10 Best WWE Raw Brand Pay-Per-Views Ever

6. Backlash 2005

Edge Chris Benoit Last Man Standing Match Backlash 2005
WWE.com

Backlash was one of the more consistent shows of the Ruthless Aggression era, with the 2006 edition just missing out on this list. There’s something about a tag team match featuring God that is either incredible or downright awful, after all.

The 2005 edition of the show was strong from top to bottom, as long as you discard the inevitably terrible Kane and Viscera match in the middle. The show opened with an excellent Intercontinental Championship match between Shelton Benjamin and Chris Jericho, before The Hurricane and Rosey finally ascended to the top of RAW’s tag team division. The superhero duo’s tag team championship win is largely forgotten now, but at the time it was a moment of true euphoria for the good guys of wrestling.

The show was topped off by two fine matches, featuring four of RAW’s biggest stars. Edge continued his rise to superstardom by besting Chris Benoit in a brutal Last Man Standing match, laying the 'Rabid Wolverine' out with a brick-filled briefcase.

The main event saw Batista further solidify himself as the number one guy on the flagship show, repeating his WrestleMania 21 victory with another win over Triple H. Hunter may have hurt a number of guys throughout his career, but he did everything he could to get 'The Animal' over as a top star.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.