Backlash Preview

Backlash. The latest WWE Pay Per View. Read about it on WWE.com backslash backlash.

Or, indeed, read about it here, as you have chosen to do. I have had a few of you write to me and ask why I haven’t been updating so much of late. I apologise, but my schedule has been mad as of late. I’ve hardly been home and working on the read means I don’t get many chances to Blog. Will try to rectify this situation.

By the way, I would blog with more frequency but I have a slight problem. Because I write about wrestling professionally, when I think of an idea I want to write about I pitch it to write on a website or magazine. (www.thesun.co.uk/wrestling or Fighting Spirit Magazine available from WHSmith and precious few other bloody stockists) To this end, if you want to throw me a question down the line I’d be happy to give you an answer on the blog. Email rob the green at hotmail dot com, changing the format as appropriate. (I get a shitload of spam, don’t want to add to it by typing my email address too often.)

By way of a final piece of housekeeping, I’ll be back live tonight for Backlash to give my usual live blog, which is updated far more regularly and quicker than any other live wrestling blog. That is a scientific fact (Disclaimer, may not be a fact.)

Onto the Pay per View then, and I feel myself saying the thing that so often comes from my keyboard on PPV days. The card doesn’t look that appetising, but WWE have come up trumps so many times in the last two years or so on PPV. The (longest running) weekly (episodic) TV might not be up to much, but the big shows (not Paul Wight) tend to deliver.

Tonight is a test (Not Andr.....leave it) though. No Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio, Big Show, Kofi, Miz or Morrison, no Colons, no MVP Shelton or Umaga. The main event is a flimsy six man and the hype for the show features a rematch of a bout which was poor, had a twice filmed ending and lasted three minutes on Monday (Kane and CM Punk) and a segment about a man in drag kissing a 7ft4 Indian bloke. Hmmm.

CM Punk v Kane

We’ll start here, as it is such an odd choice of match. I like both of these guys – one for their wrestling, one for their character, and I’ll let you guess which is which – but was live in London for their match on Monday and it was poor. It was sloppy, with a botched ending, and the timing (maybe 3-4 minutes) they were given was horrifically short.

Even worse, Punk won cleanly, so why are we supposed to care about them having a rematch?

I have a horrible feeling about this, which I hope I might be wrong about. How about Kane beats Punk but Punk cashes in Money in the Bank? Punk is then champ with Edge and/or Cena demanding a rematch, and Kane arguing that because he beat Punk he ought to be number one contender. Could happen.

Prediction: Officially Kane to win. If the full scenario plays out then I get bonus points.


Santino/Santina/Khali kiss cam
I know this isn’t a match, so I can’t count it as a prediction really, but I wanted to offer an explanation as to why it’s on PPV. I can see the major blow up of Santino and Beth here. I can’t give a full picture as I can’t think how I’d do it, but I can see Beth interjecting and somehow (maybe on Raw) Rosa ends up siding with Santino. Their problem in all this might be how people end up post-angle. I think they’d want Rosa and Santino to be a heel couple with a Beth face turn, but the people will cheer for Santino no matter what.

I’m saying something major (well, major in context) may well happen since they’ve bumped this to PPV from regular TV.


Matt Hardy v Jeff Hardy – I Quit match
Until I read rumours of Jeff Hardy leaving I would have had him down as a banker winner. Now, I’m not so sure.

I still think Jeff could be pushed in a major way. If he leaves, he gets a big send off and the stage is set for if and when he returns. If he doesn’t leave, then all the better. The fear will likely be that he takes time off for burnout then goes to TNA (it’s happened before) so the more likely explanation is that Matt gets the stronger push out of this feud.

It’s likely to end here, I would think, especially with the two brother being on separate brands now. I feel for Matt a bit, and like Kennedy and Mysterio before him he may get lost in the Raw shuffle a little.

The scenario I envisage here is a rehash of the Bret Hart v Steve Austin match as Wrestlemania. You can put Matt Hardy over his brother one more time, but rather than uttering the words I Quit, Jeff simply cannot continue. He overcomes all odds to make sure he does not give in, but it’s someone else’s decision to stop the match. As long as Ken Shamrock doesn’t guest ref this, then we’re cool.

