WHY IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

Nowadays it isn’t such a big deal to see Undertaker bust out some submission moves. Hell, he closed WrestleMania XXIV by making Edge tap out to the Devil’s Triangle. But The Undertaker of 2009 is a whole lot different from the one fans were used to ten years ago. This Backlash match against Ken Shamrock was one of the rare times Taker showed the wrestling potential that existed beneath the Deadman gimmick. Instead of the impact-heavy, dominating offense that was usually a hallmark of Undertaker’s matches, fans were treated to a slow-paced, methodically-executed struggle between two grapplers. The ’99 Ministry Taker was easily his character’s most demonic incarnation, but he had become much more humanized in the ring at this point. JR comments in the match that he’d never heard Taker scream in agony as he did when Shamrock had locked in his submissions, and it was true. Looking back on this match now, especially at Shamrock’s counters, you can see the flashes of greatness that Taker would later achieve in the ring with Kurt Angle. One has to wonder that if WWE really tapped into this style of match at the time if we would have been having the classics of ’01-’03 a hell of a lot sooner.

I don’t want anyone to think that I’m saying Ken Shamrock is or was as good as Kurt Angle. Angle’s in an inhuman league of his own considering the absurd things his body is capable of. But looking at this Backlash match, it’s hard not to think about the Angle-Taker confrontations on SmackDown just a few years afterward. And going from that, it’s hard not to think about how much better the quality of Taker’s matches became after his de-deadifying in 2000. Could Undertaker have been having great technical encounters even before then? Based on this match against Shamrock, my answer is yes. He could have. But since it was the Attitude Era, and technical wrestling wasn’t exactly the top priority, it’s understandable why it didn’t work out that way. Hell, the Backlash match gets “BOR-ING!” chants during some of the submissions.



Submission wrestling was a rare occurrence during the Attitude Era

There are a couple of other things that I think are proven by this match. First: Ken Shamrock could’ve made it in a WWE main event. That doesn’t necessarily mean he would’ve been a good WWE Champion, but it does mean he certainly could have been a legitimate contender. Backlash shows that Undertaker seemed to believe in him (based on his selling) and by the match’s end the crowd was hot and into it. Second: Shamrock’s two year run should’ve come two years later. The athletic skills of Ken Shamrock were wasted in the character-heavy Attitude Era. Just imagine what could’ve been if he was on the same roster as Angle, Benoit, Guerrero, and Mysterio. Shamrock’s ’97-’99 skills alone would’ve produced great matches against these guys, but imagine what he might’ve learned in the process of wrestling them. Shamrock was a great wrestler who might’ve been even greater if he had been allowed to really learn and explore.

Just for trivia, Shamrock was actually in talks with WWE in ’02 about coming back to work a program with Kurt Angle, but both sides were unable to reach an agreement. Sometimes life just isn’t fair for wrestling fans.

WHY IT ISN’T REMEMBERED

I had to go back and meticulously read the results for every Raw around this time period in order to confidently write this article. Why? Because things were fucking confusing! When you think back to the Corporation/Ministry/Corporate Ministry super-angle of those couple of months, can you clearly recall who were the faces and heels at all times? Or who was even on whose side? While Vince McMahon was clearly the heel when leading the Corporate charge against Stone Cold Steve Austin, at the same time he was defending his family from the Satanic attacks of The Undertaker. A heel vs. heel match that I did not mention last week as a successful execution of the dynamic was Undertaker and Big Bossman’s HIAC match at WrestleMania XV. We had two heels (one of which was nowhere close to the other’s level of heat) squaring off in an amazing waste of the stipulation match of WWE, a match where the only semblance of a build was Taker’s feud with the Bossman’s bossman. It did not work because the Ministry vs. Corporation feud was, as I said, fucking confusing.

And if the lack of clarity during the Ministry-Corporation feud wasn’t confusing enough, the two groups MERGED within two months. And it wasn’t as if they’d found some sort of middle ground and made peace with each other. Instead, it was revealed that they were in on it together all along. That Undertaker’s oft-praised Higher Power had been Vince McMahon all along. That Stephanie’s kidnapping and the McMahon family torment had been staged all along. If I’m remembering correctly, the reason given for this elaborately staged lie was to fool Steve Austin and to take away his WWE Title, although the Ministry-Corporation stuff was going on before Austin reclaimed the belt at WM XV. Even after researching all of this stuff I still can’t get Russo’s booking straight.



Of course, the Corporate Ministry angle made perfect sense!

