Mike Reviews WWF Backlash 2002

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Seeing as we reviewed WrestleMania X8 a month ago, I thought I’d stick with WWF/E shows from 2002 for a bit, at least until I reached the point where I didn’t want to suffer through them anymore. This month we’ve got the follow-up to Mania X8 in the form of Backlash 2002, where the big match is Triple H defending his newly won WWF Title against Hulk Hogan.

Elsewhere on the Backlash card we’ve got Kurt Angle and Edge doing battle, whilst The Undertaker and Stone Cold square up to decide which one of them will contend for the belt at the May pay per view. Oh, and also we’ve got Scott Hall Vs Bradshaw, and if you can’t get excited for that then you can’t get excited for anything!

You can view the full card for Backlash 2002 by clicking the link below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2290&page=3

Backlash 2002 is emanating from Kansas City, Missouri on the 21st of April 2002

Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

We get an excellent opening video package, looking at how important the big belt is to the guys in the Main Event. Sadly we then get Creed ruining it for the opening pyro display (I should leave Creed alone, they’ve had enough stick for the past 20 years).

Opening Match
WWF Cruiserweight Title
Champ: “The BK Bomber” Billy Kidman Vs “The Japanese Buzzsaw” Yoshihiro Tajiri w/ Torrie Wilson

Tajiri was doing the whole bullying boyfriend act with Wilson, constantly yelling at her and making her wear attire that she didn’t like etc. Kidman, despite being the Champ, was pretty nondescript at the time, and he even lamented on the go-home Smackdown episode that nobody really knew who he was. Kidman is pretty over with the crowd here, and he gets a nice shine on Tajiri in the early stages with things like arm drags and head scissors. It’s a good mixture of Cruiserweight action and traditional babyface offence, and it works well for the Champ until Tajiri lures Kidman to the floor and clocks him with a cheap shot.

Tajiri does strikes and Heel antics during the heat, and the crowd stays with Kidman during it whilst Tajiri looks good on offence. Tajiri even works in a “SHHAAAT AAAAPPPP” at one stage, which is classic Heel behaviour and always a treat to witness. If he adds in a “how about your *enter babyface name* now huh?!” to it then he’ll get a B+ grade for his Heeling. Kidman sells well during the heat and makes the occasional attempt to fight back, but Tajiri always manages to cut him off and go back to working heat. Despite being booed for most of the match, Tajiri does get a pop for the Tarantula, which shows that the WWF had done a decent job at getting his trademark spots over.

Speaking of trademark Tajiri spots; the challenger goes for the handspring back elbow at one stage, but Kidman counters it with a nice dropkick in a smooth sequence, but Tajiri keeps managing to regain control. Kidman manages to kick out of a big Tajiri kick, and then Tajiri makes the cardinal mistake of going for a Powerbomb, which leads to Kidman getting the expected counter. However, when Kidman tries to follow up with the Shooting Star press, Tajiri is able to move and gets another kick for two, as the crowd is openly chanting for “Kidman”. It’s nice to see a Crusierweight match in 2002 get such a good crowd reaction. Both wrestlers have chances to win it, with the near falls getting some good reactions, but Tajiri eventually spits some red mist in Kidman’s eyes and that’s enough for the three count. I’m guessing the redness of the mist made the ref think it was blood, and thus there’s no DQ for it?

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: TAJIRI
RATING: ***1/2

Tajiri cuts an angry Japanese promo following that and then heads to the back with Wilson.

Bradshaw and Faarooq reunite following the brand split, but Bradshaw has to go and wrestle Scott Hall so their reunion is cut short.

Match Two
nWo Vs WWF
Scott Hall w/ X-Pac Vs Bradshaw w/ Faarooq

The APA had been broken up in the draft, with this being the first proper solo Bradshaw push since 1998. Both Hall and Bradshaw perform the Blockbuster/Fall Away/S.O.S Slam of course, so I’m sure we’ll see that here somewhere. The nWo apparently destroyed The APA’s office, so Bradshaw is looking for payback here. X-Pac is wearing Kane’s mask, which the nWo apparently stole, as they were trying to heat the group up again but that was going to be difficult due to Scott Hall getting jobbed at Mania by Stone Cold and Hollywood Hogan deciding to leave the group to go babyface. Faarooq decides to back Bradshaw up here, seeing as the brand split rules don’t apply on a pay per view.

