10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE Backlash
The Showcase Of The Mortals.
"WrestleMania Backlash" was weird, wasn't it?
The company's recent exercise in search engine optimisation (rather than simply booking optimisation), the simplification of the organisation's annual 'Show Of Shows' mop-up including the WrestleMania name itself was the latest adjustment to Backlash's complicated history on the PLE calendar.
From 1999 to 2009, the event was a staple, but for all the wrong reasons. The normalisation of rematch culture during the late-90s boom suddenly justified a place for WrestleMania conflicts to continue. This wasn't the point of WrestleMania but Backlash imagined the need and people were prepared to pay at the time. The return of the brand in 2016 tapped into the reality that people have nostalgia for anything, even when it became apparent that the company weren't ever bringing back the swinging pincers stage set.
WWE had need for shows, and mining memories was thought the wisest move until 2021, when WrestleMania Backlash was announced as a way to boost engagement and enjoyment of a Premium Live Event back in the ThunderDome. Two years on from that the event was restored to its former "glory".
Did this have something to do with a certain boss' rich history at the event?
10. The Hunter, Edge & Orton Show
Despite not having the best win/loss records at the show (more on that later), Triple H and Edge both lay claim to the most appearances on the show, and share identical records for their efforts.
Alongside matches from both against luminaries such as The Rock, The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels and others, their 5-6 and 4-6 records respectively also includes a contest against one another as losers in a 2006 triple threat WWE Title main event against John Cena.
Edge failed again against Cena the following year, this time in combination with Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton as part of a fatal four-way, but Triple H would thrive in similar conditions the year after that, winning the WWE Title from 'The Legend Killer' in a match also featuring 'The Champ' and JBL. Edge would finally score a Backlash title victory over the leader of the Cenation at his final appearance on the show in 2009.
Coincidentally, Triple H would lose the WWE Title to Randy Orton in a convoluted six man tag on the same night, highlighting the repetitious nature of main events at the time and how barren the organisation was becoming in an ailing quest for new stars.
The Orton lore ends in 2020 in, fittingly, "The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever". The Rated-RKO members waged war in the unique pandemic setting that attempted - and occasionally succeeded - to make the best of the unfavourable circumstances.