Backlash (2025)

The 2025 Backlash, also promoted as Backlash: St. Louis, was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 20th Backlash event and took place on Saturday, May 10, 2025, at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The concept of the event was based around the backlash from WrestleMania 41.

Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, John Cena defeated Randy Orton to retain SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship. In other prominent matches, Gunther defeated Pat McAfee by technical submission in what was a featured match for Raw, Lyra Valkyria successfully defended Raw's WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship against Becky Lynch, Dominik Mysterio retained Raw's WWE Intercontinental Championship against Penta, and in the opening bout, Jacob Fatu defeated LA Knight, Damian Priest, and Drew McIntyre in a fatal four-way match to retain SmackDown's WWE United States Championship. The event featured the WWE debut of Jeff Cobb, whose ring name was subsequently changed to JC Mateo. This was also Cena's first appearance at a Backlash event since 2009, as well as his last Backlash appearance as an in-ring performer due to his retirement from professional wrestling at the end of 2025.

Production

Background

Backlash is a recurring professional wrestling event that was established by WWE in 1999. It was held annually from 1999 to 2009, but was then discontinued until it was reinstated in 2016 and has been held every year since, except in 2019. The original concept of the event was based around the backlash from WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania. The events between 2016 and 2020 did not carry this theme; however, the 2021 show returned the event to its original concept.

On March 14, 2025, WWE announced that the 20th Backlash, promoted as "Backlash St. Louis", would take place on Saturday, May 10, 2025, at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri, and feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide and via livestreaming on Peacock in the United States, the event was available to livestream on Netflix in most international markets and the WWE Network in any remaining countries that had not yet transferred to Netflix due to pre-existing contracts. This marked the first Backlash to livestream on Netflix following the WWE Network's merger under the service in January 2025 in those areas. Tickets went on sale on March 21 via Ticketmaster.

Storylines

The event includes matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.

In the main event of Night 2 of WrestleMania 41, John Cena won the Undisputed WWE Championship to become a record 17-time WWE world champion. On the following Raw, Cena gloated about his win only for his long-time rival Randy Orton to attack Cena with an RKO. On SmackDown that Friday, as Cena was about to cut another promo, he was interrupted by Orton, who tried to reason with the now villainous Cena, who had turned heel at Elimination Chamber: Toronto back in March. After an exchange of words, Orton challenged Cena to a match for his championship that night; however, Cena declined, stating that the match should happen in Orton's hometown of St. Louis at Backlash. The match was subsequently made official, and was billed as "One Last Time".

Prior to Night 1 of WrestleMania 41, Bayley, who was supposed to team up with Lyra Valkyria for a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match on Night 2 of the event, was found attacked backstage by an unknown assailant, requiring Valkyria to find a new partner. On Night 2, Becky Lynch made a surprise return as Valkyria's mystery partner and they won the Women's Tag Team Championship. However, in a rematch the next night on Raw, they lost the title with Valkyria taking the pin. Following the match, Lynch attacked Valkyria, turning heel for the first time since 2022. The following week, Lynch revealed that she was the one who attacked Bayley, and she also stated that she attacked Valkyria because of Valkyria's friendship with Bayley, whom Lynch had numerous problems with in recent years. Valkyria interrupted and challenged Lynch to fight her that night, however, Lynch declined. Valkyria then decided to defend her Women's Intercontinental Championship against Lynch at Backlash, who subsequently accepted.

On the Raw the night after WrestleMania 41, Gunther came out and argued with commentators Michael Cole and Pat McAfee as Gunther felt disrespected by them following his loss at WrestleMania. Gunther then attacked Cole which led to McAfee attacking Gunther in Cole's defense, however, Gunther managed to overpower McAfee and choked him out. Gunther was subsequently fined and suspended by Raw General Manager Adam Pearce. The following week, McAfee wanted to fight Gunther and asked SmackDown's General Manager Nick Aldis, who was subbing for Pearce that night, to lift Gunther's suspension. Aldis declined and instead proposed a match between them at Backlash, which McAfee accepted.

At Night 1 of WrestleMania 41, Jacob Fatu defeated LA Knight to win the United States Championship, and a day later at Night 2, Drew McIntyre defeated Damian Priest in a Sin City Street Fight. On the next episode of SmackDown, during The Bloodline's (Fatu and Solo Sikoa) celebration, Knight interrupted stating that he wanted his rematch. McIntyre also interrupted, and after taunting Priest, he stated that he also wanted a championship match, with SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis scheduling a match between Knight and McIntyre later that night to determine the number one contender for Fatu's United States Championship. During the match, Priest attacked McIntyre, while Sikoa attacked Knight, however, the referee only noticed Priest's attack, awarding McIntyre a disqualification victory. Afterwards, Fatu stood tall over Knight and Priest. On the next episode, Knight and Priest faced each other in a no-contest due to interference from Sikoa. Following the match, Priest and Knight brawled with Fatu and Sikoa. Aldis would then schedule a triple threat match between Fatu, Priest, and Knight for the United States Championship at Backlash, however, after Sikoa stated that McIntyre should receive a championship match because of his disqualification win, Aldis scheduled a fatal four-way match for the championship also involving McIntyre at Backlash.

At Night 2 of WrestleMania 41, Judgment Day's Dominik Mysterio won the Intercontinental Championship in a fatal four-way match also involving Penta and Mysterio's stablemate Finn Bálor, the latter of whom he pinned. On the next episode of Raw, Mysterio successfully defended his championship against Penta after interference from a returning JD McDonagh. On the next episode, Penta interfered in Bálor and McDonagh's tag team match, which costed them the match. A week later, Penta defeated McDonagh despite interference from Bálor and Carlito. Later that night, it was announced that Mysterio would defend his Intercontinental Championship against Penta at Backlash.

Event

Preliminary matches

Before the event, Pershard Owens performed "The Star-Spangled Banner".

The actual event began with Jacob Fatu defending the United States Championship against LA Knight, Damian Priest, and Drew McIntyre in a fatal four-way match. During the match, Fatu performed a swanton on McIntyre. Knight performed a BFT on Fatu followed by a South of Heaven by Priest on Knight and a Claymore by McIntyre on Priest, who fell into a pin on Knight, with McIntyre breaking it up. McIntyre performed Future Shock DDTs on Fatu and Knight. McIntyre performed a Claymore on Knight, but Priest pulled the referee out of the ring. With McIntyre and Priest fighting outside the ring, Knight performed two elbow drops on Fatu for a nearfall. Priest performed a South of Heaven on McIntyre through tables. Knight attempted an elbow drop on Fatu through a table, but Solo Sikoa pulled Fatu to safety. Jeff Cobb, making his WWE debut, then attacked Knight. Fatu pinned Knight following a moonsault to retain the title.

After that, Lyra Valkyria defended the Women's Intercontinental Championship against Becky Lynch. Valkyria attempted a moonsault, but Lynch got her knees up. Lynch performed a Manhandle Slam on Valkyria for a nearfall. In the end, Valkyria attempted Nightwing, but Lynch blocked and struck Valkyria in the nose. Valkyria countered a pinning combination into her own to retain the title. After the match, Lynch attacked Valkyria.

In the third match, Dominik Mysterio defended the Intercontinental Championship against Penta. During the match, Carlito, JD McDonagh, and Finn Bálor showed up at ringside. As Bálor grabbed a chair, he, McDonagh, and Carlito were ejected from ringside. In the end, as Penta went to the middle rope, El Grande Americano performed a headbutt on Penta, allowing Mysterio to perform a Frog Splash and pin Penta to retain the title.