Backlash report. Non wrestling nerds skip.

The Pay Per View Posse caught Backlash this evening, and a fine event it was. The wrestling love was rollin' thick with Keith, Andrew, and Kehn all in attendance, swearing allegiance to all that is good and WWE. A rundown for those interested.

On Heat, I (by my lonesome) was treated to Val Venis versus Matt Hardy. The Edmonton crowd was pretty into Version 1, with many "Hardy" chants being mustered. Really solid, back and forth little number that got the crowd going despite it having zero build up. Matt Hardy is an instant heat machine and it's criminal that the best use WWE can come up with for him is as a job guy before ppvs.

Keith showed up at this point, about a minute before the show started proper. He had a Burger King bag full of (appropriately) Burger King and (oddly) cigarettes. We were ready to rock.

Shelton Benjamin and Ric Flair started things off, and it was a fine match. Keith contends that everyone does the Flair Strut better than Flair nowadays, and I think he's nuts. Shelton did a bang up job selling his left leg to lead up to a Flair figure four that never came. It's the thought that counts, though. Benjamin eventually won with a flying clothesline. Just to make me extra happy, he hopped on one leg during his celebration.

Coach and Tajiri hooked up next. This match was pretty much the opposite of what I thought it was going to be. I was totally expecting a comedy match, with Coach doing a chickenshit manager routine. Instead, he took it right to Tajiri, getting a couple of amateur takedowns. Tajiri was bewildered but fired back with kicks until he accidentally struck the post on the outside when Coachman ducked. So, then Coach did an ode to Bret Hart for the rest of the match, working the leg over with stomps and leg locks. Finally, Tajiri made the big, babyface comeback but out of nowhere the remaining half of the Vanilla Jobber Connection (Garrison Cade) appeared and helped Coach win. I enjoyed the match, probably because of how much better it actually ended up being than I thought it would.

Trish and Christian versus Jericho was next. This was really good. Trish is at least 15% hotter as a heel and the joy she took in inflicting damage to Jericho was just beautiful. Christian continues to be one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world as he outworked Jericho, making every single thing he did look smooth as silk. Jericho won with his new, swanky running enzuigiri.

Andrew showed up about three quarters of the way through the last match, and still no Kehn in sight. And just in time for THIS!

Victoria versus Lita was kind of like being a week away from leaving a job that you really hate. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, and Lita has never looked less interested in wrestling. Keith's theory is that she's pregnant, a position that he went on to try to defend. "Well, maybe throughout the first trimester." Oh, Keith. Victoria won with an inside cradle.

Foley versus Orton was up next and DAMN were we stoked.

Not to get off on a rant, but the Hardcore division was one of the worst things the WWF ever did. It made the weapon shots and table bumps common place, which meant that people were taking these risks more often. Also, since the more often these stunts were performed the less they meant, it forced people like Jeff Hardy to step it up to even more insane heights, leading to the creation of the TLC matches and their ilk just to pop the crowd. Now, this was fine for the audience, because we were getting really good, exciting matches on a weekly basis. But bodies were breaking down at an accelerated rate and audience expetations were rising as the WWE itself became a game of "can you top this?" Well, Jeff Hardy's more or less retired, Edge just came back after being shelved with a broken neck for 14 months, Chris Benoit was out with the same injury for a year, ditto that for Rhyno, all four men who were involved in the TLC matches. Kurt Angle and Steve Austin's necks are a mess due to their suplex heavy wrestling styles. Granted, Angle had neck problems dating back to his Olympic training, but still, his pro career didn't help. Anyway, my point is, when you tone down the style and get back to actual wrestling, and re-educating the audience to the point where you can work a body part and go to a hold and the crowd won't immediately chant "boring", then you're doing something right. Because when you build to high spots in your matches, they mean a lot more. And in this case, with Randy Orton and Mick Foley, after more than a year of no hardcore matches, having a hardcore rules match actually MEANS something, and it wasn't just overkill.

Okay, I'm back. So, Foley/Orton. We were psyched. Right. And we had good reason to be, as this was the best brawl WWE has put out in a really long time. I don't think it was quite on the level of the Cactus Jack/Triple H street fight from January 2000, but it was very close. Randy took an absolutely insane beating, including a backfirst landing in a sea of thumb tacks, SHIRTLESS. He looked like a pink pin cushion. It was beautiful. Foley was absolutely tremendous, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he's still got it. If he can put on performances like this one every few months or so, he might be able to have steady WWE employment into his late '40s. And who would have ever thought Mick Foley would last THAT long? Oh, and Orton won cleanly with the RKO onto a barbed wire bat. Awesome match.

The less said the better about the next two, as La Resistance and Rosey and the Hurricane had a match to give the crowd a break after Foley/Orton. Kehn arrived during this one, chagrined to have missed the boss Foley/Orton war. Hurricane won after interference from Eugene Dinsmore.

Edge beat Kane in a brief, unmemorable affair that did absolutely nothing for Edge's return momentum.

The three way was next, and they had a lot to live up to based on last month's match. They went thirty minutes and did an absolutely perfect finish. About twenty minutes in, Michaels had Benoit in the Sharpshooter with the referee bumped. From the back, Earl Hebner appeared and began frantically checking on Benoit. That's right. Vince McMahon will NEVER forget Survivor Series '97. Anyway, Benoit broke out of the hold, so it ended up just being a neat spot leading to this; Benoit applying the Sharpshooter to Michaels, with Triple H laid out on the outside, and Shawn tapping out clean in the middle of the ring, hopefully burying Montreal once and for all.

WHEW. Really, really good show. I had a blast watching it.