Backlash was almost totally rebuilt for Season 3.0!

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Here is the full scoop on how Backlash did for each fight at San Francisco 2001 BattleBots:

Fight 1: vs. Matts Bammer Backlash was a returning 'seeded' robot, and therefore skipped the preliminaries. His first fight was against a rookie bot named Matts Bammer, built by Jeff Vasquez. Matts Bammer had already defeated 3 opponents at this point. Any robot that has already vanquished three foes is not to be taken lightly. From what I remember of this match, Matts Bammer and Backlash swooped around for a while, Backlash got in a couple good hits to the side of Matts Bammer, who returned the favor by slamming Backlash with his thwacking tail. About a minute into the fight, however, Backlash got one good smack in on the side of Matts Bammer, tossing him through the air and landing upside-down. Matts Bammer's lid armor came off in the process. This robot has no way of righting himself or driving while inverted, so Backlash stood back and waited as the refs counted Matts Bammer out. Jeff was a great guy to meet and talk to, I look forward to seeing him at future BattleBots events! Total time: 1 minute, 38 seconds

Fight 2: vs. Skid Mark Backlash's next fight was against a new robot named Skid Mark, built by the Team Half Life guys- same ones behind the superheavyweight favorite, Atomic Wedgie. This was really a great robot, very well designed and engineered with spinning tri-foils (like it's bigger brother Atomic Wedgie), and a powerful pneumatic flipping scoop on the front. I knew that Skid Mark would try to get under Backlash and flip him, so I wanted to make sure to stay aiming the disc at him while avoiding the front wedge. I don't remember too much about this match other than that it was fast and furious. Both robots smashed into each other several times and Skid Mark got in a couple very close calls getting under Backlash, but Backlash came back and hit Skid Mark hard enough to flip him upside-down. Both bots continued slamming and pushing until Skid Mark stopped moving. With only a few seconds to go, Skid Mark was counted out by the refs, and Backlash took the KO. Rob Everhart and Team Half life all signed one of the Backlash-scarred steel Tri-Foils from Skid Mark, and presented it to me as a trophy, thanks guys! Total time: 2 minutes, 58 seconds

Fight 3: vs. Wedge of Doom Well, Backlash was in the Quarter-Finals again! This time, Backlash was up against Tony Buchignani's mean fighting machine, Wedge of Doom. I knew Wedge of Doom was fast and agile, from watching some of his 5 earlier wins, so I had to try to avoid getting pushed and flipped. This one went too fast for me to remember or even see exactly what happened, but from what I can tell, the bots met in the middle, and Backlash's disc nailed one of W.O.D.'s four wheels, sending it flying across the arena. It didn't seem to slow his approach, however, and Wedge of Doom proceeded to push Backlash into the killsaws. From eyewitness accounts, and the post-fight inspection of Backlash, it appears that what happened is that Backlash's side spike got pulled into the killsaw, turning the whole bot up on end and then flipping him upside-down. Backlash's disc was still spinning, however, and I was hopeful that it might provide enough momentum to kick Backash onto his wheels again (it happened before!), so Backlash spun around in circles, smashing dents into the BattleBox floor, but eventually came to rest upside-down. Total time: 48 seconds

That's it for Backlash in Season 3.0! Backlash will be back, repaired and upgraded for Season 4.0!

THANKS to my 2001 pit crew team for helping me make this an awesome event, especially Dan Cherney!
Thanks also to Paul Cornuke, Jeremy and John Franklin, and Eric Sheeks!