Backlash 1999
April, 25th, 1999
Providence Rhode Island
Host: Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross

Opening Match: Mideon & The Acolytes vs. The Brood.

Brood was a part of the Ministry, but Christian chickened out and told Shamrock where Stephanie was. They start some basic brawling early on. Christian gets the hot tag and gets two off an Inverted DDT. The Brood hits a pair of moves. Christian gets a close near fall off a Tornado DDT on Bradshaw.Christian goes for 10 punches in a corner, but Bradshaw hits a stiff powerbomb. The brawl goes to the floor where Viscera attacks Christian from behind. Back in, JBL hits the closeline from hell. ONE-TWO-THREE @ 10:20. The brood showed potential here of being something great down the stretch. JBL was in an ass kicking mood for some reason tonight. Mideon really held this match down, though. * ¾

• The Undertaker gives the Ministry a pep talk.

Hardcore Title: Hardcore Holly vs. Al Snow.
They brawl around the ring. Holly hits Al Snow with a water jug and bust him wide open.They brawl back down where Snow uses some kung-fu with the hockey stick. Al sets up a table, but that allows Holly to recuperate and drill him with the hockey stick. Al pops up; then hits Hollywith a cookie sheet shot. They brawl to the back where Holly has a kitchen sink. Snow breaks the sink with the fire hose, which made Holly drop it. Outside the area, Snow gets tossed into a dumpster. ONE-TWO-NO. Snow hiptosses him onto a car below the production truck, but only gets two. They fight back to the ring, and Snow nails him with a pan. Al sets up for a table spot, but Holly gets up and nails him with the pan. Holly hits a super-plex through the table. The ref starts counting for no reason. Holly covers him at nine, but only gets a 2. Al Snow crawls over and hides head under him. They both get up. Al Snow nails Holly with head for the win @ 15:20. Some decent stuff, but the pace was way too plodding and slow at times. Some spots and parts of the match felt way to contrived; like when they do all these huge spot and end the match with Holly losing by getting hit with head. That would be like Neo killing Agent Smith with a toothpick after they dodged bullets in the Matrix. * ¾

• · Michael Cole gets a word with new Hardcore Champ, Al Snow. This all takes place in the bathroom.

Intercontinental Title: The Godfather (w/Hoes) vs. Goldust (w/Blue Meanie).

Meanie distracts the Godfather long enough for Goldust to jump him from behind. Meanie beats up Godfather outside. He sneaks Goldust some powder, but it backfires and gets knocked into Goldust face. Meanie gets involved, but Goldust can’t see so he attackes Meanie. The Ho Train followed by the DVD @ 5:22. A typical non-believable, contrived midcard 1999 match; Russo loved these. The hoes were more over than anyone in the ring. *

#1 Contender’s Match: The New Age Outlaws vs. Jeff Jarrett & Owen Hart (w/Debra.)

I really feel bad for Owen Hart at this time. With all the stuff going on with his brother, and the way WWE booked him in the Attitude Era. Ugh. He was so much better than the way they treated him, and steps and steps better than the sub-par midcard talent they had. Owen would have blended in nicely and been able to show off some of the good stuff he was capable of if he was around for one more year. Road Dog dodges a Jarrett splash on the ropes and back-slides him for two. Owen nails Road Dog with a leg lariat. Jarrett and Road Dogg collide airborne. Billy gets the hot tag and cleans some house; then gets a powerbomb on Jarrett, but only gets two. Debra gets up on the apron. Owen goes for the Sharpshooter, but Billy instead hits the Fameasser for the win @ 10:34. Solid formula tag match with a good finish. Too bad we didn’t see much of those in this era. ** 1/4

Boiler Room Brawl: The Big Show vs. Mankind.

This is Mankind getting payback on Big Show from WM. Both guys are babyfaces in the match. Big show walks into the boiler room, and looks massive. Mankind dominates early on, but Big Show won’t fall. Show puts Mick in the shopping cart and wheels him into equipment stuff. Mankind turns and drills a glass plate over Show’s head that cuts Show open. Mankind gets a ladder and tries to get something on top of the roof. Show grabs him and chokeslams him through some nearby tables with glass on them.Foley’s hand his bleeding; hard way I assume. Show slams him on a cart; then wheels him into a pile of medal pieces. Mankind knocks off the faucet to one of the pipes that shoots steam into Show’s face. Show walks away selling the steam. Mankind throws Big Show into pipes. Mankind gets out of the boiler room at @ 7:34. Instantly after the match, Test and Big Bossman attack Mankind. Show makes the save and beats up both of them. Bossman runs away, and leaves Test with Mankind. Mankind pulls out Mr. Socko, and applies it on Test. A pretty neat, well thought out brawl that doesn’t get lost in time. Everything was done nicely, and made sense. Foley showed the reason why he is the hardcore legend and Big Show looked good, also. The finish could have been a better, but then if Big Show got too hurt than it would have been unrealistic for him to make the save. ***

Triple H (w/Chyna) vs. X-Pac.