Prediction: Matt to win, but Jeff not to say “I Quit”


Chris Jericho v Ricky Steamboat

I can’t decide whether to be excited about this or not. It’s basically a filler match and a small capitalisation on Steamboat’s surprise (to some) success at Wrestlemania weekend. As someone who was there, the adulation of Ricky at Raw the night after Mania was truly special. I was chanting “You’ve still got it” for days.

I’m not to keen on this match, as like the words to that song they played for Ric Flair said “Leave the memories alone.” Steamboat could be remembered for his last two matches being a beautiful surprise, and not a B-show filler match.

I’d still expect this to be good. We’ve seen how Steamboat really does still have it and Jericho might be the best about at the moment, so this’ll likely be fun.

Prediction: Jericho to win, and possibly a nefarious act post-match to keep his heat sky-high and put The Dragon out of the picture.


Jack Swagger v Christian (ECW Title)

I’m not confident of predictions on any of the title matches tonight. This one included. Most of me says Swagger to retain. Partly because of them seemingly wanting to hold back Christian, partly because the internal reaction to Swagger v Cena two weeks ago was said to be very positive.

However, there are some Christian pointers. Someone, somewhere must have noted that Christian got by far the best reaction in Money in the Bank. If you are not going to give him the ECW title, why leave him on the brand in the draft? And this match has been done before on PPV, with Swagger winning. It seems to achieve nothing if the former Mr Cage is simply beaten again.

Prediction: I’m going to for the old guess you one you don’t want to win, so if you are right you get a point, if you are wrong you are happy about the outcome. Swagger to win, and I hope I’m wrong.



Edge v John Cena (Last Man Standing match, World Title)

Well there are three theories, and all stem from two obvious points. Those points are that Cena will be off House shows soon because he is shooting a movie, while Smackdown is shockingly without a World Title.

So, either they do the logical thing which is Edge wins and take the title to SD, or they have Cena win to swerve everybody, or they do either of the above and have Punk come in and steal the title like he did last year.

Going on the Punk theory for a second, that can work two ways, because it could be used to give Cena an excuse for dropping the belt. However, that makes little sense, because a) he’d then a) be mad at a guy on a different brand and b) would deprive us of the logical Edge v Punk feud. And Edge v Punk feud which would be more intense because Edge would be doubly mad since Punk cashed in last year MITB briefcase against him too.

The most likely thing, I think, is that a dirty rotten heel from Raw (maybe Jericho) helps Edge to victory, giving Cena both a reason for losing and a ready made feud on Raw while the title picture continues to revolve around Triple H.

I’ll offer this up, as something that I would do. I’d end the show with this match (already you know this isn’t going to happen since the build up is all about the Game) and have Edge win out in a really close one. Maybe both guys are counted out to nine and Vickie appears to throw water over Edge or something. Anyway, Edge wins, and Punk’s music hits. One of two things happens. Either Edge runs away and Punk can’t catch him, or Punk is just appearing to scare the shit out of the new champion, and the paranoid Edge character continues for a few weeks with Punk hovering and waiting to pounce.

Prediction: I’ll take the straightforward Edge title switch, for sensible reasons, and assume that he gets some help from somewhere. Would be wonderful to see post-match Punk, but no impromptu title match, just a build for the future. It’d make me watch Smackdown, that’s all I’m saying.


Triple H, Batista and Shane v Legacy

Even though I predicted this long before it played out on TV (obviously with Vince instead of Big Dave) I don’t want to see it. I hate the stipulation of someone other than the champion being pinned and there being a title switch, and I hate the fact that bloody Vince and Shane are powerless over Vickie to block this match. And what is Vickie’s motivation anyway?

That aside, looking at where the match goes, well it goes one of four ways, but with all but one leading to the same conclusion.

I foresee a Triple H and Batista rivalry, folks, and I see it being started tonight. So, either Batista gets pinned and Triple H is pissed off with him, Batista wins the match for Trips and later accuses his former Evolution chum of being ungrateful or Batista turns on his partners and wins the title for Randy.

