Nerd Watch Wednesday - Backlash 2004

Jun 3, 202018 min read

This week it was Matt Connolly's turn to pick a show for the WSBF boys and here is why he picked it...

"After looking through previous Nerd Watch picks, I noticed a three year gap between 2003-05. This was the first Pay Per View that sprung to mind from this era, mainly because it has at least two great matches on it. The quality and variety of the rest of the card made this a potential sleeper hit of a show. Let's see what the nerds thought!"

SHELTON BENJAMIN vs. RIC FLAIR

By Ross Casey

I really like the Backlash stage setup. Shelton Benjamin gets a really good pop and the pre-match reel shows that prior to this match, he had beaten Triple H by pinfall and count-out in back to back weeks. Fair play, that's how you get over!

Ric Flair is taking him on here, attempting to gain revenge for his Evolution stablemate. I read recently that Ric Flair never felt himself during his WWE run until Evolution and the swagger appears evident here as he demands a WWE lacky take his robe.

Considering his age, he does a great job of keeping up with Shelton in this one and takes some big bumps including a back body drop on the outside. When rolled back in, he falls to his knees begs Benjamin off and thumbs him in the eye. Yeah, Flair is loving this.

I was expecting a slow paced match, but this is whizzing along and I'm most impressed. Things take a turn for the cerebral once Flair chops Benjamin's leg though. The sixteen time world champion dissects the limb in a manner of ways before reverting to the chops which get a great reaction, even though he's the heel.

Benjamin blocks the figure four at first, but manages to fight out of it. Bloody hell, they were pushing Benjamin hard weren't they! Good on them, he was fantastic here. However, this match is a Ric Flair show for me - he's been unbelievable. A master of the art.

He brings in a chair, which the ref immediately removes and I was expecting some brass knuckles, but no, we got no real payoff beyond a chop exchange and a Flair flop. Pretty fun payoff, to be fair.

Flair gets thrown into the corner and flips over THEN FALLS OFF the apron. Ouch. Benjamin breaks character a little and laughs before suplexing him back in. Flair appears to actually have knucks on now, but he gets splashed in the corner.

The finish is abrupt to say the least, with a sloppy clothesline off the top enough for the three. Victories over HHH and Flair for Shelton!

SUMMARY: If the finish came after the chair spot and Flair then got pinned after missing the brass knuckle shot, then this would have been even better. However, flat finish aside this was a lot of fun and it was ace to see the rise of Shelton and Flair hanging with and at times out performing him.

WINNER - SHELTON BENJAMIN BY TOP ROPE CLOTHESLINE

TAJIRI vs. JONATHAN COACHMAN

By Brum

I don’t recall having a lot of love for WWE at this time but my memory is appalling so let’s see how this goes.

Peak Tajiri was great. His rivalry with Super Crazy was a lot of fun & their Mexican Death Match is one of ECW’s best ever matches (Appendix 1). If you enjoy this and want to watch Tajiri fighting other later member of the Mexicools, him vs Psicosis is a forgotten banger with a red hot crowd (Appendix 2).

I would love to give you a similar piece on The Coach. Maybe he has a hidden gem 90 minute match with Chris Hero from IWA Mid-South or there may be footage of Toshiaki Kawada calling him senpai but if there is either, alas, I’m not aware of it.

Though, to be fair to the man, he’s not there for someone like me. His job wasn’t to put on wrestling clinics, it was to make children want to see him get punched in the face, and he was pretty good at that. He was a terrible announcer but that’s another story.

Coach is out first doing his smug heel schtick. It seems the story behind this match is Tajiri played a prank on Coach & then Coach cost him a match with Christian. I’m sure there is a 14 part YouTube series somewhere dissecting the minutiae of this rivalry but this is all I’ve got for you for now.

Tajiri comes out to a decent pop. Lilian Garcia introduces him as just being from “Japan”. Very specific, Lilian.

