WWF Backlash - April 27, 2003

D'Lo Brown pinned Kanyon with the Lo-Down in 0:09:03.
Rating: **

Edge pinned William Regal with the Downward Spiral in 0:24:41.
Rating: ** 3/4

Al Snow pinned TAKA Michinoku after a German suplex in 0:25:43.
Rating: ***

Hardly Christian defeated E & C when Christian pinned Chavo Jr. with the Inhaler in 0:07:50.
Rating: * 3/4

Jeff Hardy pinned Tajiri with the Senton Bomb in 0:18:56.
Rating: *** 3/4
(Jeff Hardy won the WWF Light-heavyweight Title.)

Non-Title-Match:
Ric Flair defeated Dean Malenko via pinfall in 0:15:42.
Rating: ** 3/4

Non-Title Match:
The Outsiders defeated Triple H and Booker T when Hall pinned HHH with the Outsider Edge in 0:17:47.
Rating: *

Non-Title-Match:
Scott Steiner made Chris Benoit submit to the Steiner Recliner in 0:16:25.
Rating: *** 1/2

X-Pac pinned Sean O'Haire with the X-Factor in 0:20:16.
Rating: *** 1/2
(X-Pac won the WWF Intercontinental Title.)

Non-Title-Match:
Bill Goldberg defeated Perry Saturn via pinfall in 0:11:06.
Rating: * 3/4

Impact Players defeated Hollywood Hogan and Randy Savage when Credible pinned Hogan with the That's Incredible in 0:23:22.
Rating: * 1/2
(Lance Storm and Justin Credible retained the WWF World Tag-Team Titles.)

Chris Jericho made Rob Van Dam submit to the Lion Tamer in 0:22:15.
Rating: *****
(Chris Jericho retained the WWF World Heavyweight Title.)

Notes:

Finally, the night the "REAL WCW" gets their hands on the WWF stars. I start with D'Lo and Kanyon to get the crowd ready. Kind of a short match, with D'Lo getting the win because Kanyon has other stuff going on.
Edge takes on William Regal, two former King of the Rings. Another match to just get the crowd in the mood for what's going to take place. Edge wins because he's gonna be big, baby!
Next up, TAKA Michinoku takes on Al Snow. It's kind of a hardcore match, with Al winning so he can start moving up to the Hardcore title.
Eddie & Chavo (E&C) take on Hardly Christian (Matt Hardy & Christian) in just a tag match. Matt & Christian are just now starting to use the name given to them by Jim Ross. It's because they're both kinda evil now...ya know, they're hardly Christian. HA! Plus Hardy sounds like Hardly, and Christian is Christian. Anyway, Hardly Christian win to get a shot at the Tag-Team titles.
Tajiri is too good for the Lightheavyweight division, so I'm making him lose the strap to Jeff Hardy. Jeff is going to be the standard bearer for the LH division for a long time to come, just like his brother was for the Euro division.
I see Dean Malenko as a smaller, duller Ric Flair. The man has some GREAT matches, so why not put him up against the god? Flair wins, because he's Flair. And the RWCW even has to get the best of the WWF for awhile.
Even Booker T and Triple H are going to be sheep sent out to slaughter. The Outsiders are great opponents for them, too. Plus, Triple H is best friends with them, so he's willing to look like a child getting run over when they hit him. Outsiders win to try and set them up for a tag shot later. Oh, WCW didn't want their titles defended in the WWF, so it was non-title.
Scott Steiner fought Chris Benoit in a surprisingly excellent match, but no WCW title on the line here. Chris already held that title anyway, so he don't need it. Steiner wins because I can't make the WCW champ look bad already.
X-Pac and Sean O'Haire battle of the IC title. X-Pac has paid his dues numerous times, so for no particular reason I'd let him beat Sean O'Haire for the strap. It was a good match, anyway, and Sean O'Haire still has a great future ahead of him.
Bill Goldberg, the man who beat Stone Cold Steve Austin...the man who's getting an ECW title shot in May...is now fighting...Perry Saturn? Yeah, well, it could have been worse. Goldberg gets the win and Saturn gets to be a pawn in this game of chess.
The Impact Players put their WWF Tag-Team titles on the line against two of the greatest WWF World Champions ever, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. And since these guys are O-L-DDDDD...I had the IP beat them. They need to keep their titles, and there HAS to be a ching in the RWCW's armor sometime, right?
And finally, formerly friends, Rob Van Dam got his title shot against Chris Jericho. After months and months of Jericho bossing RVD around, it all came to a head at WrestleMania when RVD beat X-Pac and X-Pac beat the crap out of him after the match. RVD called for Jericho to help, but Jericho stayed back. X-Pac became heel, RVD face, and the next night on RAW, RVD called Jericho out, ending their friendship. And now, Jericho gets a perfectly clean win over RVD! Why? BECAUSE!
Eric Bischoff comes out with everyone expecting him to reveal his surprise...but he reveals nothing. He reminds everyone that he's a liar, and his surprise is that everyone believed he had a surprise! HA! But no, seriously, that would piss people off, so Bischoff says at King of the Ring he'll have a surprise.