Anyway, my point here is that Undertaker vs. Ken Shamrock was a victim of a mindnumbing storyline that went on for a couple of months too long. Backlash was pre-conspiracy revelation, but post-Corporate Shamrock. This means that at the time we were still under the assumption that Taker and McMahon were really in some sort of spiritual demon war, where neither side was clearly defined as either face or heel. And on top of that, Shamrock had been kicked out of the Corporation just before Backlash, despite the fact that he was the one who “saved” Stephanie. So to put it simply: Shamrock fought a guy who was in a staged blood feud with the guy who had recently kicked Shamrock out of his stable, even though Shamrock had just gone out of his way to “rescue” the last guy’s daughter. Who is the face? Who is the heel? Why did McMahon toy with Shamrock and kick him out of the group, even though he was the only one who stood up for him? And aside from revenge for his sister, why would Shamrock even fight Taker, considering he’d be doing Vince a favor? Like I said, things were fucking confusing.

This match could have been significant and well-remembered had things turned out differently for Ken Shamrock. But once The World’s Most Dangerous Man lost his IC Title, left the Corporation, and returned to his babyface ways, the dude sort of lost his place in storylines. After a short run in the Union, a never-ending feud with Steve Blackman, and an inconclusive program with Chris Jericho, Shamrock was done with WWE. His ring work was consistently on and entertaining, but WWE never seemed to get behind him once they moved him out of the Corporation. Looking back on his career in the E, most people will first remember his matches with The Rock or winning the King of the Ring in ’98. You might even say the most important moment in Shamrock’s wrestling career was when he wasn’t even wrestling at all, but when he officiated the Hart-Austin classic at WM 13. It’s a shame, because I really think Shamrock had something to offer in the WWE main event scene. At the time I thought his showing against Taker at Backlash was going to lead to a strong babyface push to the main event, but apparently it wasn’t meant to be.

WILL IT BE REMEMBERED?

By WWE? Probably not. This match is virtually worthless to wrestling history as far as WWE concerns itself, considering there’s really no need to revisit Undertaker’s peak of evil or any of Shamrock’s career. Unless there’s another Taker DVD on the horizon and they’re searching for random matches just for the sake of previously-unreleased material, I don’t think this match has a great shot at DVD release. I’ve never even seen a Backlash ’99 DVD release, but based on the feedback from you guys here I wouldn’t be surprised if it had a UK release. And since that’s a bit of a drive from Baltimore, I don’t think I’ll be getting my hands on any copies.

Feedback! (or, Proof That The World Knows I Exist!)

i remember this…i thought we were gonna get a 5 minute piece of shit match but boy was i wrong….

Posted By: Guest#9610

It well exceeded my expectations too. I was afraid they were going to waste the big Rated RKO confrontation in a short throwaway TV match but thankfully Edge and Orton brought their A-game and were given time to do something special.

Definitely agree it should have been RKO-explodes at Mania that year.

As usual, there were a glutton of guys left off the card who could have filled those two other spots for Money in the Bank.

And think, if Edge had gone over (that would’ve been MY booking), then the next year against Undertaker he TRULY would have been able to claim he was undefeated as well, rather than having to sidestep history a little bit by claiming he’d never REALLY been beat at Mania (stretchered out of Money in Bank – fairly weak all round).

Actually, dare say someone who understands WRESTLING in the creative team probably suggested that at the time, and someone who specializes in SOAP OPERAS probably shot it down.

I’d like to say WWE will ‘live and learn’ – but who’d I be kidding?

Posted By: Jared

I was not a happy camper when Edge and Orton got thrown into MITB. Remember too that this was the first year they moved the number of participants from six to eight, which has made the match feel a bit crowded ever since. Your idea of booking a truly undefeated Edge would’ve worked out quite well, but it (shockingly) did not occur to WWE at the time.

Right on about everything! They’ve had a couple of good matches, if you also include their IC Title feud back in 2004.

But I was always under the impression Edge wasn’t 100% around WM23, which is why he was shuffled out of the $itB match so early. That would help to explain why these guys didn’t get a singles blow-off at ‘Mania.

Posted By: Sam!

I didn’t go into it last week, but Edge broke his jaw in his MITB qualifying match against RVD. I’m not aware of any other injuries he had, but it’s possible. And yeah, I think this was the reason he was taken out of the MITB match so early in.

This is the match that made Edge my favourite wrestler and i sure as hell remember it.

And it sucks cause at least one of (if not both) of these dudes should have won at mania this year.

Posted By: Guest#5311

Cena walking out with the title wasn’t so bad because you knew another Edge title reign was likely right around the corner. But Orton had been away from the WWE Title for a while, and his current reign would mean a hell of a lot more right now if it had begun in the final moments of WrestleMania.

F U Jim Grimm! You know you wanted DX back together in 06′ too! You were no different than any one else back then. Don’t even try to front playa!

Posted By: Aho

I would prefer you request I adjust my attitude, Aho. Can’t have that language here if the kids are going to buy my t-shirts. And yeah, I too was fooled by the warm fuzzy feelings of nostalgia at first, but it quickly became clear what a terrible mistake had been made.

