WWE Backlash 2008 Review

The battles after WrestleMania continue with a stacked Backlash card. Randy Orton defends his WWE Championship against three other superstars in the main event while Edge looks to regain his World Heavyweight Championship against The Undertaker.

Match 1: WWE United States Championship - MVP (c) vs. Matt Hardy
These two had one of the best feuds of 2007 and with Matt Hardy returning at WrestleMania to ruin MVP's chances of winning the Money in the Bank Ladder match, the beef needed to be settled here. Very nice action here between the two to start off the show as the chemistry they had from their feud the previous year continued to shine here. MVP misses a kick in the corner and falls right into a Twist of Fate as Hardy comes back from his injury with a bang and captures the title that had been so elusive to him. I cannot remember if they had a bigger blow off to their feud but this was certainly a cool way to have Hardy get the last laugh if it was. However, with the awesome feud they had in 2007, I kind of wish this match would have been inside a steel cage or something.
Winner: ***1/4
Rating: Matt Hardy

Match 2: ECW Championship - Kane (c) vs. Chavo Guerrero
For those who forgot, Mike Adamle is on the call for this one and as brutal as it was to listen to him, Tazz did a fantastic job and adjusting the drive and allowing me to really enjoy the action here. Chavo Guerrero gets his WrestleMania rematch and another shot at the ECW Championship. Chavo had his bodyguard in Bam Neely nearby for any help and despite the huge size differential, Chavo was fantastic in looking believable in stacking the odds against the champion. Once Chavo had an opening to hit a Frog Splash on Kane, Kane caught him with a Chokeslam to win the match and retain his title. That completely blew away any expectations I had coming into this, very well done!
Winner: Kane
Rating: ***1/4

Match 3: The Great Khali vs. The Big Show
Unfortunately for The Big Show, he comes off the biggest match of his career to go straight into a PPV match against The Great Khali in a pretty silly feud. Despite the low expectations and the crowd crapping all over this one, the match itself was actually pretty good considering how short it was. Show looks so much healthier than he did during his previous 2006 run and really made Khali look like a believable and respectable giant. Show would eventually go on to land a Chokeslam on Khali to seal the win and be able to move on to bigger things... no pun intended.
Winner: The Big Show
Rating: *1/4

Match 4: Batista vs. Shawn Michaels
This is the beginning of the greatest feud the WWE had ever seen between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho as Jericho served as the special guest referee in a match between Michaels and Batista. Batista was angry at Michaels for ending the career of Ric Flair and the buildup towards this match was nothing short of excellent. Their little feud gets lost in the scuffle because it gets overshadowed by the feud between Michaels and Jericho. Solid match here with a great amount of offense from the two. Awesome ending to the match where Michaels seemingly hurt his knee before hitting a Sweet Chin Music out of nowhere on Batista to seal the win. Of course, it would later be revealed that Michaels faked the injury and it led to an incredible roller coaster of emotions between him and Jericho. Such an underrated match with a great ending of Michaels basically playing chess against a guy who was playing checkers in Batista.
Winner: Shawn Michaels
Rating: ***3/4

Match 5: Beth Phoenix, Melina, Victoria, Jillian, Natalya & Layla vs. Mickie James, Maria, Michelle McCool, Ashley, Cherry & Kelly Kelly
The Divas from all brands jumble up together to form a cluster of a tag match before we head into the main event matches. Quick match here with all the Divas getting a move in at the end with Beth Phoenix being the only real standout of the match by suplexing Ashley to seal the win for her team. The former champion looks as dominant as ever.
Winners: Beth Phoenix, Melina, Victoria, Jillian, Natalya & Layla
Rating: *

Match 6: WWE World Heavyweight Championship - The Undertaker (c) vs. Edge
This is the forgotten rematch from their classic bout a month prior at WrestleMania XXIV. While the mystique and ambiance of the match wasn't as present like their first match, there was still definitely a lot of hype behind this rematch with Vickie Guerrero putting The Undertaker through a rigorous string of matches on SmackDown before facing Edge in the rematch. While it wasn't as dramatic as their first encounter, the action here was still solid as Edge is fantastic in his role in making himself a believable competitor against the bigger Undertaker. The story, however, with this match was much different than the first time around. The level of hate The Undertaker held against Edge was certainly at a higher level and they really built the match around that. Despite Edge getting help from his Edgeheads, Undertaker was able to lock Edge in his Hell's Gate submission to secure the win. After Edge tapped, Undertaker refused to let go of the submission and put Edge out of consciousness. Afterwards, Vickie Guerrero comes out and screams at the sight of blood pouring out of the mouth of Edge. This feud just went up another notch...

Winner: The Undertaker
Rating: ***1/2

Match 7: WWE Championship - Elimination - Randy Orton (c) vs. Triple H vs. JBL vs. John Cena
With Randy Orton retaining the WWE Championship at WrestleMania in a triple threat match, I guess the company didn't really have too much of a creative idea on what to do afterwards here. So... they just put those three guys back in the main event and added JBL to the equation. As predicted, JBL is eliminated first as John Cena takes him out of the fray. However, a punt to the head by Orton then puts Cena out of the chase for the gold. Pretty crazy how fast they killed Cena's momentum from his amazing Royal Rumble return. Finally, it came down to Randy Orton and Triple H. A match we have seen so many times and a match that we would continue to watch for so many more times after this. While the action between the two here was enjoyable, it didn't feel fresh at all and it almost became hard for me to invest my time into it considering I've seen these two go against each other so many times. Triple H is able to Pedigree Orton to score the win and win another WWE Championship. You really gotta question the decision to why exactly they had Orton score the win at WrestleMania. Was it to swerve us? It just seemed like Orton was destined for such a long title reign and this loss felt like such an underwhelming and abrupt ending.

Winner: Triple H
Rating: ***1/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
While this was certainly a solid follower to WrestleMania and another solid 2008 PPV, it also felt like a pretty lazy card put together with much of the card just really feeling like a lesser WrestleMania. Despite that, the matches that carried the show delivered and helped lead feuds into bigger things.

Rating: 7.75/10