Faarooq’s entrance gets a pretty healthy pop actually, showing that The APA was a pretty over act during their heyday. Sadly neither of them could translate that tag overness into a singles babyface run, with Bradshaw eventually having to go Heel in 2004 in order to get anywhere on that front. Bradshaw clobbers Hall in the early going for the babyface shine, with it looking and sounding as snug as you’d expect from Justin Hawk here on a pay per view. Hall stooges around a lot, and it looks a little bit silly but it isn’t terrible. Considering that Hall didn’t really have much in the way of good matches during this brief WWF run, he looks reasonably competent here, both when it comes to offence and defence.

Hall eventually works a bit of heat on Bradshaw, and Bradshaw does an okay job selling it all. The crowd even chants “APA” during the heat in hopes of getting Bradshaw to fight back, so they are seemingly into this match. Bradshaw eventually makes the comeback with some punches, which leads to Hall stumbling around and taking some sloppy bumps, which is the first time that’s really happened in this one thus far. Bradshaw seemingly has it won with the Clothesline From Heck, but X-Pac puts Hall’s foot on the bottom rope to break the count. Faarooq takes care of X-Pac, but both Bradshaw and the referee are distracted, meaning that Hall can clock Bradshaw right in his FTSE 100 for the three count.

WINNER: SCOTT HALL
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This wasn’t terrible, although it fell apart a bit in the latter stages as Hall seemed to tire and Bradshaw didn’t really have much in the way of big or exciting offence to make his babyface comeback work

Smackdown Owner Vince McMahon Jr and Raw Owner Ric Flair have a conversation backstage, where Vince says that he thinks Flair is starting to see how difficult it is to be an owner. This is probably a rant Vince has given in private to lackeys many a time.

Trish Stratus enters for the next match, but before it can get started she gets jumped by Molly Holly, who thinks that Stratus is too impure to be the Champion, not unlike Holly herself. What I will say is that it’s very annoying how you have to play the lame My Rise mode to unlock Molly Holly on WWE 2K23 game, as I find that mode tedious and I’d like to just be able to unlock her without having to play it. I don’t think we were too far away from them doing the lame “Molly has a big bum, so she’s not attractive” angle, which was stupid on two counts because Molly Holly most certainly is attractive and a big bum isn’t a bug, it’s a feature!

Match Three
WWF Women’s Title
Champ: Jazz Vs Trish Stratus

So Stratus is sufficiently weakened now ahead of this contest, although she does keep trying to fight back. We’ve essentially skipped the shine to go straight to the heat segment with that Holly beat down, which works as a storytelling device I think, although the women weren’t getting a lot of time as it stood already so it might have been better to see them try this in a different match and just let these two have some decent time for a match. Stratus does eventually manage to make a comeback, and she looks good on offence actually, with Jazz doing a solid job of bumping and feeding for everything. Jazz proves to be too much though and locks Stratus in a Step-over Toe-hold Face-lock for the submission win, although you are left with questions as to whether the result might have been different had Molly Holly not attacked Stratus.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: JAZZ
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This was a little on the short side, but it had good energy to it and these two usually worked well together as opponents. The pre-match attack gave Stratus an out for losing whilst also allowing Jazz to get a semi-clean win. Every Heel win tonight has been tainted in some manner or another, but this was the cleanest one yet

Jazz refuses to give a post-match interview.

We get clips from Raw, where Paul Heyman stole one of Lita’s thongs and then tried to get her to play nice in exchange for Brock Lesnar not killing Matt Hardy. Lita decides to slap Heyman in the mush for that, which is very much deserved, and Lesnar responds by giving Matt an F-5 onto the stage area later on in the show.