The fourth scenario is that Shane is beaten costing Trips the title, but I don’t really see where that leads post Backlash. I suppose a further scenario is that Shane turns on his partners but that makes even less sense.

I like the Batista-loses-Trips’-belt angle the best. I think that’s the most likely, because there are logistics for two programmes then. The first leads a triple threat match between Triple H, Batista and Orton, which Orton wins after the other two beat the crap out of each other. Then, Orton can go his own way with the title while Trips and Dave face off, maybe at Summerslam.

Prediction: Triple H to pin someone and retain. I know that contradicts everything I’ve just said, and isn’t even in the list of about six scenarios I gave, but I don’t care. Logically, everything goes out of the window, and Triple H wins. That’s how things usually work.

Enjoy the show everybody, remember to keeping logging in during the PPV and I’ll keep you updated with my thoughts. Feel free to email in too. Robthegreen, followed by an at sign, with a hotmail, a dot and a com to follow.

Raw Thoughts - April 13

· Long, long opening seg to recap last week. Interesting to note that they edited Vince saying “Dave Batista” down to Batista. Wait, is that interesting?
· Is that a fair system? Inter-promotional matches where the winning brand gets a draft pick? Strikes me that I wouldn’t want more competition on my brand, so I’d deliberately lose.
· Did they really talk about announcers being eligible to move? Didn’t they notice that Todd Grisham is now sat with JR in the Smackdown booth? Sort of kyboshes that doesn’t it?
· Doesn’t make Batista very tough, does it, if Shane and Vince can come back after a punt in about a month, where it takes Big Dave four.
· Very dull, formulaic opening (“No, I hate Randy more than you, you stinkyhead”), although as I type I’ve just heard “excuse me” – this could be fun.
· I like the idea of Vickie on Raw, but it’s a risk. She certainly hasn’t been as convincing over the last two weeks, which suggests that being live, i.e. not being cleaned up in post production, is not so easy for her.
· MVP to Raw. Keep an eye on either Rey moving with his IC belt or the two having a little unification bout at some point.
· Did you see JR’s face when Kendrick emerged to represent Raw? Didn’t look too thrilled, did he?
· Sorry to all those that frequently tell me that Big Show is the best big man ever to lace the boots, but as much as he seems a nice guy, I am just not entertained by him. Not too thrilled with him appearing on Raw.
· I like Cena pointing out to Swagger that his name is ridiculous. I was waiting for Kennedy though, during that bit where they were extending the names of things.
· Firstly, that was a pointless “six diva tag match” if they are just going to have two girls “wrestle” the whole thing.
· Second, Melina to Smackdown is very interesting. I’d expect to see Maryse to Raw now, but I’m hoping that they’ll both female champs together and have unification battle there. I truly believe that where belts are concerned, less is more.
· Aaaagh! Where to start with my annoyance? Maybe with the fact that Swagger v Cena was excruciatingly boring, right up until the point where Swagger started a comeback? Or how about mentioning the fact that that as the comeback started we went to break? Or perhaps I’ll mention that the exact second the break came Swagger was about to knock Cena off the ropes.
· So are we going to get a big Swagger push now? The way he was doing average moves at a slow pace and the commentators were going crazy for him suggests only that.
· I guess we knew one Hardy was moving after their stretcher match on SD, but I expected it to be Jeff.
· The stupidity of the whole brand split and draft came home there. Triple H drafted to Raw. I really thought he was on Raw, until I thought about it harder. How many weeks has been on Raw, consecutively? 6, 7?
· Haha, that’s hilarious. Punk is drafted to SD along with his briefcase, but both all world champs are now on other brands. Brilliant.
· See, Edge is gutted about having Kane on his brand. It makes no sense at all for him to work hard to get people to challenge him.
· Wow, this show lost my attention after less than the allotted two hours, it was a huge mistake to go three.
· Koslov’s move to ECW makes total sense. That’s basically a relegation, thanks to his disappointing Smackdown run.
· Maryse to Raw I called earlier. If they move Melina, makes sense to switch the other title I guess.
· Bit harsh from Grisham? “If Dreamer is a legend then so is the Brooklyn Brawler.” Mi-ow, Todd.
· Mysterio to SD was perhaps the biggest lock. Good potential for IC battles with a heel Punk, Shelton or Kendrick.
· I like Jericho to Smackdown too, mainly because I’ve said for a while that I’d love to see a nice build, maybe to Summerslam, of Jericho and Undertaker. Would have preferred it on Raw, but beggars can’t be choosers.
· I can’t decide if I liked the main event or not. I at least like the fact that they tried to do something different, and watching the match was made more interesting by not knowing the outcome. However, the concept, just a week after Batista’s heroic return, seemed a bit premature. Shane should step aside as a non wrestler, while Trips only wrestled Orton (smashed him with a sledgehammer and pinned him, no less) eight days earlier. Just led Dave fight him.
· Triple H v Orton next week at the O2. I’ll be there. Is it a good main event or not? We’ll see........

