On a recent episode of his “Grilling JR” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross discussed the hardcore match between Randy Orton and Mick Foley at Backlash 2004.
According to Ross, the brutal matchup springboarded Orton’s career in WWE.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Randy Orton vs. Foley at Backlash: “I equate it to the perception that many of us had regarding Shawn Michaels with his performance in Hell in the Cell against the Undertaker. it showed the tough side of Shawn. Physicality and resilience. And I think that’s the same thing we saw here with Randy. Randy was such a pretty face and a pretty body. He had never been put in this sort of environment, how is he going to react?
“And there’s a famous shot… off all the thumbtacks and Randy’s back. Man, he landed in the right spot, I guess. Because he was loaded, he was loaded with thumbtacks. And I can only imagine how that feels so, I’ll never know by the way. I’ll just take their word for it. But it was it was added to the moment, and Randy sold it famously without a doubt. But it proved to all the fans that Randy Orton is not only a great-looking athlete and all those nice things, those accolades. He showed his toughness as a former United States Marine.”
On Orton hitting an RKO and landing in thumbtacks: “Look at those thumbtacks, and where some of them have already been inserted and penetrated the epidermis, the outer layer of skin there on Randy. But there’s just no way you can make that tolerable. It hurts like hell; it’s gonna hurt like hell until you get them out of there and give some disinfectant on there, etc., etc. But that was a startling, startling camera shot.”
On whether he enjoyed calling the WrestleMania 20 triple threat or one at Backlash 2004 more: “Well, Backlash was a pleasant surprise. But it’s hard to not consider WrestleMania’s a triple threat match as my favorite. Because of the atmosphere, the largeness of the moment. It’s just special in that respect. But both of them were excellent. And the guys were able to change things up a little bit from WrestleMania to Backlash. They told the same story but in a different tone. Different tenor, shall we say. They changed the music a little bit; they told the same story. And I thought that was important. So when I think WrestleMania because of WrestleMania is my favorite of the two.”