Paul Heyman hypes up Brock Lesnar’s back ahead of the next match. Lesnar mostly starred off screen looking crazy, like he was The Missing Link or something.

Match Four
“The Next Big Thing” Brock Lesnar w/ Paul Heyman Vs Jeff Hardy w/ Lita

Lesnar had stormed onto the scene and had seemingly set his sights on destroying The Hardyz. This had led to Jeff hitting one of the stiffest chair shots of all-time as a way of payback, in a spot you wouldn’t see today. The story of this match is pretty straightforward, in that Jeff tries to use his speed to keep Lesnar on the backfoot, and he has some mild joy with it, but whenever Lesnar gets hold of Jeff he murders him with a brutal combination of power and wrestling acumen. I know some thought that Jeff perhaps got a little bit too much offence back in the day, but I think he gets enough in order to keep the match interesting but not so much as to take away from Lesnar’s impressiveness. Lesnar eventually splatters Jeff with a trio of Powerbombs and referee Teddy Long decides to just stop the contest for Jeff’s safety.

WINNER BY REFEREE STOPPAGE: BROCK LESNAR
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was an effective way of making Lesnar look like a big scary man, with Jeff being an excellent tackle dummy who got in just enough offence that the match wasn’t a squash, but the overall impression you were left with was that Lesnar was a beast who was not to be trifled with

In a nice touch; following the match Long goes to raise Lesnar’s hand, but Heyman calmly stops him and does it himself, but it doesn’t come across as Heyman coming across as a jerk but more him being like “It’s okay Teddy, I’ll do it, because he won’t kill ME for touching him, but YOU might be a different story”. Stuff like that was why Lesnar and Heyman made such a good partnership.

Forceable Entry is a CD you can buy. I wouldn’t bother, unless you want to hear uncut versions of the entrance songs, which kind of defeats the purpose of getting an entrance theme CD if you ask me.

We get a video package for the next match.

Match Five
“The American Hero” Kurt Angle Vs Edge

Angle and Edge used to be buddies, but now they aren’t getting along. Edge made fun of Angle on Smackdown by getting Angle to hold up some pictures that had insults directed to Angle on them, and now Angle is good and mad. There is some great action in this one, with Edge getting the big babyface shine in the early going before clotheslining Angle from inside the ring to the floor. The fight heads to the floor following that, with Angle catching Edge with a German Suplex back inside the ring for the cut off. I like how Angle didn’t really need to cheat to get the heat there, because he’s a former WWF Champ and Edge hasn’t reached that level yet, so it’s understandable that Angle could cut someone like Edge off without cheating due to how good a wrestler he is.

Not every Heel wrestler has to be a coward who cheats, because otherwise every match will feel the same. Once in a while in the right situation, a Heel can just cut the Face off with a normal move, and this is one of those situations. Angle stays on top of Edge with suplexes and whatnot before going to a chin lock so that he crowd has a chance to chant for Edge to fight back, which they indeed do. The women in the crowd are clearly VERY into Edge, which isn’t a surprise as he’s a very handsome chap. Edge eventually makes the comeback, and he even dishes out some of his own suplexes to Angle in a nice spot, before going to the classics with a big back body drop. Angle takes good bumps for all of this, as the action here continues to be top notch.

As we head into the closing stretch, the intensity of the contest continues to grow, with both wrestlers continuing to throw each other around with reckless abandon. Angle of course takes an insane All Japan styled German Suplex bump onto the top of his head at one stage, because Kurt Angle, and that leads to Edge diving off the top rope to the floor when Angle heads out there for a breather. We get some near falls back inside the ring following that, with Edge even kicking out of the Olympic Slam at one stage. Angle tries to get the win with the Ankle Lock following that, but Edge counters to a roll-up for two in a great near fall that a lot of the crowd was buying. Angle tries to use a chair following that, as he can no longer tolerate Edge’s insolence, but the chair ends up bouncing back into his face in order to give Edge another two count in a fantastic near fall. Fans are actually booing that kick out because they wanted Edge to win so much. Edge tries to end it with the Spear following that, but Angle kicks Edge in the face and the Olympic Slam wins it straight after in a great finish.

