10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Backlash

6. Goldberg Beat The Rock (2003)

Santina Backlash
WWE.com

In early 2003, The Rock returned to WWE, but fans weren't glad to see him. They thought that he had turned his back on them by becoming a movie star, so in response, The Rock turned heel. What followed was an amazing run that saw Rock delivering some of the best work of his career.

Not only was The Rock the star of Raw, but he was also racking up some major victories - including his first-ever singles win over Steve Austin, which came at WrestleMania XIX. All of it, though, was to put over Goldberg, who came into the company following the show of shows. As Rocky was on the way out, the hope was he'd transfer his heat to the new star.

They fought in the main event of Backlash, but unfortunately, the fans seemed to be done booing The Rock by then. Instead, he was cheered against "Da Man," resulting in a weak match with a bad dynamic. Goldberg won, but the bout was a flop.

Even worse was the fact that WWE failed to capitalize on Goldberg beating The Rock, booking him poorly and having HHH beat him on multiple occasions. According to rumors at the time, The Rock was annoyed that Goldberg wasn't protected after beating him.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013