I love this column. Great work again. I actually missed this RAW so I never saw the blowoff for RatedRKO and had truly forgotten about it, even though I was anticipating their upcoming fued.

Kennedy screwed that by becoming injured, but given his recent status, I guess that was a blessing in disguise. Also, I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Cena/Michaels got an hour long match because Orton had done some stupid shit on tour. Edge was also apparently having injury problems around WM23…

It’s possible I’m really wrong though, hah.

Posted By: Banz

Thanks, Banz. About Kennedy, it was more bad luck than anything that screwed him. Initially they had projected him to be out of action for several weeks longer than he actually needed, and so they immediately rushed into taking the MITB contract away. Even now this still seems like an unnecessary move to me, considering the contract is supposedly good for an entire year. The MITB would’ve added that much more intrigue to the dude’s eventual return to the ring. And I’m not sure about Orton’s bad behavior, but I wouldn’t rule it out. And like I said above, Edge had a broken jaw.

Good to see someone finally remind us about this match. Its been one of my fav tv match

Posted By: smackdown02-03rockd

A great match. One that I’d say is on par with the ‘rockd’-ness of SmackDown in ’02 and ’03.

“This match should have happened at WrestleMania 23”

I may be wrong, but wasn’t Edge injured in the weeks leading up to Wrestlemania 23? I seem to remember there being some worries about whether he’d even be able to wrestle in the MITB match.

Posted By: Adam

The only injury I’m aware of was suffered in his MITB qualifier against RVD. This means that they’d already decided to put Edge (and presumably Orton) into the MITB match before he was injured. If they hadn’t booked MITB that way, Edge would’ve never had that match with RVD and the injury would’ve never occurred. Oh, and we’d have had a Rated RKO WrestleMania blowoff. Moral of the story: RVD>Fate.

While I do not and would not ever wish injury upon a wrestler, HHH’s quad tear at NYR 2007 was really a blessing for the Raw main event. Instead of Rated RKO being buried, they could claim to have ended DX – which was their original goal. Instead of returning HHH the favour for WM22, Cena got to go over HBK at WM23 and solidify his position as THE man. And of course Shawn really came into his own once he was done with DX.

But I do agree with the article that this match should have happened at WM23. Edge and Randy were above MITB and deserved a feud-ending match on the biggest show of the year.

Posted By: jobbers

The matches between Cena and HBK during that time were excellent stuff, way better than what we would’ve gotten out of a Cena-HHH feud. Cena’s WM 23 match with Shawn was far superior to his outing against HHH a year prior in my estimation.

I think Orton was in the doghouse too around that time, which is why he was jobbing out. They didn’t have the match until after Backlash because Orton was sent home from Raw, which is why Cena/HBK got an hour.

Thinking back on it, it’s crazy how Orton quickly shot up the card after he got his act together, he quickly became the uber-heel that he is now.

Posted By: D-Man

Orton is a completely different man now when compared to Rated RKO. At the time I commented to a buddy of mine that Orton had ended up just like his old man, only getting over by latching onto and supporting a stronger heel, that he had become the Ace to Edge’s HotRod. Just a couple of years later and Orton has completely proven me wrong, becoming the uber-heel you describe. My hat’s off to Randy. There was a time when nobody thought he was ever going to come out of that post-face-turn slump.

This is a better match then the 2004 match, which had a good final 10 minutes but the opening 15 was pretty boring with too many Orton chinlocks.

Posted By: jbardo

Thankfully Orton has learned to not rely on the Chinlock so much these days. However, there was a time …

i think every mark on here just messed themselves

Posted By: Guest#5786

You say “every” like you know how many people named Mark read this thing. And what would make them lose control of their bodily functions? Geez, Guest#5786…

I remember three or four excellent 1-on-1 matches between these two (Vengeance ’04, the Raw rematch thereto, etc.) They work together really, really well. Too bad they’re the two best heels the company has had in a decade and probably won’t be working against each other again in the foreseeable future.

Posted By: KanyonKreist

Eventually, according to Sam Cooke, change is gonna come. And I believe him. Edge, Orton, and Jericho are the top three heels in WWE right now. Edge and Jericho have more than proven themselves in the past as efficient babyfaces, and Orton has had his moments of face greatness here and there. Edge and Orton have been working as heels for several years now, just about as long as guys like Batista and John Cena have been standing up as the good guys. Eventually they’re going to want to freshen things up, and one or two of these guys is going to undergo a change. But none of this is going to happen until the kids stop chanting for Cena, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.

“Just like a Taz Facebook post, DX had finally crossed the line.”

Okay, I literally spit reading that. Well done.

