Backlash 2007 DVD Review

This show was the culmination of a fantastic week for wrestling fans. After an epic Shawn Michaels v. John Cena match on RAW, the WWE was able to put on a PPV event that lived up to the high standard they set for themselves six days earlier. Quite simply put, this is the best single-disc WWE PPV DVD release since SummerSlam 2002.

On an annual basis, Backlash is forced to live in the shadow of WrestleMania which takes place a few weeks earlier. In many cases, Backlash has proven to be a superior show in terms of wrestling action.

I have a theory for that. For WrestleMania, many of the matches have taken a long time to build towards and the wrestlers have not been in the ring against each other. In the case of the WrestleMania rematches at Backlash, the wrestlers have competed against each other both on the main stage at WrestleMania and at untelevised house shows for a month. By the time Backlash rolls around, the wrestlers are very familiar with each other and have built up an in-ring chemistry they didn't have for WrestleMania.

In this case, there were two direct WrestleMania rematches and two other matches that featured additional men to WrestleMania 23 main events. In each of these four matches, I will argue that the matches were better at this show than at WrestleMania. However, this show didn't have 80,000 fans in attendance or the involvement of Donald Trump. For those reasons, WrestleMania 23 will be the show most fans will remember in a few years while this show will become a footnote in history. But what an incredible footnote this show was.