Forgotten Favorites 04.02.09: Backlash 2002 – Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker

Welcome back, wrestling fans. We’re getting closer and closer to WrestleMania, and I, for one, am pretty excited. The card isn’t exactly what I was hoping for, but regardless, it’s WrestleMania. An awesome time to be a wrestling fan indeed.

If you haven’t been here before (or if you like reading the same lame paragraph every week), here’s my purpose for 411 existence:

The evil master of wrestling history, who rules from his titanic towers of evil, takes great joy in robbing his followers of cherished memories. He has even gone so far as to wave his billion-dollar wand on more than one occasion in an attempt to completely erase particular pockets of time. Well, we, the people, have refused to stand for such injustices, and as a result, I have been called upon to right the wrongs of time.

This week we’re going back to 2002 once again to take a look at a match that’s happened many, many times. Two guys that headlined several PPVs during the Attitude Era squared off in a semi-main event that’s sort of slipped past a lot of fans’ (and the WWE’s) radar.

So … who wants great wrestling?

Backlash – April 21, 2002
Special Guest Referee: Ric Flair
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker

HOW IT WENT DOWN

The entire landscape of the then-WWF changed forever on March 25, 2002. On that night the first draft was held to determine the exclusive rosters of Raw and SmackDown. Ric Flair, a co-owner of the company at the time, represented Raw in the draft selections. And much to the surprise of the wrestling world, Flair’s first draft pick was the man who had just bloodied and beat him at WrestleMania, The Undertaker.

The next week on Raw, a pissed-off Deadman interrupted Flair’s presentation of the new Undisputed Championship belt to Triple H. Citing his WrestleMania victories over both Flair and HHH, Taker claimed he was deserving of a title shot at the upcoming Backlash PPV. HHH seemed more than willing to oblige with a title shot, and it seemed that was that.

Also later on that same night, Stone Cold Steve Austin returned from a short hiatus to declare that he had signed an exclusive contract with Raw. And just to make sure his new boss understood what kind of an employee he had to deal with, Austin ended the night with a Stone Cold Stunner for Flair.

The Backlash title match plans took a different direction on SmackDown. At the time, the Undisputed Champion wrestled on both Raw and SmackDown. And it was the blue brand who’d gotten the right to challenge the champion at the first PPV of the extension. Vince McMahon wasted no time in declaring Hulk Hogan the number one contender for HHH’s title at Backlash.

That didn’t sit too well with the Undertaker, and he kicked things off in a foul badass mood on the following Raw. He got in Flair’s face and demanded that he be named the number one contender for after Backlash. But that didn’t sit too well with Raw’s newest superstar, one Stone Cold Steve Austin, who hit the ring and demanded his own title shot. To settle the matter, Flair set up two matches for later that night on Raw: Undertaker vs. Rob Van Dam and Stone Cold vs. Scott Hall. The winners of those respective matches would square off at Backlash to determine the number one contender for Judgment Day.

As you might have guessed, Austin and Undertaker won their Raw matches and were signed to face off at Backlash. The following week on Raw, Ric Flair, fed up with Austin and Taker’s defiance, declared that he would be the special guest referee for their match at Backlash. Flair also signed a handicap main event for later that night on Raw, with nWo members Scott Hall and X-Pac teaming up with Undertaker to take on Stone Cold and Bradshaw. Yep, Bradshaw.

And so came the night of Backlash, where two guys who’ve met many, many times before were ready to go one more time under the bright lights. Who would earn the title shot at Judgment Day?

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

WHY IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

Regardless of the quality of the match (which is pure awesomeness), the three participants involved alone warrants this match’s memory. You have the Icon of Attitude in Steve Austin, the WrestleMania legend in the Undertaker, and a man many regard as the greatest of all time in Ric Flair. Whenever three of the biggest names in the history of the business get together inside the ring, it’s a fairly historical event.

Adding even further magic to this match is the fact that all three men were certifiable legends by the time of Backlash ’02. Compare this match to the WWE Title confrontation between Undertaker and Austin at Cold Day In Hell in ’97 and you’ll see a world of difference. While both men were certainly over at the time of their ’97 encounter, neither man was anywhere near the legendary status they’d have five years later. The same can be said for one of the undercard matches at that particular In Your House PPV, where a young Rocky Maivia took on this guy named Mankind. The Austin-Taker and Rock-Mankind matches that took place in May of ’97 were nowhere near the level of their ’98 and ’99 encounters, simply because they hadn’t yet achieved the megastar status that they would once the Attitude Era really got rolling.

