In the Spring of 2001 when the WWE purchased WCW from Turner Broadcasting it took a long time for all former stars to show up in WWE due to the long and hefty contracts being in place for top stars. Though names like Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Steiner, and Kevin Nash would show up in WWE by the fall of 2002 there were still some wholes needed to be filled. Following WrestleMania 19 and the departure of Steve Austin one of the WCW's biggest stars would finally debut for the company. During the Monday Night Wars the WCW missed the boat with a number of stars, but did hit it huge with former NFL player Bill Goldberg. 

​Many fans were both surprised and excited to see "Da Man" arrive in the WWE after such a gap of seeing him on television. The only unfortunate side effect of his arrival was that Steve Austin had just retired and missed the opportunity to work with Goldberg in a feud. Though I will point out that his second run with the company was a lot better than his first it is hard to ignore the fact that this is his first match with the WWE. At this point The Rock was leaving for Hollywood and did the honors for Bill upon his arrival in the company, being honest though this match wasn't that good it was the start of a new era. 

​Looking at the card overall though it was a sign of the "Ruthless Aggression" era with some lackluster matches within the card but other average match there as well. This show also sticks out due to the fact that this was the second to last PPV ahead of the company making events brand exclusive starting with Bad Blood in June. It is also funny to see Brock Lesnar facing John Cena who was still very early on in his main roster run at this point especially if you look ahead to the futures both men will have. 

WWE Backlash 2003

​Charlie Haas (c) & Shelton Benjamin (c) def. (pin) Chavo Guerrero & Eddie Guerrero WWE Tag Team Championship
Scott Steiner def. (pin) Rico 
Sean O'Haire def. (pin) Rikishi
Kane (c) & Rob Van Dam (c) def. (pin) Bubba Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley World Tag Team Titles (WWE)
Jazz def. (pin) Trish Stratus (c) WWE Women's Championship (original) (title change)
The Big Show def. (pin) Rey Mysterio
Brock Lesnar (c) def. (pin) John Cena WWE Championship
Chris Jericho & Ric Flair & Triple H def. (pin) Booker T. & Kevin Nash & Shawn Michaels 6-person tag
Goldberg def. (pin) The Rock

Though this might be known by everyone who is interest in the build to this event maybe I can fill someone in who hasn't heard anything about it. Apparently after months of speculation and wondering Cody, and the Young Bucks have found an arena for the All in event to be held on September 1st. Before this the last news worthy thing I heard was that they were narrowing things down between Chicago and California well they made their selection. On September 1st, 2018 the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois will play host to the event promoted by the Bullet Club. 

​For those who may not be aware the idea for this show came about last November when Dave Meltzer stated that he didn't believe ROH could draw 10,000 fans to an event. This drew the ire of then World Champion Cody Rhodes who defended the company and made it his mission to prove Meltzer wrong. Though it seems to have taken sometime to get the ball rolling things seem to be headed the right direction now with talent also starting to be announced for the show. Below is a list of talent set for the event so far according to 411mania.com: 

IWGP World Champion Kazuchika Okada                                    Stephen Amell     
Kenny Omega                                                                               Fenix & Pentagon Jr 
Cody                                                                                                 Joey Janela 
Adam Page & Marty Scrull                                                           Chelsea Green 
Young Bucks                                                                                  Penelope Ford 
​Tessa Blanchard ​                                                                          Deonna Purrazzo 

I don't do this a lot, but we move back to the same section two days in a row. I thought that addressing a pre-Hogan WCW event due to it's historical significance in wrestling. In April 1994 things were wearing thin between Mick Foley and WCW Management after constant disagrees over character development; and various other things that finally pushed Mick out the door. In hindsight this was a major loss for WCW as Mick would go onto become a legend of the wrestling business, but at the time wasn't really a hot commodity. The funny thing about the pre-Hogan WCW PPV's is that some were actually very underrated events like Spring Stampede 1994 for example. 

​One of the main reasons that Spring Stampede is underrated is due to the fact that this was one of if not Mick Foley's last appearance as a member of WCW. It is surprising to think that some fans don't know about Mick Foley's background in wrestling dating back to his time in various territories like World Class Championship Wrestling. Also Foley wouldn't be signed right away by WCW as at the time of his first appearance the company was on a talent freeze. According to Jim Cornette in various interviews it was an idea from the brains of both Jim Cornette & Jim Ross to have Mick appear as a job guy week to week and attack his partner. 

