Backlash is a WWE pay-per-view event that was created in 1999. The event is held at every April (2005 and 2016 being the exception). Started as an In Your House event (and the 28th and final event of the In Your House PPV series), Backlash was rebranded as an annual PPV event for WWE in 2000. During the brand-extension, the event was made exclusive to Raw in 2004 through 2006. In 2007, the brand-exclusive events ended, and Backlash became tri-branded. Extreme Rules replaced Backlash in its late-April slot in 2010. It returned as a SmackDown-exclusive event in September 2016. The scheduled 2019 event was canceled and replaced by Stomping Grounds, but Backlash was reinstated in 2020. In 2021, Backlash was scheduled for the May PPV slot, returning it to its original position of being the post-WrestleMania PPV in which the 2021 edition was titled WrestleMania Backlash.
Backlash has often featured rematches from WrestleMania, or matches based on events that took place at WrestleMania, hence the name. This is also the possible reason for the PPV's aforementioned name change...until 2023 renames it back to Backlash.
This event contains examples of:
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- 1999: The Undertaker defeated Ken Shamrock. Triple H defeated X-Pac. The Ministry of Darkness defeated The Brood.
- 2001: The Power Trip defeated The Brothers of Destruction in an All or Nothing match for the WWF, IC, and Tag Titles.
- 2002: The Undertaker defeated "Stone Cold" Steve Austin to become the #1 contender for the WWF Undisputed Title. Jazz defeated Trish Stratus to retain the Women's Title. Eddie Guerrero defeated Rob Van Dam to win the Intercontinental title. Kurt Angle defeated Edge. Brock Lesnar defeated Jeff Hardy. Scott Hall defeated Bradshaw.
- 2003: Half the card was won by heels. Sean O'Haire defeated Rikishi. Jazz defeated Trish Stratus for the Women's Title, Big Show destroyed Rey Mysterio, and the team of Triple H, Ric Flair, and Chris Jericho defeated Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, and Booker T.
- 2004: Randy Orton defeats Mick Foley in a Hardcore match, thus ending the feud the two had since mid-2003.
- 2005: Edge defeated Chris Benoit in a Last Man Standing match, which ended their feud that started in late 2004.
- 2006: Umaga destroyed Ric Flair, and Vince McMahon and his son Shane defeated Shawn Michaels and "God".
- 2007: Melina defeated Mickie James to retain the Women's Title, and Vince and Shane McMahon along with Umaga defeated Bobby Lashley for the ECW Championship in a Handicap match.
- 2008: The only heel victory on the entire card was the women's tag team match where Beth Phoenix's team was victorious.
- 2009: Two respective main event matches involve Randy Orton and Edge, two of the top heels at that time, respectively winning the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships. Orton, along with his Legacy teammates Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes, defeated Triple H, Batista, and Shane McMahon in a 6-man tag match in which Triple H's WWE title was on the line, while Edge defeated John Cena in a Last Man Standing match due to Big Show's interference, claiming his 9th world title. Additionally Chris Jericho defeated Ricky Steamboat to end their feud. "Santina Marella" beating Beth Phoenix is a borderline case, as while the Santina character was a face, Marella was still a heel as Santino.
- 2016: The Miz defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the Intercontinental Championship, and AJ Styles defeated Dean Ambrose to win his first ever WWE Championship.
- 2017: Jinder Mahal defeated Randy Orton to win his first ever WWE Championship, and The Usos defeated Breezango to retain the Smackdown Tag Team Championships.
- 2018: Carmella defeated Charlotte Flair to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship, and Ruby Riott defeated Bayley.
- 2020: Randy Orton defeated Edge, Bayley and Sasha Banks defeated Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross and The IIconics to retain the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships, and Sheamus defeated Jeff Hardy.
- 2021: Bobby Lashley defeated Drew McIntyre and Braun Strowman to retain the WWE Championship. Roman Reigns defeated Cesaro to retain the Universal Championship. In the pre-show, Sheamus defeated Ricochet.
- 2022: The Bloodline defeated the team of Drew McIntyre and RK-Bro. Edge defeated AJ Styles. Omos defeated Bobby Lashley with the help of MVP.
- 2023: The Bloodline defeated the team of Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, and Matt Riddle. Austin Theory defeated Bobby Lashley and Bronson Reed to retain the US Championship. Rhea Ripley defeated Zelina Vega to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship.
- Big Damn Heroes: In 2000, Stone Cold ran in to help The Rock finally take the WWF Championship from Triple H.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak:
- Triple H hadn't won a World Title match at this event until 2008. He lost again in the following year, however.
