clean rob

Michaels does a great superkick IMO. He looks like he connects just fine. What do you mean it would degrade the move? My point is that it doesn't look like a move that would finish someone off, it would be better doing it either as a mid-match spot, or as a move that knocks the wind out of his opponent before hitting them with the Edge-a-cution or something. Huh? Goldberg always picked people up after the spear and hit them with the Jackhammer, they didn't just 'get up'. And I am saying people shouldn't stay down after a spear from Edge - especially since he's hardly built like GB.

To be fair, everytime he does the whole 'tuning up the band' set-up these days, he DOES miss the superkick. I can't remember the last time he connected with it that way. I agree that that both the Superkick and Worlds Strongest Slam are fine as finishers...and at least Henry is never going to botch that move. Edge should make the Spear a mid-match spot or a set-up for a finisher a la Goldberg. Ditto the Worm/People's Elbow.

He's 35. That's well into - if not well past, his prime. He hasn't a had a *** match in years (unless he had some hidden classic on Heat I missed). This is probably the best thing to happen to Lance in ages, IMO.

Ah well, if he's got serious back pain then it's probably best to get out before it gets any worse. Best of luck to him, whether training in OVW or as a road agent. Like others have said, I always had a liking for Lance too. He was never a great worker, but he always put on a pretty good match and judging from his commentaries was a really nice guy. I vote Benjamin inherits his half crab.

I agree, the A-Train/Benoit matches were surprisingly good, A-Train is probably the best hoss the company has in-ring. If they put a bit of effort into building him up a bit that would be a nice little Raw ME.

Thankyou. Well, that's maybe 2 decent matches I guess.

Is this the same OVW that allegedly had the 'great technical wrestlers' Doug Basham, Damaja, Orton etc.? I'm always rather sceptical of these wrestlers who come out of OVW to much fanfare, and then turn out to be nothing special at all. Time will tell with Dinsmore I guess. Anyway, I agree with everyone else who says the angle could potentially be very good, but it needs to be done right, and Dinsmore needs to be something different in the ring. I think a nice touch would be some training segments with him and Regal where Dinsmore picks stuff up incredibly quickly, to Regal's surprise.

He's not? Source please.

...but not, apparently, "Schwarzenegger". I was wondering where all this 'bukkake Miss Jackie' stuff came from. Now that I know, I kind of wish I didn't.

If it's just something for Tajiri to do, why do I get the feeling that Cade will be the one going over in any feud between the two? More like it's a way to get Cade on TV. Jindrak doesn't really deserve a push because he has very little going for him - a good look and a great dropkick. His match with Spike was watchable though. Cade, on the other hand, is one of the very few workers ever (and the only one currently) who actually make me turn the TV over if he's on. He has nothing going for him at all as far as I can tell.

Seriously? Those are extraordinarily high star ratings from someone who claims to have "very high" standards for their wrestling. Care to elaborate on why you gave such good ratings of the tag match, womens match and Kane/Edge at all? Anyway, I already posted my thoughts in the other thread, but here's just my star ratings. Shelton vs. Flair: ** Tajiri vs. Coach: * Jericho vs. Trish & Christian: *** Victoria vs. Lita: *1/4 Foley vs. Orton: ***1/2 La Resistance vs. Hurricane & Rosey: 3/4* Edge vs. Kane: *1/4 Benoit vs. HHH vs. HBK: ***3/4

Yes, and it was awful!

But that almost certainly means a HHH face turn upon returning. Remember last time he was face? Those were dark days indeed.

I'm with you on that one, Deon. I'd be quite happy for it to be a Raw main event, ala HHH/HBK in December. The problem is both are faces currently and WWE is not too big on face/face matches. I'd eat it up though.

Makes sense to me. There's got to be a load of possible ways to turn Edge heel, one that doesn't overly align him with Bischoff would be preferable. It's a pretty quick jump up to the main event, but Raw needs another big heel with Kane so utterly shat on and besides, he's much more of a main eventer than Bradshaw, and look what he's doing. Also, Edge has proven he can be carried to ***-**** matches by Angle, so Benoit should be able to get some good title matches out of him.

I don't think there's any doubt that he's over, but I think it'll be a while yet till he's considered a firm main eventer. He needs a few big (one-on-one) title defences, and when he inevitably loses the strap in a few months, it's important he stays in the title hunt. If he does that then I'd say he'll probably be regarded as a main eventer.

How can this possibly be construed as a good thing?

I also could be wrong, but I'm sure I've read that the accident was caused by something on the ring that made D'Lo slip and drop Droz. Anyone got a semi-convincing testimonial on why it happened?