HHH has his old music and the old paints. This rivalry started at WM when HHH and Chyna reunited at WM, but double crossed X-Pac. Since we all know Russo uses Wrestlemania to build up the smaller shows *sigh*. HHH dominates most of the match. X-Pac by accident hits the referee with a dropkick, so there’s no one to count when he hits the X-Factor. Chyna sneaks in, and hits X-Pac with a reverse DDT; then puts Hunter on top of X-Pac. Kane comes out to get revenge on Chyna. Kane hits a chokeslam on HHH and Chyna. He puts them both in the corners. X-Pac pops up and hits the Broncobuster on Helmsley, and Chyna, but as he is hitting the Broncobuster on Chyna, HHH recovers and nails the pedigree @ 21:20 Wow that was a really, really, really long. The match would have been okay if it was cut into half, but they had a 10 minute match and dragged it out to 20 minutes. HHH dominated way too much of this match and X-Pac didn’t look credible at all. This match gets tons of praise, but I couldn’t get too much into this. I will go ** ½ more so for the quantity than quality.

The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Ken Shamrock.

Undertaker had been stalking the McMahons for no reasons at this. Shamrock was Vince’s helper in this story line.Shamrock goes after Taker’s leg early. He stomps Taker’s leg on the ringsteps, trying to break it.  Shamrock works over Undertaker, but ‘Taker hits a backbreaker with the same leg that Shamrock worked over the whole match. Taker hits a legdrop, but Shamrock grabs the leg and counters into a leglock. Crowd is dead silent. Shamrock nails an elbow, and then a flying knee but runs into a big boot. ONE-TWO-THRE-No. Earl stops the pinfall because Shamrock never kicks out.Undertaker puts Shamrock on his shoulders, but Shamrock counters into an ankle lock.  Bradshaw wants to play some baseball, so he brings a bat with him. Shamrock releases the hold and tries to hit him. That allows Taker to retaliate and pick Shamrock up for the chokeslam. Shamrock rolls into a cross armlock but lets go of the move and goes after Paul Bearer. Shamrock attempts to pick up the Undertaker, but Taker counters into a Tombstone for the win @ 18:47. At this time, Undertaker didn’t have that flax MMA wrestling style that Shamrock was using. So, these two just didn’t click in the ring. There was some good strategy on Shamrock’s behalf of trying to eliminate one of Undertaker’s legs, but the leg work became pointless because Undertaker did everything he would have done on two strong legs. I guess that is just his deadman powers. This match also had way too much interference; I didn’t understand why they wanted to protect Shamrock so much against Undertaker. It wasn’t like they had something big planed for Shammy down the road. He was just a glorified midcarder, and stayed one as one until he left WWF. These two styles never meshed in 1999, but it would be a “dream match” if we ever got to see it in 2007 or so. *

• Vince McMahon kisses Stephanie and puts her in a limo surrounded by guards to keep her safe. Can we please have some days of our lives playing in the back round?

WWF Heavyweight Title: Steve Austin vs. The Rock; Shane McMahon is the special referee. (No holds barred)

The story in Austin wanted his old belt back. Rock threw Austin off the bridge with the belt. But Rock kept the title and fooled us all. Vince was in a war with Undertaker, so Shane was running Corporation. So, Shane wants to screw Austin out of the title by being the ref. He also adds the stipulation of if Austin touches him, Austin will be dq. Austin runs to the ring, and they start going at it. Austin starts to get the upper hand, but Shane pulls him off. They brawl up to the entertance way, and uses objects to throw them into. Back to the other side, Rock gives Austin a Rock Bottom through the Spanish announce table. He stars doing some commentary. Rock grabs the cameraman’s camera, and starts filming Austin. Rock shows the crowd on the camera, but when he turns around—Austin is flipping him off, and then hits a Stunner. Awesome spot, just awesome. In the ring, Rock hits the Rock Bottom, but he can’t cover. Shane puts Rock on top of Austin. ONE-TWO-THRE-NO! Rock picks Austin up and Shane goes to clock him with the belt. Austin ducks and Rock oversells it to death. Austin hits the Stunner, but Shane refuses to count. Shane gives Austin the finger and runs away. Austin goes after Shane, and here comes Vince with Earl Hebner and the Smoking Skull Belt. Shane talks some trash to his daddy, and gets nailed by the title from Vince. Rock hits Austin with the other belt. ONE-TWO-THRE-NO! Vince almost has a heart attack from that near fall. Austin gets back up; kick to the gut, and then a Stunner. Rock doesn’t fall, so Austin nails him with the belt. ONE-TWO-THREE. Austin retains @ 17:10. Unlike others, I find Austin-Rock matches overrated at times, but I actually find this match pretty underrated. It had great intensity, non stop action, good drama, and great brawling. I would say this is their second best match together and just slightly behind the WM-17 match. This is when Russo booking works at its best. The interference, biased ref, and other shenanigans added more drama into the match and most importantly made sense. Austin is one of my favorite wrestlers, but I love how people complain that Cena overcomes the odds all the time yet they never complain about Austin, though. Anyways, it was a great match. *** ¾

• Outside at the limo, the Ministry comes out and approaches the limo. The security guards tell the driver to take off.  Stephanie is upset that the driver forgot about her Dad. But little does she know the driver is the Undertaker. Undertaker asks her the famous quote; “Where to, Stephanie.” As Vince McMahon is celebrating not aware of what is happening.

Going Home: Much like most things in WWF 1999, this was a mix-bag. The show had its ups and had its downs. The wrestling for the most part was good, but the booking in some aspects was terrible. The matches that needed more time didn’t get enough—and the matches that didn’t need a lot of time got tons of time. It is really mind-boggling to me that they actually thought it was a good idea to invest more time into X-Pac-HHH and Undertaker-Shamrock rather than the mainevent. I will go ahead and give this show a mild recommendation, but be sure to try and skip Undertaker- Shamrock because it will make you want to crave your eyes out. Other than that most of the stuff is watchable for the most part.

Thumbs in the Middle.