The opening gambit of the match is Coach hitting an arm drag and following it up with a waist lock, which surprises Tajiri. Not long later, Tajiri lands a leg kick. I like this whole sequence as it establishes that Coach is no mug but immediately shows Tajiri is still the boss so Coach won’t be able to beat him toe-to-toe.

Coach rolls to the outside & Tajiri misses a kick and hits the post instead. Coach wraps Tajiri’s knee around the ring post which gets him a 1 count. Coach works the leg a bit more and then applies a heel hook/ kneebar! Unfortunately for Coach, it’s reversed easily.

More leg work from coach. Another heel hook variant (this time with hidden rope leverage from Coach) is more effective than the initial one. Tajiri eventually breaks out with kicks.

More leg kicks bring Tajiri down again. Coach goes to the top rope but Tajiri kicks the bottom one & Coach falls on his balls. The crowd liked that.

Tajiri sets him up in an inverted tree of woe & baseball slides him in the back of his head. Coach kicks out at 2 though! Coach gets a thumb to the eye but the advantage is short lived as Tajiri hits his handspring elbow & a low dropkick.

Tajiri tries a monkey-flip in the corner but his leg gives out. Coach goes for a bridging pin, using the ropes for leverage but it only gets 2. Coach thinks he’s won though. In the confusion, Tajiri locks in the tarantula! Straight after this, Garrison Cade pops up on to the apron and twats Tajiri behind the ref’s back. Roll up. 3 count.

Summary: This match was actually less painful than expected. The story was a simple one with Coach exploiting the leg but they layered it with Coach failing twice due to his hubris. If the match ended with Tajiri winning after the tarantula the story would have wrapped up neatly.

However, having Cade interfering and giving Coach the win was thematically inconsistent with the rest of the match narrative so made the whole thing moot. Frustrating.

WINNER – THE COACH WITH A GARRISON CADE ASSISTED ROLL UP

Appendix:

1) MEXICAN DEATH MATCH: TAJIRI VS SUPER CRAZY

2) TAJIRI VS PSICOSIS

TWO ON ONE HANDICAP MATCH: CHRIS JERICHO vs. CHRISTIAN & TRISH STRATUS

By Matt Connolly

As it was my choice, it was only right that I work double duty this week and first up is Chris Jericho facing Christian and Trish Stratus. Knowing I have a 30 minute main event to come later I'm hoping for a nice appetiser that doesn't outstay it's welcome and when looking at the talent involved I'm expecting quality. I would say that though as you could stick Jericho in the ring with any mammal with a head and I'd consider breaking the Meltzer scale.

The story in this one is centred around betrayal. We have long passed the part where Christian says he can sleep with Lita before Jericho can sleep with Stratus. Despite these actions it still appeared as if Stratus and Jericho had started a genuine relationship. One month previous to this show at Wrestlemania however this blossoming romance ended.

Christian had felt betrayed by Jericho for going all Hoe's before Bro's on him and in the process had turned Jericho face. The match at Mania appeared to be a blow off to this but Trish turned her attention from one strapping Canadian to another.

She slapped the taste out of Y2J's mouth thus causing him to suffer an L at the showcase of the immortals. If that were not enough Jericho looked on as his former friend locked lips with the woman he loved.

So that leads us here. Nothing specific to note about either entrance. Trish and Christian ham it up and consistently reference how pretty each other are. Lawler makes a bunch of remarks that have aged like milk whenever the camera veers close to Trish. To be fair, a minute in the crowd start up a chorus of "slut" for Trish so he's on brand.

Early stages are how you would expect. Jericho coming out with all the fire and working through his repertoire as he starts on top. The triangle drop kick as always is a particular highlight. After the first distraction attempts are thwarted, the numbers game eventually becomes too much for Jericho.

It's at this point Trish is tagged in for the first time - to a loud chorus of boos. She hits a great kick around Jericho's bonce. When Jericho looks as if he might be showing some life she tags straight out to Christian. Heels keep a heelin'.

