringside interference, but putting him in the center of the ring, alone, at his age, is a joke. ** 2) Jonathan Coachman vs. Tajiri. Another joke. The only way this match could be good is if Tajiri demolished "The Coach" in three minutes, but this doesn't happen. The high-kicking "Japanese Buzzsaw" deserves better booking than this. *1/23) Chris Jericho vs. Christian and Trish Stratus. A 2-on-1 handicap match. What could have been yet another mediocre encounter between these two men is made a little more lively by the involvement of Trish (who even gets spanked here!). ** Then we get a small segment / tribute to Chris Benoit, at whose hometown this PPV was shot. Nice, but it removes even the last drop of suspense about the outcome of the main event.4) Victoria vs. Lita (for the women's title). FANTASTIC!!! This is what the word "wrestling" is all about. The match lasts only 10 minutes, but you can see more technical holds and moves in these 10 minutes than in entire PPVs. Even the camera stays mostly on the ground level to follow the action. These two women work excellently together, and - in another nice touch - there is no fake "hate" between them, only respect (at one point, they smile and congratulate each other). Victoria is a terrific champion - she should be wearing the belt more often. ***P.S. The aftermath of this match shows how badly misused Gail Kim was in the WWE.5) Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley. A no-holds-barred fight for the intercontinental title, with the Evolution banned from ringside (yes, really!). I'm not a fan of hardcore matches, but I have to admit this one delivers what it promises. Some CRAZY stuff here. *** if you like this sort of thing, ** if you don't.6) The Hurricane and Rosey vs. La Resistance. Hurricane and Rosey are an interesting, unorthodox team (one looks like a cruiserweight, the other like a sumo wrestler), but after about 3 minutes Eugene shows up and the commentators, the crowd and even the cameraman stop paying attention to the match. I guess Eugene was supposed to turn it into a comedy, but he turns it into a tragedy instead. ** until he appears, then 0.7) Kane vs. Edge. Slightly better than other Kane matches, because it's relatively short and the action is mostly confined inside the ring. By the way, is there anyone who believes that someone like Edge can defeat someone like Kane in a real fight? **1/2 8) Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H vs. Chris Benoit. A triple-threat match for the heavyweight title. This is a good main event. However, that's all it is - simply "good". Benoit does his nice submission moves, HHH tries to dominate through sheer power, and HBK plays "Sweet Chin Music" (when he's not knocked out cold outside). And of course when "A" (whoever that may be) is about to lose to "B", "C" interferes. In the end, the right man wins and the fans go home happy. No surprises here. **1/2

This was a solid PPV.Match 1 started off as The Nature Boy Ric Flair battled Shelton Benjamin in an OK match. Why they put Flair in this match I do not know, they should have put someone in there similar to Benjamins' age and quickness like..... oh sorry there is no one else!Another match puts La Resistance in with Rosey and The Hurricane. This was a passable effort, although the comedic antics of Eugene were quite funny. The next match was enjoyable as Christian and Trish Stratus tried to defeat Chris Jericho but to no avail. This was good.The next match was disappointing. Edge's comeback from neck surgery was very poor and the match was only like 5 minutes long. Edge defeated Kane with the Spear. Remember Kane is supposed to be invincible? oh well.....The next two matches certainly exceeded expectations. Randy Orton put his Intercotinental Championship on the line in a hardcore rules match with Mick Foley/Cactus Jack. This was brilliant, full of blood and stunts. Orton body slammed Foley on a board full of barbed wire! Foley slammed Orton on hundreds if not thousands of drawing pins/thumb tacks and Foley introduced Ortons' conkers to the barbed wire bat! ouch! Orton won when he RKO'd Foley onto the barbed wire bat! Brilliant!The next match was the rematch from Wrestlemania XX which pitted World Champion, Chris Benoit against Triple H and Shawn Michaels. This was very good. Benoit won when he made HBk tap out to the sharpshooter. The Canadian fans shouted 'You screwed Bret' at HBK and referee Earl Hebner.Overall not a bad PPV!Benjamin vs Flair - 6/10 Tag Team match - 4/10 Victoria vs Lita - 5/10 Kane vs Edge - 4.5/10 Christian/Trish vs Y2J - 7.5/10 Foley vs Orton -9/10 HBK vs HHH vs Benoit - 9.5/10