My point here is that Austin vs. Taker was a big deal in 2002, and the fans knew it. When watching the tape, take notice of the crowd reaction once all three men have entered the ring. Before the match even begins, the audience is surging with electricity. There are “What?” chants, booming “Whoo!”s, and you can only make those out when the crowd isn’t just consumed by all-around noise. With so much history between all three guys, particularly the Rattlesnake and the Deadman, the fans knew that they were witnessing something special and that it may have been for the last time. Sadly, as it turns out, it was the last time.

If you were watching at the time or you’ve studied up on your history, you know all about Austin’s infamous departure from WWE not long after his Backlash match with the Undertaker. I’ve never personally spoken to the Bionic Redneck regarding his “walk-out,” but the reasons that surfaced at the time related more to booking problems than health ones. When considering the end of Stone Cold’s career, fans will likely first think of his final performance against The Rock at WrestleMania XIX, a match where Austin held his own but was clearly not the Stone Cold of old. This is a shame, considering one year prior Austin was still taking part in weekly, active competition and, while no spring chicken, still delivered quality matches.

Austin’s third WrestleMania match against The Rock was a classic but still wasn’t the Stone Cold of old

There are a lot of fans who shy away from giving Steve Austin credit as a good worker, which is something I will never understand. He’s often written off as a sub-par wrestler who, even in his “prime,” was strictly a punch-kick-Stunner brawler. You’ll also hear claims that his ring work suffered ever since the SummerSlam ’97 incident with Owen Hart and that his ring skills quickly deteriorated. What’s often ignored is the fact that Attitude Era matches were punch-kick-finisher for nearly everyone. Once the Attitude started to fade and Austin turned heel, he started having some tremendous matches with guys like Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Kurt Angle, matches that stand among my personal favorites from any era. And then if you fast forward to the twilight of Austin’s active competition, you have a match like the Backlash encounter with Undertaker, where Austin was clearly still able to go, and for well over twenty minutes, no less.

And I hate to beat a dead horse (or dead man?) with certain subjects, but based on the reactions from a couple weeks ago, it still stands out: People loved the American Badass. A couple of weeks ago I highlighted a tag match from SmackDown ’03 that featured the face version of Biker Taker, but this week’s Backlash match showcases the most Badass of all Badassery. Taker was just coming off one hell of a bloody WrestleMania match with the Nature Boy, and he was simply pure evil (or Big Evil, I guess). He was a thinking-man’s wrestler who could either take you down to the mat or simply punch your teeth out, whichever he thought best at the time.

Favorite part of this feud? On an edition of Raw prior to Backlash (not sure on the date), The Undertaker — pushed over the edge by the audience’s “What?” after each of his sentences — told the crowd to “say ‘What’ again if you sleep with your sister.” And they did. And on this night, it was Undertaker-1, Incestuous Wrestling Fans-0.

WHY IT ISN’T REMEMBERED

Ask a fan to name a Stone Cold vs. Undertaker match and what do you think they’ll come up with first? SummerSlam ’98? Their Buried Alive confrontation at Rock Bottom? I don’t mean to suggest that their Backlash encounter has been forgotten by most wrestling fans (avid fans will more than likely remember it), but this match’s legacy is nothing compared to some of their other classics. It’s not necessarily a good or a bad thing, but it is a bit unfortunate, considering their Backlash match featured action that was just as good, if not better than their other confrontations.

One of the more iconic moments of the Attitude Era

We’ve also got to take into account the time period in which this match took place. This was shortly after the beginnings of the brand extension and shortly before the name change from the Federation to pure Entertainment. Things were hectic in the soon-to-be Land of the E. The separate rosters we’ve all gotten used to these days (separate in name, at least) were a fresh new direction at the time, but they still took some time getting used to. Until we got roster-exclusive World Champions, things were a little unstable on both Raw and SmackDown, with wrestlers frequently switching back and forth (Benoit, Guerrero, Jericho, the Un-Americans, etc). Exciting stuff was definitely going on at this time (Austin-Taker, the Angle-Edge feud, Lesnar’s rise), but it all got caught up in a trade-crazy, messy start to the brand extension.

WILL IT BE REMEMBERED?

Saying it isn’t remembered at all is a bit of a stretch. I haven’t seen it on any DVD compilations, but it was a high profile match that was released on a PPV DVD. The number one contender stipulation, PPV setting, and legendary participants are definitely going to make this a standout in any fan’s memory. It may not have gotten as much attention as its deserved over the years since, but I have hope that people are still going to be talking about this one for a while. Austin, Undertaker, and Flair are three of the best, and fans are going to want to get their hands on any match involving these three guys.

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Feedback will return next week, provided school hasn’t bombarded me with stuff that I’ve forgotten is due. Keep the discussion going and the suggestions coming. To the dude who wants Orton-Edge, be patient, my friend. Its time is coming.

Until next time, stay safe and out of jail.