DaveyBoy's Wrestling Menu - Backlash Review, King Of The Ring + RVD vs JBL!?!?!?
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, May 3, 2006 at 8:59 AM EST






THE WRESTLING MENU #174

Welcome one and all to the 174th edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.

Thank-you to everyone for making my column from last week such a success. It’s good to get back over the 10,000 hit mark (or 11,000 in this case) & judging by feedback, it seemed to go over very well. To show my appreciation, the streak continues, as I have now posted at least one column per week for 7 straight months! How long can I keep it up!?!?!?

Over the past couple of weeks, practically all of my feedback has been concerning 5 topics. I will write about 2 of those topics (King Of The Ring tournament & the ECW pay-per-view main event) today. Just quickly listing & commenting on the other 3 topics, they are:

- Undertaker’s retirement year & WrestleMania conqueror: Most readers agreed that ‘Taker still has a good 4 or 5 years left in him, while Kurt Angle was the most popular choice to defeat him. Not surprisingly, quite a few readers felt that he would never lose at the big dance.

- DeGeneration X reformation: I seriously don’t have too much of an opinion on this. If anything, I just believe the booking would have to be perfect for this to work successfully & then there is the major problem of what HBK will & won’t do. I can’t realistically see this working in the medium to long term.

- WWE creating a separate ECW brand: This is way too early to call. It looks like the WWE are going ahead with the idea, but I’m not going to label it a good or bad thing until more information is known. Management is still putting together the concept & plan, so who knows what we will end up with. As a fan of Velocity, I think it could work as some sort of hybrid of ECW, the cruiserweight division & TNA’s X Division, which could nicely use the likes of Super Crazy, Gregory Helms, Kid Kash, etc… If anything, the ECW branding is probably a misnomer. But overall, it’s still too early to call for mine.

On with the show…..


APPETIZERS

'King Of The Ring' Tournament

Overall, I have really liked the idea of bringing back the ‘King of the Ring’ tournament on SmackDown. Well, I actually think that it should never have been ended as a separate interbrand pay-per-view, but that seems to be well & truly in the past now. But seeing that the SmackDown brand has 7 weeks between WrestleMania & Judgment Day, the King of the Ring Tournament fills in the gap nicely & keeps things interesting on the WWE’s Friday night show.

Furthermore, it got off to a terrific beginning with a simple, yet very effective, promo. Booker T was the perfect person to pull it off too. Despite not having the greatest win-loss record over recent months, he has lifted his game to a very good level. Most people love his occasional commentary work. I can’t say that I fully agree with that, but his backstage & in-ring promos have been nothing short of exceptional so far this year.

Just to put the icing on the cake, having Bobby Lashley spear Booker during that promo was a great booking move. It immediately gave the tournament some kind of importance, while obviously foreshadowing a future feud that seemingly has good potential. Since that segment, I’ve received many emails forecasting a Booker T vs Bobby Lashley final for the tournament, with all kinds of speculation as to who should receive the all-important final victory.

I’m not going to lie to anyone here. My initial prediction was that the 2 would not meet in the final of the tournament. I didn’t feel it was necessary & thought that each man would cost the other their semi-final matches against Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit respectively. That way, Booker & Lashley would have all sorts of reasons to feud come Judgment Day, while the long-awaited reprisal of the Angle-Benoit feud would be given a reason to flourish towards the top of the card.

But then along came Mark Henry… a broken rib later & it looks as if Booker has a free ride to the tournament final. Just going off topic briefly, LOP’s SmackDown recapper Chad Matthews has been stating that Mark Henry will do more harm than good for the WWE (concerning injuring his opponents) for quite some time now. Batista’s injury may not have totally been Henry’s fault, but it’s hard to think that it was Rey Mysterio that caused Angle’s injury in the Newcastle triple-threat match!

Anyway, whatever the original booking was, I see no real value in having Booker T vs Chris Benoit (or Finlay) in the tournament finals now. This leaves the Booker vs Lashley final almost a foregone conclusion. And that is by no means a bad thing, as the WWE have guided both men along very well in the promo & segment department concerning the tournament.

As for the victor, I’m almost unsure if it matters. Either way, a pretty good feud will be the result & both men will most probably come out of it looking strong. But I’d have to say that it makes more sense for Booker to emerge victorious. He has been getting funnier & funnier of late & considering that he has jobbed to everyone from The Boogeyman to Gunner Scott over the past couple of months, I think this would be just reward. Furthermore, it would enable the feud to continue & Bobby Lashley to get the upper hand & big pay-per-view win down the track.

