WWE Backlash 4/29/2007

World Tag Team Titles: The Hardys [C] beat Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch when Matt pinned Murdoch after Jeff hit the Swanton to retain.
Look past the fact that Cade and Murdoch have been jobbing out for the past few months, and you’ll find this was a great tag match and a solid showing for the cowboys, something they really needed to rebuild their credibility in the tag ranks. This was the best Cade and Murdoch have looked in a long while, and it helped that they gave the match good time to work out. They may have lost the match, but lets hope that Cade and Murdoch continue to get pushed as a full time tag team.
Match Rating: ***

WWE Women’s Championship: Melina [C] beat Mickie James with a reverse DDT to retain.
Probably the best Women’s title match in a LONG time, and this should have been the title match at Wrestle Mania 23. They had probably one of the more original spots in a while when both women were sitting split-legged and were duking it out from that position. This was also easily the best Melina has looked in the ring and hopefully they keep the feud with Mickie going so we can get more quality bouts instead of no-talent Diva squash matches.
Match Rating: ***

WWE United States Championship: Chris Benoit [C] pinned MVP with an inside cradle to retain.
Another great technical mat wrestling match from these two. MVP again showed that he could hang with Benoit hold for hold, but still came up short. The finish was a little sudden, but like JBL says, it just shows how dangerous Benoit can be and how he can attack you from any position for the win.
Match Rating: ***

ECW World Championship – 3-On-1 Handicap Match: Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon & Umaga beat Bobby Lashley [C] when Vince pinned Lashley after a diving body press from Umaga to become the new ECW champion.
I guess this was the “sports entertainment” of the evening. Wasn’t really a whole lot to this other than Lashley tossing around Shane and Umaga for the first half and making the big come back from getting beat down, only to be beaten by the numbers game. Though I’m surprised they couldn’t come up with a better ending than they did since Lashley has been built up as a monster these past few months.
Match Rating: *

World Heavyweight Championship: The Undertaker [C] VS Batista went to a Draw when both men couldn’t answer the 10 count after Batista speared Undertaker off the entrance stage.
This one was definitely more exciting than their Wrestle Mania match due to the Las Man Standing stipulation. Both men again worked on all cylinders and created some great dramatic near fall moments. The fans didn’t like the double count out, but was happy when Undertaker was announced as still being the champion. Interesting that both men recovered rather quickly after the match though.
Match Rating: ****

WWE Championship – Fatal Four-Way Match: John Cena [C] beat Shawn Michaels, Edge & Randy Orton when he pinned Orton after getting hit by Sweet Chin Music.
Probably one of the best Fatal Four-Ways ever, with non-stop action everywhere and a ton of near falls all over the place. And the ending was rather interesting fluke the way they had Edge spear Orton, Cena FUs Edge, and HBK superkicks Cena who falls on Orton to get the cover! Looks like the HBK-Cena feud is going to continue for a while due to what happened here, especially since HBK did beat Cena clean one-on-one on RAW this week.
Match Rating: ****

Overall: A strong PPV with a lot of solid action.