IWE Backlash (2009)

From Iwe

Backlash (2009)
Promotional poster featuring Kevin McAlmond
Theme song(s)	"Seasons" by The Veer Union
Imformation
Promotion	International Wrestling Entertainment
Date	April 26, 2009
Attendance	8,357
Venue	Dunkin' Donuts Center
City	Providence, Rhode Island
Pay-per-view chronology
WrestleMania XXV	Backlash (2009)	Judgment Day (2009)
Backlash chronology
Backlash (2008)	Backlash (2009)	Final

Backlash (2009) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by International Wrestling Entertainment (IWE). It took place on April 26, 2009 at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The 11th and final event under the Backlash banner, it featured talent from all three IWE brands: Raw, SmackDown, and XCW. The event's card featured seven matches.

The main event consisted of a Last Man Standing match for the World Heavyweight Championship, in which Edge defeated Dustin Simpson to win. The other main match scheduled on the event's card was a Six-Man Tag Team match for the IWE Championship between Triple K (champion), Jesse Dern and James Mayer, and The Legacy (Kevin McAlmond, Mark Semmler and Ted DiBiase). Legacy won the match and Orton became the new IWE Champion. Other matches also appeared on the event's card. The first was an "I Quit" match between Jeff and Matt Hooper and three singles matches: Khristian versus Charlie Wilson for the XCW Championship, followed by Justin Eldridge versus Kane, and Kris McGowan versus Ricky Steamboat.

The event had 182,000 buys, down on the Backlash (2008) figure of 200,000 buys.

Background

Backlash featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that played out on Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, XCW on Sci Fi, and IWE Superstars—International Wrestling Entertainment's (IWE) primary television programs. Wrestlers portrayed either a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. The event featured wrestlers from IWE's Raw, SmackDown, and XCW brands—a storyline division in which IWE employees are assigned to the television program of the same name.

The main rivalry heading into Backlash 2009 pitted Triple K against Kevin McAlmond over the IWE Championship. The feud had started on the February 16 episode of Raw, when McAlmond punted Triple K's brother-in-law, Lewis Wright and then performed the RKO on his wife Bonnie Wright. As a result, Triple K convinced Orton to challenge him for the WWE title at WrestleMania XXV. At WrestleMania on April 5, 2009, Triple H defeated Orton to retain the championship. The following night on Raw, IWE chairman Gary Wright announced that a six-man tag team match would take place at Backlash between Triple L, Lewis Wright and himself against The Legacy (McAlmond, [[Mark Semmler and Kyle Johnson) which was later turned into a IWE Championship match by new General Manager of Raw, Lynn Lehr. That same night, Shane and Triple K were attacked by The Legacy, but were saved by a returning Batista. Gary announced that Batista would be taking his place at Backlash. On the following week's edition of Raw, after returning to IWE the week before, Batista arrived on the night of the IWE Draft lottery. Batista made clear his desire to face McAlmond on Raw and take revenge for the punt that kept him from the ring for four months. He was later joined in the ring by both Lewis and IWE Champion Triple K, who both wanted to get their hands on McAlmond for his attacks on Bonnie Wright and the IWE Chairman himself, Mr. Wright. As the three argued over who would get first dibs on McAlmond, they were interrupted by Lynn Lehr, who announced that only one of them would get the opportunity to face McAlmond before Backlash, and that they would have to earn it. Lehr then placed Triple K, Batista and Lewis Wright in a three-on-two Handicap match against The Legacy for later in the night. Whichever one of them would score the pinfall on either Semmler or Johnson will have earned themselves a match against McAlmond on the next Raw, but if The Legacy prevailed, then none of the three would be able to get their hands on him. Triple K pinned Johnson. On the last episode of Raw, McAlmond defeated Triple K in a No disqualification match despite of their teammates interfering during the match. Then a few days later on SmackDown, Batista and Lewis Wright defeated Johnson and Semmler in a tag team match.

Another rivalry heading into Backlash brought together Dustin Simpson and Edge over the World Heavyweight Championship. At IWE's February pay-per-view event, No Way Out on February 15, 2009, Edge attacked Jose Serrano, who was due to compete in an Elimination Chamber match for Simpson's World Heavyweight Championship. As a result, Edge took his spot in the match and won the title by last eliminating Scott Wright. At WrestleMania XXV, Simpson defeated the defending champion Edge and The Big Show in a Triple Threat match to win the championship back. On the April 6 episode of Raw, Lynn Lehr announced that Simpson would defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Edge in a Last Man Standing match at Backlash.

Interim General manager Tiffany announced on the April 7 episode of ECW on Sci Fi that Charlie Wilson would defend his ECW Championship against the winner of the "elimination chase", which commenced on that night and featured Khristian, Tommy Brown, Finlay, and Steven Larson; the participants in the chase would have a four-way that night. Larson got pinned the same night and was eliminated from contention. The remaining three wrestlers competed in a Triple Threat match on the April 14 episode of XCW on Sci Fi with the person being pinned or forced to submit being eliminated from contention; Brown was pinned in this contest, leading to a singles match between Finlay and Khristian on the April 16 episode of IWE Superstars, which saw Khristian get the victory, thus allowing him to face Wilson for the title at Backlash.

After Matt Hooper betrayed his brother, Josh, at Royal Rumble — costing the latter the IWE Championship against Edge —the two embarked on a feud that saw Josh initially reluctant to fight his brother; after much goading, they had a match at WrestleMania XXV, which saw Matt win; however, with Josh not fully incapacitated after Matt had vowed to "erase Josh from the IWE", a stretcher match took place between the two, which Matt also won. As a result of their feud, the SmackDown general manager, Theodore Long, announced an "I Quit" match between the two at Backlash.

