Top 5 all-time matches from WWE Backlash/WrestleMania Backlash

Best Backlash matches of all time No. 1: Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley- Hardcore match, Intercontinental Championship (Backlash 2004)

Whenever WWE needed to elevate a young heel in the mid-2000s, the company often turned to Mick Foley as the guy to hand out that signature win. Makes sense, as he was the guy who essentially christened Triple H as the company’s top antagonist via two brutal classics at the turn of the millennium.

Four years later, it was Triple H’s Evolution stablemate Randy Orton’s turn to endure this baptism-by-barbed-wire-and-thumbtacks on the path to superstardom, and boy, is this an arduous path.

This match — contested under hardcore rules — set out to wrap up a feud that started in December and included a fun handicap match pitting Orton, Ric Flair, and Batista against Foley and The Rock at WrestleMania XX (Rock’s last match for over seven years). It gets off to the correct start tonally — Foley going after Orton with a barbed wire-wrapped bat like a Terminator, shattering through Orton’s bravado — and from there, Foley spent most of the match torturing the future Hall of Famer.

For his part, Orton provided opportunistic cutoffs that accentuated his smarmy persona and the cathartic bumping and facial expressions that maximized the punishment Foley dished out (his selling after landing in the thumbtacks was excellent). Plus, he gained some needed credibility for simply withstanding everything Foley did to him and picking up a relatively clean win over the legend.

The chemistry between these two and the simmering hot crowd make this for a fun rewatch (plus, it’s a pretty safe match for 2004 and by Foley’s usual standards).