​Overall the man with many faces would've had a very different career had his creative disagreements with WCW management been settled. But bearing that in mind it is one of the most interesting parts of wrestling as it always lends to the idea "What if" being a very popular term in wrestling. After moving from WCW he would then become a regular with ECW and spend sometime with both SMW & in Japan. Following his infamous death match with Terry Funk over in Japan he would find his way up north back in the states becoming a member of WWE and the rest as they say is history. 

As always wrestling gives us both great memories and memories we try and forget, but with the amount of moments worth remembering that have happened we are bound to forget some. The same could be said about some talent that were very much underrated during their career or never at the top of a company during a run this unfortunately makes it easier for fans to forget certain talent. For today I have found two totally different talent with one being a legend and the other being one of the women helping continue to change the perception of women in wrestling. Also sometimes we encounter those that deserve to be remembered and acknowledged. I would like to wish a very big Happy Birthday to all who are celebrating their special day today and especially to the one featured below. ​

In late 2008 a mysterious figure appeared in a vignette on Smackdown and would subtly take shots at the Undertaker possibly setting a major push out of the gate. It all the right bars with leaving us to question what the future held for this new star and what skills he had to feud with Undertaker. Though at the time the vignette aired not many new that it was directed at the Undertaker and it was just something we found out over time. I mean don't get me wrong that the idea of his size being the rumored reason that the feud was a dropped is lame and a sign of the times. But it is interesting to think about what could've been had the WWE gone through with the idea for Vansen to feud with Undertaker. 

​The one reason I think that this feud was destined to fail at the start is because of when they chose to debut the new kid. If you are going to bring someone new in an immediately have them feud with The Undertaker then late December and January terrible picks unless it's going to be a short feud due to the Road to WrestleMania. With that being said it is tough to conclude that Hade would never work in a feud this close to WrestleMania. 

​Following his departure from the WWE his career would continue in his home country, but would fall away from the wrestling business. I think that at a different part of the year maybe when they started the Khali feud like post WrestleMania. Maybe if they chose to put the feud together around Summerslam I think that would've helped, but its also a question if Hade would've been ready or if he would've ended up like Jon Hendenrich. It is one of those perks of being a fans when you can ask what if and wonder how wrestling might have been different if something happened. Just to point out had this feud happened and went on to be Undertaker's mania match then its a question if Shawn Michaels and Undertaker would've done what they did considering 2009 was there first Mania classic. 

Over the years I have found that some series have been somewhat staples of the site and others have been better as occasional asides from the normal. One of those series is the DVD Review series where I offer an overview on a wrestling DVD that I recently watch normally it is a DVD from Kayfabecommentaries.com but not always. This time though we go "Back to the Territories" specifically the Georgia territory with Jim Cornette & Bill "Masked Superstar" Eadie. 

Things they focus on in the DVD: 
- The wrestling war in Georgia with GCW & Ann Gunkel from 1972-1974 
- Jim Barnett & his role in Georgia wrestling history
- The differences between Northern & Southern Wrestling 
- The difference between a booker & a team of writers 
- The Role of TBS in Georgia Championship Wrestling & how it helped wrestling 
- Working with Andre The Giant, Anderson Family, Geto Mongol, George Scott, Thunderbolt Patterson & many many others. 
- Black Saturday
- Jim Barnett's Departure and much more

Around this time is also when Turner Broadcasting had been shopping the WCW and wanted the company gone. Little did we know at the time they wanted nothing to do with wrestling anymore and went as far to eliminate wrestling from their channels. Luckily for Paul he had one more option that was Fox; so Paul began talking with Arthur Smith who was the President of Fox Sports at the time. Fox wouldn’t offer Paul a viable timeslot that could help sustain the company for a long time, but they only offered Paul a half hour a week. One part that I forgot was that near the end Paul actually was looking for investors and went to Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan for an investment. However, Billy turned Paul down due to Paul asking for a 1 million dollar investment for only 10 percent of the company and Billy not thinking ECW was worth that at the time. It is interesting to think that Billy has had the bug to get into the wrestling business since the early part of the century. 

One of the major reasons why ECW went out of business was due to the fact that money was being withheld by PPV Providers and Gaming Publisher. For the names of both companies and even more information on the matter you need to take a trip down memory lane and do your research. But the problem was that ECW never made a dime from the company published their video game. Also once they lost the TV provider their PPV provider began to withhold their profits from the show because the upper management in the PPV company felt it would be easier to pay less money later when the company was bankrupt rather paying a lot of money at the time and banking on them staying in business.