Raw Thoughts - 26 Jan

· Strong Raw opening with sound reasoning and a new approach to simultaneous apology and defiance.
· The only negative thing to the opening Orton speech was that he could have been cheered for what he did. However, the “you suck” chant seemed to put paid to that.
· Interesting that Orton admitted to being the father of a newborn child. Didn’t he (kayfabe) sleep with Kelly Kelly a month or two ago?
· Pretty basic filler with the Mizorrison v Cryme Tyme match. Very standard stuff – I have little, either positive or negative, to add.
· Why would anyone sanction the HBK v Cena match to let JBL into the Chamber? And why didn’t JBL at least attempt to explain the actions of his employee during the title match last night?
· Do you know what? I nearly wrote down that I thought this would be a perfect sort of match for Kofi to win and get a helping hand to the next level. But I decided it was never going to happen, so left it.
· I’m really pleased that they’ve chosen to put Kofi over Kane there. It gives him a short-term boost and adds his brand of wrestling into the Chamber match. Put Kane in the chamber and he won’t win anyway, so you may as well have Kofi, who also obviously won’t win but will offer some more interesting fare.
· Rourke v Jericho? That’s not the bigger story for me. I’m more interested in the fact that Jericho kept talking about Flair. If Rourke gets in the ring is Flair going to be in his corner? Does that mean Naitch will be at the Hall of Fame for Austin?
· A slightly weak start to a Jericho v Rourke feud. After seeing Mayweather get involved like that last year, it might have been cool to put Rourke in the ring and have Jericho attack him or for Jericho to somehow wangle an appearance on a TV show and attack Rourke there, for extra publicity.
· I think they don’t know what to do with JBL and HBK now. They’ve done the double superkick and don’t know why, and are floundering. That exchange with JBL, HBK and Cena offered nothing.
· Classic stuff from Santino – “JR, have you been working out?”
· Spectacularly idiocy from the commentators, acting like they couldn’t work out who attacked Melina. Well who else would it be? That is a stupid, stupid move to let the announcers do that, because it means the audience won’t trust anything they say, since the audience will have worked out it was Rosa straight away.
· Mysterio in the Chamber makes perfect sense. That makes it Rey, Cena and Kofi.
· I liked the fact that they played up the fact that Jericho and Punk actually had a history rather than ignoring it like they sometimes do, but you just got the feeling the match couldn’t really be any good because it was so rushed.
· I can’t decide if I like that ending to Raw or not. I don’t like the fact that Shane was made to look tougher than all three of Legacy. I assume we are looking at Shane v Orton then at No Way Out. Was that the ‘bigger plan’ or is there more to come from Steph and Shane. What was the purpose of the roster standing on the stage?
· More questions than answers leading to next week, which I suppose is a good thing. Now looking forward to seeing what the Hardys have to say on Smackdown.