The crowd are having a blast here and stay hot through the middle stages. They go bananas for Chris Jericho getting hold of Trish and spanking her. Yep, he gets her over his knee and spanks her. It's not a great watch in 2020 but if anyone deserves it then it has to be this filthy, dirty, disgusting, brutal, skanky, bottom feeding trash bag ho! (Maybe I've been drinking the Y2J kool aid on that one.)

Christian nails an unprettier off the back of this and tags in Trish to attempt the humiliating pin but Y2J kicks out! Jericho creates some distance from both his opponents. with a pair of lariats. The one to Trish is savage and gets a monster pop!

Jericho's momentum is stopped eventually when Christian gets the knees up on a lionsault. As Christian attempts to lock in a cloverleaf to finish this, Jericho breaks out and then gets a Walls of Jericho on Trish which, you guessed it, makes the crowd go potty! Whether the crowd hate women or just Trish is unclear but they really want to see her get her arse kicked.

The finish comes when Jericho catapults Christian into Trish thus taking her out of the equation. An enziguri later and Jericho has a small slice of revenge!

SUMMARY: This is a fun one. I don't know if it's high on the recommendation pile but I don't think you could watch it and not have the time fly by.

WINNER - CHRIS JERICHO BY RUNNING ENZIGURI

WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: VICTORIA (C) vs. LITA

By DOM VAN DAM

G’day lads and welcome to your Women’s Championship Match here at Backlash ‘04. I chose this match for a couple of reasons: first and foremost, Victoria was one of my favourite wrestlers from this era and I think there’s an argument that she had just as much to do with kickstarting the Women’s Revolution as her more well remembered contemporaries.

(Another reason was because I was bang-in to her entrance music by Tatu. But that’s not present here)

Speaking of progressing the Women’s Revolution, it has to be said that as much as these women contributed to that, the commentary of Jerry the King Lawler must have been just as big of a roadblock. I haven’t watched much, if any, women’s wrestling from this era recently, but the commentary and crowd interaction is really quite abhorrent.

The match is about 1 minute old so far and Lawler has already called both women “hot” on separate occasions, made a sleazy remark about the ring gear that the champion is wearing and boasted that he “is a connoisseur of fine looking women.” I am genuinely not enjoying this effort from The King, I didn’t remember him being so bad.

The wrestling is technically sound to begin, but the crowd’s booing is only really broken by wolf whistles and broken “puppies” chants. If I wasn’t writing this up for NWW I probably would have muted the TV. I’m fairly thick skinned, but Lawler is really gross here.

As the superstars start to hit some high spots, they do seem to be off a step or 2. Victoria delivers a top rope Moonsault but as Lita tries to get out of the way, The champ crashes down right on top of her, which must have hurt much more than executing the move properly.

The finish sees Lita try to hit a second variation of the Twist of Fate and Victoria jostling to try and connect with the Widow’s Peak. Neither can land the killer blow until Victoria catches a quick, Inside Cradle for the 1, 2, 3.

WINNER - STILL WWE WOMEN'S CHAMPION, VICTORIA BY ROLL UP

INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP NO HOLDS BARRED MATCH: RANDY ORTON (C) vs. CACTUS JACK

By Ro Ahmad

This match follows the Evolution vs Rock n Sock connection handicap match at mania 20 in which Foley got pinned by Orton. After that Rocky went back to making movies and Orton kept treating Foley like shit... spitting in his face... kicking him down stairs and calling him his beeeeatch.

Forgot this match was for the IC title... as JR says... it's not about the title - but the way Orton has treated Foley.

Evolution is barred from ringside here (I mean it's an anything goes, falls count anywhere maybe so that's makes no sense but meh!) Orton is 23 here and is looking utterly edible as always... (sorry Roman... Orton was at the top of the list before you came spearing into my life).