Thoughts: Shelton vs. Flair: ** No interference (which I was expecting) + Flair actually building for the figure four + Benjamin showing off his athletecism = good opener. Quite surprised that Shelton won so convincingly. Tajiri vs. Coach: * Way, way better than I was expecting. Tajiri's low dropkick looked sweet as a nut and Coach surprised me buy being kind of watchable. Unfortunately the sight of Cade on my TV makes me dislike this match considerably more than I otherwise would. Jericho vs. Trish & Christian: *** Another very solid match, not quite as good as WMXX but still very enjoyable. Trish was in the ring for just the right amount of time and took her bumps really well. Victoria vs. Lita: *1/4 Again, much better than I thought it would be. I had a sort of 'Uh-oh, here we go...' feeling after the botched bridging-out spot near the beginning, but apart from that and the moonsault nothing was too bad. One of the better women's matches recently. Foley vs. Orton: ***1/2 Very enjoyable hardcore brawl. The pacing and story were both good, and the fact that WWE hasn't done something like this in so long made the match really mean something (the 'holy shit!' chant for the barbed wire board before it was even used was great). Orton's RKO onto the tacks made me cringe, that had some serious impact. Ending seemed a little anti-climactic to me personally, I would have had Orton set Barby alight and use it for the win. Still, Foley put Orton over in a big way here. But will it do any long-term good? La Resistance vs. Hurricane & Rosey: 3/4* Bleh, filler match seemingly to put over Eugene. I have to admit the 'running the ropes' spot made me laugh though. Edge vs. Kane: *1/4 Basic big man/determined face match. Lost my interest a lot. Benoit vs. HHH vs. HBK: ***3/4 Very good match, though as a lot of people have said it lacked the magic of the first. Possibly because it's the same main event for the second month? Still, good effort by all three once again, and the way they got the crowd to turn on HBK was excellent. Overall: Solid PPV. 3 good matches, nothing too offensive (apart from Cade on my TV).

I guess it's just something that I'll never understand. What I was wondering, Choken, is whether Shawn will turn heel, or perhaps just play heel for the match, or will carry on as a face regardless of fan reaction (which is what he seemed to do at WMXX). If he plays face I'd be quite happy if JR just explained it away with something along the lines of "It's pretty clear that the fans want to see their hometown boy Benoit win this one!", "Shawn Michaels is not a crowd favourite in this neck of the woods!" etc. etc., but I just think that's too simple for JR - we'll end up with the old 'split crowd' nonsense. So what's the odds for the 'Benoit in Shawn's Sharpshooter' spot? Surely they won't be able to resist it. Or will they?

You'd be honoured if your favourite wrestler spit on you? Seriously? So what's the general concensus on a possible HBK heel turn at Backlash? Or are we going to be treated to the usual JR-tries-to-explain-why-face-is-getting-booed shenanigans? And if we are, is it going to be because "the crowd don't like his tights"?

That's a pretty quick turnaround on contradicting yourself, -iB-. Jindrak is no Lesnar, but he is no longer as sickeningly dull and boring as he was when he was paired up with that black hole of charisma Cade. He's got Long as a mouthpiece, a tried-and-true gimmick and good athletecism, so he's got a better shot at making something of himself than many. Haven't had much of a chance to gauge his singles ringwork yet so we'll have to wait and see on that one.

Eddie should be more professional.

That's it really. Post any predictions of results, star ratings, random happenings etc. for Backlash in this thread. Looks like a fairly solid PPV to me. PREDICTIONS: Triple Threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship Chris Benoit vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels WINNER: Chris Benoit Hopefully manages to live up to expectation after WM's exciting bout. Should be an extremely hot crowd for this one, heel heat for HBK perhaps? WWE seem to have built up quite the reputation for having hometown babyfaces lose recently, but I don't see Benoit losing the belt yet. Should be at least ***1/2. No Holds Barred match for the Intercontinental Championship Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley WINNER: Randy Orton Given the whole point of this feud (not that I don't think it's been a good one) has been to put Orton over, having him lose in the first one-on-one matchup between him and Foley would make little sense. Foley will almost certainly be in charge of this one despite playing face, so I expect the match to be well layed out at least. I'm expecting a pretty old-school style match around the **1/2 mark. Women's Championship match Victoria vs. Lita WINNER: Lita Lita is the more over face, so she'll probably win IMO. Other than that, I hope for little more than an arse-exposing outfit on Victoria in this match. 1/4* for the arse. Handicap match Chris Jericho vs. Christian & Trish WINNER: Chris Jericho I've thought the build-up for this has been excellent, and last month's WM match was also very good. Jericho should go over here to even the score (pinning Trish perhaps), and again in some blowoff match down the line, before moving up to the main event scene (and a title match vs. Benoit...purr-lease!). Keeping Trish's in-ring time to a minimum should keep this around the *** mark. Edge vs. Kane WINNER: Kane Kane desperately needs a win. Edge is returning and could also really use one. That said, Edge has an injured hand and therefore more excuse to lose. Both guys need carrying to a good match so I don't expect much here. Maybe *1/2. Shelton Benjamin vs. Ric Flair WINNER: Ric Flair Flair winning one-on-one accomplishes nothing, although I worry that WWE will want Batista on the card somewhere, and it'll most likely be here...cue Shelton/Batista feud. I mark for both guys, so I'll overrate this one. **1/2. Tajiri vs. Coach WINNER: Coach. Huh? No Hardy, no Storm, no Hurricane etc. etc. but we get Coach. Great. Coach will win after interference from Tajiri's next feud-buddy, if he's getting one that is. DUD.

Huh? "We" can sense the difference between complaining and suggesting? From the third or fourth hand news stories we get? How?