FEEDBACK: WWE Backlash 2004

If you have any feedback or questions related to WWE Backlash 2004, post them below and we will answer them at the end of the show.

Rewind-A-Wai #38 will be out Friday morning.

WWE Backlash
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Edmonton, Alberta
*Chris Benoit vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels for the World title
*Randy Orton vs. Cactus Jack in a Falls Count Anywhere match for the Intercontinental title
*Victoria vs. Lita for the Women’s title
*Chris Jericho vs. Christian & Trish Stratus
*Kane vs. Edge
*The Hurricane & Rosey vs. La Resistance
*Jonathan Coachman vs. Tajiri
*Ric Flair vs. Shelton Benjamin

Alex From Minneapolis
I always find myself wondering why it was always for Vince to put the belt on guys like Bryan and Rey and then undermine their title reign, while going all the way with Benoit and keeping him strong. As for the show it was a real hodgepodge of a show. it it showed the real lull the company was on after Mania 20. Taking the Rob Zombie theme from a returning Edge, made him just another guy and took the luster from his comeback. Foley did a masterful job of getting Randy to the next level and did it unselfishly. I always remember years later Coach on interviews talking about putting this match together with Tajiri and being told “you have shit?” when he asked to get his “shit in”. 2004 is a down period for the company that had a strong midcard but lacking major main event stars

2 questions

  1. were both Eddie and Benoit supposed to be long term champions or were they supposed to be transitional guys for JBL and Orton respectively?

  2. do you guys feel its dated thinking to strip away popular themes from newly turned heels and give them generic themes? (e.g Undertaker, Edge, Nakamura, etc)

Brandon from Oshawa

I’ll always remember this show for being the time I finally had it with my dads girlfriend. Her loud and obnoxious antics totally ruined a show I was really looking forward to. This is the first time I’ve watched it since and I enjoyed it a lot. Flair/Shelton was a short, fun match. Even Coach wasnt as bad as I was expecting. I enjoyed his match. I thought the finish of the Triple Threat, with HBK tapping to the sharp shooter in Canada was brilliant. It’s sad that we dont get those kind of moments in the WWE anymore in 2019.

Orton/Foley was the reason I decided to rewatch this though and it was even better than I remembered. There was just enough violence, without going too overboard. I cant help but think this would have been even better at Wrestlemania though. Do you know if there were any plans for that to happen? Wouldnt Orton/Foley and Rock/Batista or Flair be even bigger at Mania?

Harry from Houston,

This was such a great start for Benoit’s reign, even though I think to this day this should’ve been benoit vs Micheals in a one on one match (I think the Micheals Montreal heat and the Benoit babyface heat would be twice as strong throughout the match) but unfortunately they soon ruined it by putting Benoit in the undercard against Kane while Triple H and Micheals main evented without the belt. I know Benoit wasn’t turning the business around but it felt like they gave up on him way too quickly and went back to their comfort zone of their established main event players, I mean how is anyone supposed to draw a buyrate against Kane in 2004?

Also Orton owes like a solid 10% of his monthly check to Foley because of this match. This was a true star making performance and it felt like he was ready to take the next step after this match. He looked like a badass coming out of this. Unfortunately we wouldn’t truly see Orton as a main event player until several years after his failed babyface run later that year.

Charly from Maryland

It was a good show
The hardcore match was the reason I went back and watched the whole show it was really a great match it brought out the best of Randy Orton and even at a young age he showed his great abilities even with the tacs and the Barbie bat and the jump that mick gave off the stage into randy while he still had tacs in his back it was overall a great match

The main event was another great triple threat match I really wasn’t expecting Benoit family to be there and this made me feel really uncomfortable I had a discussion with my brother about Chris Benoit and he said he can watch the art that he performs but yes it was horrific what he did
Also man I really liked when Shawn was putting the sharpshooter and hebner comes and the crowd boos the hell out of this really enjoyed the finish but I preferred the wrestlemania match

Question: what was the best triple threat match you guys have ever seen?