Welcome to our continuing series ’What The Fact?!’. each month I drop ten interesting facts about the history of that month’s PPV. This month it’s Wrestlemania Backlash. So let’s get started…
ONE: Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy Making History
There is no denying that both Randy Orton are legends in the business, their longevity in the ring is nothing short of amazing, but in 2018 they did something together that no other two superstars have done.
Orton and Hardy are the first Grand Slam Champions to face each other for every eligible WWE Championship in a one on one match. It was at Backlash 2018 when the rounded of this feat wrestling for the United States Championship.
WWE Heavyweight – Royal Rumble 2008
Tag Team – Raw 2006 (The Hardy’s vs Rated RKO)
Intercontinental – Raw 2018
United States – Backlash 2018
TWO: Hulk Hogan’s WWE Championship Record
Back in 2002, Hulk Hogan was on fire after his show-stealing Wrestlemania match against The Rock, WWE would quickly turn his face to capitalise on the nostalgia of Hulkamania.
WWE then went one step further and had The Hulkster beat Triple H for his newly won WWE Championship, Hulk’s reign only lasted a month, but he set a record that less than a handful of superstars could break.
FunFact: It was apparently Triple H himself who suggested Hogan beat him for the title, and cash in on the Hulkamania revival.
With Hogan winning his first WWE Championship in 1984 and his last in 2002, with an 18-year gap between them, this is the longest gap between the first and last WWE Championship.
THREE: No Longer ‘In Your House’
For anyone unaware, the ‘In Your House’ moniker was created in 1995, when WWE wanted to have more PPVs but didn’t think fans would pay every month. ‘In Your House’ was born, with a shorted PPV and a lower price point they seemed to be a great success. Fast forward to 1999, and WWE wanted to do away with anything related to the ‘New Generation Era’ to usher in the edgier ‘Attitude Era’.
So, by 1999 the price point was the same as the big five PPVs, and the WWE PPV calendar was stacked with a premium event every month. Interestingly the original Backlash promotional posters did have the ‘In Your House’ tagline, until it suddenly didn’t, officially ending the ‘New Generation Era’.
FOUR: Edge Sets a New Record in 2022
Although Edge sets a new appearance record in 2022, for the longest time Edge and Triple H held the record together, not only that but they also had the same win-loss record at Backlash too.
Both men had the same 4-4 record, and if that wasn’t strange enough they both have a loss in the same match. Both Triple H and Edge fell short of the win back in 2006 when they both competed with John Cena in a triple threat match for the WWE Championship.
This all changes in 2022 when Edge faces AJ Styles at Wrestlemania: Backlash.
FIVE: A Great PPV for a Debut
Backlash seems to be the place every superstar makes their PPV debut, this is in part to do with the Raw after Wrestlemania is where we see the newest and returning faces.
The likes of Mojo Rawley, Justin Credible, Sean O’Haire and Umaga have all made their PPV debut at Backlash.
I know no one is being amazed by these names, so what about ‘The Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar. In 2002 he absolutely destroyed both Matt and Jeff Hardy in his first PPV outing. In 2003, Bill Goldberg would finally sign a WWE contract and take aim at The Rock in his debut.
Still not amazed? How about the one and only (known) PPV match of ‘God’. In 2006 God himself would team with Shawn Michaels to take on Vince and Shane McMahon in a losing effort. God (according to Vince) didn’t even tag in and left early.
Six: Backlash Buyrates
Wrestlemania is known for being the ‘season finale’ of that year’s WWE programming and the Raw after is the ‘season premier’ where new feuds are started, with new champions.
This wasn’t the case in the year 2000 when WWE opted to keep the WWE Championship on mega heel Triple H and have him continue to feud with long-time rival The Rock into that year’s Backlash. This was a risky move but the payoff was incredible.
Backlash 2000 drew an amazing 675,000 PPV buys, this is the most bought B-show PPV in company history up to that point (only being topped by WWE/WCW Invasion PPV in 2001 which did a whopping 770,000 buys). To put this into context Royal Rumble 2000 did 590,000 and SummerSlam 2000 did 570,000 buys, showing just how invested fans were with Triple H and The Rock.
SEVEN: Eleven Years from Edge One-on-One Main Events
I know 11 years seems a long time considering Edge was only away from the ring for 8 years, but before he returned in 2020 Edge’s last one on one main event match was at Extreme Rules 2009.
So, although Edge had worked up to Wrestlemania 27 in 2011, the retired and came back to compete in the Royal Rumble, Backlash 2020 was his first one-on-one main event in 11 long years.
EIGHT: TNA Did it First
WWE Championship Drew McIntyre defended against ‘The Almighty’ Bobby Lashley at Backlash 2021. This was a fresh rivalry for WWE, especially as such a high profile rivalry involving the WWE Championship.
This rivalry was not fresh or new for any TNA/Impact fans. TNA is known for scooping up ex-WWE guys and reliving old feuds, but this is a rare occasion when TNA did it first. Bobby Lashley had an intense rivalry back in 2016. WWE hadn’t done this since they revisited AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe from their old TNA days.
NINE: This is Boring
In 2018 Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe were embroiled in a feud on Smackdown, but by the time Backlash rolled around it seems the WWE Universe were not only done with Roman Reign’s ‘Big Dog’ gimmick but it seems this match the final straw.
The crowd became so disgruntled by the match you clearly hear the crowd chanting ‘this is boring’, ‘Rusev day’ and ‘delete’ throughout the main event. It’s also been reported that some of the audience left the show before the ended.
This match surely wasn’t that bad, was it?!
TEN: All the Firsts
We have already mentioned how many debuts have happened at Backlash PPVs but when Backlash returned to the annual PPV schedule in 2016, there were a lot of new things on that show.
Backlash 2018 was the first PPV of that name since 2009, it was also the first Smackdown exclusive PPV since No Way Out 2007. If that wasn’t enough, the newly created Smackdown Tag Team Championships were the first new Tag Championships since the creation of the WWE Tag Team Championships (also introduced for Smackdown) at No Mercy 2002.
Did you know all these What the Fact’s about the history of WWE Backlash? Do you know any more Backlash facts? let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling
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