Honestly, WWE Backlash is usually a solid show and the 1999 edition is no different—but is it better than a strong WCW Spring Stampede 1999? Let’s dive in and find out as Backlash 1999 comes to us from Providence, Rhode Island with a crowd of almost 10,400 in April 1999.
The Best
The New Age Outlaws taking on Owen Hart & Jeff Jarrett was a good bout. Road Dogg and Billy Gunn could bring it on PPV. It also helps when they’re facing an established team and that team is Owen and Jarrett. Without some nonsense, fans will at least get a decent match that could’ve been better.
We’ve got a Mankind match? Interesting. Against Big Show? Continue…? In a boiler room? I’m really interested. It’s odd that Big Show would wander into a boiler room or any dimly lit area of the arena to face a lunatic like Mankind.
These two had a good, brief brawl that would’ve been an awesome TV match. It feels like a TV match/segment to push a bigger match between the two.
Triple H taking on X-Pac was very good but that was kind of expected. It had its shenanigans of course but I liked the pace of the match. X-Pac was perfect for Triple H as there were times when Hunter could kick it into gear and other times when he’s really eating up time and it’s obvious.
X-Pac kind of keeps the pace going with little dead air. Without knowing the story leading up to this match, you’d think that there were actual stakes on the line.
The main event saw Stone Cold Steve Austin retain his World title in a No Disqualification match against The Rock. Again, The Rock is just constantly going from exciting feud to exciting feud and putting in strong performances. This is a blue-chipper who hasn’t collapsed to pressure. He’s in this thing, folks.
This was your standard Attitude Era brawl. They slugged it out around the ring and everywhere that the crowd could see. When the action was in the ring, the anticipation was high since a fall could only happen in the ring. Both guys had quick deploy finishers, so throughout the match, there were moments where this looked like anyone’s game.
The Rest
Backlash ‘99 opened with The Ministry team of Faarooq, Bradshaw, & Mideon taking on The Brood’s Gangrel, Edge, & Christian. I’ll say that this wasn’t a bad opener at all. What you’ll notice from a lot of matches on this card is that a lot of them would’ve made for good HeAT, Shotgun Saturday Night, or the first hour of RAW. This was one of those matches.
Another such match is the Hardcore title match as Al Snow came after Hardcore Holly’s gold. I thought this would’ve made for a better opener if it was the same length. One thing I’ve noticed with both WCW and WWE’s hardcore divisions is inconsistency on PPV.
On television, the hardcore division does well. Once pay-per-view hits, it’s a mixed bag. You might get a good hardcore match, you could get a boring one, and you might even end up with a sloppy hardcore match.
This one was in the middle. It was far from sloppy but it hovered between fun and “We’ve seen this already.”
The IC title match saw The Godfather defend against Goldust in a blah match. I don’t know why Godfather even had the IC title but I remembered him being champion before I got into RAW episodes leading into Backlash 1999.
The Undertaker taking on Ken Shamrock just didn’t work. This probably would’ve worked further down the line when Taker began adding submissions and a smidge of mat stuff. In 1999, the direction WWE went with it just wasn’t it. These two should’ve thrown blows the whole time and it should’ve been shorter.
WWE Backlash 1999 Verdict: Silver Medal (7/10)
There was this block of just really entertaining matches and the show ends on an extremely entertaining match. Backlash 1999 was a good show that had a strong bed of solid matches. It’s not like there was a bed of bad matches and a couple of strong matches—it’s not 1995 In Your House.
Our Match of the Show is Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock. The runner-up is the New Age Outlaws vs. Owen Hart & Jeff Jarrett.
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