Orton comes out first to Evolution music (man I hated that theme song) and comes out with a trash can containing a 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire, a baking sheet and handcuffs (I hope). Foley comes out next in Cactus Jack attire with "barbie" and starts swinging at Orton right "off the bat".

Orton is getting owned by Foley and they go out the ring where Orton does a backdrop on the ramp to Foley. Back in the ring and Orton grabs the barbed wire bat and is trying to shred Foleys face with it but Foley hits the low blow and goes for mr socko but instead grabs Barbie and bashes Orton in the face.

Orton's sliced open above his eye and is bleeding. Foley is on fire and looks great here considering he officially retired 4 years earlier. Foley is using barbie on Orton's face like a cheese grater. Foley whips off Randy's vest (oh haaaaaaay) then places barbie on Orton's Viper and stamps on it for sort of like a barbed wire low blow (fucking hell!!! no need for that Foley #dickmove).

Foley grabs barbie again and is about to use it but changes his mind and instead goes under the ring and grabs a can of gasoline and pours it over barbie and is about to set it alight when Bischoff comes out from the back with a mic and says if Foley lights that the show will get shut down so foley stops (ummmm lame... WE WANT FIRE... ECW ECW ECW).

Foley goes under the ring and pulls out a massive piece of flat-wood covered in barbed wire! He tries to punch Orton on it but he blinds Foley with some Mr Fuji throwing salt and then body slams Foley onto the barbed wire bed.... grim!... you can actually see Foley's arm flesh tangled in the barbed wire and it starts bleeding instantly.

Orton places the barbed wire bed against the turnbuckle and Irish Whips Foley into it hard! Then he goes to a box and grabs a bag FULL of Booty'O'S... OK actually shit loads of Thumbtacks. Randy goes for an RKO onto the thumbtacks but Foley dodges it and Orton goes slamming hard bare back first onto the tacks!!!

Orton sells... well he doesn't need to sell as the pain is real... the man is a "human pin cushion" as JR says. He legit has tacks stuck up his arse. Foley goes for a cover for a near 2 count. Randy is in shock from the pain and tries to leave up the ramp while pulling tacks out of his arms and body.

They go through Gorilla to the back and are off cam for a bit but come back out and Foley throws Orton off the stage through a piece of wooden staging. The refs try checking on him but Cactus doesn't give a fuck and does a running elbow drop off the stage!

I forgot how brutal this match was and i'm loving it! Foley goes for a cover for a close near fall... I actually forgot who wins this so assumed that was going to be a 3 for the Foley win but this brawl will go on!

Foley drags Orton back to the ring. Foley hits the cactus jack double arm DTT and goes for another cover for a close 2 count again! Orton slides out of the ring while Foley picks the barbed wire bed back and again places it against the turnbuckle. He goes to grab him but Randy grabs barbie and blasts Foley in the face with it.

He goes for another shot but Foley hits Mr Socko and brings Orton down but Randy hits the low blow. Foley is clearly cut above the eye as his eye is covered in blood.

RKO OUTTA NOWHERE but Foley kicks out at 2 (I think this is the first time anyone had kicked out of the RKO?!?). Foley gets up but walks into an RKO face first on Barbie and Orton goes for the 1... 2... 3 and puts Foley down.

Orton can barely walk so his evolution team mates Flair and Batista help him out the ring and to the back. Brilliantly brutal match with a lot of high spots we've come to expect from hardcore matches with Foley.

SUMMARY: Star-making performance from Orton here and Mick Foley put him over huge. 8/10 from me... would have got more if they lit barbie on fire!

WINNER - STILL INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPION, RANDY ORTON BY RKO INTO TACKS

ROSEY & HURRICANE vs. LA RESISTANCE

By Ross Casey

Being placed straight after the barbaric match just gone, this one should provide the crowd and viewer with some light relief and comedy. Looking forward to this one. Rosey is wearing his Super Hero In Training shirt, which still makes me sigh and giggle in equal measure.

