Backlash 2023

WWE Backlash 2023 is an upcoming WWE Premium Live Event scheduled to be held on Saturday, May 6, 2023. It will take place live from the Coliseo de Puerto Rico Jose Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

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It is only the second time after the New Year's Revolution held in January, 2005 that a WWE PPV is being held in Puerto Rico. The event will be the 18th edition of the annual Backlash PPV organized by WWE.

Backlash 2023 is also notable because the promotion has reverted its name to its original name. The 2021 and 2022 event were billed WrestleMania Backlash but the "WrestleMania" name has been dropped for this edition. Puerto Rican rapper and a regular WWE guest, Bad Bunny will serve as the host for the event. 

WWE Backlash 2023 Info - Location, Where to watch, Timings?

WWE Backlash 2023 will take place live from Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The event will take place on the 6th of May, 2023 which is a Saturday. Furthermore, the 5th May edition of WWE SmackDown will also take place from the same stadium. The stadium has a seating capacity of 18,500 and the tickets went on sale for both the Backlash and SmackDown on the 21st of March. 

Viewers in the United States of America can stream WWE Backlash 2023 from The Peacock TV. Elsewhere in the world, the event can be streamed via WWE Network or its affiliate streaming services. For instance, the event will stream on SonyLiv in India and on Binge in Australia.

WWE Backlash History

Backlash is an event that has been around, in essence, since 1999. It initially began its pay-per-view journey as an In Your House event, although despite not being recognized as a stand-alone event, it was still positioned as the follow-up WrestleMania show in late April which would eventually become its trademark.

Following a few years of existence, Backlash soon became a Raw-exclusive event following the brand extension, and SmackDown superstars were only part of the show in the year where it became dual-branded. Following the second brand split a few years back, however, SmackDown assumed control of the PPV name in 2016 and 2017.

In the 2020 edition, which took place on June 14th, both WWE Raw and SmackDown Superstars competed on the show, and was the first Backlash event since the 2018 split, and fifteenth in total. 

While the event has always been the PPV next to that of WrestleMania, WWE decided to add the fact in the name of the event itself. The 2021 edition was titled WrestleMania Backlash and so was the 2022 edition. However, the promotion decided to revert back to its original name in 2023, thus dropping the WrestleMania name from the PPV. 

Locations of the events

Main Events

WWE Backlash 2023 Results

Potential Future

Backlash was a regular event till 2009 and was put on shelf for several years. While fans had thought that WWE had retired the PPV, it was brought back after the 2016 roster split as a brand-exclusive PPV. However, it did not have quite a good reception as other Premium Live Events and was again dropped in 2019 before being called up yet again in 2020. 

WWE made efforts to revitalize the event in 2021 when it renamed it to WrestleMania Backlash. While in 2023 the event has been renamed back to WWE Backlash, it seems that the company wants to make it a long time affair and the event might be the one after WrestleMania for the forseeable future.