WINNER: KURT ANGLE
RATING: ****1/2

Thoughts: This was an absolutely fantastic match, with great wrestling and some truly excellent near falls at the end. They made the crowd really WANT to see Edge win there, but then Angle JUST managed to snatch it at the end, but in a way that made you want to see the match again. Angle gets a clean win, but Edge gains something in defeat and the feud can keep raging on. Thumbs way up!

Tazz is at WWF New York asking goobers who they think will win the Main Event.

Chris Jericho joins us to complain about not being in the WWF Title picture. Following the rant he says he’ll leave, and I’m sure that’s definitely the last we’ll see of him tonight. Yup, that’s it for Jericho this evening…

Undertaker tries to intimidate Ric Flair backstage, but it doesn’t seem to work.

Match Six
WWF Intercontinental Title
Champ: “Mr Pay Per View” Rob Van Dam Vs “Latino Heat” Eddy Guerrero

Eddy had recently returned to the WWF and had set his sights on RVD’s newly won IC Title. Both of these wrestlers of course use the Frogsplash, so both will be looking to deliver it for the victory. Eddy being just fresh back in the promotion suggested that he needed a solid push from the get go in order to establish him as a serious star on this go around, but RVD had only just won the belt back at Mania, so it seemed very early to switch it here, so the result could really go either way. RVD shines on Eddy to start, with Eddy taking some very nice bumps for everything, including one for a Monkey Toss out of the corner where it feels like Eddy actually hangs in the air at one stage.

The babyface shine actually goes on for longer than I remembered it doing, as I’ve always thought of this match as being Eddy essentially squashing RVD with the Champ not getting much in the way of offence, but they’ve actually given RVD a decent amount of offence in the early going, so it’s not quite as one sided as I remember it being. Eddy eventually manages to get his knees up on the Rolling Thunder and starts working RVD over, with RVD getting folded up in order to make Eddy’s stuff look good whilst Eddy shows off some impressive intensity and viciousness. It’s probably the closest we’ve got to seeing full-on violent Rudo Eddy from WCW in a WWF ring up to this point, and it does an effective job of making Eddy look like a dangerous grappler that should be treated with respect.

One of the problems with the match though is that RVD doesn’t really get much of a comeback, as Eddy just keeps battering him and eventually wins the belt, although they do give RVD a bit of an out by having Eddy hit a Neck Breaker on the IC belt at one stage. Still though, you get the feeling that Eddy would have won without it anyway, and he did that move just to be a jerk. It’s not as bad a one sided kicking as I remembered it being, but it’s still a pretty solid beat down from Eddy that made RVD look kind of weak and I think the WWF felt that too as they gave RVD a lot more offence in the rematch on the next pay per view, which helped with getting RVD back on track without derailing the Eddy push too much.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: EDDY GUERRERO
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: The wrestling was decent here, but the match didn’t do a lot for me at the time and it still doesn’t really. I think the idea of giving the babyface a decent length shine leading into the Heel working a long heat segment and then just winning isn’t the worst way to structure a match, and it did an effective job of showing that Eddy was a higher level as a competitor in comparison to his previous WWF run. However, I think they ended up leaning a bit too much into making Eddy look good to the point that it actively started making RVD look bad. I think going with a more traditional comeback for RVD followed by Eddy using the belt to win would have still given Eddy some steam without derailing RVD’s own momentum so much. Again, you get a sense that the WWF kind of knew that they’d gone a bit too far here, as RVD looked a lot stronger in his future matches with Eddy, which helped raise him back up without making Eddy look weak, which is really what you would have liked to see in this one

We get a video package for the next match.