Then again, the WWE may want to push Lashley to superstardom sooner rather than later & I’m certain we all remember how quickly it took Brock Lesnar to win this same tournament!


MAIN - Backlash Review

For those that cannot recall my previous PPV review columns, this is the key that explains what the final PPV Rating means:

<50: Ask for a refund for not only your money, but also your time. [F] (Armageddon '04)
50-54: Mediocre & disappointing. [D] (EG: Royal Rumble '06)
55-59: Average. [C] (EG: New Years Revolution '06)
60-64: Worth A Watch. [C+] (EG: Armageddon '05)
65-69: Good event that was worth the money. [B] (EG: WrestleMania 22)
70-74: Very good. [B+] (EG: No Way Out '06)
75-79: Make sure you add this ppv to your video or dvd collection. [A] (EG: ECW: One Night Stand)
80+ : Make sure that the video or dvd is locked in a safe & cannot be erased. Memorable. [A+]

CARLITO defeated CHRIS MASTERS: Safest choice as opener & it did it’s job well enough with the crowd sufficiently involved throughout the match. After some jaw-jacking to begin with, the 2 get into a nice, steady, back & forth bout which saw Masters attempt to use his greater strength, while Carlito kept up & occasionally worked in some fast paced or high flying offense to gain the ascendancy. A nice early touch saw Carlito attempt the MasterLock/Full Nelson himself, while he also threw in a nice dive to the outside & springboard back-elbow. What surprised me about this match was it’s smoothness & apparent lack of botched moves. But I thought/spoke too soon as Masters basically forgot to kick out of a pinfall attempt & then the 2 weren’t completely on the same page when Carlito hit a moonsault. Still, it didn’t totally ruin what had come before it & Carlito (who looked good) got the deserved victory at the 10 minute mark with the help of the ropes. Match Rating...7

UMAGA defeated RIC FLAIR: Umaga attacks early & overpowers The Nature Boy. That is, until he runs into an eye-poke & 2 low-blows! Flair follows up with chop after punch after chop after punch… & not much else really. Then, despite Umaga running into the ringpost at full tilt, Flair hardly gets in any resultant offense. What proceeded was a glorified squash that practically buried Flair. And it wasn’t one of those impressive squashes either! Umaga gets the victory with his terrible thumb to the neck finisher in all of 4 minutes! Disappointing & both men came out of this looking rather weak as far as I’m concerned. At least Ultimate Warrior squashes appeared impressive! Match Rating...3.5

TRISH STRATUS defeated MICKIE JAMES by Disqualification in a Match for the Womens Title: Trish came out as herself (for the first time in a while) & had with her a rather interesting & flattering outfit. Very good beginning to the match with Mickie seemingly off her game psychologically & Trish taking advantage with some innovative, crisp & well-booked offense. What made it all the more better was that Trish was adding the required intensity, especially with her Thesz press to the outside. The tide turned when Mickie dumped Trish over the top rope & the challenger landed awkwardly to dislocate her shoulder! Back in the ring, Mickie took control with some understandably methodical offense, but it couldn’t go on much longer (due to the shoulder injury) & Mickie got herself disqualified by choking Trish with some foreign object which I couldn’t identify clearly. Disappointing forced finish to a bout that was progressing very nicely at the time. Hard to rate because of the injury, but I just can’t bring myself to fail it. Match Rating...5

ROB VAN DAM defeated SHELTON BENJAMIN to Win the InterContinental Title & Retain his 'Money In The Bank' Contract: Terrific beginning to this match with some rather simple exchanges being made to look first class by both men. Shelton came out on top in this game of one-upmanship & proceeded to showcase his refined cocky persona. Some nice back & forth action ensued with RVD using his greater experience to his advantage. This was until Benjamin hit a great sunset-flip into a powerbomb on the outside. The InterContinental Champ dominated for minutes on end from there. It was a sufficient mix of athleticism & intensity, even if it contained one too many resthold for my liking.

