7 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Backlash 2023 (Review)

Ups…

7. An Incredible Crowd

Bianca Belair
WWE.com

If every WWE crowd was like the ones in San Juan this weekend, we would be talking about how red hot the company is, regardless of the backstage issues with morale, last-minute script changes, questionable booking and spotty writing.

A hot crowd can change perceptions just by virtue of their noise and energy. But some of the silent crowds we’ve gotten in the continental United States have dragged decent shows down into the doldrums.

Backlash was a good show on paper and in the ring, but the fans super-charged everything, turning the opener into a white-hot title match. The noise for hometown heroes Zelina Vega and Bad Bunny was off the charts, and the reaction to surprise appearances by Savio Vega and Carlito also were insane, making those returns feel really special.

You’ve got to hope fans watching at home see this and realize that sitting on their hands at TV tapings is not the way to go. You paid for your ticket, so why not get loud?

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.