WWE Backlash 2007 

Date: 04/29/2007

Location: Atlanta, GA

Announcers: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, JBL, Joey Styles, and Taz 

The Setup

Like most Backlashes, we’re WrestleMania heavy here, with matches involving Cena vs. Michaels, Batista vs. Undertaker, and Lashley vs. Umaga. Team RKO recently split and were in the fatal-four way for the WWE title with Cena and Michaels, while being rivals of both men. 

The Business

Wrestlenomics shows the dual-branded show did 210,000 PPV buys, which was only good for tenth out of fourteen 2007 PPVs.  This show was the ninth Backlash PPV, all of which were held right after Mania, and 210,000 buys were the lowest ever for a Backlash up to that point. This makes it even more apparent that Mania 23’s success was built on the appearance of Trump and the likelihood of watching Vince get his head shaved. 

Prowrestlinghistory has an attendance of 14,000 for a $650,000 gate. 

Results/Ratings

-World Tag Team Title Match: The Hardy Boyz (c) def. Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch in 15:03 **3/4 

-WWE Women’s Title Match: Melina (c) def. Mickie James in 9:01 **1/4 

-United States Title Match: Chris Benoit (c) def. Montel Vontavious Porter in 13:10 ***

-ECW World Title Handicap Match: Shane McMahon, Umaga & Vince McMahon def. Bobby Lashley — Vince McMahon wins the ECW World Title in 15:46

-World Heavyweight Title Last Man Standing Match: The Undertaker (c) vs. Batista ended in a Draw in 20:29

-WWE Championship Fatal Four-Way Match: John Cena (c) def. Randy Orton, Edge & Shawn Michaels in 19:21

Snap Bumps 

-The WWE knows how to maximize four-ways by often keeping the ring clear of all those bodies, nearfalls, and surprise finishers. The main event really leaned into that formula. HBK surprised Cena with a superkick at the finish, and he accidentally fell on top of Orton for the cheap win. 

-The Last Man Standing match was great, but had a horrible finish. Batista gigged. This is another style match the company knows how to put together, and they got some believable false finishes, but the finish with Batista spearing Taker off the stage and causing their usual mini-ecplosion with the sound and video equipment caused a double countout and no decision. I hate finishes in that with stips that have such finality. 

-This was smack dab in the Vince McMahon wave cap era. There are no more words on this subject than that. 

-I know MVP was a big Japanese wrestling fan, and it seemed like he wanted to have that style match with a former NJPW wrestler in Benoit, but it didn’t play to his strengths. You could tell when he threw elbow strikes from the mount or used submissions. This was a consecutive good PPV match for the pair, but the matches were also below what you would expect from a Benoit singles match. 

-The ECW title match was fine for what it was. Lashley was still learning to work at that level, and all the stuff with Umaga was okay. Shane added a little as a bump taker (although looked silly AF locking in a triangle choke on Lashley), and Vince being a heater and stealing the pin and ECW title after two Umaga splashes was also a nice touch. 

-The Hardys vs. Cowboys match featured a lot of movement and action. Not everything looked good, but it was still mostly a good match overall. The crowd was so hot for the opener. 

-Other than Melina feeling the need to fucking scream when she sold, the women’s match was okay, particularly thanks to Mickie. 

The Verdict: Thumbs Up

Nothing was bad on the show, and the final two matches defintely came through. Even if business wasn’t the best at this time, the company had some pretty strong in-ring performances in the programs it was running. This is worth a watch.