Match Seven
#1 Contender Status to the WWF Undisputed Title
Guest Referee: Raw Owner Ric Flair
“Booger Red” The Undertaker Vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

Undertaker had defeated Ric Flair at WrestleMania X8 and had kept taunting him about it, so Flair had deliberately drafted Undertaker to Raw so that he could mess with him. Flair had made the mistake of trying to be chummy with Austin though, and there isn’t an Authority Figure in wrestling that Ol’ Stone Cold hasn’t Stunnered at some point. Thus, both of the wrestlers in this match don’t really like Flair, but he’s going to do his best to ref this one fairly. Scott Keith famously HATED this match back in 2002, and I don’t remember enjoying it that much back in the day myself either, but who knows, maybe it’s aged gracefully? The early exchanges actually aren’t that bad, with Austin actually busting out some arm drags and drop toe holds. I’m not sure anyone expected Undertaker and Stone Cold to work holds on the mat here, so the fact they are is making this one feel a bit different from their usual match at least.

The crowd is actually pretty into it at the start as well, with Austin getting good pops for his offence and taunts. Taker replies by going Old School, but Austin kicks out at two and the goes to the Thesz Press, as this is becoming more like the brawl I expected it to be when this match first started. I think what is helping this match for me is that these two haven’t had a match together for other two decades now, whereas in 2002 they’d wrestled each other numerous times from 1997 onwards and most fans were straight up sick of seeing it by this point. Removed from having these guys wrestle one another all of the time, I can appreciate this one a bit more for being a solid, if not especially thrilling, match between two experienced pros. The wrestling portion at the start was decent, and the brawling that follows is what you would expect with these two, as they fight around ringside and then into the crowd, whilst Flair shows some leniency to both of them.

Eventually Austin tries for a piledriver outside the ring, but Taker back body drops out of that and then takes over back inside the ring whilst Scott Hall and X-Pac come down to watch the match. The match does get a bit dull during the heat segment, as Taker slowly works over Austin’s leg with strikes and holds. Austin’s selling is fine and Taker’s stuff mostly looks like it would hurt, but it goes on for too long and after a certain point it just feels like they are laying around not doing much. Now, lying around not doing much is a perfectly acceptable thing to do in a wrestling match provided it doesn’t FEEL like you’re lying around not doing much, but here it really does feel like nothing is happening and it makes the match grind to a bit of a halt as a result. It’s actually kind of a shame, as up to this part of the match I was thinking like I could say that the match isn’t that bad and it’s aged better than I remembered, but this heat segment in the ring has killed any of the momentum and the fans in the crowd have tuned out a bit as well.

Taker keeps bringing the boring with more rest holds, now focusing on the head and neck after previously targeting the leg area, with Austin occasionally trying to fight back in hopes of waking the crowd up. There is a somewhat clever spot for the double down, where Taker removes a turnbuckle pad but ends up getting whipped into it, which leads to Austin having a chance to recover and make the comeback with punches whilst the crowd yells “WHAT” whilst he does so. Hey, I’m just glad the crowd is making noise again after the long nap they just had. Austin ends up accidentally whipping Taker into Flair, which means there is no ref when Austin gets the Stunner on Taker right after. I know that this is to give Austin a reason to be mad with Flair, but none of that was Flair’s fault. Taker clocks Austin right in the Williams’ whilst Flair is recovering, and the follow-up Choke Slam gets a two.

Undertaker tries to introduce a chair following that, but Flair dis-arms him, and that allows Austin to get revenge on Taker by clocking him right in the Calloway’s whilst Flair puts the chair away. This hasn’t been great since the double down, but the match has picked up a little bit, which is something at least. Flair takes ANOTHER bump, as this is starting to get a bit silly, and that leads to Taker clocking Austin with the chair for two. That was a very good near fall at least, with the crowd popping big for the kick out. Taker tries to put Austin away with a Dragon Sleeper following that, but Austin fights his way out and goes to his own version, which doesn’t really get the reaction you’d want as the move doesn’t seem to be that over with the crowd. Taker fights out of that and tries the chair again, but Austin dodges it this time and stomps a mud-hole in Taker before trying the chair himself. Flair won’t allow that, and Austin ends up getting the chair kicked in his face for three, although Austin did have his foot on the rope and Flair missed it.

