Backlash (1999)

Background From 1995 to 1999, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) ran a series of monthly pay-per-views (PPV) titled In Your House, which were held between the promotion's five major PPVs at the time: Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Five". The next event was originally to be "Backlash: In Your House", but in April 1999, the WWF phased out the In Your House events to establish permanent names for the monthly pay-per-views held between the "Big Five". Backlash in turn dropped the In Your House branding and was the first monthly PPV held following the discontinuation of the In Your House shows. Early advertising had included the In Your House branding, but it was dropped in the weeks leading up to the pay-per-view. Backlash was subsequently held after WrestleMania XV, and it took place on April 25, 1999, at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The concept of the pay-per-view was based around the backlash from WWF's flagship event, WrestleMania. Storylines The event consisted of eight professional wrestling matches with predetermined outcomes. The matches involved wrestlers portraying their characters (known as gimmicks) in planned storylines that took place before, during and after the event. The main feud going into the event involved the WWF Championship, which Stone Cold Steve Austin had won from The Rock at WrestleMania XV. The following night on Raw is War, however, Austin demanded the return of his Smoking Skull belt, a personalized championship belt that he had worn the previous year during his tenure as WWF Champion, which villainous WWF owner Mr. McMahon had stolen from him at Breakdown: In Your House, after causing Austin to lose. Rather than oppose him as he usually would, McMahon acquiesced to the request as The Undertaker had threatened his family. Mr. McMahon's son, Shane, disagreed and went against his father's wishes, stealing the Smoking Skull belt and giving it to The Rock, who was part of the villainous alliance The Corporation. Shane then unceremoniously ejected his father from The Corporation while Austin and Rock continued to feud over ownership of Austin's personalized belt. This culminated with a fight between the two which ended with Rock throwing Austin, and then the belt, into a river from a bridge in Detroit which alluded to the events of December 1997 when Austin threw Rock's Intercontinental Championship into the Oyster River. The Rock held a mock funeral the following week for Austin, revealing he still had possession of the Smoking Skull belt; Austin crashed the funeral with a monster truck and crushed Rock's limousine and hearse. During the Sunday Night Heat that aired before the event, Shane declared that the match was to have a no disqualification stipulation and announced himself as the special guest referee. 's Ministry of Darkness group was involved in a number of rivalries at Backlash The Undertaker, meanwhile, was involved in a storyline where he became the leader of a Satanic group of wrestlers called The Ministry of Darkness. During the beginning of the year he began to articulate a desire for Stephanie McMahon leading to a Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania where Corporation member The Big Boss Man was hanged from the ceiling. Undertaker then became more aggressive in his actions, demanding Stephanie and offering 'sacrifices' when she was not given over to him. One woman he sacrificed, via crucifixion, was Ryan Shamrock who played the on-screen sister of Ken Shamrock. Fighting for family honor, Shamrock vowed to break Undertaker's leg. Undertaker's obsession with Stephanie led to another match being made at the event. During April Undertaker successfully managed to abduct Stephanie, however Shamrock, looking for revenge, set about trying to find her and attacked various members of the Ministry for her whereabouts. Eventually Christian revealed where she was, forcing The Undertaker to reprimand him by whipping him and leading to a crucifixion. While he was in the Ministry along with Edge and Gangrel, the three also made up a smaller group named The Brood who chose Christian over the Ministry and saved him, leaving the Ministry. This led to Undertaker's minions being forced to wrestle the Brood. Elsewhere on the card, Triple H fought X-Pac due to events that transpired at WrestleMania. During the event Chyna, who had been Triple H's valet and girlfriend but had since turned on him to ally with Kane, reunited with Triple H. The two, who were in a wrestling group called D-Generation X, came to ringside later in the match to ostensibly help fellow D-Generation X member X-Pac in his match against Shane McMahon. The two attacked X-Pac in order to ally with McMahon and The Corporation, however, and as a result, X-Pac lost the European Championship match. Desperate to be part of WrestleMania's main event, Mankind staked a claim to be the special guest referee but Corporation leader Vince McMahon preferred Big Show officiating to ensure The Rock remained champion. The two had a match at WrestleMania to determine who would referee the main event, which Mankind won by disqualification. In the storyline, however, Mankind was hospitalized after the match, while Big Show was arrested after he punched McMahon for slapping him. The two fought at WrestleMania but the match also included Billy Gunn ==Event==

Sunday Night Heat Before the pay-per-view event went on air, the crowd was warmed up with the cable television program Sunday Night Heat which consisted of four matches. In an intergender tag team contest, Val Venis and Nicole Bass defeated D'Lo Brown and Ivory when Nicole Bass pinned Ivory. lost the WWF Hardcore Championship to Al Snow The following match was for the Hardcore Championship, meaning there were few restrictions on the wrestlers who are allowed to use weapons and pin their opponent anywhere. The match began abruptly when Hardcore Holly used his championship belt to hit Al Snow. The match quickly moved outside the ring and into the crowd on the concrete floor. Snow performed a moonsault from the crowd barrier but was unable to pin Holly. After returning to the ring and fighting with a hockey stick, the two fought through to the backstage area and Holly tried to hit Snow with a kitchen sink but dropped it when he was sprayed with a hose. The two then moved through the parking lot and Holly threw Snow from the stairs into a dumpster where Holly tried to pin Snow on top of a bin bag. Snow also tried to pin his opponent on top of a car after an elbow drop. The match returned to the ring and Snow hit Holly with a frying pan but refused to pin him, opting instead to put him on a table and climb to the top rope; Holly recovered and stopped Snow, then superplexed Snow through the table length ways. After both wrestlers recovered, Snow grabbed a manikin head that he brought to ringside and hit Holly with it then pinned him to win the championship. After the match Vince McMahon reluctantly handed the Smoking Skull belt to Austin, who then celebrated with both belts. The feed then shifted to a limousine in the parking lot with Stephanie McMahon seated in the back. Despite waiting for her father, the car suddenly started driving. The feed then showed the inside of the car as the divide between passenger and chauffeur drew down to show The Undertaker in the driver's seat, turning and asking, "Where to, Stephanie?" ==Reception==

Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section rated the entire event 8 out of 10, declaring "the World Wrestling Federation had something to prove and prove it they did" in reference to a lackluster WrestleMania. Both the main event and the Boiler Room Brawl received a full 10 with reviewer John Powell declaring the main event had "enough imagination in it" to top their previous encounter. While most matches had strong ratings, the Intercontinental Championship match was given a lowly 4 out of 10. The most criticized match was the penultimate contest between The Undertaker and Ken Shamrock which was given only 3 out of 10 and described as an "unbearably boring, 18 minute-plus submission hold extravaganza". ==Aftermath==

A second Backlash event was held the following year after WrestleMania 2000, thus establishing Backlash as an annual PPV for the WWF; in 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE, which became an orphaned initialism in 2011). With the exception of the 2005 event, which was held in May, Backlash was held every April through the 2009 event. Throughout this time, it retained its position as the post-WrestleMania PPV. Backlash was reinstated in 2016, but it was held in September after that year's SummerSlam, thus ending its previous tradition of being the post-WrestleMania PPV. In 2021, however, Backlash was positioned as the first PPV held after WrestleMania 37, thus the event returned to its original concept and was titled "WrestleMania Backlash". The 2022 event was also held under the same name, while the 2023 event returned the event to its original "Backlash" name. This event turned out to be Owen Hart’s final pay-per-view match he would compete in before his accidental death one month later at Over the Edge. ==Results==