WWE’s Backlash takes place this Saturday, May 6, at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico Jos? Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This marks the first time WWE has held a premium live event in Puerto Rico since the New Year’s Revolution event in January 2005 and will look to celebrate the island in a number of matches. Grammy Award-winning artist Bad Bunny will compete in his first singles match at the event, taking on his former tag partner Damian Priest. As a lifelong wrestling fan, Bunny first appeared in WWE in January 2021 as a musical guest for that year’s Royal Rumble. That, along with a reign as 24/7 Champion, eventually led to him competing in his first match at WrestleMania 37 when he teamed with Priest to beat The Miz and John Morrison.
Bunny would then return to action in the 2022 Men’s Royal Rumble match and pop up at WrestleMania 39 last month for the match between Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio. His involvement in helping Rey win enraged Priest and the rest of Judgement Day, prompting the group to attack Bunny and put him through a table on the following episode of Monday Night Raw. He’d eventually recover from the attack and challenge Priest to a San Juan Street Fight after whacking him with a kendo stick.
Backlash will begin at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday night. The show will air exclusively on the Peacock streaming service here in the United States.
Zelina Vega, who is of Puerto Rican descent, will also be heavily featured during the show as she’ll challenge Rhea Ripley for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. If she wins, it’ll mark the start of her first singles championship reign in her WWE career
While the 2023 WWE Draft won’t fully take effect until next week, the results of the draft could play a role in Saturday’s show. Ripley, the SmackDown Women’s Champion, was selected for the Raw roster during the Draft while Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair was drafted to SmackDown. This situation could be complicated even further as both of their respective opponents at Backlash — Vega and Iyo Sky — were drafted to SmackDown.
This will also mark the last time we see rivalries like Bobby Lashley vs. Bronson Reed and Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and Matt Riddle vs. The Bloodline for the foreseeable future as Lashley, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso and Solo Sikoa will all exclusively wrestle on SmackDown going forward
