WrestleMania Backlash (2022)

The 2022 WrestleMania Backlash was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 17th annual Backlash and took place on Sunday, May 8, 2022, at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, featuring wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This was the third Backlash held at this venue after the 1999 and 2009 events. It was also the second and final Backlash held under this name after the previous year's event, as the following year, the event reverted to its original name. The concept of the 2022 event was based on the Backlash from WrestleMania 38.

Six matches were contested at the event. In the main event, The Bloodline (Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, and Jimmy Uso) defeated Drew McIntyre and RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) in a six-man tag team match. In other prominent matches, Ronda Rousey defeated Charlotte Flair in an "I Quit" match to win the SmackDown Women's Championship, Edge defeated AJ Styles by technical submission, and in the opening bout, Cody Rhodes defeated Seth "Freakin" Rollins. This was the first pay-per-view to not feature a WWE Championship or Universal Championship match on the card since Elimination Chamber in March 2020.

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 event returned to this original concept and the event was in turn rebranded as "WrestleMania Backlash".