Backlash 2007: Six Matches, Two Classics, Almost No Waste

The Hardy Boyz are exactly the right choice to open Backlash because Atlanta is ready to react before the match even begins. Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch do the unglamorous work well, isolating first Matt and then Jeff with quick tags, power offense, and enough control to make the Hardy comeback feel earned. Jeff's bumping keeps the middle lively, Matt's hot tag arrives at the right moment, and the closing sequence becomes busy without losing the legal-man story. The Swanton Bomb landing behind the referee's back gives the champions a slightly sneaky edge before Matt secures the pin. It is not a classic, but it is sturdy tag wrestling with an excellent crowd.

Melina and Mickie James get nine minutes, which already gives them more room than many WWE women's title matches of the era. The opening mat work is patient, Melina cheats once she finds an opening, and Mickie's bump to the floor adds a useful physical turn to what begins as a technical match. The crowd becomes more invested when Mickie starts her comeback, especially after the neckbreaker and top-rope crossbody create believable momentum. The closing sequence is brief rather than dramatic, with Melina raking the eyes and using the reverse DDT to retain. More near falls would help, but the match is competent, increasingly lively, and clearly better than token placement.

Chris Benoit and MVP improve their WrestleMania meeting by giving MVP far more room to look like a championship-level threat. The pace is deliberate, but the structure is coherent: MVP attacks the neck, survives the Crossface, counters enough signature offense to create doubt, and repeatedly forces Benoit to find another route. Benoit's German suplex bursts and submission attempts lift the crowd whenever the match threatens to become too methodical. MVP blocking the diving headbutt and applying the single-leg crab is the strongest challenger sequence. The small-package finish protects him because he is not decisively beaten; Benoit simply catches him. It is strong technical wrestling that advances the rivalry rather than exhausting it.

The ECW title handicap match succeeds more clearly as an angle than as wrestling. Bobby Lashley dominates whenever the structure permits it, Shane McMahon takes the most active role for the heel team, and Umaga supplies the credible physical threat while Vince waits for the safest possible moment. The numbers game is easy to understand, the crowd wants Lashley to overcome it, and the eventual sequence of belt shot and Umaga splashes gives Vince an absurdly protected path to the pin. That produces enormous heat, which is the point. Bell to bell, however, the match is repetitive and one-sided, with little competitive rhythm beyond waiting for Lashley's comeback to be cut off again.

The Undertaker and Batista take what worked at WrestleMania and adapt it perfectly to Last Man Standing. Instead of pretending technique will decide the match, they build around cumulative damage: announce-table violence, steel steps, a chair, chokeslams, powerbombs, and increasingly desperate nine-counts. Batista's leg selling gives Undertaker an early target, while the larger spots become callbacks to the previous match rather than random escalation. The leg drop through the table and Batista's powerbomb counter produce genuine danger, and Undertaker's reaction when Batista survives the Tombstone is excellent. The double ten-count after the stage crash is the only real deduction. A decisive finish would make this an even stronger classic.

The fatal four-way main event understands that multi-man wrestling is about temporary geometry as much as move quality. Cena and Michaels can cooperate for seconds before turning on each other, Edge and Randy Orton can revive Rated-RKO only until a pin is available, and every alliance creates the next betrayal. The match keeps enough structure that the chaos never becomes anonymous. Then the final minutes explode: RKO, spear, Attitude Adjustment, and Sweet Chin Music arrive in rapid succession without feeling like empty finisher trading because each move changes who can win. Michaels superkicks Cena, Cena falls backward onto Orton, and the accidental pin turns a spectacular sprint into a finish people still remember.