Hurricane takes control of Rob Conway using his speed to begin before he and Rosey hit some sick shitting tag moves.

The momentum changes once Conway knocks Hurricane off the ropes. Sylvain Grenier tags in and does his job of cooling off the crowd with a multitude of bearhugs, before they wake up again for Eugene coming down the ramp waving to the crowd.

Rosey tags in and hits some decent power moves whilst Eugene stomps around the ring and messes around with the Quebec flag. The Hurricane then hits a really cool looking crossbody to the outside on La Resistance, which the cameraman does an amazing job of capturing. It looked like he was jumping through the screen at you.

Eugene then gets in the ring and runs the ropes about 10 times before Commissioner Regal arrives to stop this bloody silliness. As he tries to get him out of the ring, Helms hits the Eye Of The Hurricane on Conway and picks up the win.

Post-match, Eugene celebrates as Regal drags him away from the ring.

SUMMARY: A short match that did little to get either team over, although Helms looked impressive. This was primarily a bout to introduce the fans to the wackiness of the Eugene character and it did its job - albeit to the detriment of the guys in the actual match.

WINNERS - THE HURRICANE & ROSEY BY EYE OF THE HURRICANE

KANE vs. EDGE

By Nineties Mike

So here we are at WWE’s annual post-Mania PPV, Backlash. In 2004, it was an all-Raw brand event, and the strength of this show reveals what a deep roster they had in 2004.

A month ago, Edge returned to Raw after a 13-month absence and marked the occasion by Spearing Eric Bischoff out of his boots.

Two weeks later Edge, with an injured hand, attacked Kane, and just as it looked like Kane was about to best the Rated R Superstar, Edge Speared Kane too! Edge went to the well one too many times and Kane countered a second Spear with a big boot before wrapping Edge’s injured hand in a steel chair.

Again, it appeared as if Kane was about to destroy the hand, when Edge countered and struck Kane with the cast, knocking him silly. The following week, Bischoff’s apprentice Johnny Nitro gave Edge a dressing down and told him that if the ref sees him use the cast in his match with Kane at Backlash, he will both lose the match, and be suspended. So, rather inevitably, he Speared Nitro into next week. And that is how we got here…

Kane is out first, and he is mask-less, mean and moody. He does the corner explosion spot, so… you know what’s coming. This is a bit before Edge’s coming out party, so his reaction isn’t quite the peak it would come to be, but the crowd love him anyway. We’ve got Hebner refereeing, so shenanigans are likely.

After exchanging punches to kick us off, Edge gets the advantage with more punches in the corner. Kane counters with a chokehold and a slam. Edge is whipped into the turnbuckle. Kane hooks Edge’s previously injured left arm, with a cast on the wrist,

around the top rope. Edge hits a clothesline from the top, but a Spear is dodged by Kane, who retreats to the floor.

Edge slams Kane head-first into the ring-post and strips the Spanish announce table. Counter-punch by Kane, though, and he whips Edge’s hand into the steps. They’re back in, and Kane continues the targeted assault of the hand with stomps. He bends the hand some more, and drops the knee onto the hand for a two-count. Kane holds the hand in a rest hold spot, and though the crowd is trying to get into it, there’s really not a lot to be excited about.

Edge charges but eats a sidewalk slam. Whipped into the ropes, Edge hits a flying forearm, followed by a spinning heel kick. Kane is up quickly, though and gives Edge a big boot. Edge meets Kane in the corner on the top, but gets launched, before ducking a clothesline.

Kick to the stomach and a jumping DDT from Edge, but for some reason he decides not to cover the Big Red Machine. Spear attempt by Edge is dodged again. Ref Bump! (bloody Hebner obvs) He is out on the floor, so Edge hits a low blow and punch with the cast to the head. Edge finally nails the Spear and gets the three count, as Hebner remembers what his job is and gets back in the ring.