- Chris Benoit was undefeated at this event until 2005.
- Matt Hardy was undefeated at this event until 2009note .
- The Bus Came Back: The event was discontinued at the beginning of The New '10s, but returned in 2016.
- Call-Back: In Backlash '04, which took place in Canada, Chris Benoit locks Shawn Michaels in the Sharpshooter in the middle of the ring, which is what Shawn did to Bret Hart in Survivor Series '97 regarding the Montreal Screwjob.
- Calvinball: In 2001, then-commissioner William Regal faced off Chris Jericho in a "Duchess of Queensbury Rules"
match. Jericho tries to pin Regal? The match is divided into two rounds, and round one just ended. Jericho gets a submission? No, submissions aren't allowed. Regal gets disqualified? It's No Disqualifications. Regal won the match. - Dawn of an Era:
- The 2007 event was the first PPV to be tri-branded, as wrestlers from Raw, Smackdown, and ECW competed at the show.
- The 2016 event was the first Smackdown PPV since the second Brand Splitnote and features AJ Styles and Becky Lynch respectively winning the WWE World and Smackdown Women's Titles, their first championship golds in WWE. Speaking of Lynch, she was the inaugural champion.
- Much like the 2007 event, the one in 2018 was the first dual branded PPV outside of the Big 4 to be dual branded.
- Defeating the Undefeatable:
- Edge ended Chris Benoit's undefeated streak on this PPV during the 2005 event.
- Jeff Hardy ended his brother's undefeated streak on this PPV during the 2009 event.
- Double Knockout:
- The Last Man Standing match between Batista and The Undertaker in the 2007 event ended this way after Batista speared The Undertaker off of the stage.
- The No Disqualification match between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura in the 2018 event ended this way after both men knocked each other out after performing simultaneous Groin Attacks.
- Easily Forgiven: Subverted with the "I Quit" match that Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy had at the 2009 edition. The storyline leading to the match had Matt attacking his brother several times, including trying to blow him up with pyro and insinuating that he had something to do with the fire that destroyed Jeff's house and killed his beloved dog, on top of costing his brother the WWE Championship to Edge. Come the event, Matt begged for Jeff's forgiveness while he was hogtied to a table while Jeff was preparing a double leg drop from a rather tall ladder, including saying "I quit!". It looked like Jeff was going to back down after that, but he vaulted himself over the ladder and leg dropped Matt anyway, breaking Matt's arm in the process. Matt wouldn't be forgiven until several months down the line during his brother's famous feud with CM Punk, in which he had to prove himself by helping Jeff several times.
- End of an Age: The 2002 event is the last PPV featured by the company under the WWF name.note
- Face/Heel Double-Turn: In 2000, The Dudley Boys, who were heels, and the team of Test and Albert (T&A) along with their manager Trish Stratus, who were faces, reversed their roles during their feud, with fans being very supportive of Trish getting powerbombed through a table.
- A Hero to His Hometown: Backlash 2023 focused on this due to it taking place in Puerto Rico, with the audience rooting for Puerto Rican born Zelina Vega note and Bad Bunny.
- History Repeats:
- Triple H has lost a World Title match at Backlash a total of six times (2000, 2002, 2004-2006, and 2009), half of those times (2000, 2002, and 2009) he was the defending Champion. He has also competed in this event in a six-man tag team match twice (2003 and 2009) as well as for a singles title in a tag team match twice (2001 and 2009).
- John Cena was in the main event from 2006-2009. In those four years, he entered the event as a defending champion thrice (2006, 2007, 2009) and successfully retained his title during the first two times. Also, two of those appearances were in Fatal-Four Way matches (2007 and 2008).
- Speaking of Cena, he and Edge had clashed in this event 3 times (2006, 2007, and 2009). The first involved a triple-threat match which involved Triple H, the second involved a Fatal-4-Way which involved Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton, and the last one was a one-on-one Last Man Standing match, with Edge capturing his 9th world title.
- Randy Orton and Edge faced each other in this event (2007 and 2020). The first involving a Fatal-4-Way which involved John Cena and Shawn Michaels and in a one-on-one match.
- The 2016 event featured Becky Lynch being crowned as an inaugural Women's Champion for the second time in her career. The first was in 2005, when she became the first ever SuperGirls Champion (now ECCW Women's Champion).
- Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley faced off in this event twice (2020 and 2021). The first encounter being a singles match where McIntyre successfully defended his WWE title while their second encounter was a triple threat match which involved Braun Strowman and Lashley successfully defended his WWE title.
