This was the go-home episode of Raw heading into Judgment Day 2000. The main event of Judgment Day 2000 was The Rock defending the WWF Title against Triple H in a 60-Minute Iron Man Match.
The synopsis for this episode on WWE Network is: “Commissioner Shawn Michaels drops a bombshell about his career and the upcoming Iron Man match between The Rock and Triple H.”
Read moreTJR Retro: WWF Raw Deal 05/15/00 Review (Shawn Michaels Returns)
Continuing with the April Pay Per View theme, today we look at an event that ran every year from 1999 to 2009, with a lot of the events taking place in the month of April (There were some that didn’t). WWE revived the name in 2016, but as it currently stands it doesn’t look like a Backlash event is scheduled for 2019. I’m not really sure why they decided to shelve the name as it’s a good one, but WWE is going to WWE so I usually find its best just not to think about these sorts of things.
This was actually a difficult list to put together, as there were generally some really great matches on these events historically. The huge list of honourable mentions at the bottom will no doubt highlight how stacked a shortlist this was, especially for a B Show. I’m almost certain that I will have missed off at least one match that you will think should have been included, and that’s ultimately because there were so many great matches to choose from. It sometimes felt like WWE would load Backlash up to try and retain any new fans acquired over Mania Season, which isn’t a bad idea if you think about it.
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s take a look at Six of the Best for Backlash!
The road to Judgment Day 2000 continued as the McMahon-Helmsley Regime did everything they could to make life miserable for the babyfaces. The Rock missed Raw due to filming a movie (The Mummy Returns) and he missed this episode of Smackdown too.
Here’s the synopsis from WWE Network: “Rikishi and Too Cool battle DX in a Six-Man Tag Team Elimination main event. Triple H issues a challenge to The Rock for the WWE Title.”
The WWF was rolling in May 2000 with an entertaining product on the road to Judgment Day on May 21. This was a unique episode of Raw because the WWF Champion, some guy named The Rock, was not at Raw or Smackdown this week. Instead, he was in England filming scenes for The Mummy Returns, which was his first movie role. Since The Rock was the top face on the show, that meant it was time for some other guys to step up.
The synopsis for this episode on WWE Network is: “Triple H challenges The Rock to an Iron Man Match for the WWE Title at Judgment Day. The McMahon-Helmsley Regime targets Chris Jericho.”
Mike Reviews: WWF WrestleMania VIII
Seeing as we’re in WrestleMania week I thought I’d take a moment to post a review of a classic Mania event from 1992. This show kind of sums up 1992 WWF, with both the good and the bad on full display and a couple of notably great matches, as well as one of the biggest stinkers in Mania Main Event history.
So without further ado, let’s set the way back machine to 1992 for WrestleMania VIII
This was the first episode of Smackdown following Backlash with the next PPV, Judgment Day, on the horizon in less than three weeks. The Rock was the WWF Champion that had to deal with the McMahon Family trying to stack the deck against him all the time. In this episode, that meant defending the WWF Title in a handicap match.
Here’s the synopsis from WWE Network: “Referee Earl Hebner is forced to team with The Rock as The Great One defends the WWE Title against DX in a Handicap Tag Team Match.”
Seeing as we’re just over a week out from WrestleMania 35, I decided that I’d start putting Six of the Best together for the WWE’s premier event. Due to there being so many WrestleMania events, I’ve decided to split the lists into three categories, those covering WrestleMania’s 1 to 10, those covering WrestleMania’s 11 to 20 and those covering WrestleMania’s 21 to the present day.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get all three articles up before this year’s Mania event. It might take a bit longer than that as I’ve got a LOT of wrestling to watch for this one, but I’ll do my best. This section had by far the biggest shortlist, which is either a comment on the general quality of WrestleMania’s during this period or a comment on how much I personally enjoyed the events covered in this timeframe.
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s take a look at Six of the Best for WrestleMania’s 1 to 10
The big news coming out of Backlash one night earlier was that The Rock became the WWF Champion for the fourth time when he defeated Triple H in a thrilling main event match. Rock didn’t do it alone because he got some help from Steve Austin, who saved Rock from Triple H and the McMahon family making things difficult. It was one of the most thrilling main event matches ever. The Rock’s feud with Triple H continued as they headed into the month of May on the road to Judgment Day, which was three weeks away.