Backlash 2004 was a good pay-per-view, and I enjoyed it a lot. Lots of the matches were WrestleMania rematches, and good ones at that. However, some of the matches were downright dull. I think they could have made the Triple Threat longer instead of having eight matches.Match 1: Shelton Benjamin vs. Ric FlairRic Flair sought revenge in this match after Benjamin beat his good buddy Triple H two weeks in a row. This match could have been a very good one, but it was disappointing. It was all right for most of the time, but to have Benjamin win with a clothesline was pathetic. Ever since coming to RAW, I haven't seen Benjamin's old finisher, the Super Kick. He learned from Shawn Michaels, and he kicked well. Why they have him winning pay-per-view matches with clotheslines is something beyond my understanding.Match rating: 6/10Match 2: Jonathan Coachman vs. Tajiri Tajiri was very good on SmackDown!, and many say the move to RAW wasn't a good idea. I've been content with Tajiri's doings on RAW since he moved, but this match was a disappointment. RAW finally gets a good cruiserweight (and luckily, a VERY good one) and they waste him by making him lose to Coach. Besides that, he's been butchered by Batista and Triple H on RAW after Backlash. Match Rating: 5/10Match 3: Chris Jericho vs. Christian & Trish Stratus in a Handicap MatchThis was one of my favorite matches on the card. I'd been looking forward to a better show than WrestleMania XX, although I doubted I would get it. The match was excellent, and I was glad to see Trish get a few elbows stuck into her face. Jericho won, to my great joy, but the ending wasn't quite of the quality of the rest of the match. Jericho knocked down Trish, kicked Christian in the face and pinned him for the win. It happened in a blink of an eye, which was impressive, but it was still a bit anti-climactic. Christian should have tapped out.Match rating: 8/10Match 4: Victoria vs. Lita for the Women's ChampionshipI'm not too big on the women's division, and I don't think anybody is. The matches vary from okay to downright crap. Thankfully, Victoria and Lita can actually wrestle, and they proved it. The match was good to pass the time, but the ending I didn't like. A mere small package to win? Even worse, Molly Holly and Gail Kim attacked both the contestants after the match. There was no need for that.Match Rating: 6/10Match 5: Randy Orton vs. Cactus Jack in a No Holds Barred Match for the Intercontinental Championship.This was an extremely predictable match, as there was no way Foley was going to be Intercontinental Champion. Despite a tiny bit of disappointment, this was an awesome match. The blood wasn't faked, Orton went into those thumbtacks ... it was a blood bath, although a planned one. These hardcore wrestlers are something. I didn't like the part where Bischoff ruined the show by stopping Foley from setting the bat alight. What I wonder at is how Foley kicked out of a RKO.Match rating: 9/10Match 6: La Resistance vs. Hurricane & RoseyThe only reason this match took place was as a set-up for Eugene's first match. This could have happened on RAW or on HEAT. This was no better than a HEAT match, so why it was so high up on the pay-per-view card is a mystery. Hurricane wins after an interference by Eugene Dinsmore.Match rating: 4/10Match 7: Edge vs. KaneEdge's return was a big disappointment. I've been happy with him since Backlash on RAW, but to make him cheat to win was horrible. I know Edge has bent the rules in the past, but this I didn't like. Couldn't they have come up with something better for the return of a gem like Edge? They had fourteen months to think about it, but they didn't really use them. Kane lost, but what is the use of him being pinned twice on pay-per-view after a year and a half of never being pinned since his mask came off? I don't know what they're doing with him. But the rest of the match was quite enjoyable, and saved the show.Match Rating: 7/10Match 8: Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H in a Triple Threat Match for the World Heavyweight Championship. The biggest and best rematch in history, undoubtedly. I was hoping that Michaels would win, but knew that Benoit would never lose in Edmonton, especially after the Hart-Michaels incident. To make up for it, Michaels taps to the Sharpshooter. This was not much compared to WrestleMania XX, but it does a damn good job. I thought it was going to be a WrestleMania replay, but the script changed a good deal. It was an amazing match.Match rating: 9/10Backlash was awesome. It wasn't WrestleMania, but it was as good as a RAW pay-per-view could get. Thanks for the show, Vince.Backlash rating: 6.75/10