WINNER: THE UNDERTAKER
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: This was hovering around the **+ mark following the first half of the match, but the heat segment went on for what felt like forever and that really dragged the match down, as did the overkill hi-jinx with Flair taking all of those bumps. It wasn’t an absolutely terrible match, but it went on for too long and the heat segment just killed it dead in the middle, with the finishing stretch never really being able to recover it. I’ve seen worse, but I’ve certainly seen better also. I do like how Flair was a fair ref through pretty much the entire match, but that honest mistake at the end gives Austin a reason to be angry and also plant a seed as to whether we think Flair knew or not

Austin gives Taker a Stunner following the match to get his heat back.

Flair sees the replay of the finish backstage and he is despondent that he missed the foot on the rope, or at least he SEEMS to be furious at any rate.

Death Slot
WWF Tag Team Titles
Champs: William and Charles (Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo) w/ Rico Costatino Vs Al Snow and Maven Huffman

Pour one out for these five sods. Billy and Chuck had been a pretty bland choice as Champion’s, doing the gay-baiting gimmick of them supposedly being MORE than just tag team partners, with the effeminate stylist Rico just adding to that whole oeuvre. Snow and Maven are mentor and protege respectively, with Maven winning the first season of Tough Enough that Snow was a judge on, thus leading to them making a natural pair. I don’t think Maven ever ended up playing Larry Z to Snow’s Bruno though, with that more being the role intended for Christopher Nowinski.

Snow and Maven get a decent pop for their entrance, but then the match kind of dies once the actual wrestling starts. It’s a decent enough quick tag match that you’d be happy to see on an episode of Sunday Night HeAT, but by this stage I think we need to be moving onto the Main Event. Snow and Maven both spend sections of the bout getting worked over, with Snow getting the first luke warm tag and Maven getting the second one. Rico’s botched interference almost leads to the challengers picking up the win, with Maven coming off the top rope with a cross body onto Billy for two in a near fall some of the crowd bit on. Chuck comes in with a cheap shot to Maven whilst Snow is distracted by Rico though and that’s enough for the Champs to retain.

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: BILLY & CHUCK
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was fine, but it’s beyond time for the Main Event now. I’m not sure why the tag belts were so often used in the death slot in the first half of 2002, but there you go

We get a video package for the Main Event.

Main Event
WWF Undisputed Title
Champ: “The Game” Triple H Vs Hollywood Hulk Hogan

Hogan had stolen the show with The Rock at WrestleMania X-8, overshadowing Triple H’s Title win in the process, and his career was in the midst of an Indian summer. Seeing as Hogan was enjoying popularity that he hadn’t had in years thanks to the match with Rock, the WWF decided to roll the dice on him and put him in a pay per view Main Event to see if the nostalgia pops Hogan was enjoying would juice the Backlash buy rate. Going in most expected Triple H to win, including Hogan himself if you read his book (Although that book isn’t particularly known for being the most honest tome in the history of wrestling) with the match being a chance for new Champ Triple H to add another big name to the list of people he’d beaten in his career.

Annoyingly Hogan was using Voodoo Chile as his entrance music during this period, which means we have to listen to a fake dubbed version of it so that Jimmy Hendrix’s family can’t demand any money. This means that we can’t hear the real crowd reactions, which strips away a good part of the appeal that comes with watching Hogan do his thing. That’s the only reason I hate the dubbing to be honest. If they could find a way to dub the music but keep the real crowd reactions intact then I’d have no issue with it, but sadly I don’t think such a thing is possible. Maybe one day eh?

There’s an excellent camera angle as Triple H does his water spit routine and you see Hogan watching on in the background primed and ready to go, which Jerry Lawler rightly gives credit to on commentary. Man, that shot was fantastic. They actually establish that Triple H is stronger in the early going, as Hogan can’t do his usual shove spot with him at first before finally getting it on the third attempt for a big pop from the crowd. That was a simple spot done well that showed that Hogan is outmatched for the most part but he still has a chance of winning.

