[1999-04-25-WWF-Backlash] Steve Austin vs The Rock

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Pretty typical Attitude Era main event. I remembered this match being much better. The brawling is really good, but I'm tired of Austin matches where 60% of it is outside the ring. All the extracurricular stuff is well-booked and this is a good match layout, but I like it way less with a fresh set of eyes. This has the famous "WHERE TO, STEPHANIE?" abduction from Undertaker at the end. This is the most soap opera-like the WWF has ever been.

[tim]

Again this works thanks to lots of bells and whistles which isn't a complaint. I actually liked this a good bit more than the Wrestlemania match. Rock's bumping on the outside was really great. The outside brawling was better than at Wrestlemania and this never got boring. Had a strong ending too.

[Tim Evans]

I enjoyed this more than the Mania match but even I'm getting sick of the brawling Austin matches. I know he was injured so he had to work matches like this but the constant crowd involvement hurts the match. I liked the stuff with the cameras. Especially the stunner on the Rock. Vince helps Austin by taking out Shane when he runs off. I think this was before the black wedding though.

[soup23]

Slightly prefer the Mania match as the ending felt more complete but this was a very good match. The Brawling was typical but we get some extra stuff like the Rock Bottom through the table and Rock with the camera. The ending with Vince helping Austin but not really aligning with him was interesting too. WHERE TO STEPHANIE is ridiculous Russo shit. ***3/4

[Zenjo]

That's my favourite Undertaker line ever.

 

That was by far the highlight as this match format is starting to get old now. Lots of arena brawling, lots of swerves and overbooking, not much wrestling.

[jasch]

This is a high end Attitude Era main event, but I agree with those who think the Austin match formula is getting a bit stale. ****

[PeteF3]

Stale, maybe, and it's going to get worse before it gets better. As a match in isolation, though, this was very enjoyable with quite a bit of thought clearly put into it for such a garbage brawl--every spot gets paid back somehow, from one guy to the other. And even now it sort of had me guessing as to exactly what the hell they were going to do to get past the Shane-as-ref stip. They came up with a pretty good finish under the circumstances, and Vince plays the finish and post-match really well and shockingly understated. He's just helped Austin and conceded the smoking skull belt to him, but was clearly conflicted and ambivalent about doing so.

 

WHERE TO, STEPHANIE? Every passing segment gets us just a little bit closer to the end of the Ministry.