SUMMARY: Wow, this was slow and dull. Not what I expected at all. Face Edge was just treading water at this point, and there didn’t seem to be any real or well-crafted heat to this match. Classic Hebner fuck-up for the finish in 2004 is a bit much, too. Hard to recommend, I’m afraid.

WINNER - EDGE BY SPEAR

WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: CHRIS BENOIT (C) vs. TRIPLE H vs. SHAWN MICHAELS

By Matt Connolly

For the main event this week it's a rematch from the Wrestlemania 20 main event as Chris Benoit defends his newly won Heavyweight Championship against Shawn Michaels and Triple H.

H is out first. He comes out to "The Game" which languishes behind "My Time" in Trip's entrance music for me but still does the job. He is in black trunks but White boots!?! Not having that although I know he experimented with a few colours through this period. Basically I want Triple H from the year 2000 all the time.

Shawn is out second to a quieter reaction than I was expecting. Maybe the crowd is just burnt out a bit at this point? Or not. They give Benoit a massive reception. The gap between the reception for him and Michaels is way bigger than I expected. Ah, it's in Benoit's hometown. Which also means we are in Canada. Mystery solved.

It's at this point we get a shot of Benoit's family front row and the whole art/artist separation becomes difficult. I reviewed Benoit recently and felt fine about doing it but seeing his family pre-match like that gives me different feelings.

Benoit is out the blocks fast and is putting the boots on Trips. Michaels offers an alliance but Benoit is having none of it and this just descends into all three men getting their shit in on each other. Benoit as the most aggressive of the three makes perfect sense. He's at home and trying to prove last month's victory is not a fluke.

His urgency to put a show on makes complete sense. We get some tight German's that look great as usual and even an early crossface attempt on H after just 4 minutes. There is no way these three are not going to go long though.

The match continues to be built around Benoit. After Trips and Michaels knock each other down, Benoit nails a flying headbutt on Michaels for a close two count. There is then a ref bump as Chioda gets too close to the action and of course this coincides with Benoit getting Triple H in a sharpshooter. The crowd go nuts for that. Equally nuts when he transitions from that into a crossface on Michaels. So smooth.

Michaels eventually breaks out and we enter the "WWE are in Canada" portion of the match. Michaels locks in a sharpshooter on Benoit and the worst referee in the business Earl Hebner makes an appearance. I'm sure you have connected the dots. There is no fishy business yet though - Triple H breaks it up.

I usually would have negative feelings about the returning to the well of Montreal '97 but it plays into this story very well. The odds are firmly against Benoit now. We get a wonderful moment when Shawn is alone standing in the middle of the ring as "You screwed Bret" chants rain down on him from the Canadian fans. Michaels soaks them in and channels the energy into the match. What a storyteller.

He just knows when to let a moment breathe like few others. Despite this he takes himself temporarily out of the match when he flies through the Spanish announce table attempting a crossbody at around the halfway mark.

This allows Triple H to get a spell of dominance. He grinds down Benoit for a few minutes which helps the crowd recover. When Benoit eventually ends the assault with a set of German suplexes they go wild for it!

Benoit thinks he can end this but comes up short with his flying headbutt and The Game manages to hit a pedigree! He isn't in a fit state to cover his opponent straight away but when he does, the re-emergence of Michaels stops this one ending. Michaels again works the crowd magnificently. He takes his time transitioning from elbow drop to tuning up the band and it's timed so well as to hit peak boos as he hits the first stomp. The little things.

A frantic final few minutes involve Triple H using the sledgehammer on Michaels' back and Triple H bleeding with about a minute left because it's a title match and The Game loves Ric Flair so much he must bleed in every single World title bout.

The perfect ending to the story told is completed when Benoit drags Shawn to the centre of the ring and makes him submit to the sharpshooter.

SUMMARY: A story well told. I know the Mania match is considered a classic but this one pushes it real close. All three men play their role superbly and I recommend it highly.

WINNER - STILL WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION, CHRIS BENOIT BY SHARPSHOOTER

That's all folks!