The WWF Championship match at Royal Rumble 2001 between Kurt Angle and Triple H was heel/heel and it was pretty good. Granted, Hunter was quasi-face but, like Orton, that was more anti-Angle than pro-Game. And Austin’s run-in to set up No Way Out definitely solidified HHHs heel status.

Posted By: neverAcquiesce

I can’t believe I forgot about that since I used to be such a huge mark for Angle, but you’re damn right. Great heel vs. heel match. A great Rumble card overall actually.

I am so glad to hear some DX hate; I couldn’t agree more with your assessment of their horrid reign during 2006. As a long-time hater of HBK (and, to a much lesser degree, HHH), the last thing I wanted to see every week was the burial of young guys by these two, and the constant main events against the McMahons. But at least we got this match as a result… Good read, man.

Posted By: Guest#6900

Ah, 2006. I’ll be happy if I never see another Handicap match again. But until HHH retires, I don’t think I’ll get my wish.

Speaking of heel vs heel matches, I started to get into wrestling in 1992 and one of the first PPVs I saw was Summerslam 1992. There was a heel vs heel match between HBK and Rick Martel(fighting over Sherri) and I thought it was really well done. Agree that more heel vs heel would be good. I wouldn’t mind seeing Edge vs Y2J sometime this year.

Posted By: showster

Edge vs. Jericho would be mighty interesting. I’m curious to see who would get more face heat out of the two if they ran a straight heel vs. heel program.

I like hot ham and cheese

Posted By: cutesy mcbuttons

Oh, Cutesy.

They’re holding hands in that last picture

Posted By: Lexi

Upon further investigation, it would seem that Edge and Randall are indeed sharing a moment together in said photograph. No further information exists at this time regarding the extent of their intimacy in early 2007.

I quite liked the Lesnar vs Big Show heel vs heel match at SS02.

Posted By: RB

From what I remember, Lesnar was being booked more and more as a face following his HIAC with Taker at No Mercy. He was constantly defying Heyman’s orders and standing up for himself, which led to Heyman stabbing him in the back at Survivor Series. Character affiliations aside, I agree that it was a good match worth revisiting. Lesnar was one of the few guys who could pull out consistently entertaining matches with Big Show.

you forgot to mention that this match was supposed to happen on the RAW before backlash, but cena and shawn went for an hour long match and orton was sent home for the hotel incident

Posted By: Guest#0297

I did cover just about all of that, just not Orton’s behavioral problems.

Wasn’t this feud shortened mainly because Batista got injured, so they moved Edge to SD and made him champion? If so, that’s the big culprit.

Posted By: JLAJRC

Undertaker and Kennedy both went down with injuries. Since they apparently didn’t want to put the belt on Batista, Edge won Kennedy’s MITB contract and then jumped to SD to cash in on a weakened Undertaker.

F U Jim Grimm! You know you wanted DX back together in 06′ too! You were no different than any one else back then. Don’t even try to front playa!

Posted By: Aho

Start smacking yourself for this was an awesome overview of these two and their chimpionship rise to stardom again(well for edge that is…)

Keep it PG 13 ya dumbass bastard! LOL

Posted By: guest1228

Thank you, Guest1228. At least someone realizes my need to cater to children and milk their parents of all their money.

i didn’t watch the raw when orton and edge had that match and i finally got to see it when i watched the edge dvd and it is a brillant match that i would of loved to seen live. whats your thoughts on the edge dvd Jim?

Posted By: Craig J

The Edge DVD, like most of the E’s career DVDs, reeks of awesomeness. And no, I don’t get paid to say that, but yes, I am willing to take money if anyone from WWE is reading this.

Really they could’ve thrown any matches on that DVD and I would’ve gone nuts over it just because I’m a huge Edge mark. But the Decade of Decadence release, although way too light on E&C greatness, is well worth its price tag. It gets a little Taker-heavy on the third disc, but each match is damn entertaining.

I admire your disdain for Damn DX.

Posted By: Propagandhi

Not a great time in Raw history by any means. At least during their segments.

I was going through some old tapes last week and came upon another heel/heel match and one that was quite significant for other reasons as well: Stone Cold Steve Austin -vs- Hunter Hearst-Helmsley from In Your House: Buried Alive in October 1996. Austin was just coming into his own and was getting some face pops here and there but was really only cheered in this match because Hunter was such an arrogant ass.

Plus, in addition to being heel versus heel, it was the first televised (that I can recall) meeting of two men who would, just two years later, become huge stars for the company and headline PPVs together a year after that.

And it was a good match on top of all that.

Posted By: neverAcquiesce

I completely forgot about this one too. I haven’t seen it in quite a while, so I guess I’m going to YouTube once I finish this article. This is definitely a possibility for a future column. Good call!

– –

That’ll do it for this week. Kind of a lengthy go-round this week but I guess it’s necessary when explaining Russo’s booking. Until next time, everybody try to stay safe and out of Mexico.

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