4 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Backlash 2025 (Results & Review)

For the second WWE PLE in a row, John Cena’s quest to “ruin wrestling” sunk a show that would have been more highly regarded if you could fly in a typical Cody Rhodes world title defense.

Backlash wasn’t a bad show by most metrics, but the final act of the five-match event was embarrassingly bad – and long – thus negating any goodwill that had built up in the hours prior. Regardless of WWE’s revisionist history of their rivalry, Cena versus Randy Orton never was going to be a classic, but it apparently was too much to ask for them to have even a passable main event title match without utilizing booking shortcuts galore.

By far, the best effort on the show came from the women, with Becky Lynch and Lyra Valkyria wrestling a really good “mentor versus mentee” match that should silence The Man’s critics about her role in WWE these days while elevating the Women’s Intercontinental Champion.

The rest of the card was mostly inoffensive, but it also wasn’t consequential. Post-WrestleMania PLEs often run the risk of being meaningless, but WWE had compensated in recent years by doing shows in underserved, white-hot locales (Puerto Rico and France) with really good in-ring action.

Backlash this year was neither in an exotic venue (St. Louis), nor was the card brimming with excellent wrestling. Some fans might have come away feeling satisfied but no one should be saying they were wowed by this show.

Let’s get to it…