The action picked up again soon though, as Benjamin impressively countered RVD’s rolling thunder into a Samoan Drop! Not long afterwards, Shelton pulled out his standing leap to the top rope & followed up with a superplex! What followed this was fantastic back & forth action that saw both men impress & keep fans entertained. Very impressive indeed & I think both wrestlers came out of this looking strong. They especially did a great job in pacing the bout & stretching it out to it’s 18 minute duration. A nice closing sequence capped it all off as RVD hit the Van Daminator (with the MITB briefcase) & followed it up with the 5 Star Frog Splash for the victory. Excellent stuff. Match Rating...8.5

KANE & THE BIG SHOW Wrestled to a No Contest: The crowd taunt Kane with a “May-19” chant to begin with. Some nice feats of strength by both men leads to Big Show attacking Kane’s arm methodically. Then, in a predictable & logical booking move, Kane returns the favor. I understand that both men were trying to hinder the ability to perform a chokeslam, but this booking was always going to result in slow & boring offense, in amongst some decent big man stuff. I thought TBS impressed with some moves, especially a huge fallaway slam that catapulted Kane from one corner of the ring to the other. Then, at the 8 minute mark, we took a turn to stupidsville as the lights went red & voices came out over the loud speaker. Evidently, we are all crazy too as we can hear the voices! This resulted in Kane crawling around the ring & attacking himself, with TBS eventually laying him out with a steel chair in full view of the referee. Then, without a result being announced, everyone just walked off! Why wasn’t Big Show disqualified? Difficult to rate, as I didn’t mind it all that much as a big man match, but between the nonsense & the so-so booking, it’s hard to pass. I’ll be a big softie….. Match Rating...5

VINCE & SHANE McMAHON defeated SHAWN MICHAELS (& GOD) in a 'No Holds Barred' Match: A terrible backstage segment involving Vince & Candice was followed up by a rather humorous beginning to the bout with Vince introducing God (complete with entrance music & spotlight). The highlight was Vince asking the referee to check God for foreign objects! Oh & he made it a ‘No Holds Barred’ Match as well. HBK begins with a huge flurry of offense that saw him flying all over the ring like it was 1990. He took both McMahons out of the ring & then leads Shane up the entrance ramp & then threw him into the set. He then took Vince out with a huge cross-body block to the lowered flooring nearby. Wow… Talk about an opening 3 minute flurry that was simply non-stop!

A chair-shot to the head by Shane not only changed the momentum, but it also busted HBK open. Shane proceeds to dominate Michaels both in & out of the ring, including the nastiest looking armdrag (into the guardrail) that I have ever seen! A missed top-rope elbow-drop by Shane doesn’t quite give HBK enough time to regroup, as Shane DDTs him & then tags Vince for a belt-whipping. A garbage can shot follows & then Vince decides to grab a mic & taunt God (who apparently walks out)! But Vince has his superkick predictably blocked & following a stray chairshot from Shane, HBK hits a pair of Sweet Chin Music’s. But not content to end the match there, HBK pleases the crowd by laying out both men on tables & pulling out his favorite huge ladder. Just as he is setting up the big elbow-drop though, The Spirit Squad come out & Shawn performs a huge leap to the outside to take all 5 of them out!

But the numbers soon catch up with HBK & The Spirit Squad overpower Michaels & put him through a table to allow Vince to get the pinfall victory at the 20 minute mark… To which Jim Ross humorously yells out “Bull$hit”! Far better than it ought to have been & booked with enough variation to the WrestleMania 22 bout to stand on it’s own. In fact, despite the less popular result, I’m going to most probably be in the minority & state that this was superior to the previous match. This is because it didn’t go on & on for as long, while I preferred HBK’s more frenetic offense here. One thing is for certain; Despite the rather ludicrous angle, the entertainment value was rather high here. Match Rating...8

MATT STRIKER & EUGENE Segment: Sufficiently entertaining segment with Striker successfully gaining heel heat by insulting the Kentucky crowd in humorous fashion. He introduces Eugene who unfortunately brings poop & boogers into the equation, but it didn’t totally sink this 8 minute segment. It will probably get old soon, but Striker is growing on me right now & I had no problems with the placement of this segment at all. Segment Rating...6

JOHN CENA defeated TRIPLE H & EDGE in a Triple-Threat Match to Retain the WWE Championship: Edge steps out & allows a WrestleMania rematch to take place, as some decent back & forth action ensues. Edge predictably rejoins the action for a second or so every time a pinfall attempt takes place though. Cena & Triple H finally wake up & take turns in clobbering Edge, but it isn’t too long before they are also backstabbing each other in order to isolate the Rated R Superstar. In fact, in one form or another, it’s pretty much a 1 on 1 bout for the first 7 minutes of the match. This is always an inherent problem in triple threat matches & was very much evident here.