After the release of the film, The Wrestler, and the film's actor Mickey Rourke backing out of a challenge that he had earlier issued to Khris Jericho to a match at WrestleMania XXV, Jericho started targeting IWE's legends and Hall of Famers by insulting and beating them over many weeks on Raw. (These legends included the likes of Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka and Ricky Steamboat.) At WrestleMania XXV, Jericho defeated Piper, Snuka and Steamboat in a Handicap Elimination match. After winning, Jericho called Rourke out in the ring. During the confrontation between the two, Rourke knocked Jericho down with a punch. Then, on the April 20 episode of Raw, it was announced that Jericho would face Ricky Steamboat in a singles match at Backlash.

Event

Before the event began and aired live on pay-per-view, a dark match took place in which Jose Serrano defeated Nick Kessler in a singles match.

Preliminary matches

The show commenced with XCW Champion, Charlie Wilson, defending his title against Khristian. Wilson dominated his opponent early in the match, succeeding in grounding him with takedowns, suplexes, and some heavy slams. Khristian managed to capitalize after dodging some of Wilson's attacks before the two both went down; leading to both men staggering into opposite corners, removing the padding on the top turnbuckle closest to their respective positions. As Swagger ran to attack his opponent, Christian dodged one last tackle, letting Swagger's head collide with the exposed steel. Khristian then grabbed Wilson by the arms and connected with his finishing move, the killswitch, driving his head into the mat and pinning him to win the XCW Championship, his first World Championship in IWE.

The following contest involved Khris Jericho and Ricky Steamboat — the latter competing in his first singles match since 1994. The match centered around the idea of Jericho viciously attacking his adversary only to have Steamboat retaliate and compete with his younger opponent, executing his signature moves: arm drags, chops, and a diving crossbody, only to have Jericho counter the latter with a knee to the face called the Codebreaker. Following the attack, Jericho grabbed Steamboat's legs, and applied his signature submission hold the Walls of Jericho, with Steamboat ultimately submitting. Following his loss, Steamboat was given a standing ovation from the crowd in attendance.

Justin Eldridge wrestled Kane next, with Eldridge mainly attacking Kane's arm with kicks and arm bars to prevent him from performing his finishing maneuver, the chokeslam, which requires Kane to lift his opponent with one arm. After Eldridge tried to incapacitate his opponent, Kane managed to get a hold of Eldridge's leg to execute a leg-trap chokeslam before pinning him.

The fourth match on the show, the "I Quit" match, featured Matt and Josh Hooper. The two brothers brutally assaulted each other throughout the match, hitting each other with a number of heavy shots and submission holds, with neither man yielding to the other. After Josh had gained an advantage with Matt incapacitated, he placed him onto a table, then taped his arms and legs together before strapping him onto the table. Josh then went under the ring, and withdrew a ladder, and set it up in the corner of the ring closest to his prone opponent. When the referee asked Matt if he wanted to quit, he took the opportunity to talk down Josh, bringing up the case of what his father and late mother would think of this before uttering the phrase, "I quit". Despite Josh winning the match and coming down from the ladder onto the top turnbuckle, he still vaulted over the ladder, and performed a leg drop on his brother, going through the table.

Justina Black (really Justin Black in drag posing as his fictitious twin sister) came down to the ring after the match, and proclaimed her prowess before The Great Khali entered in the hopes of kissing Black, only to have Black refuse, claiming to love another man, SmackDown commentator, Jim Ross, who sat at ringside with Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole. This led to Chandra Denney to come to the ring outraged by what is transpiring with Khali's obliviousness; she challenged Black for her title of Miss WrestleMania. Before the match started, Khali hit Denney, leading to Black pinning a capsized Denney to retain her title.

Main event matches

The first of two main event matches on the show involved the six-man tag-team match for the IWE Championship pitting Triple K (the champion), Batista, and Lewis Wright against The Legacy (Kevin McAlmond, Mark Semmler, and Kyle Johnson). The match started out with Triple K and McAlmond brawling out of the ring to the backstage area while Batista and Wright would continue to wrestle The Legacy. Once the two contenders fought their way back into the ring, the match centered around Legacy isolating every member of their opponents, preventing any way for them to make a tag. The tides turned once Batista managed to get into the match, and sent the action onto the outside, and Triple K managing to make the tag. Shortly thereafter, the legal man, McAlmond, applied his signature move, the RKO, and drove him to the mat on his face. He went for the pin, but his opponent kicked out of it; this led to McAlmond standing up, and running into his downed opponent with his signature punt. This time, McAlmond pinned him, winning the title for the third time. Following the match, Triple K was taken out on a stretcher.

The main event saw World Heavyweight Champion, Dustin Simpson, defending his title against Edge in a Last Man Standing Match. The match started as a heavy brawl between the two, each trying to beat the other down to reach the ten-count fast, only to have each of them get to their feet in time. The match degenerated to the outside with Edge and Simpson using the detachable steel steps connected to the ring as a weapon, as they threw each other into it, threw it at each other, and even have Edge tackle Simpson with his finishing move, the Spear. The match continued with both men being only able to incapacitate their opponent for a nine-count until they both ended up on the announcers' table, leading to Simpson hoisting Edge up onto his shoulders, and throwing him into the crowd with his finishing maneuver, the Attitude Adjustment. After the wrestlers reached to their feet, they fought around the arena, going into the surrounding lobby until they made their way to the stage, leading to an eventual interruption from their other WrestleMania triple threat match opponent, The Big Show, which had him lift up Simpson, and chokeslam him through a nearby spotlight that exploded; Simpson was unable to make the ten-count, thus having Edge win the title for the fifth time. In a case similar to Triple K, Simpson was taken out of the arena on a stretcher, as the event came to a close.

Aftermath

Reception

Results

See also

• IWE Backlash
• List of IWE pay-per-view events