WWE Backlash 2009 Review

Swagger vs. Christian
Loved it. Swagger is growing on me in all honesty. Not as good as their second match, but not a lot is. I’d assume match IV takes place at Judgment Day, and I’m more than game for that.

***1/4

Steamboat vs. Jericho
Yikes, apparently I liked this a lot more than most. Pretty epic imo. Even better than their Mania encounter, much better in fact for me. I loved the callback to Mania 3 with the reversal of the body slam. Basically, I was marking out non stop for this.

***1/2

Punk vs. Kane
And I guess I liked this a little less than most. Solid structure but the dead crowd killed it for me (I actually thought the crowd was generally bleh excluding high spots and the final 45 minutes of the PPV). I still enjoyed this for a Raw match.

**1/4

Jeff vs. Matt
Solid if unspectacular. I’m not really a fan of either guy anymore so this was what it was. I actually liked the finish.

**1/2

Orton/Legacy vs. HHH/Shane/Batista
OK, I thought the first part of this match sucked when Batista was taking a beating. I was questioning why they would do that with Shane on the damn ring apron and a guy like Batista who’s offense would be great for a hot tag. Then they go a similar route and it’s pretty damn great. Shane took a really nice beat down. Ending sequence was fabulous, too. I could probably go higher, but the early portion really brought down the match to me. Still really good, albeit a tad too long for what they wanted imo.

***

Edge vs. Cena
Woah. Big match feel here. I loved pretty much everything they did. I wasn’t a huge fan of the crowd brawling because the entire match had been built up on hate and escalating violence, and then Edge runs away. Whatever though, the finishing stuff made up for it more than enough. I also wasn’t a fan of Show interfering in what should be the final blowoff to a big rivalry. Cena/Show on PPV interests me greatly though, so that can be considered a win.

****1/4

WWE has got the hang of this now. They’re really on a roll when it comes to putting on what can be considered, “watchable - great” PPVs. This one was really good, and I’m starting to see that they might not put on a bad one again for a while. Great sign for everyone.