But the match took off beautifully from that point onwards. One piece of 3 man action (that sounds bad, but anyway) saw Cena pick up both men for an attempted F-U, only for Edge to escape out the backdoor (stop it Davey) & hit Cena with a spear! Edge then busts Triple H wide open with a slingshot into the ringpost & follows it up with a DDT on the Spanish Announce Table (which unfortunately didn’t collapse)! Back in the ring, a nice missile dropkick on Cena only earns Edge a 2 count, before Cena eventually regains control & locks Edge in the STF-U. A bloodied Triple H stops Edge from tapping & then hits Edge with a huge chairshot on the outside. Not long after, in scenes reminiscent of Hart vs Austin at WrestleMania 13, Cena locks on the STF-U to a bloodied Triple H. He doesn’t quite pass out though & survives until Edge returns to make the save. A top-rope Electric Chair/F-U combo involving all 3 men follows, before H goes for his trusty sledgehammer. He gets unpredictably speared by Edge though, before an excellent finishing sequence sees HHH break up an F-U on Edge, set up the pedigree on Cena, but then fall victim to a counter into a bridge pinfall, to give Cena the victory at the 17 minute mark. A still bloodied Triple H cleans house with his sledgehammer afterwards.

Sensational main event that overcame a rather sluggish & predictable first third to win everyone over. Almost perfectly booked over the final 10 minutes & I really felt that it was superbly performed by all 3 men. Edge of the seat stuff filled with emotion & intensity; When Triple H was in the STF-U & had his entire face covered with blood, it was a moment that ranked not too far behind Austin/Hart at WrestleMania 13 & Benoit/Triple H at WrestleMania 20! I clearly preferred this over the WrestleMania 22 main event & this was my match of the night (& current match of the year contender). Match Rating...9

PPV RATING (52/80) = 65

Looking at the key, I have basically given the 2006 version of 'Backlash' a 'B' grade & said that it was ‘good event that was worth the money‘. I have no problem with that grade & comment. In fact, Backlash has scored exactly the same as last month’s WrestleMania 22! While the majority of people will quickly write that off as an error, I’m not too certain I would agree with that. I felt that Backlash’s main event & Michaels/McMahon matches were superior, while the RVD vs Benjamin bout equaled the MITBank 6 man Ladder match. Obviously, the extra matches at ‘Mania hurt it on my PPV Ratings system (especially since Edge vs Foley was so good), but it also has to be remembered that the 2 terrible matches from WrestleMania were worse than the 2 lowest rated bouts here.

Anyway, ignoring the ppv comparison, Backlash did what it had to do. And that was to deliver big on 3 of the 7 matches. Entertainment value was high throughout & the booking for the main bouts was very good. There was some questionable (if not ridiculous) booking in the filler matches, but I’d rather that happen there than in the main bouts. It’s also a real shame that Trish Stratus suffered her shoulder injury, as it probably hurt the overall PPV Rating by 2-3 points! A job very well done by the Raw brand here!


DESSERT - RVD vs JBL!?!?!?

Last week in my ‘Backlash Predictions’ column topic, I was uncertain enough as to who was going to win the ppv main event (and therefore the WWE Championship), that I basically stated that the winner would depend solely on who the WWE wanted Rob Van Dam to face at the ‘ECW: One Night Stand’ pay-per-view. At the time, I felt that it was pretty clear-cut that whoever won the Backlash match would hold on to the title until the June-11 event. While I still believe that to be fact, it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s who RVD will be challenging for a title.

In amongst all of the rumblings of the WWE creating a separate ECW brand, the numerous emails I resultantly received & a debate going on in the LOP Forums concerning the success of last year’s ‘One Night Stand’ ppv, I remembered back to that night & the (controversial) involvement of WWE superstars in proceedings. The first thing to pop into my mind was Edge’s significant involvement & I started to think if he had more of a chance this past weekend than I initially thought. But his involvement was more due to timing with regards to the infamous Edge/Lita/Matt Hardy real life scandal.