The synopsis for this episode on WWE Network is: “The Rock defends his WWE Championship against Shane McMahon in a Steel Cage main event. Plus, Chris Jericho, Triple H, and more!”
Read moreTJR Retro: WWF Raw Deal 05/01/00 Review (Rock vs. Shane for WWF Title)
It’s time for WWF Backlash 2000. This is the pay-per-view that followed WrestleMania 2000 when Triple H retained the WWE Title thanks to Vince McMahon turning heel on The Rock to side with Triple H. Shane McMahon is the referee of the main event while Steve Austin (who had been out since November 1999 due to the neck injury that required surgery) is in The Rock’s corner and Vince McMahon is in Triple H’s corner. Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley was with Triple H as the storyline wife, so Hunter had the support of three McMahons. We didn’t know if Rock could trust Austin, so that was the big storyline going into the show.
Read moreTJR Retro: WWF Backlash 2000 Review (The Rock vs. Triple H)
This was the go-home show for the WWF heading into Backlash. The big story for this episode is that Steve Austin was there to send a message to Triple H and his buddies. There was a memorable moment in the “main event” of this episode.
Here’s the synopsis from WWE Network: “Steve Austin plays mind games with the McMahon-Helmsley regime. What surprises does the Texas Rattlesnake have in store for DX?”
Read moreTJR Retro: WWF Smackdown 04/27/00 Review (Steve Austin Returns)
This was the last episode of Raw before Backlash 2000. Things were really heating with most of the Backlash card known at this point. The main storyline was Triple H defending the WWF Title against The Rock at Backlash with Vince McMahon in Triple H’s corner and Steve Austin would be in The Rock’s corner.
The synopsis for this episode on WWE Network is: “As Backlash approaches, Mr. McMahon reminds The Rock not to trust a rattlesnake. Shane McMahon issues a challenge to Chris Jericho.”
Read moreTJR Retro: WWF Raw Deal 04/24/00 Review (Last Raw Before Backlash)
I’m back for another WWF in 2000 review. The storylines were really heating up in April 2000 and the matches were starting to improve on television as well. Here’s the synopsis on WWE Network: “WWE Champion Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley abuse their power going into Backlash. Plus, The Rock, Chris Jericho, and many more.”
Read moreTJR Retro: WWF Smackdown 04/20/00 Review (Rock vs. Jericho, Triple H vs. Tazz)
Hey yo. My name is John Canton and I’m a longtime internet wrestling writer. I’ve contributed to a lot of pretty big wrestling websites out there, but my main focus is on my own site TJRWrestling.net – the TJR part stands for “The John Report” because that’s the name I started using when I began writing on the internet way back in 1999. For the past ten years, I have committed to writing about wrestling full time with a major focus on current WWE stuff. My “WWE Raw Deal” reviews are what I’m most known for, but I’ve also written a lot of WWE history including reviews of most PPVs in WWE history. I have been reading my fellow Canadian Scott Keith’s reviews/columns about wrestling for at least 20 years (I guess we’re old!), if not longer. Recently, I reached out to Scott to ask if I can contribute to the Blog of Doom and he said yes. Thanks to Scott for giving me this opportunity. I really appreciate it.
Read moreTJR Retro: WWF Raw Deal 04/17/00 Review (Triple H vs. Jericho for WWF Title)
There’s no particular reason for this one, but seeing as this show happened in the month of February and comes in at just under two hours, I thought I might as well review it. I’ve set some time aside next week to work on Six of the Best for WCW SuperBrawl, so keep a look out for that to be up before February comes to a close.
Without further ado though, let’s take a look at In Your House 6!
Wow, is it really February already? Seems like only yesterday that I was watching the fireworks going off to welcome in 2019, and now here we are a month in. this time out we’re looking at the event WWF/E regularly used to run in February before shelving the name in 2009, bringing it back once more in June 2012. I’ll only be looking at events that took the No Way Out name, so there’ll be no mention of In Your House VI, Final Four or St Valentine’s Day Massacre in this article (Outside of just then, obviously)
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s get to it!