We get the Mania VI test of strength spot, with Triple H playing Ultimate Warrior and Hogan playing…err…Hogan, but Triple H decides to transition to an overhead wrist lock when it looks like he’s about to lose, which actually leads to some in the crowd appreciating his savvy and chanting for him. This has all been worked very smartly thus far, and they’ve managed to keep the crowd invested as a result. Triple H finally decides he’s had enough of this wrestling lark and starts throwing punches, which leads to Hogan fighting back with some punches and chops of his own.

Hogan controls things for a bit, even beating Triple H up outside the ring for a bit and giving him a suplex out there. Hogan actually gets a Diamond Cutter of all things back inside for two, but Triple H goes to the knee to put a stop to his momentum to audible boo’s from the crowd. Triple H stays on the leg, which has essentially turned him Heel with the crowd, and methodically works the appendage over. I’ve just realised that Triple H is pretty much playing the Flair role in a Flair Vs Hogan match here, as Hogan got to clobber him for a while until he went after the leg to put a stop to it. That’s most of the Flair Vs Hogan matches in a nutshell.

Triple H busts out the Figure Four to complete the tribute, even grabbing the ropes for that classic Flair touch. Hogan sells the hold well and is eventually able to turn it over, thus causing Triple H to break it and try a sleeper instead. The crowd gets behind Hogan and he feeds off the energy to fight his way back up and deliver a back suplex for a double down. Hogan throws the punches once he gets back up and gets the Axe Bomber clothesline before dropping the leg for what would appear to be the three count, but Chris Jericho pulls out the ref before he can count and then clocks Hogan with a chair for good measure, bitter that Hogan got the Title shot instead of him.

Triple H doesn’t like Jericho interfering in his match however and beats him up for the millionth time before removing him from the ring. However, when he goes back to Hogan he finds that Hogan is Hulking Up, and we get the full routine with the big boot. This time Triple H is able to dodge the leg drop though and gets the Pedigree, which is Undertaker’s cue to run down and attack the referee this time. Taker comes in and hits Triple H with a chair and goes to drape Hogan over, but Hogan fights him off and sends him outside, only to then drop the leg and win the match anyway.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: HOLLYWOOD HULK HOGAN
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: I liked that far more than I remembered, although the screwiness with the finish left a bit of a sour taste. Undertaker was the new #1 contender and clearly didn’t want to face Triple H for whatever reason, hence why he screwed him. Hogan refusing the pin from the Taker chair shot, only to then just leg drop Triple H and beat him anyway didn’t really work and I’m not sure what they were really going for with that to be honest. The match itself was worked well for the most part, and they never lost the crowd. I actually liked the match structure quite a bit and I was never bored watching it either. It’s not as good as the match with Rock as it doesn’t have the bigger Toronto crowd contributing to the overall atmosphere, but in general it was a decent match with a responsive crowd and a lousy finish.

Triple H has every right to be angry following that nonsense, especially as Hogan kind of screwed him, but he offers a handshake anyway to keep himself a babyface for the time being. Triple H would eventually get his win back of course, as he pinned Hogan on an episode of Smackdown after Hogan lost the belt. Hogan’s run on top didn’t last that long and it ended up being a bit of disaster ratings wise, but the crowd here dug him at least.

In Conclusion

Backlash 2002 is a decent show for the most part, with the Cruiserweight Title and Angle/Edge being the notable highlights. I seem to be alone in liking the Main Event as much as I do, but I thought it was decent when you consider Hogan’s limitations and the crowd certainly responded to it. Taker Vs Austin was long and dull, but even then it wasn’t actively terrible. Even Hall Vs Bradshaw wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Probably the only match on Backlash that I don’t like as much as others is Eddy Vs RVD, but that could very much just be down to me and you might enjoy it if you watch it. The WWF/E usually had at least a couple of matches that were good on each pay per view of 2002, and Backlash is no exception. I’m not massively nostalgic about 2002, but I generally like it more than some of the years that followed it, as the WWF had a good mixture of star power and in-ring ability going on, they just didn’t always know how best to present it.

Recommended Show!