And then it hit me… Who was the WWE ring-leader? Well, there were probably 2 of them, but I hardly doubt Eric Bischoff is going to win any title in the next 6 weeks! No, the SmackDown leader of the WWE troops was none other than John Bradshaw Layfield. And wouldn’t you know it… In the same week when that thought hit me, good ol’ JBL has somehow happened to bypass Kurt Angle, Randy Orton, The Undertaker, Chris Benoit, Mark Henry, Bobby Lashley, etc, etc, etc… to get the first ppv shot at World HeavyWeight Champion Rey Mysterio!

It has been heavily rumored & predicted that Rey Mysterio’s title reign would be a rather short one. With Randy Orton’s suspension, it appeared as if his title reign may in fact last a little while longer than originally planned. But what if a certain title change could move along an angle that was totally separate from what was going on during SmackDown broadcasts at present? What if JBL emerged from the pack (as he has done) & emerged victorious from Judgment Day as the new World HeavyWeight Champion.

Judgment Day occurs exactly 3 weeks before ‘One Night Stand 2’. It’s a bit of a squeeze with regards to promotion, but it’s not too much of a reach. In fact, this could almost be booked as a swerve, with RVD strongly hinting over the next 3 weeks that he would wrestle John Cena at the ECW ppv, but never actually cash in his ‘Money In The Bank’ contract officially. Then, presuming JBL does defeat Mysterio at ‘Judgment Day’, RVD can reveal (the very next night on Raw) that he will be challenging him (& not Cena) at ‘One Night Stand 2’!

I don’t believe there is anything in the MITBank contract that stipulates which major title the contract is for & this is proven by the fact that Edge won his 6 man ladder match at WrestleMania 21 when the World HeavyWeight Title was on his brand, but eventually ended up facing WWE Champion John Cena, when both major titleholders switched shows during last year’s draft lottery.

While RVD vs John Cena would still undoubtedly create lots of interest at the June ECW pay-per-view, I would argue that RVD vs JBL provides slightly more. In both cases, the live crowd (as well as fans at home) would be hoping like hell that RVD could defeat the champion & take a shot at being the #1 man on whichever roster he falls on.

But there are 2 factors that I think would make the JBL match-up a better proposition. Firstly, that history from last year. It’s logical. Furthermore, JBL has since continued on with tirade after tirade concerning whatever subject he wants to rip into over the past year. Whether it’s ECW, illegal immigrants, English people, Mexicans or recently deceased legends, JBL has almost been given free reign to say & do whatever he likes. The bottom line: Promo-wise, no-one on either WWE roster could rip into ECW (& generate the most heel heat) better than JBL could right now.

Finally. and just as importantly, there is the unpredictability factor of it all. I’m not saying it’s entirely impossible for RVD to defeat John Cena for the WWE Championship, but I just feel that a victory over JBL is more probable. That’s not to say he is a certain winner either, but I do feel that RVD vs JBL is more of a 50-50 proposition. And that should logically create more interest in this match & the ppv event as a whole. I don’t think that it would harm JBL too much if he was to be a 3 week transitional champion. Chances are that this (possible) title reign was not planned anyway. Plus, he had a long enough reign the last time! And if RVD was to emerge victorious, then I couldn’t see any harm in moving him to the SmackDown brand. It’s been a good 2 years since he wrestled there & I’ve always felt the wrestling style suits him better on Friday nights.


Ok, that's all I have for edition #174 of 'The Wrestling Menu. I hope you enjoyed the read this week. What did you think of 'Backlash'? And how about SmackDown's King of the Ring tournament; Is a Booker T vs Bobby Lashley final a foregone conclusion? If so, who should emerge victorious? And tell it to me straight; Should the WWE book JBL to defeat Rey Mysterio for the World HeavyWeight Title at Judgment Day, in order to have an RVD vs JBL title bout at the ECW pay-per-view...??? You know that I will reply to all feedback. But please be patient this week as I am still flat chat at work. My e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com

Or alternately, if you are an LOPForums member, you may also leave feedback or predictions there, by clicking on the following link: http://www.lopforums.com/showthread.php?t=4889

Next Wednesday in 'The Wrestling Menu', I just don't think I will have sufficient time to write 3 column topics. So yes, I am heading back to the DVD Review well once more. I actually have 2 pre-written at the moment. One is longer than the other, so if I do have time to write about a specific topic, I will post the shorter one & include that extra bonus for you all. Either way, look out for it same Wednesday time & same LOP channel next week. Until then, this is DaveyBoy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.


DaveyBoy's Wrestling Menu. 2002-2006

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