For many years, the WWF/WWE had a “Big Four” when it came to Pay Per Views. It mainly consisted of WrestleMania, Surivor Series, Royal Rumble and SummerSlam. Then in the summer of 1993 it expanded to Five with WWF King of the Ring. That summer pay per view would go on for the next 10 years.
Starting in 1995, they expanded again with monthly pay per views under the banner of “In Your House”. It was a cool concept, but would eventually run thin. From there, the WWF kept the monthly theme, and by doing that they would stumble upon hits “Judgement Day, Unforgiven and Backlash”, while also several misses “Bragging Rights, Over the Edge and Taboo Tuesday”.
Perhaps the best and most consistent of the newly minted once a year PPV’s was Backlash. With the exception of 2016, it became the yearly April / May followup to WrestleMania. Almost always, it is in April. This year is a week later simply because of the “Greatest Royal Rumble.
The first Backlash took place on April 25, 1999, at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island. It was the 28th and final event to be promoted under the In Your House banner and featured several matches from the WrestleMania 15 fall out.
Since the first one back in 1999, there has been countless other Backlash events. 14 total Backlash events have been organized, including tonight. Let’s now breakdown the main events from the prior 13 as we prepare for tonight’s big show!
1999 The Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin for Austin’s WWF Championship
It was a rematch from their WrestleMania 15 main event. This time Austin was the champion despite The Rock being in possession of his smoking skull title belt. Austin was at the peak of his popularity and The Rock was towards the end of his days as a heel, as the fans were cheering him loudly despite his allegiance with The Corporate Ministry at the time.
Even Shane McMahon as the special guest referee wasn’t enough to help The Rock wrestle the championship away from Austin. It wouldn’t be too much longer until The Rock turned face and Austin dropped the belt to the Undertaker the next month.
Elsewhere on the card The Ministry of Darkness (Bradshaw, Faarooq, and Mideon) defeated The Brood (Edge, Christian, and Gangrel). Mankind defeated Big Show in a Boiler room match. Triple H (with Chyna) defeated X-Pac. The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) defeated Ken Shamrock. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) defeated Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett (with Debra)
2000 HHH vs The Rock for HHH’s WWF Championship
This was fresh off the shocking conclusion that saw HHH beat The Rock to retain the title at WrestleMania 2000 to keep the title. The deck even seemed further stacked against The Rock this time as Shane McMahon was once again the special guest referee. A surprise appearance by Stone Cold Steve Austin however, would assist The Rock in walking away as the new champion.
The ongoing feud between The Rock and the McMahon-Helmsley Faction would continue for the next couple months and feature several more title changes.
Other matches on the card saw Chris Benoit defeat Chris Jericho to retain his IC title. Edge and Christian defeat DX to retain their Tag Team Titles and The Big Show dressed as Hulk Hogan defeat Kurt Angle in a squash match.
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