- The Rock came to this event as the No. 1 contender for the World Title twice, first in 1999 then the following year. He successfully captured the gold in the latter.
- The event took place at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island three times (1999, 2009, and 2022). Also, in 2017, the event took place at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois for the second time, the first being in 2001.
- The Usos and a relative defeated Matt Riddle's team in a six-man Tag Team match in 2022 and 2023.
- Icy Blue Eyes: The poster of the 2016 event has Dean Ambrose with thesenote .
- Inelegant Blubbering: Zelina Vega in the 2023 edition is shown in tears in the beginning and the end of her match, since she is the hero representing her country of Puerto Rico against Rhea Rhipley.
- It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: The Edge/Orton match for 2020 has been given over-the-top marketing by WWE as the "Greatest Wrestling Match Ever". To further emphasize it, the tagline was also used in other matchup graphics for the show whilst the event's theme tune was "The Greatest Show" by Panic! at the Disco.
- Kiss of Distraction: Trish Stratus had been doing this to Bubba Ray Dudley in April 2000. Then at the PPV, she did it again, but it probably wasn't very wise of her to flip her hair and smirk, making it obvious she had been trying to manipulate him...
- Kubrick Stare: All the posters except the 2017 one have the featured wrestlers in this stance.
- Loser Leaves Town: More along the lines of "Loser Goes To Other Brand". From Backlash '02, if Triple H loses to Hulk Hogan, he will be drafted to Smackdown.
- Mêlée à Trois: There are only a few main event matches in this event which feature more than two wrestlers competing for the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship (2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008). Though, there are some non-main event examples as well.
- 2000: Crash Holly (c) vs. Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Hardcore Holly vs. Perry Saturn vs. Tazz for the WWF Hardcore Championship.
- 2001:
- Matt Hardy (c) vs. Christian vs. Eddie Guerrero for the WWF European Championship.
- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Triple H vs. The Undertaker and Kane in an All or Nothing match for the WWF (held by Austin), IC held by HHH) and Tag Titles (held by the Brothers of Destruction).
- 2004: Chris Benoit (c) vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels in the rematch from WrestleMania XX.
- 2006: John Cena (c) vs. Triple H vs. Edge.
- 2007: John Cena (c) vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Edge vs. Randy Orton.
- 2008: Randy Orton (c) vs. Triple H vs. John Cena vs. JBL.
- 2020: Bayley and Sasha Banks (c) vs. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross vs. The IIconics for the Women's Tag Team Championships.
- 2021:
- Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair for the WWE Raw Women's Championship.
- Bobby Lashley (c) (with MVP) vs Braun Strowman vs Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship.
- 2023: Austin Theory (c) vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Bronson Reed for the WWE United States Championship.
- Mundane Made Awesome: In the 2023 event, the Zelina Vega vs Rhea Ripley match had Zelina being given a slipper as a weapon, to which the Puerto Rico fans reacted with raucous cheers.note
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Big Show gives one to Rey Mysterio in 2003. After No Selling three 619s in a row and defeating him handily, Rey was taken out on a stretcher board. Big Show, however, came back down, picked up Rey still strapped to the board and swung the board like a baseball bat against the ring post (which would be sick in itself, but the immobile Rey also splatted face-first to the mat).
- Oddball in the Series: The 2016 event is so far the only one not held in either April or May (it was held in September) and not preceded by (or at least close to) WrestleMania note .
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Several posters:
- The one for the 2001 event has Triple H's silhouette about to smash his trademark sledgehammer.
- Invoked by the one for the 2008 event, which features The Undertaker maliciously holding a Sinister Scythe.
- The one for the 2017 event has Shinsuke Nakamura about to do the Kinshasa.
- Series Mascot: Triple H has served as the face of this PPV the most, being the featured superstar in the posters for the 2001, 2002, 2005, and 2006 events.
- Sinister Scythe: The Undertaker is holding one in the 2008 poster.
- Slasher Smile: Edge in the 2007 poster.
- Sore Loser: Triple H in 2005 and 2006.
- After losing to Batista in the 2005 event, Triple H lost his temper and gave the referee a pedigree.
- In 2006, John Cena defeated Triple H and Edge in a triple threat match to retain the WWE Title after giving Triple a roll up pin. Triple H reacts by attacking Cena, Edge, and the referee with his sledgehammer, thus standing tall in the ring.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: In the 2023 edition, Zelina's outfit is decked out in the colors of the Puerto Rico flag. Justified in this case since she hails from Puerto Rico herself.