Raw Thoughts Dec 29

· Rey and Shawn – good to see them in the ring together. Is this is a slow build to Mania? One of the last remaining dream matches.
· I thought (and still think) the reasoning for Michaels working for JBL is really flimsy, but it is generating great heat. JBL is a master at this craft.
· I’d have a little bit more of that – Cena helping out Mysterio. Fans really respond when babyfaces stick together and help each other.
· Not a bad little match with Cody and Punk, but just such a weak end section. I don’t mean the finish of the match, which is understandable. It was more the attack on Cody by Punk, leading to Regal attacking Punk in turn. Explain to me why Punk’s actions are that of a noble babyface and Regal’s the dastardly heel. You can’t, because they are the wrong way round. I hate it when wrestlers act inappropriately for their character.
· Wow, how far down the pecking order did Candice Michelle fall? Number four babyface in a women’s division is not high for the former golden girl.
· Why did Melina have to win a battle royal to be number one contender? Couldn’t she just have been named the contender or have won a one on one match with Mickie? Because she was clearly going to win anyway.
· Ok, we get Super Haas Charlie Snuka. Expect in the coming weeks “American Haas” Charlie Rhodes and Haasa the Wild Samoan.
· My favourite bit of Raw so far. Cole suggest that the pace will pick up as Kofi enters the ring. Kings says “say it like JR – Business is about to pick up!” There is then about 6 seconds of silence before Cole talks again, simply calling the match and ignoring King.
· Fun ten man tag. Very old school action. I enjoyed it. That kind of match is a great way to feature someone like Kofi.
· I’m guessing that whatever plan they had for Kelly’s boyfriend they dropped, and simply had her say that it was Randy Orton, to give Orton a bit more of an edge to his obnoxious jackass of character (that’s a compliment by the way)
· I liked the Legacy stuff. The individual matches all meant something which made them all a bit more watchable.
· I don’t know if we needed to see JBL v Cena again, but since Cena will win anyway it hardly matters. I’m happy to see Jericho, Orton and Michaels all in the Rumble.

Raw Thoughts December 15

· Re: the open, I love that kind of Raw segment. Not the divas match, but the aftermath. I know it didn’t really achieve much right now, but it’s intrigue. As long as it’s not just random stuff being thrown against the wall, I’m ok with it.
· Score one for me. I said months ago that “Deuce” would be a part of the second gen stable.
· People wonder why Duggan is still around. One reason is that people shouting “hooooo” creates a good atmosphere. You saw the other reason in this show. He can draw sympathy. Easy heat for Jericho, and Duggan just stood there and looked sad.
· Insta-feud time? Kelly tells Kane there is someone she likes and Kane goes after them. Hope she doesn’t say Rey Mysterio.
· Maybe it’s Lawler. That would fit his MO.
· OK, I wasn’t expecting Miz. I was thinking in my head of the babyface roster and had come up with Kofi, so I wasn’t surprised to see Kane. I was surprised to see him drop Mr Mizanin, though. There is interesting history there, if they want to refer to it, since Extreme Exposé, as they were, took a shine to Miz, although Kelly Kelly ended up gravitating towards Balls Mahoney. Or are they suggesting that KK is smart enough to say someone other than her beau to stitch them up?
· Great Tag Title match by the way. And kudos to them for not having Kane interfere midway through and actually allowing there to be a clean ending.
· Isn’t Dolph Ziggler just a mini Randy Orton? I mean, if you are going to be a mini-anyone then Orton isn’t a bad one, but two on the same show? Doesn’t work.
· Did I, or did I not, say on Sunday night that the JBL/HBK segment at Armageddon should have been on Raw? And now it is. Couldn’t they have saved it a night?
· This is why we need a war again. We need wrestling on in two places at once on a Monday. Here in the UK it would make little difference, but it would prevent segments like this taking place. In the old days, all the people that saw that last night would switch over to Nitro. (Or more likely vice versa since you’d imagine Nitro doing that back then)
· So she didn’t say The Miz. Maybe she said The Tazz and Kane misheard it.
· Not a bad main event, and a good way of making The Legacy known as a unit. To me the most interesting element is going to come with DiBiase returning and where he fits in. They just have to be really careful to get the right balance between being aggravating and being boring. They really strut to the ring with no facial expression and walk very slowly. I understand they are being cool and menacing, but many will just say boring.
· Good Raw overall, coming off a strong PPV. I might have thrown in Jeff Hardy in for a little extra pop, but he wasn’t missed. Interesting to see the next two weeks worth of matches offered up as bait for the Christmas period and running into traditionally one of the biggest PPVs in the calendar.