Taped from Bushkill, PA
Airdate: November 15, 1993
Attendance: unknown
Hosted by Vince McMahon & Bobby “The Brain” Heenan
Can Pierre Ouellet survive against Lex Luger? Also, Ramon and Diesel show off their talents. Included is al a developing story. Let’s rock!
Read moreRock Star Gary reflects on WWF Monday Night RAW 11-15-1993
Taped from Poughkeepsie, NY
Airdate: November 1, 1993 (taped 10/18)
Attendance: unknown
Hosted by Vince McMahon & Bobby “The Brain” Heenan
Can Ramon conquer the behemoth Booger? Will the Gunns spoil the RAW debut of Well Dunn? Does Virgil stand a chance against Adam Bomb? What other surprise do I have inside? Let’s find out!
Read moreRock Star Gary reflects on WWF Monday Night RAW 11-01-1993
Taped from Poughkeepsie, NY
Airdate: October 25, 1993 (taped 10/18)
Attendance: unknown
Hosted by Vince McMahon & Bobby “The Brain” Heenan
Can the Kid pull off another upset by defeating Jannetty? How will Polo be involved? Let’s find out!
Read moreRock Star Gary reflects on WWF Monday Night RAW 10-25-1993
The Royal Rumble event has always been about more than just the Rumble itself, with some real gems to be found on quite a few of the undercards. Because there have been so many Rumble events, I decided to split the Non-Rumble matches into three different segments, 1988-1998, 1999-2008 and 2009-2018.
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s get to it!
Read moreSix of the Best – WWF/E Royal Rumble 1999-2008 Non-Rumble Matches
Last time out I listed what I thought were the six best Royal Rumble matches. However, the Rumble event has always been about more than just the Rumble itself, with some real gems to be found on quite a few of the undercards. Because there’s been so many Rumble events, I decided to split the Non-Rumble matches into three different segments, 1988-1998, 1999-2008 and 2009-2018.
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s get to it!
Read moreSix of the Best – WWF Royal Rumble 1988-1998 Non-Rumble Matches
I’ll be cutting the non-Rumble matches up into three separate time periods over the next few weeks (There’s been so many great matches at the Rumble event itself that it seems unreasonable to cram six matches into 30 years’ worth of shows) but for now I’ll list what I believe to be the six best Royal Rumble matches ever.
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s get to it!
Live from Poughkeepsie, NY
Airdate: October 18, 1993
Attendance: unknown
Hosted by Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, & Bobby “The Brain” Heenan
Will Savage and Crush reconcile their differences? Can Michaels be reinstated? Who’s the new guy in the WWF? Also, **BREAKING NEWS** included just for your amusement. Read on!
Read moreRock Star Gary reflects on WWF Monday Night RAW 10-18-1993
Taped from New Haven, CT
Airdate: October 11, 1993 (taped 9/27)
Attendance: 5,500 (3,200 paid)
Hosted by Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, & Bobby “The Brain” Heenan
Will Martel or Ramon become the new IC champion? What’s up with Borga? All this plus an SMW surprise in included. Doesn’t this sound like fun?
Read moreRock Star Gary reflects on WWF Monday Night RAW 10-11-1993
Seeing as we’re just one day away from January 2019, I thought I’d look back at one of the classic Royal Rumble events. The Rumble has always been a big part of every wrestling fans January, with even lapsed fans still showing an interest in it sometimes. This is ultimately because the Rumble match itself is such a great match concept, being a battle royal where you don’t know who the next person out will be.
I decided to go back and look at this one because I’ve always found it to be a pleasant easy watch, with some good matches on offer and a very notable collision in the Rumble itself that had a long lasting effect on the WWF as a whole.
So without further ado, let’s take a look at the 1990 Royal Rumble event!
Six of the Best for Starrcade in the 90’s will be coming next week when I have some time off work. Until then though, I thought I’d review this show as its only 47 minutes long and features a storyline where poor Balls Mahoney had to play Santa Claus’ evil brother (Which someone actually asked about on the Blog today), so there’s a festive tie in at least.
Read moreMike Reviews: WWF Monday Night Raw – 18th of December 1995